Michael Franti Quotes

I want to show everyone in this world that the soul is the source of our happiness, strength and health. Love actually comes from the soul, from the light.

I am a spiritual person in an eastern religion kind of way. I learned that happiness for all of us is a switch that you flick in your brain. It doesn't have anything to do with getting a new house, a new car, a new girlfriend, or a new pair of shoes. Our culture is very much about that; we are never happy with what we have today.

That's the way I try to live. I think it's the only way for human beings at this point in our evolution as souls, where everyone in their lifetime is going through stuff.

Patience doesn't mean making a pact with the devil of denial, ignoring our emotions and aspirations. It means being wholeheartedly engaged in the process that's unfolding, rather than ripping open a budding flower or demanding a caterpillar hurry up and get that chrysalis stage over with.

I've spent quite a bit of my life as a meditation teacher and writer commending the strengths of love and compassion.

Stay in your heart.

When you choose to perceive love over fear, life begins to flow. You feel peaceful and you see love in all situations. Your hang-ups subside and your life feels guided.

That daydreaming seemed important at the time, but when I asked my teacher Katagiri Roshi about it, he said, "Oh, it's just laziness. Get to work." But as for discipline, I don't even use that word. I think more about passion or love. What I've really learned is the way the mind moves, and how the mind works. Rather than discipline, I know how to seduce my mind.

The awareness is not part of the darkness or the pain; it holds the pain, and knows it, so it has to be more fundamental, and closer to what is healthy and strong and golden within you.

Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

I was going through the hardest thing, also the greatest thing, for any human being to do; to accept that which is already within you, and around you.

When you understand yourself, that very day you have understood the whole of humanity. Then nobody can make you miserable.

I have no control over what people think, and if I were to spend energy on that, I would be a lifeless, deadened human being.

I work really hard at trying to see the big picture and not getting stuck in ego. I believe we're all put on this planet for a purpose, and we all have a different purpose... When you connect with that love and that compassion, that's when everything unfolds.

Never regret anything you have done with a sincere affection; nothing is lost that is born of the heart.

The man who can articulate the movements of his inner life need no longer be a victim of himself, but is able slowly and consistently to remove the obstacles that prevent the spirit from entering.

My prayer became 'May I find peace... May I love this life no matter what.' I was seeking an inner refuge, an experience of presence and wholeness that could carry me through whatever losses might come.

The trick is to be grateful when your mood is high and graceful when it is low.

When your higher self is present, it always promotes peace.

After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life.

Pain is the mind. It's the thoughts of the mind. Then I get rid of the thoughts, and I get in my witness, which is down in my spiritual heart. The witness that witnesses being. Then those particular thoughts that are painful - love them. I love them to death!

Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.

Sure, I get the blues. But what I try to do, is apply joy to the blues, you know? I don't know if it's a technique, or just being bent that way, being raised by the folks I was raised by.

Self-awareness is value-free. It isn't scary. It doesn't imply that you will subject yourself to needless pain.