Joko Beck Quotes

Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.

Unending joy is actually closer to us than our own skin, and there is nothing we have to do or get or be to experience it. All we have to do is stop driving it away.

With a warm drink, in a rocking chair and family and friends around, I am working on finding peace and joy in the moments we have been given. It doesn't have to all make sense. I don't have all the answers.

When I look for happiness, I lose it. When I stop looking, and surrender to where I am, I find it.

And that works for me. So that if this is it, you better take it at its right proportion. That there are serious things, but most things are temporal and ephemeral, and you should cultivate that attitude. That joy and love and all the verities are what counts. So I try not to take too many things seriously, and if I find myself caught up in the seriousness of the moment, within a period of time, I'm able to cajole myself out of it.

"What is the secret of your serenity?" Said the master: "Wholehearted cooperation with the inevitable."

When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life.

When you learn not to want things so badly, life comes to you.

Our appointment with life is in the present moment. If we do not have peace and joy right now, when will we have peace and joy?

Focus on where you are instead of where you wish you were. The joy will follow.

Let things be, let yourself be, let everything be and accept it as it is. Nothing more. Nothing less.

If you separate from . . . everything you have done in the past, everything that disturbs you about the future . . . and apply yourself to living the life that you are living-that is to say, the present-you can live all the time that remains to you until your death in calm, benevolence, and serenity.

Perhaps this was the secret to being at peace: want nothing but what is given to you.

The happiness we seek cannot be found through grasping, trying to hold on to things. It cannot be found through getting serious and uptight about wanting things to go in the direction we think will bring happiness. We are always taking hold of the wrong end of the stick. The point is that the happiness we seek is already here and it will be found through relaxation and letting go rather than through struggle.

Without desire there is stillness, and the world settles by itself.

Happiness is like a cat, If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay not attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap.

You have to make peace with life.

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.

Surrender to life itself and you'll just be rewarded with so many things. And I've been rewarded so many times, in so many mysterious ways. So I have no reason to be disappointed with anything.

Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted.

Enjoy doing nothing, and you can enjoy doing anything. Enjoy having nothing, and you can enjoy whatever you have.

It was my dream that I had clenched in a fist of discontent and wouldn't release. But time had now pried every finger open. There is peace in an open and upraised hand that isn't grasping for anything.

I don't want to go anywhere; I don't want to leave anybody behind. Happiness is right here, right now, in this world, in this room. I am happiest wherever it is that I am.