“All paralyzed people—psychologically paralyzed, spiritually paralyzed—live life in hell. And how do they create it? The secret is that they live in fear; they only do a certain thing when there is no fear, but then there is nothing left worth doing. All that is worth doing has certain fears around it.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 58)
“My decision to join the ashram turned up the volume of opinions and concerns around me, but, conveniently, my experiences in the ashram had also given me the tools I needed to filter out that noise. The cause and the solution were the same. I was less vulnerable to the noises around me, telling me what was normal, safe, practical, best. I didn’t shut out the people who loved me—I cared about them and didn’t want them to worry—but neither did I let their definitions of success and happiness dictate my choices. It was—at the time—the hardest decision I’d ever made, and it was the right one.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page 6)
“When you try to live your most authentic life, some of your relationships will be in jeopardy. Losing them is a risk worth bearing; finding a way to keep them in your life is a challenge worth taking on.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page 6)
“My belief of book writing is much the same as my belief as to shoemaking. The man who will work the hardest at it, and will work with the most honest purpose, will work the best. All trades are now uphill work, & require a man to suffer much disappointment, and this trade more almost than any other. I was at it for years & wrote ten volumes before I made a shilling –, I say all this, which is very much in the guise of a sermon, because I must endeavor to make you understand that a man or woman must learn the tricks of his trade before he [or she] can make money by writing.”
Anthony Trollope
“It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.”
Bhagavad Gita 3.35, via Think Like A Monk (Page 3)
“When you get stressed—what changes? Your breath. When you get angry—what changes? Your breath. We experience every emotion with the change of the breath. When you learn to navigate and manage your breath, you can navigate any situation in life.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page xviii)
“The goal of monk thinking is a life free of ego, envy, lust, anxiety, anger, bitterness, baggage. To my mind, adopting the monk mindset isn’t just possible—it’s necessary. We have no other choice. We need to find calm, stillness, and peace.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page xvii)
“A layperson who is consciously aiming to be continuously alive in the Now is a monk.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like A Monk (Page Xii)
“If you’re creative, you will be overwhelmed with ideas. And, naturally, you will feel the urge to write these ideas down, terrified that you might forget them. While some would advise you to write your ideas down, I would advise against it. I think the only way to truly know for certain that you have an idea worth pursuing, is if the idea is also pursuing you.”
Cole Schafer
“It’s going to take a while–to lose the weight, to acquire the mastery, to turn things around. It’s probably going to take longer than anyone would like it to. You don’t control that. You do control whether you add one more day to that tally. You control whether you push the ETA back unnecessarily. You control whether you start the clock today, whether you stop putting stuff off and get after it.“
Ryan Holiday
“You’re more likely to unlock a big leap in performance by trying differently than by trying harder. You might be able to work 10% harder, but a different approach might work 10x better. Remain focused on the core problem, but explore a new line of attack. Persistence is not just about effort, but also strategy. Don’t merely try harder, try differently.”
James Clear
“Simple pleasures are just as transformative as extravagant experiences—so long as you remember how to enjoy them. I keep going back to this more than anything right now: the power of a dandelion, a blade of grass, a crisp breeze. We have forgotten how necessary these things are, and how important they are to our quality of life. We have forgotten about the very things that are right outside our own window. When you see something long enough, it becomes invisible—but, one of the best things you can do for yourself? Is to remember how to see. And sometimes, being in a small town does exactly that: gives you a more intimate lens with which to see the world around you. And to remind yourself that—no matter how overwhelming your world has gotten? There’s a gentle one waiting for you right here.”
Ash Ambirge
“It is the power when you don’t do anything with your energy and you simply delight in its presence… A sheer delight in being full of energy… the sheer delight of a young, green tree… the sheer delight of a cloud, a white cloud wandering in the sky… the sheer delight of a lotus flower… the sheer delight of the sun coming out of the clouds… the sheer delight of being so full of energy… vibrant, alive, throbbing. When you don’t put your energy to any purpose whatsoever, then energy itself starts moving in a vertical line. If you put it to work, to some action, it moves in a horizontal line. Then you can make a big house, you can have more money, you can have more prestige, this and that. When you put energy to work, it moves in the horizontal line. When you don’t put energy to work, you simply delight in its presence, you are happy that it is there, then it moves in a vertical line. I am not saying stop all work. I am saying find a few moments for vertical movement also. Horizontal movement is okay, but not enough. It is necessary for life—but man cannot live by bread alone. You can get bread through horizontal work, but love, meditation, God, nirvana—they exist on the vertical line. So sometimes just sit, do nothing. Sitting silently, doing nothing, and something goes on growing within you. You become a reservoir, and you start throbbing with an unknown delight. When you are full of energy, you are in contact with the whole. And when you are in contact with the whole, you are full of energy.”
Buddha
“People who have never suffered and have lived a convenient and comfortable life are almost dead. Their lives will not be like a sharp sword. It will not even cut vegetables. Intelligence becomes sharp when you face challenges. Pray every day to God, ‘Send me more challenges tomorrow, send more storms,’ and then you will know life at the optimum.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 52)
“It is good to be available to the wind, to the rain, to the sun, because this is what life is. So rather than becoming worried about it, dance! Dance when the storm comes, because silence will follow. Dance when challenges come and disturb your life, because in responding to those challenges you will be growing to new heights. Remember, even suffering is a grace. If one can take it rightly it becomes a stepping stone.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 52)
“The friend, the enemy: both are your imagination. When you stop imagination completely, you are alone, absolutely alone. Once you understand that life and all its relationships are imagination, you don’t go against life, but your understanding helps you to make your relationships richer. Now that you know that relationships are imagination, why not put more imagination into them? Why not enjoy them as deeply as possible? When the flower is nothing but your imagination, why not create a beautiful flower? Why settle for an ordinary flower?”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 47)
“Trauma constantly confronts us with our fragility and with man’s inhumanity to man but also with our extraordinary resilience. I have been able to do this work for so long because it drew me to explore our sources of joy, creativity, meaning, and connection—all the things that make life worth living. I can’t begin to imagine how I would have coped with what many of my patients have endured, and I see their symptoms as part of their strength—the ways they learned to survive.”
Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps The Score (Page 358) | ★ Featured on this book list.
“I consider reading the greatest bargain in the world. A shelf of books is a shelf of many lives and ideas and imaginations which the reader can enjoy whenever he wishes and as often as he wishes. Instead of experiencing just one life, the book-lover can experience hundreds or even thousands of lives. He can live any kind of adventure in the world. Books are his time machine into the past and also into the future. Books are his “transporter” by which he can beam instantly to any part of the universe and explore what he finds there. Books are an instrument by which he can become any person for a while—a man, a woman, a child, a general, a farmer, a detective, a king, a doctor, anyone. Great books are especially valuable because a great book often contains within its covers the wisdom of a man or woman’s whole lifetime. But the true lover of books enjoys all kinds of books, even some nonsense now and then, because enjoying nonsense from others can teach us to also laugh at ourselves. A person who does not learn to laugh at his own problems and weaknesses and foolishness can never be a truly educated or a truly happy person. Also, probably the same thing could be said of a person who does not enjoy learning and growing all his life.”
Gene Roddenberry