“My mind begins to seem like a video game: I can either play it intelligently, learning more in each round, or I can be killed in the same spot by the same monster, again and again.”
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
“leadership is the acceptance of responsibility rather than the assumption of power.”
― Value(s): Building a Better World for All
― Value(s): Building a Better World for All
“The strength of a person's spirit would then be measured by how much 'truth' he could tolerate, or more precisely, to what extent he needs to have it diluted, disguised, sweetened, muted, falsified.”
― Beyond Good and Evil
― Beyond Good and Evil
“There is nothing passive about mindfulness. One might even say that it expresses a specific kind of passion—a passion for discerning what is subjectively real in every moment. It is a mode of cognition that is, above all, undistracted, accepting, and (ultimately) nonconceptual. Being mindful is not a matter of thinking more clearly about experience; it is the act of experiencing more clearly, including the arising of thoughts themselves. Mindfulness is a vivid awareness of whatever is appearing in one’s mind or body—thoughts, sensations, moods—without grasping at the pleasant or recoiling from the unpleasant.”
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
“if, like many people, you tend to be vaguely unhappy much of the time, it can be very helpful to manufacture a feeling of gratitude by simply contemplating all the terrible things that have not happened to you, or to think of how many people would consider their prayers answered if they could only live as you are now. The mere fact that you have the leisure to read this book puts you in very rarefied company. Many people on earth at this moment can’t even imagine the freedom that you currently take for granted.”
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
Brandon’s 2025 Year in Books
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