Joko Beck Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• None of us would choose to be Sisyphus; yet in a sense, we all are.

  Joko Beck

  Sisyphus

  "Nothing Special". Book by Charlotte J. Beck, ‎Steven A. Smith, 2009.

  13 Copy quote

• Meditation is not about doing something

  Joko Beck

  Meditation

  4 Copy quote

• Practice has to be a process of endless disappointment. We have to see that everything we demand (and even get) eventually disappoints us. This discovery is our teacher.

  Joko Beck

  Teacher, Disappointment, Discovery

  24 Copy quote

• We have self-centered minds which get us into plenty of trouble. If we do not come to understand the error in the way we think, our self-awareness, which is our greatest blessing, is also our downfall.

  Joko Beck

  Blessing, Thinking, Errors

  22 Copy quote

• An old Zen rule of thumb is not to answer until one has been asked three times.

  Joko Beck

  Three, Thumbs, Answers

  "Nothing Special". Book by Charlotte J. Beck, ‎Steven A. Smith, 2009.

  11 Copy quote

• We 'rid ourselves of conceptual thought' when, by persistent observation, we recognize the unreality of our self-centered thoughts. Then we can remain dispassionate and fundamentally unaffected by them. That does not mean to be a cold person. Rather, it means not to be caught and dragged around by circumstances.

  Joko Beck

  Mean, Self, Doe

  6 Copy quote

• My dog doesn't worry about the meaning of life. She may worry if she doesn't get her breakfast, but she doesn't sit around worrying whether she will get fulfilled or liberated or enlightened. As long as she gets some food and a little affection, her life is fine. But we human beings are not like dogs. We have self-centered minds which get us into plenty of trouble. If we do not come to understand the error in the way we think, our self-awareness, which is our greatest blessing, is also our downfall.

  Joko Beck

  Dog, Thinking, Blessing

  8 Copy quote

• Practice can be stated very simply. It is moving from a life of hurting myself and others to a life of not hurting myself and others. That seems so simple-except when we substitute for real practice some idea that we should be different or better than we are, or that our lives should be different from the way they are. When we substitute our ideas about what should be (such notions as "I should not be angry or confused or unwilling") for our life as it truly is, then we're off base and our practice is barren.

  Joko Beck

  Hurt, Confused, Real

  13 Copy quote

• What does open us is sharing our vulnerabilities. Sometimes we see a couple who has done this difficult work over a lifetime. In the process, they have grown old together. We can sense the enormous comfort, the shared quality of ease between these people. It is beautiful, and very rare. Without this quality of openness and vulnerability, partners don't really know each other; they are one image living with another image.

  Joko Beck

  Life, Beautiful, Couple

  "Nothing Special". Book by Charlotte J. Beck, ‎Steven A. Smith, 2009.

  18 Copy quote

• Caught in the self-centered dream, only suffering;
  holding to self-centered thoughts, exactly the dream;
  each moment, life as it is, the only teacher;
  being just this moment, compassion's way.

  Joko Beck

  Dream, Teacher, Compassion

  9 Copy quote

• There are many people in the world who feel that if only they had a bigger car, a nicer house, better vacations, a more understanding boss, or a more interesting partner, then their life would work. We all go through that one. Slowly we wear out most of our 'if onlies.

  Joko Beck

  Vacation, People, Interesting

  16 Copy quote

• Underneath our nice, friendly facades there is great unease. If I were to scratch below the surface of anyone I would find fear, pain, and anxiety running amok. We all have ways to cover them up. We overeat, over-drink, overwork; we watch too much television.

  Joko Beck

  Running, Pain, Nice

  17 Copy quote

• Trust in things being as they are is the secret of life. But we don't want to hear that. I can absolutely trust that in the next year my life is going to be changed, different, yet always just the way it is.

  Joko Beck

  Trust, Years, Secret

  11 Copy quote

• We learn in our guts, not just in our brain, that a life of joy is not in seeking happiness, but in experiencing and simply being the circumstances of our life as they are; not in fulfilling personal wants, but in fulfilling the needs of life.

  Joko Beck

  Happiness, Joy, Brain

  12 Copy quote

• We tend to run our whole life trying to avoid all that hurts or displeases us, noticing the objects, people, or situations that we think will give us pain or pleasure, avoiding one and pursuing the other.

  Joko Beck

  Running, Hurt, Pain

  6 Copy quote

• Whenever we say a person's name, notice whether we have stated more than a fact. For example, the judgment, 'She's thoughtless' goes beyond the facts 'She said she'd call me and she didn't.

  Joko Beck

  Names, Example, Facts

  15 Copy quote

• To some degree we all find life difficult, perplexing, and oppressive. Even when it goes well, as it may for a time, we worry that it probably won't keep on that way.

  Joko Beck

  Worry, Degrees, May

  4 Copy quote

• We are caught in the contradiction of finding life a rather perplexing puzzle which causes us a lot of misery, and at the same time being dimly aware of the boundless, limitless nature of life. So we begin looking for an answer to the puzzle.

  Joko Beck

  Answers, Causes, Misery

  "Everyday Zen: Love and Work" by Charlotte J. Beck, HarperCollins, (p. 12), October 6, 2009.

  7 Copy quote

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