Practice Quotes - Page 136

As my lama always told me, I learned that I practice better when I'm by myself.

When you learn an instrument, it takes an awful lot of time to just learn the scales, and then eventually when you have completely mastered the instrument, the music plays for you. But you still have to keep practicing. And it takes an awful lot of practice. Nonetheless, if you diligently practice, hours and hours and hours and hours, you probably won't get it. You'll probably just end up hurting your fingers.

Even if the hermits do not appear to benefit other beings with their presence or teachings, still they are enormously inspiring to many. Perhaps, in this lifetime, they were meant to work on their own practice, to try to purify their own mindstream so that in future lifetimes (that will last a lot longer than this one), they will be fit vessels to give the teachings to others.

In Dharma practice, the most important thing is to be very sincere.

The very best players, when they are practicing, put everything they've got into it. But then they leave it for a while. And it's the same in dharma practice.

One has to find a balance. I don't say that when you leave it you forget all about the dharma or practice, but there have to be times when you throw yourself into it, and then there are times when you just relax and realize that wherever you go, you cannot get out of the dharma.

Perhaps Westerners are in a better position to practice true renunciation than uneducated Orientals because most Western people, by the time they come to the Dharma, have led a pretty full worldly life with lots of sensual pleasures, money and lots of toys to play with. They have seen that the path of accumulation of worldly treasure does not lead to happiness or contentment. That's why they come to the Dharma.

Why do some people, when they want to practice, keep coming against problems and difficulties, and obstacles - inner obstacles and outer obstacles? It's because of the lack of merit.

We live in a society which is heading in one direction, so it's good to have at least a few friends who share the same values and can encourage us and help us to remember that we're not alone or peculiar, but that what we're doing is a very valid way of life. This will encourage us to put the Dharma at the centre of our life and not the periphery, to use our daily life as our Dharma practice.

Practice, practice, practice. Practice until you get a guitar welt on your chest...if it makes you feel good, don't stop until you see the blood from your fingers. Then you'll know you're on to something!

I'm spiritual but I don't practice any sort of thing.

I am always urging my students to honor their writing practice, to set up a schedule.

If you don't have courage, you can't practice any of the other virtues.

I'm not a part of any organized practices, but I believe heavily on love and the universe and what you give is what you get.

I meditate twice a day. I chant. I lean more towards Buddhist practices.

Your tree pose is going crazy and you're falling; and your leg is burning; and it feels impossible to maintain any sort of stability practice observing what's happening instead of getting wrapped up in the circumstance. If you can learn to be easy with your breath in these moments, your body and mind will follow.

What you practice on the mat is what you end up doing in your life.

Buddhist practices offer a way of saying, 'Hey, come back over here, reconnect.' The only way that you'll actually wake up and have some freedom is if you have the capacity and courage to stay with the vulnerability and the discomfort.

My advice for young people is that, if you want to be a musician, the thing to do is practice eight hours a day.

The prohibition of L'shon Hara is the Jewish equivalent of the Buddhist practice of Right Speech.

We see many persons talking the most wonderfully fine things about charity and about equality and the rights of other people and all that, but it is only in theory. I was so fortunate as to find one who was able to carry theory into practice. He had the most wonderful faculty of carrying everything into practice which he thought was right.

It will not do merely to listen to great principles. You must apply them in the practical field, turn them into constant practice. What will be the good of cramming the high - sounding dicta of the scriptures? You have first to grasp the teachings of the Shastras, and then to work them out in practical life. Do you understand? This is called practical religion.

This perfection must come through the practice of holiness and love.

One ounce of practice is worth a thousand pounds of theory.

Through faithful practice, layer after layer of the mind opens before us, and each reveals new facts to us.