Haruki Murakami Quotes

Often I listen to songs on repeat for days and days at a time. There's something hypnotic or meditative, and it mirrors the way that I am putting the sentence together, going back over the same phrases again and again.

I like the hypnosis. Nothing too deep - just enough to keep me clearer and more focused.

Food is less important to me because I've learned to control my appetite to a great extent, simply by having my mind elsewhere. I find when I'm busy meditating on other aspects of my life I go without eating and I don't miss it.

The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work.

You go in the weight room and you lift weights and you do all these things to strengthen your body. This is strengthening your mind. When you can stay focused and you can use that focus to always come back with your breath to center yourself, so that you're kind of floating in the moment, in the spirit.

Meditation, then, is a state of mind in which the 'me' is absent. And therefore that very absence brings order.

I relax my body completely, relax my mind completely, and then imagine myself at a level where anything can happen.

Be mindful even if your mind is full

My life is routine. I wake up early in the morning. I brush my teeth. I sit on the floor of the cell I do not go to breakfast. I stare at a gray cement wall. I keep my legs crossed my back straight my eyes forward. I take deep breaths in and out, in and out, and I try not to move. I sit for as long as I can I sit until everything hurts I sit until everything stops hurting I sit until I lose myself in the gray wall I sit until my mind becomes as blank as the gray wall. I sit and I stare and I breathe. I sit and I stare. I breathe.

A quiet mind is more important than a positive mind.

Sleep is really important. You need to rest the physiology to be able to work weel and meditate well. When I don't get enough sleep, my meditations are duller. You may even dip into sleep at the beginning of your meditation, because you're settling down. But if you're well rested, you'll have a clearer deeper experience.

When there is no mind, you are in yoga; when there is mind you are not in yoga. So you may do all the postures, but if the mind goes on functioning, if you go on thinking, you are not in yoga.

You can look only when the mind is completely quiet.

Human beings are repetitive animals. All meaning is generated through repetition.

Your first daily priority should be stillness, attention to what you really know and what you really feel.

As soon as I wake up I pay homage to the Buddha, and I try to prepare my mind to be more altruistic, more compassionate, during the day to come so I can be of benefit to beings. Then I do physical exersice - I walk on a treadmill.

We tend to believe in the modern secular world that if you tell someone something once, they'll remember it. ... Religions go, "Nonsense. You need to keep repeating the lesson 10 times a day. So get on your knees and repeat it." That's what all religions tell us: "Get on your knees and repeat it 10 or 20 or 15 times a day." Otherwise our minds are like sieves.

If thou may not continually gather thyself together, do it sometime at least once a day, morning or evening.

The mental ability to concentrate is inherent to all; it is not extraordinary or mysterious. Meditation is not something that a Yogi has to teach you; you already have the ability to shut out thoughts.

Take a Deep Breath & Focus on What's Really Important.

And you try to quiet your mind so you can hear.

The sensory deprivation chamber has been the most important tool that I've ever used for developing my mind

The goal of practice is always to keep our beginner's mind.

Meditation is helping me learn to sit still. Twenty minutes of meditation in the morning is a nice way to start my day. If you can actually sit still and really get to that place of silence, you realize what's important and what's not important. Little things don't usually get to me anymore.

I have my own way to stay focused. I work out every day. I exercise. I swim. I meditate. I breathe.