In the chaos happening around you, meditation could be your refuge. Let go of what’s holding you back and take some time for yourself to reach inner peace and calmness. And for a clearer state of mind, here are 145 meditation quotes.
Meditation Quotes
1. Meditation is the antidote to all the poisons of your life. It is the nourishment of your authentic nature. – Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
2. Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end. – Jiddhu Krishnamurti
3. Meditation allows us to directly participate in our lives instead of living life as an afterthought. – Stephen Levine
4. In meditation, you are calm and receptive. You are like an open door providing a kind of cross ventilation so that the air of divinity can move through you. – Gurudev Shree Chitrabhanu
5. Meditation is a valuable exercise, but eventually you have to open up your eyes and look around. – Dan Millman
6. Meditation provides a way of learning how to let go. As we sit, the self we’ve been trying to construct and make into a nice, neat package continues to unravel. – John Welwood
7. Meditation is not something that should be done in a particular position at a particular time. It is an awareness and an attitude that must persist throughout the day. – Annamalai Swami
8. True meditation gives us, as it were, wings for flight to a higher realm and thus detaches us from terrestrial fetters. – Paramananda
9. No meditation better clears the mind than to listen to the shape of the silence that surrounds us. It focuses us on the thin line between what is there and what is not there. It opens our heart to the unseen, and reminds us that the world is larger than the events that fill our days. – Kent Nerburn
10. Meditation is silence. If you realize that you really know nothing, then you will be truly meditating. Such truthfulness is the right soil for silence. Silence is meditation. – Yogaswami
11. The purpose of meditation practice is not enlightenment; it is to pay attention even at extraordinary times, to be of the present, nothing-but-in-the-present, to bear this mindfulness of now into each event of ordinary life. – Peter Matthiessen
12. Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there—buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day. – Deepak Chopra
13. The more intense the nature of a man, the more readily will he find meditation, and the more successfully will he practice it. – James Allen
14. The supreme bliss that pulsates in the wake of meditation is your pure essence. – Swami Muktananda
15. There is no necessity for a technique or formula for meditation. Inner feeling, or inner knowing, is the silent voice of inspiration. – Walter Russell
16. The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation. – Jetsun Milarepa
17. The act of meditation is being spacious. – Sogyal Rinpoche
18. The spirit of meditation is the combating of self-willed thinking—it is a combat against the weight of one’s feelings. – Hakuin Ekaku
19. Stop thinking that meditation is anything special. Stop thinking altogether. – Surya Singer
20. Meditation applies the brakes to the mind. – Ramana Maharshi
21. What’s encouraging about meditation is that even if we shut down, we can no longer shut down in ignorance. We see very clearly that we’re closing off. That in itself begins to illuminate the darkness of ignorance. – Pema Chodron
22. Meditation is acceptance. It is the acceptance of life within us, without us and all around us. Acceptance of life is the beginning of human satisfaction. Transformation of life is the culmination of divine satisfaction. – Sri Chinmoy
23. Meditation is listening to the Divine within. – Edgar Cayce
24. Life is a mystery – mystery of beauty, bliss and divinity. Meditation is the art of unfolding that mystery. – Amit Ray
25. Words are but the shell; meditation is the kernel. – Bahya ibn Paquda
26. When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a candle in a windless place. – Bhagavad Gita
27. The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind. – Caroline Myss
28. The things that trouble our spirits are within us already. In meditation, we must face them, accept them, and set them aside one by one. – Cristopher L. Bennett
29. Meditation is to dive all the way within, beyond thought, to the source of thought and pure consciousness. It enlarges the container, every time you transcend. When you come out, you come out refreshed, filled with energy and enthusiasm for life. – David Lynch
30. Meditation is to the mind what exercise is to the body – it warms and invigorates. – John Thornton
31. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt. – St Francis De Sales
32. Meditation connects you with your soul, and this connection gives you access to your intuition, your heartfelt desires, your integrity, and the inspiration to create a life you love. – Sarah McLean
33. Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality. – Thich Nhat Hanh
34. Meditation is the soul’s perspective glass. – Owen Feltham
35. Meditation is not you going through thoughts – it’s letting thoughts go through you. – Naval Ravikant
36. Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are. – Jon Kabat-Zinn
37. Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree. It completely changes your brain and therefore changes what you are. – Matthieu Ricard
38. Altogether, the idea of meditation is not to create states of ecstasy or absorption, but to experience being. – Chögyam Trungpa
39. In meditation, you are supposed to closely observe your mind and body, witness the ceaseless arising and passing of all your feelings, and realise how pointless it is to pursue them. When the pursuit stops, the mind becomes very relaxed, clear and satisfied. – Yuval Noah Harari
40. Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit. – Jeremy Taylor
41. Your mind is a wild horse. Logic, the saddle. Meditation, the reins. – System Of Systems
42. Dedicating some time to meditation is a meaningful expression of caring for yourself that can help you move through the mire of feeling unworthy of recovery. As your mind grows quieter and more spacious, you can begin to see self-defeating thought patterns for what they are, and open up to other, more positive options. – Sharon Salzberg
43. Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head and learning wiser grow without his books. – William Cowper
44. Through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we choose. – Eknath Easwaran
45. Meditation is the womb of our actions; action the midwife of our meditations. – Arthur Warwick
46. Meditation is not the menu; it’s the meal. – Victor Davich
47. Meditation practice is like piano scales, basketball drills, ballroom dance class. Practice requires discipline; it can be tedious; it is necessary. After you have practiced enough, you become more skilled at the art form itself. You do not practice to become a great scale player or drill champion. You practice to become a musician or athlete. Likewise, one does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living. – Elizabeth Lesser
48. An interval of meditation, serious and grateful, was the best corrective of everything dangerous. – Jane Austen
49. Mindfulness meditation doesn’t change life. Life remains as fragile and unpredictable as ever. Meditation changes the heart’s capacity to accept life as it is. It teaches the heart to be more accommodating, not by beating it into submission, but by making it clear that accommodation is a gratifying choice. – Sylvia Boorstein
50. Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak. – Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
51. With meditation I found a ledge above the waterfall of my thoughts. – Mary Bray Pipher
52. On a whitely cloudy day I get sad, almost afraid,
And I begin to meditate about problems I make up.
– Alberto Caeiro
53. We need something that encourages us to work, we need an intimate aid. This is only possible through meditation. – Samael Aun Weor
54. Meditation is a death, a death of the ego. A meditator has to pass through a death. Meditation is the art of learning to die consciously. The spiritual teacher gives you meditation to die and to be reborn. – Swami Dhyan Giten
55. Like dance moves the body,
Meditation moves the mind
– Harshada Pathare
56. Meditation directly impacts our nervous system by reducing the body’s production of stress-related chemicals such as cortisol. It’s a great way to recharge our personal battery. – Laurie Buchanan
57. When meditating, fall into meditation as you would fall into love, listen oh so carefully for the sounds most distant, and allow your breathe to become the ocean. – Leland Lewis
58. Meditation has enabled me to transform from the soulless entity living on automatic to the being that could walk into the office with a big smile on my face for no good reason. – Joel Annesley
59. Meditation is our number one tool in the quest for greater mindfulness. – Amy Leigh Mercree
60. Simply become aware of your thoughts and actions. Become attentive to yourself. Meditation is not something that is only done in a particular posture or situation. It is an attitude towards life. – Anupama Garg
61. No matter what the tree, they all grow from one seed, which takes root and branches out. Meditation is like the lotus tree. Rich with many, many layers, leaves and petals. It blossoms to be a vibrant flower, but at its core, it is the same, basic principle, ~ the seed you plant. – Andrew Pacholyk
62. Meditation is a social and political act. Listening and not-doing are actions far more powerful than most of us have yet begun to realize. – Joan Tollifson
63. Meditation disciplines the mind, sharpens concentration and improves memory. It also energises body and mind. – Dada J. P. Vaswani
64. Meditation is the signpost directing the steps to the main highway of realization. – Guy Bogart
65. Meditation is a narrowing of focus that expands the soul. – Patricia Robin Woodruff
66. Meditation trains our inner world. It is the art of creating a space between your breath and thoughts, a space that allows you to choose your own response. That allows us to overcome stimuli and reactions, so we can choose who we want to be, moment to moment. – Natasha Potter
67. Through clear instruction and regular practice, meditation will help you experience a deeper connection to your senses, your body, your emotions, and the boundless frontier of your thinking mind. – Benjamin W. Decker
