“Kindness is not a currency, and if you treat it like one, then that is not kindness.” ~ Iain Thomas, Every Word You Cannot Say (Page 131)
“It’s only the idea that everyone else KNOWS who they are that’s causing you pain. But no one knows who they really are. You are an overflowing river that shifts its banks when the rains come. That’s why you cannot hold on to who you are.” ~ Iain Thomas, Every Word You Cannot Say (Page 120)
“No one will ever tell you how great you can be. You will never be asked to do something incredible with your life. You will never get a letter in the mail that says, ‘Dear you, please, do something important with your time.’ Even if you do it quietly you have to give yourself the life you want.” ~ Iain Thomas, Every Word you Cannot Say (Page 72)
“Here is the secret we all know: We all want to love. We’re all afraid we are alone. We’re afraid no one will know who we are. Because on some level, we all know you can die without love, without anyone, without even you knowing who you are. (Unless you take care of you, and give yourself love. Unless you meet yourself, inside yourself. Unless you know yourself like you were meant to. Forgive yourself for being you—you have done nothing wrong and tomorrow is another chance. I swear, there is a day after, every day.)” ~ Iain Thomas, Every Word you Cannot Say (Page 68)
“We forget that how a person acts in each moment is not who they are, that each person is a series of moments and we cannot judge any moment in isolation, and use that moment to define them. It is not up to others, it is up to us, which moments we want to hang on to, for good or for bad. We forget our successes and enshrine our failures. We forget there is still a child in all of us, begging for love. We forget that this is true of every person we meet. We only hear the loudest voices when really, we should be listening to the quietest.” ~ Iain Thomas, Every Word you Cannot Say (Page 43)
“The wind does not stop being the wind when it stops blowing. A wave does not stop being a wave when it crashes against the shore. A story does not stop being a story when you turn the page.” ~ Iain Thomas, Every Word you Cannot Say (Page 25)
“Everyone you meet along the way is just someone at a different point in their story. So be patient and kind. But don’t let anyone tell you how your story should go. Only you know how your story goes.” ~ Iain Thomas, Every Word you Cannot Say (Page 24)
“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.” ~ F.M. Alexander, James Clear Blog
“‘One day I’ll make it.’ Is your goal taking up so much of your attention that you reduce the present moment to a means to an end? Is it taking the joy out of your doing? Are you waiting to start living? If you develop such a mind pattern, no matter what you achieve or get, the present will never be good enough; the future will always seem better. A perfect recipe for permanent dissatisfaction and nonfulfillment, don’t you agree?”
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 85) (Read Matt’s Blog on this quote)
“You must determine where you are going in your life, because you cannot get there unless you move in that direction. Random wandering will not move you forward. It will instead disappoint and frustrate you and make you anxious and unhappy and hard to get along with (and then resentful, and then vengeful, and then worse).”
Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life (Page 282) (Read Matt’s Blog on this quote)
“Beginning meditation practice is an excellent opportunity to contemplate how we spend our time. How much of what we do is important and truly necessary? One of the obstacles to meditation is being pulled in too many directions. What drains us; what nourishes us? Are there activities we can postpone or eliminate? It will be helpful to ask questions like these at the outset. Awareness lays the ground for a strong commitment to practice. Taming our mind isn’t a hobby or an extracurricular activity—it’s the most important thing we could be doing. It can even help streamline a pressured situation because it gives us clarity, peace, and fortitude. So while we may need to simplify our life in order to meditate, a benefit of meditation is that it will make our life simpler.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 216)
“The journey of the bodhisattva warrior starts with the basic attitude of enlarging our motivation to include the welfare of others. This is a simple response to this dark age. Let’s begin right now by engaging love and compassion however we can—not tomorrow, but today. By cultivating courage and confidence in ourselves and maintaining our seat, we can enjoy creating a sane environment; we can enjoy creating an enlightened society. This doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start by looking at your own life and see what you can do, one step at a time. Love is the saving grace.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 212)
“Generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and wisdom keep turning our mind to enlightenment like a flower seeking sunlight. This brings genuine delight. The more awake we are, the more connected we feel with other sentient beings. The more awake we are, the more we want to help others achieve the same freedom.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 210)
“We use discipline to clear the road for the future by deciding what to do and not to do now. It’s learning what to accept and what to reject. We’re able to see more and more clearly the difference between virtue and nonvirtue—gewa and migewa. Our minds are strong through practice, so we’re not seduced into acting on negative emotions, even in our mind. We know such actions will create more pain for us.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 204)
“To meet our basic goodness, we meditate. Through peaceful abiding, we learn to rest fearlessly in our natural state. We see what an enlightened being sees: basic goodness is the ground of being, the nature of everything; it’s an indestructible continuum, a diamond hologram with infinite facets. Through contemplation we discover that, like the reflection of a jewel in the sunlight, it is empty. In continuing to contemplate, we see that this emptiness is vibrant and dynamic—a playful display of thoughts, emotions, and perceptions. This is luminosity.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 198)
“We often conduct our life as though it’s going to last forever. With this attitude, we want everything. The fact of death puts a limit on what we can have, what we can do. We don’t need to think about death all the time, but to ponder it, to contemplate it, gives us perspective and inspiration about living our life. It also makes us less spoiled. It makes us look at the balance of our life and determine what needs to come first. What is important to me? How shall I use my life? We’re able to enter situations more openly once we’ve related with death. It makes our love more powerful.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 156)
“Compliment others more. You’ll barely remember you did it, but the other person may never forget that you did. Kindness has unlimited upside.” ~ James Clear, Blog
“You know yourself mostly by your thoughts. Everyone else in the world knows you only by your actions. Remember this when you feel misunderstood. You have to do or say something for others to know how you feel.” ~ James Clear, Blog
“In Tibet people don’t seem to worry as much about aging. When I hear my mother and her generation of Tibetans talk about getting old, the tone in their voice is proud. They’re proud to have lived so long. They’re cheerful. They have young minds. They’re continuously curious, always learning. One of my favorite Tibetan saying is ‘Even if you’re going to die tomorrow, you can learn something tonight.’ With this attitude we don’t feel so old.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 152)
“Understanding the meaning of impermanence makes us less desperate people. It gives us dignity. We no longer grasp at pleasure, trying to squeeze out every last drop. We no longer consider pain something we should fear, deny, and avoid. We know that it will change.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 150)