Joko Beck Quotes

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

Be patient with all that is uncertain in your heart...do not search for answers, which will not be given: you will not be able to live them, and its importat to live everything.

Life is accepting what is and working from that.

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.

Surrender is working with what happens.

Life is a mystery: you've just got to go with it.

The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.

If you were wise enough to know that this life would consist mostly of letting go of things you wanted, then why not get good at the letting go, rather than the trying to have?

What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to something that already is?

Acceptance is the magic that makes change possible. It is not forever, it is for the present moment

Be patient, do nothing, cease striving. We find this advice disheartening and therefore unfeasible because we forget it is our own inflexible activity that is structuring the reality. We think that if we do not hustle, nothing will happen and we will pine away. But the reality is probably in motion and after a while we might take part in that motion. But one can't know.

What would it be like if I could accept life--accept this moment--exactly as it is?

Do not abandon trust when your ego thinks things should be different than they are.

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

You can't change what happened. Just like you can't change the future by worrying about it. You just have to keep moving.

You have to make peace with life.

I don't worry about the things I can't change.

If you get too attached to how you want it to come out the other side, you freeze. I try to trust that it will work out in the end.

I accepted a change in my life. I didn't choose that change and those are the best changes to make.

Life is a lot easier when you realize that you're not in control of it all.

I'll always be in some type of turmoil. So what I've tried to do is just surrender to that.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

Life? You can't manipulate it or bend it to your will. You have no choice but to roll with it.

I learned when I was a kid not to worry so much about things because it's all going to work out. What will be will be.

During cancer, when I was flat out on the bed, I was so helpless. I wanted to do things my way, but it was not happening. I learnt to trust the process of life and letting other people also sometimes take control. I became more easy-going.