Noah Levine Quotes

“We could search the whole world and never find another being more worthy of our love than ourselves.”

“Those who understand the way it is, rather than the way they wish it were, are on the path to freedom.”

“If our definition of happiness is "experiencing that which is pleasurable," we are going to be disappointed a lot of the time.”

“Renunciation is not about pushing something away, it is about letting go. It's facing the fact that certain things cause us pain, and they cause other people pain. Renunciation is a commitment to let go of things that create suffering. It is the intention to stop hurting ourselves and others.”

“Happiness is closer to the experience of acceptance and contentment than it is to pleasure. True happiness exists as the spacious and compassionate heart's willingness to feel whatever is present.”

“The cause of our suffering has always been our reaction to the thoughts, feelings, cravings, and circumstances of our lives. The cause of our addictions has always been the indulgence in the behaviors or substances.”

“The next step in the process of liberation is to break this chain reaction of suffering whenever life is unpleasant and feeling content only when life is pleasurable.”

“Forgiveness is not just a selfish pursuit of personal satisfaction or righteousness. It actually alleviates the amount of suffering in the world. As each one of us frees ourselves from clinging to resentments that cause suffering, we relieve our friends, family, and community of the burden of our unhappiness. This is not a philosophical proposal; it is a verifiable and practical truth. Through our suffering and lack of forgiveness, we tend to do all kinds of unskillful things that hurt others. We close ourselves off from love, for example, out of fear of further pains or betrayals. This alone—a lack of openness to the love shown to us—is a way that we cause harm to our loved ones. The closed heart lets no one in or out.”

“With mindfulness we have the choice of responding with compassion to the pain of craving, anger, fear and confusion. Without mindfulness we are stuck in the reactive pattern and identification that will inevitably create more suffering and confusion.”

“Everything is impermanent. Every physical and mental experience arises and passes. Everything in existence is endlessly arising out of causes and conditions. We all create suffering for ourselves through our resistance, through our desire to have things different than the way they are - that is, our clinging or aversion.”

“Sitting still is a pain in the ass.”

“The greatest satisfaction comes not from chasing pleasure and avoiding pain, but from the radical acceptance of life as it is, without fighting and clinging to passing desires.”

“Recovery is also the ability to inhabit the conditions of the present reality, whether pleasant or unpleasant.”

“Difficult personalities are a mirror for the places where we get stuck in judgment, fear, and confusion.”

“While we are in recovery we need to be able to strike a balance between not allowing our ego to do all the talking and not letting our low self-esteem to only present what is wrong with us.”

“As we walk the path of Refuge Recovery, we gradually uncover a loving heart.”

“Experience each moment as if it were the first sensation of its kind ever. Bring childlike interest and curiosity to your present-time experience.”

“The most important thing to remember is that we must live in the present, and if in the present moment we are still holding on to old wounds and betrayals, it is in this moment that forgiveness is called for.”

“The Dalai Lama is rumored to have said that being able to have sex without any attachment would take the level of attainment of being able to eat either chocolate cake or dog shit without any preference between the two.”

“Spiritual revolutionaries must be committed not to what is easiest, but to what is most beneficial to themselves and the world.”

“The body breathes by itself. The mind thinks by itself. Awareness simply observes the process without getting lost in the content.”

“The truth is, going against the internal stream of ignorance is way more rebellious than trying to start some sort of cultural revolution.”

“The inner revolution will not be televised or sold on the Internet. It must take place within one's own mind and heart.”

“It's easy to hate and point out everything that is wrong with the world; it is the hardest and most important work in one's life to free oneself from the bonds of fear and attachment.”