68. You have slept millions and millions of years.
Why not wake up this morning? – Kabir
69. Thinking is talking to yourself. Imagination is talking to the universe. Meditation is harmonizing your inner self with the universe. – Debasish Mridha
70. Meditation is not what your mind does: whether it is silent or not. Meditation is what you do with your mind. – Satish Tripathi
71. Still your mind and become a witness to your thoughts through meditation. The more you do this, you open gaps of “no mind” which puts you in a very open, present state of consciousness whereby YOU become more awakened, more aware & more powerful! – Sanjo Jendayi
72. Meditation has countless benefits – from better health to increased focus to a deeper sense of calm – but the biggie is the ability to respond instead of react to your impulses and urges. In meditation, instead of succumbing to deeply rooted habits of the mind like desire & aversion, you simply watch what comes up in your head non-judgementally. – Dan Harris
73. All of life is a meditation, most of it unintentional. – Joseph Campbell
74. Meditation is to leave the noise and to meet with the silence. – Mehmet Murat ildan
75. Meditation nourishes the mind. – Lailah Gifty Akita
76. Sometimes it was during the breaks that the real meditation happened – moments when it was obvious that wisdom is not something you have, but a wave-length you tune in to. – Matt Padwick
77. Meditation is about mindfulness and learning to strip away the illusion, revealing your authentic self and connectedness to everything and everyone. – Nanette Mathews
78. Seek the temple within, the silent place you can go in the midst of it all. – Nikki Rowe
79. A regular meditation practice is one of the highest forms of self-love. – Renae A. Sauter
80. If you learn to go beyond the jabbering of your mind, and can go to the deeper aspects of your consciousness, then body, breath, and mind will not come in your way. – Swami Rama
81. The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness. But if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. – Kelsang Gyatso
82. Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity. – Voltaire
83. The purpose of meditation is personal transformation. – Henepola Gunaratana
84. Meditation is a vital practice to access conscious contact with your highest self. – Wayne Dyer
85. Meditation will sharpen your senses and your awareness. – Tara Stiles
86. Meditation is all about the pursuit of nothingness. It’s like the ultimate rest. It’s better than the best sleep you’ve ever had. It’s a quieting of the mind. It sharpens everything, especially your appreciation of your surroundings. It keeps life fresh. – Hugh Jackman
87. Meditation is the life of the soul: Action, the soul of meditation; and honor the reward of action. – Francis Quarles
88. Meditation state is a place of deep relaxation where you can pinpoint the things you do and to set a paradigm switch from effect to cause. So how to be a cause in your own life. – Roseanne Barr
89. Meditation isn’t snake oil. For some people, meditation might be the most efficient way to reduce stress and cultivate mindfulness. But it isn’t a panacea. If you don’t meditate, there’s no need to stress out about it. – Adam Grant
90. Meditation is really letting go of all the thought processes or ‘mind traffic’ that gets in the way of just whatever is between you and space and consciousness. – Trudie Styler
91. I mean the whole thing about meditation and yoga is about connecting to the higher part of yourself, and then seeing that every living thing is connected in some way. – Gillian Anderson
92. Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality. – Richard Gere
93. Meditation isn’t necessarily this magical experience where we don’t ever have thoughts. – Gretchen Bleiler
94. Meditation helps people balance and calibrate their left-right brain. – Goldie Hawn
95. Meditation is a lifelong process. Give it a try. As you get deeper and more disciplined into the process, you’ll get deeper and more disciplined in your mind and life. – Brendon Burchard
96. Before you find a way to channel your emotional energy, you must take time to be still and actually feel. Meditation is a simple tool for becoming present. – Mandy Ingber
97. We tend to think of meditation in only one way. But life itself is a meditation. – Raul Julia
98. Meditation allows us to deal with life as it is rather than looking at it and comparing it with how we think it’s supposed to be. – Jeff Kober
99. Meditation is about getting to a place where you’re approaching things in a more calm, centering place rather than allowing yourself to get caught up in it. – Tony Cardenas
100. Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom. – Buddha
101. The practice of meditation can reveal to you more of your mental capacity. – Betty Buckley
102. Meditation is key. It’s a crazy world we live in. Everything is happening so fast in our world, so to take a moment and clear the mind and just be totally present is so healing. I want to meditate more. – Jamie Anderson
103. Not that I’m any good at it, but the beauty of meditation is that it liberates us from our own thoughts. – Faith Salie
104. I just think meditation is so important because it gives you a chance to see what’s going on in your brain. – Jim James
105. When you just sit in silence the wind blows through you, the sun shines in you, and you realize you are not your body; you are everything. – Anita Krizzan
