Noah Levine quotes

The truth is, going against the internal stream of ignorance is way more rebellious than trying to start some sort of cultural revolution. (Noah Levine)
Sitting still is a pain in the ass. View quote
Noah Levine
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. View quote
Noah Levine
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. View quote
Noah Levine
The inner revolution will not be televised or sold on the Internet. It must take place within one's own mind and heart. View quote
Noah Levine
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. View quote
Noah Levine
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. View quote
Noah Levine
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. View quote
Noah Levine
The body breathes by itself. The mind thinks by itself. Awareness simply observes the process without getting lost in the content. View quote
Noah Levine
If our definition of happiness is "experiencing that which is pleasurable," we are going to be disappointed a lot of the time. View quote
Noah Levine
We would all say that deep down, all we want is to be happy. Yet we don't have a realistic understanding of what happiness really is. Happiness is closer to the experience of acceptance and contentment than it is to pleasure. (Noah Levine)
We could search the whole world and never find another being more worthy of our love than ourselves. View quote
Noah Levine
Those who understand the way it is, rather than the way they wish it were, are on the path to freedom. View quote
Noah Levine
Mindfulness is defined as nonjudgmental, investigative, kind, and responsive awareness. This sort of awareness takes intentional training of the mind. View quote
Noah Levine
Everything is impermanent-every pleasure, every pain, every body. But the survival instincts crave permanence and control. The body wants pleasure to stay forever and pain to go away forever. View quote
Noah Levine
Recovery is also the ability to inhabit the conditions of the present reality, whether pleasant or unpleasant. View quote
Noah Levine
We must do away with any shred of denial, minimization, justification, or rationalization. To recover, we must completely and totally understand and accept the truth that addiction creates suffering. View quote
Noah Levine
Difficult personalities are a mirror for the places where we get stuck in judgment, fear, and confusion. View quote
Noah Levine
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. View quote
Noah Levine
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. View quote
Noah Levine
As we walk the path of Refuge Recovery, we gradually uncover a loving heart. (Noah Levine)
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. View quote
Noah Levine
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. View quote
Noah Levine
Experience each moment as if it were the first sensation of its kind ever. Bring childlike interest and curiosity to your present-time experience. View quote
Noah Levine
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. View quote
Noah Levine