Natalie Goldberg Quotes

I'm a lapsed Zen Buddhist. I've read hundreds of books on Zen, I meditated daily for about fifteen years, and once spent a month studying with Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

I spend a lot of time with Buddhists. I'm not a Buddhist, but their relationship with death interests me.

I believe in past lives but I know nothing about mine and I don't want to know. I live in the present, taking one day at a time.

The soul is everlasting, and its learning experience is lifetime after lifetime.

I grew up in a mostly Buddhist environment.

I realize that many elements of the Buddhist teaching can be found in Christianity, Judaism, Islam. I think if Buddhism can help, it is the concrete methods of practice.

The Buddha taught that we're not actually in control, which is a pretty scary idea. But when you let things be as they are, you will be a much happier, more balanced, compassionate person.

From a Hindu perspective, you are born as what you need to deal with, and if you just try and push it away, whatever it is, it's got you.

Zen Buddhism is a discipline where belief isn't necessary.

I am a practicing Buddhist. I have been for 25 years.

I decided years ago that if I'm going to keep teaching contemplation, then the last years of my life should be contemplative.

My main calling in life is to seek and achieve spiritual balance, and to express that through my instrument. Everything else is here today, gone later today.

Human life is full of the play of samskaras - tendencies developed by repeated actions.

I want to tell people how to live spiritually. After you've bought all your houses and your clothes, you want something bigger.

I've always been so curious about death. With my personal beliefs as a Baha'i, we believe that birth and death are very similar and that we're here on this Earth to develop all of the things we can't see.

I think about death a lot, I really do, because I can't believe I won't exist. It's the ego isn't it? I feel that I should retreat into a better form of Zen Buddhism than this kind of ego-dominated thing. But I don't know, I mean, I want to come back as a tree but I suspect that it's just not going to happen, is it?

I think that souls agree to come in and do what they're going to do and then leave when they're going to leave. So there's nothing tragic when a soul leaves. I think it was already preordained.

Each one of us decides to incarnate upon this planet at a particular point in time and space. We have chosen to come here to learn a particular lesson that will advance us upon our spiritual, evolutionary pathway.

I am not the born; how can there be either birth or death for me?

Karma, when properly understood, is just the mechanics through which consciousness manifests.

There are techniques of Buddhism, such as meditation, that anyone can adopt. And, of course, there are Christian monks and nuns who already use Buddhist methods in order to develop their devotion, compassion, and ability to forgive.

I think my Buddhist practice has a profound influence on my life and encompasses my creative projects.

Let planning be the springboard, so that spirituality can be our splash.

The beliefs concerning reincarnation have great ethical impact on human life and our relationship to the world.

This goal can and must be attained in this life. But even if this does not happen, remember that he who has found the way once, always returns to this world with an internal maturity that enables him to continue his work.