When you wash your hands, when you make a cup of coffee, when you’re waiting for the elevator – instead of indulging in thinking, these are all opportunities for being there as a still, alert presence.

You have to just accept your body. You may not love it all the way, but you just have to be comfortable with it, comfortable with knowing that that’s your body.

I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.

I love to play music. So why endanger that with something like drugs?

I’ve had no contact with my daughter for years. That’s her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don’t want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

When you’re outside, and everything is highland, it’s like nature has its own sound, and that’s one of my favorite sounds. I really loved sitting still silently outside, in a tree or in a bush, to just think.

Compassionate listening is to help the other side suffer less. If we realize that other people are the same people as we are, we are no longer angry at them.

I’ve been in beautiful landscapes where one is tempted to whip out a camera and take a picture. I’ve learned to resist that.

Don’t talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.

We think too much and feel too little.

There are techniques of Buddhism, such as meditation, that anyone can adopt.

Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.

Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.

I think every entertainer’s had nights when things go wrong. I mean you can’t remember everything all the time, and especially if you’re having hard times personally, things going on that you – you know, and then people make it worse. And that makes you feel worse.

I don’t carry the burden of the past or the madness of the future. I live in the present.

Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act.

Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the Earth are two separate entities, the Earth is only the environment. You are in the centre and you want to do something for the Earth in order for you to survive. That is a dualistic way of seeing.

If you have the opportunity to play this game of life you need to appreciate every moment. A lot of people don’t appreciate the moment until it’s passed.

I have never given adoration to any body except myself.

The only thing that relaxes me is archery. That’s why I have to have apartments with gardens.

Do not let Sunday be taken from you. If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.

‚Fame‘ exhausts me.

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.

Any reading not of a vicious species must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.

If it’s stress of things that we cannot control, what you have to do is you mitigate that stress as much as possible. You’ve planned, you’ve trained, you’ve done everything you can in your power to mitigate the stress that’s facing you. And then after that, there’s nothing you can do. So, you have to let that one go.

I used to let other people’s struggles affect my happiness. If they weren’t happy, there was no way I was going to be happy. The opposite was also true: If I wasn’t happy, I didn’t want anyone around me to be happy.

Together with a culture of work, there must be a culture of leisure as gratification. To put it another way: people who work must take the time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, read, listen to music, play a sport.

In Buddhism, we talk of meditation as an act of awakening, to be awake to the fact that the earth is in danger and living species are in danger.

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

I found music to be the therapy of choice. I guess it is for a lot of people.

Our present moment is a mystery that we are part of. Here and now is where all the wonder of life lies hidden. And make no mistake about it, to strive to live completely in the present is to strive for what already is the case.

I think the perception of peace is what distracts most people from really having it.

The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

I have to be on such a strict diet constantly.

You gotta water your plants. Nobody can water them for you.

I try not to think about anything special while running. As a matter of fact, I usually run with my mind empty. However, when I run empty-minded, something naturally and abruptly crawls in sometime. That might become an idea that can help me with my writing.

I hid myself in food.

Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.

Why should I stop working? If I do, I’ll die and it’ll all be finished.

I say there’re no depressed words just depressed minds.

You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.

You have to grab moments when they happen. I like to improvise and ad lib.

The first wealth is health.

Die to everything of yesterday so that your mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigor and passion.

If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.

Religion and ritual can be vehicles for entering stillness. It says in Psalm 46:10, ‚Be still, and know that I am God.‘ But they are still just vehicles. The Buddha called his teaching a raft: You don’t need to carry it around with you after you’ve crossed the river.

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

Forget the past.

I used to meditate all the time in bed. That was when I was raising my daughter, and I’d get her up and off to school, and then I would go back to bed and meditate. And then I would do the same in the evening, and that was very good for that period because I had so many things to juggle as a single mother.

And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension.

Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe.

The truth is that there is no actual stress or anxiety in the world; it’s your thoughts that create these false beliefs. You can’t package stress, touch it, or see it. There are only people engaged in stressful thinking.

Many of my fans often tell me that they listen to my songs to get through things. And therefore, obviously, I hope that they can picture being in a place where things are better… I hope my songs can bring people to a calm place.