106. In today’s rush, we all think too much, seek too much, want too much, and forget about the joy of just being. – Eckhart Tolle
107. Place your hands into soil to feel grounded. Wade into water to feel emotionally healed. Fill your lungs with fresh air to feel mentally clear. Raise your face to the heat of the sun and connect with that fire to feel your own immense power. – Victoria Erickson
108. There are different things one can do to establish and hasten the peace process. Meditation is one way. – Mike Love
109. This life that has been given to us as a gift, as such a precious gift. To really try to understand it, really try to recognize it, is the greatest meditation. Through the media of this Knowledge we can tap into our inner sources that are so beautiful. – Prem Rawat
110. Whatever forms of meditation you practice, the most important point is to apply mindfulness continuously, and make a sustained effort. It is unrealistic to expect results from meditation within a short period of time. What is required is continuous sustained effort. – Dalai Lama
111. In meditation, go deep in the heart. – Lao Tzu
112. Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God. – Diana Robinson
113. There is only one meditation – the rigorous refusal to harbor thoughts. – Nisargadatta Maharaj
114. Meditation: Because some answers can only be found on the Inner net. – Shira Tamir
115. Meditate daily, and soon your inner strength and mind power will grow. – Remez Sasson
116. Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. – Marcus Aurelius
117. Be still and know. – Aristotle
118. Meditation is a rich and powerful method of study for anyone who knows how to examine his mind. – Michel de Montaigne
119. Meditation increases your vitality and strengthens your intelligence… your mental clarity and health improve. You acquire the patience and fortitude to face any problem in life. So, meditate! Only through meditation will you find the treasure you are seeking. – Mata Amritanandamayi
120. When your thoughts go wandering,
just sit there and let them go,
but don’t go with them.
Keep sitting.
– B. D. Schiers
121. Meditation is sitting quietly
while paying attention to your experience,
allowing everything to be just as it is.
– Cassandra Vieten
122. Meditation is a skillful letting go: gently but with resolution. – Ajahn Sumedho
123. The way out of suffering is meditation itself. – Ajahn Chah
124. You have to make your life a good place for the meditation to seep through. – Thanissaro Bhikkhu
125. Meditation is not spacing-out or running away. In fact, it is being totally honest with ourselves. – Kathleen McDonald
126. Meditation is a lifelong gift. It’s something you can call on at any time. – Paul McCartney
127. Whenever you try to dictate the outcome of your meditation you negate its most wondrous benefit – the pleasure of simply being. – Paul Wilson
128. A most useful approach to meditation practice is to consider it the most important activity of each day. Schedule it as you would an extremely important appointment, and unfailingly keep your appointment. – Roy Eugene Davis
129. Meditation and water are wedded for ever. – Herman Melville
130. Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man. – Benjamin Franklin
131. After a few years of meditation practice we can even learn how to occasionally ignore ourselves. And what relief that can be! – Wes Nisker
132. Meditating means bringing the mind back to something again and again. Thus, we all meditate, but unless we direct it in some way, we meditate on ourselves and on our own problems, reinforcing our self-clinging. – Yeshe Dorje
133. Meditation is a tool to shake yourself awake. A way to discover what you love. A practice to return yourself to your body when the mind medleys threaten to usurp your sanity. – Geneen Roth
134. Meditation can reintroduce you to the part that’s been missing. – Russell Simmons
135. Meditation is cultivating the potential to transcend your limited self, limited beliefs and limited existence. It is stepping into the exciting territory of limitlessness. – Banani Ray
136. Render unto meditation the things that are meditation’s, and unto medication the things that are medication’s. – Barry Graham
137. Meditation is a flower, and compassion is its fragrance. – Osho
138. Meditation becomes easier if you drop all your ambitions and desires. – Girdhar Joshi
139. Life here on Earth is promised suffering and one needs to find ways to live through it. Many people turn to meditation and prayer—anything that can connect us deeper into ourselves and with the divine. – Kat Lahr
140. Through the experience of meditation itself, the meditator becomes conscious that the practice of meditation is an end in itself rather than a means towards an end. – David Fontana
141. Meditate five minutes each morning and see it wake up your entire life. – Waylon H. Lewis
142. Meditation takes you out of your mind and possibly into the future, negative thoughts are quicksands that keeps you glued to your past. – Michael Bassey Johnson
143. Harmony can be achieved within through meditation, which increases overall well-being and function. – Jay Woodman
144. Prayer is asking; Meditation is listening. – Brownell Landrum
145. Meditation turns from its purgatory role to recognize in self-knowledge and in the mind’s images of the external world the general essences in which all things have their being. – R.W. Southern