Mindfulness is a quality that's always there. It's an illusion that there's a meditation and post-meditation period, which I always find amusing, because you're either mindful or you're not.
Richard GereRead
From a Buddhist point of view, emotions are not real. As an actor, I manufacture emotions. They're a sense of play. But real life is the same. We're just not aware of it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Emotions are viewed as constructs rather than inherent truths, similar to acting, emphasizing the nature of human perception.
Richard Gere's quote highlights the Buddhist perspective that emotions are not fixed realities but rather constructs that we create, akin to an actor performing. He suggests that life itself is performative, and that many of our emotional experiences are products of our perception and awareness, inviting us to reconsider what we deem as real in our emotional lives.
Themes
EmotionsRealityPerceptionAwarenessBuddhismActing
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about emotional resilience, one might say, 'As Richard Gere noted, emotions are not real; they are a construct we create, much like acting in a play.'
More from Richard Gere
All quotes βIn a situation like this, of course you identify with everyone who's suffering. (But we must also think about) the terrorists who are creating such horrible future lives for themselves because of the negativity of this karma. It's all of our jobs to keep our minds as expansive as possible. If you can see (the terrorists) as a relative who's dangerously sick and we have to give them medicine, and the medicine is love and compassion. There's nothing better.
Richard GereRead
Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.
Richard GereRead
It's not enough to say that the Olympics is an athletic contest outside of politics, because it's not. The Chinese clearly are using the Olympics to recreate how they are viewed in the world and how they view themselves.
Richard GereRead
I've got a lot of opportunities, a lot of love in my life, a lot of things going for me. Still, it's not complete. I know this is not the whole thing. There's much more.
Richard GereRead
As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness, love, and compassion. That these animals suffer through human cruelty is beyond understanding. Please help to stop this madness.
Richard GereRead
Similar quotes
We will neglect our cities to our peril, for in neglecting them we neglect the nation.
John F. KennedyRead
All religions have honored the beggar. For he proves that in a matter at the same time as prosaic and holy, banal and regenerative as the giving of alms, intellect and morality, consistency and principles are miserably inadequate.
Walter BenjaminRead
Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact. The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity. They began with the fact of sin-a fact as practical as potatoes. Whether or not man could be washed in miraculous waters, there was no doubt at any rate that he wanted washing.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie? I will name you the degrees. The first, the Retort Courteous; the second, the Quip Modest; the third, the Reply Churlish; the fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth; the Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with Circumstance; the seventh, the Lie Direct. All these you may avoid but the Lie Direct; and you may avoid that too, with an If. . . . Your If is the only peace-maker; much virtue in If.
William ShakespeareRead
Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Let the historians and the Ph.D. students work out their doctrines. I'm not interested in theories per se.
Lee Kuan YewRead