“Where do you find happiness? Is it out there somewhere waiting to be discovered? Under a rock? Out in the woods? Buried in the desert? Where do you find it? You don’t find happiness. You make it. You put forth effort. You work for it. You take on responsibility. You put yourself out there; you take risk to achieve a worthy goal. And in that pursuit, if you pay attention, if you look around, you will find happiness.”
Jocko Willink, Discipline Equals Freedom (Page 131)
“The joy of your spirit is the indication of your strength.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, via A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 164)
My Uncle Alex, who is up in Heaven now, one of the things he found objectionable about human beings was that they so rarely noticed it when times were sweet. We could be drinking lemonade in the shade of an apple tree in the summertime, and Uncle Alex would interrupt the conversation to say, “If this isn’t nice, what is?” So I hope that you will do the same for the rest of your lives. When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment, and then say out loud, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”
Kurt Vonnegut
“There’s more stimulation, more options and more noise than ever before. The problem is that boredom is a partner with satisfaction and joy. It’s hard to overstimulate ourselves into those feelings.”
Seth Godin, Blog
“Spiritual effort and the joy that comes from understanding life go hand in hand like physical exertion and rest. Without physical exertion, there is no joy in rest; without spiritual effort, there can be no joyful understanding of life.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 105)
“Trust me, real joy is a serious thing. Do you think someone can, in the charming expression, blithely dismiss death with an easy disposition? Or swing open the door to poverty, keep pleasures in check, or meditate on the endurance of suffering? The one who is comfortable with turning these thoughts over is truly full of joy, but hardly cheerful. It’s exactly such a joy that I would wish for you to possess, for it will never run dry once you’ve laid claim to its source.”
Seneca, Moral Letters, via The Daily Stoic (Page 227)
“Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”
Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey
“They are so concerned for their life that their anxiety makes life unbearable, even when they have the things they think they want. Their very concern for enjoyment makes them unhappy… I will hold to the saying that: ‘Perfect joy is to be without joy. Perfect praise is to be without praise.’ If you ask ‘what ought to be done’ and ‘what ought not to be done’ on earth in order to produce happiness, I answer that these questions do not have an answer. There is no way of determining such things…”
Thomas Merton, The Way Of Chuang Tzu, via Sunbeams (Page 53)
“The most beautiful moments in your life—what you might consider moments of bliss, joy, ecstasy, or utter peace—were moments when you were not thinking about anything at all. You were just being. Even without your thoughts, existence is.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 150)
Eckhart Tolle Quote on Joy and How Your Frequent Desire To Travel Might Be Limiting The Joy You Feel
“Nothing out there will ever satisfy you except temporarily and superficially, but you may need to experience many disillusionments before you realize that truth. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they will also give you pain. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy. Nothing can give you joy. Joy is uncaused and arises from within as the joy of Being.”
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 187)
Beyond the Quote (294/365)
Where’s your “happy place?” You know, the place you go to “escape” or maybe “find your bliss?” The beach? The mountains? A cabin in the woods? Here’s the thing, if the answer to those questions is anywhere outside of yourself, then you’re handicapping yourself. Your happiness is handicapped. Your bliss is handicapped. And your inner peace is handicapped.
Read More »Eckhart Tolle Quote on Joy and How Your Frequent Desire To Travel Might Be Limiting The Joy You Feel“When it comes to external realities, each human being is differently capable. What one does, the other may not be able to do. But when it comes to inner realities, all of us are equally capable. There is no guarantee that you will be able to sing, dance, climb a mountain, or make money, merely because you want to. But making your inner life blissful is something that everyone is capable of. It cannot be denied to you, if you are willing.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 79)
“Most people think peace and joy are the goals of the spiritual life. This is a fallacy. Peace and joy are the basic requirements for a life of well-being. If you want to enjoy your dinner tonight, you must be peaceful and happy. If you want to enjoy your family, the work that you do, the world that you live in, you must must be peaceful and happy. Peace and joy are not things you attain at the end of life. They are the basis of your life. If you consider peace to be the ultimate goal, you will only ‘rest in peace’!
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 33)
“Why do you need to be pleasant within? The answer is self-evident. When you are in a pleasant inner state, you are naturally pleasant to everyone and everything around you. No scripture or philosophy is needed to instruct you to be good to others. It is a natural outcome when you are feeling good within yourself. Inner pleasantness is a surefire insurance for the making of a peaceful society and a joyful world.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 27)
Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide To Joy [Book]
Book Overview: A yogi lives life in this expansive state, and in this transformative book Sadhguru tells the story of his own awakening, from a boy with an unusual affinity for the natural world to a young daredevil who crossed the Indian continent on his motorcycle. Today, as the founder of Isha, an organization devoted to humanitarian causes, he lights the path for millions. The term guru, he notes, means “dispeller of darkness, someone who opens the door for you. . . . As a guru, I have no doctrine to teach, no philosophy to impart, no belief to propagate. And that is because the only solution for all the ills that plague humanity is self-transformation. Self-transformation means that nothing of the old remains. It is a dimensional shift in the way you perceive and experience life.” The wisdom distilled in this accessible, profound, and engaging book offers readers time-tested tools that are fresh, alive, and radiantly new. Inner Engineering presents a revolutionary way of thinking about our agency and our humanity and the opportunity to achieve nothing less than a life of joy.
Buy from Amazon! Listen on Audible!
Great on Kindle. Great Experience. Great Value. The Kindle edition of this book comes highly recommended on Amazon.
Post(s) Inspired by This Book:
- 30 Sadhguru Quotes from Inner Engineering on Spirituality, Love, and Understanding Life
- Sadhguru on How the Whole Of Human Experience Is Self-Created (and How To Take Better Control of Your Experience) [Excerpt]
- Listen As Two WWII Vets Describe How The Potency Of Life Can Be Best Felt When Closest To Death [Excerpt]
- Sadhguru Quote on Transforming The World and Where To Focus Your Efforts First (Beyond the Quote 300/365)
- Sadhguru Quote on Priorities and How Discovering Your “Everest” Will Change Your Life (Beyond the Quote 298/365)
- Sadhguru Quote on Love and How It Has Nothing To Do With Someone Else (Beyond the Quote 290/365)