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The phrase “Sacred Pause” is widely used in modern mindfulness and Buddhist-inspired practice.
✨ In Buddhist meditation, it refers to the intentional moment of stopping—a breath, a pause—before reacting automatically. It’s a way of creating space between stimulus and response.
🌿 Meaning of Sacred Pause
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Step out of autopilot → Notice thoughts, feelings, impulses without acting on them.
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Awareness instead of reaction → You choose a mindful response rather than a habitual reaction.
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Invitation to compassion → The pause helps reconnect with presence, kindness, and wisdom.
🧘 Buddhist Context
The idea comes from the Buddha’s teaching on sati (mindfulness) and appamāda (heedfulness). A classic reference is from the Satipatthāna Sutta (The Foundations of Mindfulness), where pausing to notice body, breath, feelings, and mind is central.
It echoes verses like this from the Dhammapada (verse 183):
“Cease to do evil, learn to do good, purify the mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.”
The “pause” is the purifying step—catching yourself before unskillful actions.
🌸 Modern Expression
Teachers like Tara Brach popularized the phrase “Sacred Pause” as part of her RAIN practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture). She describes it as:
“Stopping in the midst of our busyness and reactivity, and arriving into presence.”
✅ So, while “Sacred Pause” is not a direct Buddhist sloka (ancient verse), it’s a modern spiritual phrase inspired by Buddhist mindfulness teachings—especially the practice of pausing, breathing, and observing before reacting.
Would you like me to connect this idea of the Sacred Pause to a specific Buddhist verse (in Pali/Sanskrit) that captures the same spirit, so you have both the modern term and its classical root?
A
Perfect 🌿 Let’s connect the modern phrase “Sacred Pause” to authentic Buddhist verses (slokas) that express the same essence.
🪷 Classical Roots of the Sacred Pause
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Dhammapada 1–2 (Pali Canon)
“Mind precedes all things, mind is their chief, they are all mind-made.
If with an impure mind one speaks or acts, suffering follows…
If with a pure mind one speaks or acts, happiness follows.”
🔹 This verse highlights the moment of pause—before speech or action—where awareness shapes whether suffering or peace will follow.
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Satipatthāna Sutta (MN 10) – Foundations of Mindfulness
“A bhikkhu abides contemplating the body in the body… feelings in feelings… mind in mind… phenomena in phenomena, ardent, clearly comprehending, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world.”
🔹 The practice itself is a sacred pause—turning inward to observe sensations, thoughts, and feelings before being swept away.
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Vitakkasanthana Sutta (MN 20) – The Removal of Distracting Thoughts
“When a bhikkhu notices unwholesome thoughts… he should reflect: ‘This leads to my own harm, to the harm of others, to the harm of both; it obstructs wisdom…’ As he reflects, those unwholesome thoughts subside.”
🔹 Here, the pause is explicitly taught: notice the thought → don’t react → let it settle.
✨ Modern Framing (Sacred Pause)
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Pause = The mindful gap between stimulus and response.
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Sacred = The reverence given to this space where freedom is possible.
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Result = Liberation from automatic reactivity, opening the door to compassion and wisdom.
📜 Closest Sloka to “Sacred Pause” in spirit:
From the Dhammapada, verse 5:
“Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law.”
👉 Here, the “pause” is implied: before reacting with hatred, stop, breathe, choose non-hatred.
Would you like me to prepare a one-line Sanskrit/Pali mantra-style rendering of the “Sacred Pause” (something chant-like), based on these verses, so you could actually use it in meditation?
A
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