Matthieu Ricard Quotes

Live in joy, luminosity, and peace even among the troubles of the world. Remember who you are.

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.

My goal was to be able to be alone without food, sugar, phone, men, TV, anything and to feel O.K. about myself.

Accept what you cannot control.

So the best thing is to really work on yourself and opening your own heart and just letting all that stuff [worrying] go. And it is possible. It's sometimes takes a lot of time; it's not easy. And a lot of sitting with yourself and trying to work with your own heart.

Learn to be one with who you are in Reality, and the waves of a thousand passing worlds cannot wash you away.

It is only when we begin to relax with ourselves that meditation becomes a transformative process. Only when we relate with ourselves without moralizing, without harshness, without deception, can we let go of harmful patterns. Without maitri (metta), renunciation of old habits becomes abusive. This is an important point.

And freedom comes with grace, kindness, understanding, and love. Don't take anything personal, folks. Whatever is said about you or rumored or you heard something - you haven't done anything wrong and it's not your fault. That is your own self-invisible anchor that will stop your boat of life from going forward.

Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions. Vigilantly practice polite indifference to that which we can't control. Your happiness can only be found within.

If you spend too much time trying to find out what is good or bad about someone else, you'll forget your own soul and end up exhausted and defeated by the energy you have wasted in judging others.

So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all.

You will never find happiness until you stop looking for it.

Happiness can only be found within, by breaking attachments to external things and cultivating an attitude of acceptance.

It was not facing what life dealt that made you crazy, but rather trying to set life straight where it was unstraightenable.

I'm happy with what I'm doing. I try not to focus on how I've changed. I just try to focus on what I'm doing now.

You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others. Inner peace is not found by staying on the surface of life, or by attempting to escape from life through any means. Inner peace is found by facing life squarely, solving its problems, and delving as far beneath its surface as possible to discover its verities and realities.

When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it.

You get there by realizing you are already there.

Healing is a coming to terms with things as they are, rather than struggling to force them to be as they once were, or as we would like them to be, to feel secure or to have what we sometimes think of as our own way.

We all have some flaws. But when I have a moment of doubt, I find inspiration from being in the moment, by letting go. I don't hold onto what I can't control. Doubt is a fleeting emotion that can destroy you if you allow it to consume your mind and spirit. Each person's time comes at variant phases, and the best you can do is enjoy what you're doing and work hard. It can't always be about you. Life is transformation - the wind blows, climate changes, birds chirp and trees burn. Where you are today is not where you will be tomorrow. The only person you can be is you.

Meditation practice is a way of making friends with ourselves. Whether we are worthy or unworthy, that's not the point. It's developing a friendly attitude to ourselves, accepting the hidden neurosis coming through.

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?

The painful thing is that when we buy into disapproval, we are practicing disapproval. When we buy into harshness, we are practicing harshness. The more we do it, the stronger these qualities become. How sad it is that we become so expert at causing harm to ourselves and others. The trick then is to practice gentleness and letting go. We can learn to meet whatever arises with curiosity and not make it such a big deal.