Joko Beck Quotes

There is something about the human condition. I don't think dogs are like "If only I was a poodle instead of a golden retriever, I'd be totally happy." Dogs are happy with who they are.

I often say that I don't worry about the meaning of life-I can't handle that big stuff. What concerns me is the meaning in life-day by day, hour by hour, while I'm doing whatever it is I do. What counts is not what I do, but how I think about myself while I'm doing it.

I try never to compare myself to other people. I just think this is who I am. You are happier when you think that way.

I think there's a lot that's beautiful about religion and very inspiring, obviously, but I do think that God needs to be rescued from religion actually.

Advice for a human. 81. You can't find happiness looking for the meaning of life. Meaning is only the third most important thing. It comes after loving and being. 82. If you think something is ugly, look harder. Ugliness is just a failure of seeing.

Everything starts with the inner being, your inner self - it all comes from you and we so often forget that. We think, "He made me angry." He didn't make you angry; you made yourself angry. Don't allow him to get to your inner space.

Some people think that meditation takes time away from physical accomplishment. Taken to extremes, of course, that's true. Most people, however, find that meditation creates more time than it takes.

One way of pointing to this realization is, when you think you have big problems, ask yourself, "What problem do I have at this moment?" Usually, you will find that you don't have a problem at this moment because you're sitting here and you're breathing, you're looking out the window, and it's fine.

Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies.

Instead of being lost in your thinking, when you awaken you recognize yourself as the awareness behind it. Thinking then ceases to be a self-serving autonomous activity that takes possession of you and runs your life.

I sometimes think that I think too much. Sometimes I envy the ignorant. I envy people who can just turn it off and be blissful and not care. But that isn't me. I just have never found a way.

I just think it’s amazing that a person could lose everything, chasing nothing.

I just think that things get easier as you get older and wiser and more experienced. You get more confident about who you are as you get older. I find that really comforting.

I think it's so important to have a practice, because the consciousness isn't perfection or enlightenment or any of that bullshit. The consciousness is, "Oh, I'm walking down the street and I'm doing nothing."

Yes, you who must leave everything that you cannot control, It begins with your family, and soon it comes round to your soul. Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned: When you're not feeling holy your loneliness says that you've sinned.

I didn't fight or shame my thoughts, I questioned them, and they stopped shaming me.

Then I could not help wondering what the watching gods thought of us, with our clever masks and our jokes. What we think of crickets, perhaps, whose singing we hear with pleasure, though some of us smash them with our heels when they venture into sight.

Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.

I don't think there's ever a time where I step back and say I wish I was something different. I'm doing what I love to do.

If we don't know ourselves, our essence, where our true power comes from, we will believe our power comes from collecting victories, trophies, money, or recognition. And these are all fine, but it's not ultimately what life is about. When we think it is, we really waste our greatest possibilities.

The reason we might lose love is because we are always looking outside of us, thinking that the object or action of love is out there. That is why we allow the love, the harmony, the mature understanding, to slip away from ourselves.

If man thinks about his physical or moral state he usually discovers that he is ill.

Life is effort. So says the body. Life is blessing. So says the soul.

Forgive everybody for everything. Just forgive and start - most of us can't start with ourselves. We have to forgive the people we think did things to us. So that's fine. Start there - wherever. Start with the dog who peed on the rug. I don't care where you start, just do it.

People have asked if I would go back to my 20s, and I'm like, "Only if I could hold onto the wisdom and the things that I've learned." But in reality, I don't think I'd want to even go back then. I'm so happy with where I'm at. My life is very content. Everything feels really good. I wouldn't want to change any of that. I'm happy for all the ups and the downs, and everything that has led me to where I am. I wouldn't want to lose any of that.