“Believe those who search for the truth; doubt those who have found it.”
André Gide, via Think Like A Monk (Page 196)
“When you ask for feedback, choose your advisors wisely. We commonly make one of two mistakes when we seek feedback: We either ask everyone for advice about one problem or we ask one person for advice about all of our problems. If you ask too broadly, you’ll get fifty-seven different options and will be overwhelmed, confused, and lost. On the other hand, if you drop all your dilemmas on one person, then they’ll be overwhelmed, unequipped, and at some point tired of carrying your baggage.”
Jay Shetty, via Think Like A Monk (Page 192)
“Humility comes from accepting where you are without seeing it as a reflection of who you are. Then you can use your imagination to find success.”
Jay Shetty, via Think Like A Monk (Page 188)
“What belongs to you today, belonged to someone yesterday and will be someone else’s tomorrow.”
Unknown, via Think Like A Monk (Page 185)
“We only notice salt when there is too much of it in our food, or not enough. Nobody ever says, ‘Wow, this meal has the perfect amount of salt.’ When salt is used in the best way possible, it goes unrecognized. Salt is so humble that when something goes wrong, it takes the blame, and when everything goes right, it doesn’t take credit.”
Radhanath Swami, via Think Like A Monk (Page 185)
“At the ashram, the most straightforward path to humility was through simple work, menial tasks that didn’t place any participant at the center of attention. We washed huge pots with hoses, pulled weeds in the vegetable garden, and washed down the squat toilets—the worst! The point wasn’t just to complete the work that needed to be done. It was to keep us from getting big-headed. Some tasks build competence, and some build character.”
Jay Shetty, via Think Like A Monk (Page 178)
“People are very absolutist. They think in terms of absolutes: This is truth and whatever is against it is wrong. This attitude has crippled the whole earth—Hindus and Muslims and Christians are all fighting because everybody claims the absolute truth. But nobody has any claim on it. It is nobody’s monopoly. Truth is vast. Infinite are its facets and infinite are the ways to know it. Whatever we know is limited; it is just one part.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 82)
“In the act of criticizing others for failing to live up to higher standards, we ourselves are failing to live up to the highest standards.”
Jay Shetty, via Think Like A Monk (Page 178)
“Detachment is not that you own nothing, but that nothing should own you.”
Alī, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammed, via Think Like A Monk (Page 165)
“Senses recklessly transport our minds away from where we want them to be. Don’t tease your own senses. Don’t set yourself up to fail. A monk doesn’t spend time in a strip club. We want to minimize the mind’s reactive tendencies, and the easiest way to do that is for the intellect to proactively steer the senses away from stimuli that could make the mind react in ways that are hard to control. It’s up to the intellect to know when you’re vulnerable and to tighten the reins, just as a charioteer does when going through a field of tasty grass.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page 153)
“As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.”
Buddha, via Think Like A Monk (Page 147)
“Location has energy; time has memory. If you do something at the same time every day, it becomes easier and natural. If you do something in the same space every day, it becomes easier and natural.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page 140)
“To my mind, the idea that doing dishes is unpleasant can occur only when you aren’t doing them… If I am incapable of washing dishes joyfully, if I want to finish the quickly so I can go and have dessert or a cup of tea, I will be equally incapable of enjoying my dessert or my tea when I finally have them… Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. In this light, no boundary exists between the sacred and the profane.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, via Think Like A Monk (Page 135)
“A lot of the time, creativity comes from structure. When you have those parameters and structure, then within that you can be creative. If you don’t have structure, you’re just aimlessly doing stuff.”
Kobe Bryant, via Think Like A Monk (Page 132)
“In the ashram we took the same thirty-minute walk on the same path at least once a day. Every day the monk asked us to keep our eyes open for something different, something we’d never before seen on this walk that we had taken yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. Spotting something new every day on our familiar walk was a reminder to keep our focus on that walk, to see the freshness in each ‘routine,’ to be aware. Seeing something is not the same as noticing it.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page 132)
“Every morning make some time for: (1) Thankfulness. Express gratitude to someone, some place, or something every day. This includes thinking it, writing it, and sharing it. (2) Insight. Gain insight through reading the paper or a book, or listening to a podcast. (3) Meditation. Spend fifteen minutes alone, breathing, visualizing or with sound. (4) Exercise. We monks did yoga, but you can do some basic stretches or a workout. Thankfulness. Insight. Meditation. Exercise. T.I.M.E. A new way to put time into your morning.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page 128)
“We tend to wear our ability to get by on little sleep as some sort of badge of honor that validates our work ethic. But what it is is a profound failure of self-respect and of priorities.”
Maria Popova, via Think Like A Monk (Page 125)