Stephen Sondheim Quotes

I always try meditation. Meditation means always keeping one mind, not-moving mind.

Writing is always a restorative process. It's like paddling a kayak. When you're writing, you can't do anything else. You're in the space you're in. So, in that way, it's enormously centering and restorative.

The reflected world is the conquest of calm.

One simple change - seeking and finding peace within - could, if it were undertaken by everyone, end all wars, eliminate conflict and prevent injustice. World peace is a personal thing. What is needed is not a change of circumstance, but a change of consciousness.

Whenever your mind is totally absorbed in whatever activities you are performing, your mind will remain calm and content.

Peace, or freedom from conflict, is the absolute core of happiness. It is in learning to watch our sense of peace that we avoid unhappiness. All forms of misery are heralded by a frame of mind that must become immediately recognizable if we are ever to gain mastery in happiness...Take the time to look in your heart and be clear. Walk through life being clear. Practice doing each thing in peace.

Just as the pure crystal takes color from the object which is nearest to it, so the mind, when it is cleared of thought-waves, achieves sameness or identity with the object of its concentration.

Meditation is the action of silence.

Be still, and the world is bound to turn herself inside out to entertain you. Everywhere you look, joyful noise is clanging to drown out quiet desperation.

Mindfulness is like that—it is the miracle which can call back in a flash our dispersed mind and restore it to wholeness so that we can live each minute of life.

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

I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen, And accrue what I hear into myself...and let sound contribute toward me.

Remember always that the ultimate value is meditation, so anything you do, do meditatively; and all things can be done in a meditative way.

It was one of the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn't think about my life at all.

The ultimate reason for meditating is to transform ourselves in order to be better able to transform the world.

If I just take an hour yoga class, I will come out differently than I went in.

If you prayed as much as you complain and quarrel, you'd have a lot less to argue about and much more peace of mind.

There is art in taking time to appreciate the clean wash of the mind's silence.

Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands. In silence, we often say, we can hear ourselves think; but what is truer to say is that in silence we can hear ourselves not think....In silence, we might better say, we can hear someone else think.

When your mind opens, the whole world falls into place.

I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I'm running? I don't have a clue.

Wonderful things happen when your brain is empty.

We cannot get to our knowledge because the world is too loud. And we tend to make it louder as we cry out in pain, pretending we are singing.

Mind can never be intelligent - only no-mind is intelligent. Only no-mind is original and radical. Only no-mind is revolutionary - revolution in action. The mind gives you a sort of stupor. Burdened by the memories of the past, burdened by the projections of the future, you go on living - at the minimum. You dont live at the maximum. Your flame remains very dim. Once you start dropping thoughts, the dust that you have collected in the past, the flame arises - clean, clear, alive, young. Your whole life becomes a flame, and a flame without any smoke. That is what awareness is.

When I find my focus and keep my balance- I find that all is right with my world.