RSS feed

Serenity

previous next

Also: Peacefulness

Serenity means maintaining a sense of inner peace even in difficult situations. We gain serenity by accepting the things we cannot change and focusing our energy where we can make a difference.


Fear, anger or desire can create a sense of urgency that triggers us to react impulsively. When this happens, we risk undermining our goals, damaging relationships--even violating our deepest values. By contrast, when we cultivate serenity, we don’t fear our emotions, but we do keep them in balance. We govern ourselves rather than being ruled by external circumstances and our feelings about them.


Meditative practices, contemplation, physical exercise and self-regulation skills all can help us to maintain a serene, peaceful state of mind. This mental state in turn frees us to live thoughtfully and intentionally. When we hold onto our own sense of serenity, we help others to keep theirs.

Serenity

Sort by: Newest First | Rating
I am the laughter of the new-born child On whose soft-breathing sleep an angel smiled. Richard Watson Gilder

Source (click to close)

Source type: Website
Richard Watson Gilder
Contribution #3867


Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.

Source (click to close)

Contribution #3772


Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #3768


I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #3755


The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #3693


The trees, the flowers, the plants grow in silence. The stars, the sun, the moon move in silence. Silence gives us a new perspective.

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #3688


You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #3589


There is no promise of love and light or visions of any kind -- no angels, no devils. Nothing happens: it is absolutely boring. Sometimes you feel silly. One often asks the question, "Who is kidding whom? Am I on to something or not?" You are not on to something. Traveling the path means you get off everything, there is no place to perch. Sit and feel your breath, be with it.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Book
The Myth of Freedom
Page p. 53
Published by Shambhala , Boston & London , 1988
http://
Contribution #3510


Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Book
Sky Flowers
http://
Contribution #3462


An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth.

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #3424


from Rev. Christopher Chenoweth: "I have said, many times, there are two types of people in this world, vacuums and sprinklers." from -Tirukkural - "What is virtuous conduct? It is never destroying life, for killing leads to every other sin. Of all virtues summed by ancient sages, the foremost are to share one's food and to protect all living creatures." from Swami Vivekananda - "Whenever darkness comes, assert the reality and everything adverse must vanish. For, after all, it is but a dream. Mountain high though the difficulties appear... they are but maya. Fear not - it is banished. Crush it and it vanishes... Go forward. Assert yourself again and again and light must come." from Plato – "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. " from Jimi Hendrix – “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."

Source (click to close)

a personal collection of wisdom quotes, compiled from various Scriptures and the Web
Contribution #3366


Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #3364


But peace, too, is a living thing and like all life it must wax and wane, accommodate, withstand trials, and undergo changes.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Book
The Glass Bead Game
Page 493
Published by Picador
http://
Contribution #3168


Responsibility . . . lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities, and so on. When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. And there are ways in which we can consciously work to develop feelings of love and kindness. For some of us, the most effective way to do so is through religious practice. For others it may be non-religious practices. What is important is that we each make a sincere effort to take our responsibility for each other and for the natural environment we live in seriously.

Source (click to close)

Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1989
Contribution #2926


There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #2774


Such arts and sciences . . . as are productive of good results, and bring forth their fruit, and are conducive to the wellbeing and tranquillity of men have been, and will remain, acceptable before God.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Sacred Text
Epistle to the Son of the Wolf
P. 19
http://
Contribution #2668


Anger is contagious.

Source (click to close)

Starbucks - The Way I See It #276
http://www.starbucks.com/retail/thewayiseeit_default.asp?act=0&first=51
Contribution #2604


I hate above all things a cross man. What right has he to murder the sunshine of a day? What right has he to assassinate the Joy of life? When you go home, you ought to go like a ray of light--so that it will, even in the night, burst out of the doors and windows and illuminate the darkness.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Book
What's God Got To Do With It?
by Tim Page
Page 50 ("The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child" 1877)
Published by Steerforth Press , Hanover, NH , 2005
http://www.amazon.com/Whats-God-Got-Ingersoll-Separation/dp/1586420968/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224970457&sr=8-1
Contribution #2254


Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.

Source (click to close)

Virtues Reflection Cards
http://www.virtuesproject.com
Contribution #2220


You always have the choice to take all things evenly, to hold on to nothing, to receive each irritation as if you had only fifteen minutes to live.

Source (click to close)

Virtues Reflection Cards
http://www.virtuesproject.com
Contribution #2188


The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the diminution of ill temper.

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #2011


Peace comes from within
Do not seek it without

Source (click to close)

Source type: Book
Heart of a Buddha
Published by Amitabha Publications , Temple City, CA , 2003
http://
Contribution #1463


Cultivate peace first in the garden of your heart by removing the weeds of
    selfishness and jealousy,
    greed and anger,
    pride and ego
Then all will benefit from your peace and harmony

Source (click to close)

Source type: Book
Heart of a Buddha
Published by Amitabha Publications , Temple City, CA , 2003
http://
Contribution #1455


Until he has unconditional and unbiased love for all beings,
man will not find peace

Source (click to close)

Source type: Book
Heart of a Buddha
Published by Amitabha Publications , Temple City, CA , 2003
http://
Contribution #1453


When we free ourselves of desire, we will know serenity and freedom.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Book
Heart of a Buddha
by Amita Society
Published by Amitabha Publications , Temple City, CA , 2003
http://
Contribution #1435


Perfect wisdom,
Perfect tranquility,
Perfect compassion,

arise from

Our love,
Our sincerity.
Our understanding.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Book
Heart of a Buddha
Published by Amitabha Publications , Temple City, CA , 2003
http://
Contribution #1359


Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Website
Ashleigh Brilliant
http://www.ealasaid.com/quotes/a-c.html
Viewed on May 14, 2008
Contribution #1283


The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Sacred Text
Tao Te Ching page 1, line 1
Version or Translation - translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English
Published by Vintage Books (Random House)
Published in New York, N. Y., United States
Published in 1997 (this edition)
http://this text is widely available in various translations
Contribution #1269


When anger arises, think of the consequences.

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #1204


When the senses are stalled, when the mind is at rest, when the intellect wavers not-- that, say the wise, is the highest state.  This calm of the senses and the mind has been defined as yoga.  One who attains it is freed from delusion. 

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #1020


Only the just man enjoys peace of mind.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Website
Epicurus
http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/epicurus_a001.htm
Viewed on April 15, 2008
Contribution #819


When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Website
14th Dalai Lama
Viewed on April 13, 2006
Contribution #651


If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day

Source (click to close)

No source entered for Contribution #576


The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Website
Michel Eyquem De Montaigne
Viewed on April 10, 2008
Contribution #435


Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Website
Paramahansa Yogananda
Viewed on April 10, 2008
Contribution #434


Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.

Source (click to close)

Source type: Website
Frederick Buechner
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/compassion_is_sometimes_the_fatal_capacity_for/206388.html
Viewed on June 20, 2008
Contribution #363