“We do not learn only from great minds; we learn from everyone, if only we observe and inquire. I received my greatest lesson in aesthetics from an old man in an Athenian taverna. Night after night he sat alone at the same table, drinking his wine with precisely the same movements. I finally asked him why he did this and he said, ‘Young man, I first look at my glass to please my eyes, then I take it in my hand to please my hand, then I bring it to my nose to please my nostrils, and I am just about to bring it to my lips when I hear a small voice in my ears, ‘How about me?’ So I tap my glass on the table before I drink from it. I thus please all five senses.'”
C. A. Doxiadis, Sunbeams (Page 29)
Rumi Quote on Gifts and How Nothing Seems Right
“You have no idea how hard I have looked for a gift to bring you. Nothing seemed right. What’s the point of bringing gold to a gold mine, or water to the ocean. Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient. It’s no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these. So I’ve brought you a mirror. Look at yourself and remember me.”
Rumi
Beyond the Quote (Day 400)
Read these words and remember your mirror. You are not without the gold that you so desperately seek; it is already within you. You are not without a source to quench the thirst of your desire; for you are the source itself. The gifts that you so longingly crave do not come from others; they come from inside you.
Read More »Rumi Quote on Gifts and How Nothing Seems Right“Beyond today your projections of life are conceptual. You don’t have to not drink for twenty years today. You don’t have to give up white bread for all eternity, right now. And if you do make it through today, and wake up tomorrow, what does it really matter that you didn’t act out yesterday? I mean, you’re not accumulating tokens for punitive pleasure. This ‘one day at a time’ cliché when taken plainly is no less profound than any ‘be in the moment’ Eastern wisdom I’ve since encountered. Today is all I have.”
Russell Brand, Recovery (Page 25)
“My authority comes not from a steep and certain mountain top of po-faced righteousness. This manual for Self-Realization comes not from the mountain but from the mud. Being human is a ‘me too’ business. We are all in the mud together. My qualification is that I am more addicted, more narcissistic, more driven by lust and the need for power and recognition.”
Russell Brand, Recovery (Page 6)
“We adapt to the misery of an unloving home, of unfulfilling work. Of empty friendships and lacquered alienation. The 12 Step program, which has saved my life, will change the life of anyone who embraces it. I have seen it work many times with people with addiction issues of every hue: drugs, sex, relationships, food, work, smoking, alcohol, technology, pornography, hoarding, gambling, everything. Because the instinct that drives the compulsion is universal. It is an attempt to solve the problem of disconnection, alienation and tepid despair, because the problem is ultimately ‘being human’ in an environment that is curiously ill-equipped to deal with the challenges that entails. We are all on the addiction scale.”
Russell Brand, Recovery (Page 4)
“Our difficulty is that human consciousness has not adjusted itself to a relational and integrated view of nature. We must see that consciousness is neither an isolated soul nor the mere function of a single nervous system, but of that totality of interrelated stars and galaxies which makes a nervous system possible.”
Alan Watts, Sunbeams (Page 28)
“Compassion simply stated is leaving other people alone. You don’t lay trips. You exist as a statement of your own level of evolution. You are available to another human being, to provide what they need, to the extent that they ask. But you begin to see that it is a fallacy to think that you can impose a trip on another person.”
Ram Dass, Sunbeams (Page 28)
“Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.”
Epictetus, via The Daily Stoic (Page 44)
Love should never bind you; love should set you free.
“A soulmate isn’t someone who completes you. No, a soulmate is someone who inspires you to complete yourself. A soulmate is someone who loves you with so much conviction, and so much heart, that it is nearly impossible to doubt just how capable you are of becoming exactly who you have always wanted to be.”
Unknown
Beyond the Quote (Day 399)
Chains, handcuffs, prisons—are things that confine. If we were to pick emotions that most matched these confining forces we might pick dependency, jealousy, insecurity. Each of these emotions are thrust from one person to another in an emotional attempt to keep them bound. So that one doesn’t leave the other; so that one doesn’t hurt the other; so that their expectations and conditions can remain in tact over the other—this is not love.
Read More »Love should never bind you; love should set you free.“Getting worked up, getting excited, nervously pacing—these intense, pained, and anxious moments show us at our most futile and servile. Staring at the clock, at the ticker, at the next checkout lane over, at the sky—it’s as if we all belong to a religious cult that believes the gods of fate will only give us what we want if we sacrifice our peace of mind.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 43)
Hard Work Doesn’t Always Pay Off
“Work hard,
and you will earn good rewards.
Work smart,
and you will earn great rewards.
Work hard and work smart,
and you will earn extraordinary rewards.”
Matshona Dhliwayo
Beyond the Quote (Day 398)
I remember learning this lesson in college when, after giving a big presentation, I found out a classmate of mine—who did far less work than me—got a better grade than me. I vaguely remember the details of the project, but the feelings are as fresh as they were 10 years ago. I was heated. I felt cheated. I kept replaying the thought that I did 10x the work and ending up with nothing to show for it. And I didn’t want to just let all of my hard work go to waste—I wanted to prove that those hours counted for something!
Read More »Hard Work Doesn’t Always Pay OffRecovery: Freedom From Our Addictions [Book]
Book Overview: With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his fourteen years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction―from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not “Why are you addicted?” but “What pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running―into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person’s arms?”
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Great on Kindle. Great Experience. Great Value. The Kindle edition of this book comes highly recommended on Amazon.
Post(s) Inspired By This Book:
“…It is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements. ‘Life’ does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life’s tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man’s destiny, which is different and unique for each individual… When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task, his single and unique task… No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden. For us, as prisoners, these thoughts were not speculations far removed from reality. They were the only thoughts that could be of help to us. They kept us from despair, even when there was no chance of coming out of it alive.”
Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning, via Sunbeams (Page 27)
“We would never let another person jerk us around the way we let our impulses do. It’s time we start seeing it that way—that we’re not puppets that can be made to dance this way or that way just because we feel like it. We should be the ones in control, not our emotions, because we are independent, self-sufficient people.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 42)
David Goggins Quote on Preparing Properly For Our Journey and Understanding Our “Why”
“Life is not going to pick us up when we fall. There will be forks in the road, knives in your f*cking back, mountains to climb, and we are only capable of living up to the image we create for ourselves. Prepare yourself!”
David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me
Beyond the Quote (Day 397)
Before you take your car on a road trip, you get the engine checked. It wouldn’t be wise to drive a car that needed an oil change, fluids replenished, and parts replaced. Mostly because a road trip is an adventure and with adventure comes unknown setbacks, challenges, obstacles, etc. Having an unchecked engine would only contribute to the number of issues that might arise. And the goal isn’t to maximize the number of issues—the goal is to minimize them so you can focus your attention elsewhere—say, on the scenery of the drive. Well, your “why” is the engine for the journey of your life.
Read More »David Goggins Quote on Preparing Properly For Our Journey and Understanding Our “Why”“Why do athletes talk trash to each other? Why do they deliberately say offensive and nasty things to their competitors when the refs aren’t looking? To provoke a reaction. Distracting and angering opponents is an easy way to knock them off their game. Try to remember that when you find yourself getting mad. Anger is not impressive or tough—it’s a mistake. It’s weakness.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 41)