How to get through the day if every indignity capsized you in a ditch? One learned to focus one’s attention.
“Don’t you ever get pissed off, annoyed, irritated, sad—anything negative?” “No, I accept what is. And that’s why life has become so simple.” “Well, what if somebody cuts you off in your car?” “It’s fine. It’s like a sudden gust of wind. I don’t personalize a gust of wind, and so it’s simply what is.”
― 10% Happier
― 10% Happier
“We determine what is good, what is bad, what ought to be, and what ought not to be- all out of our inclinations of mind. But we seldom recognize the total relativity- the total meaninglessness – of all our defining. We don’t see that it’s through our obsession with meaning that we create meaninglessness.”
― Buddhism Plain & Simple: The Practice of Being Aware, Right Now, Every Day
― Buddhism Plain & Simple: The Practice of Being Aware, Right Now, Every Day
“This, as Joseph had pointed out on retreat, is the lie we tell ourselves our whole lives: as soon as we get the next meal, party, vacation, sexual encounter, as soon as we get married, get a promotion, get to the airport check-in, get through security and consume a bouquet of Auntie Anne’s Cinnamon Sugar Stix, we’ll feel really good. But as soon as we find ourselves in the airport gate area, having ingested 470 calories’ worth of sugar and fat before dinner, we don’t bother to examine the lie that fuels our lives. We tell ourselves we’ll sleep it off, take a run, eat a healthy breakfast, and then, finally, everything will be complete. We live so much of our lives pushed forward by these “if only” thoughts, and yet the itch remains. The pursuit of happiness becomes the source of our unhappiness.”
― 10% Happier
― 10% Happier
“The ego is never satisfied. No matter how much stuff we buy, no matter how many arguments we win or delicious meals we consume, the ego never feels complete.”
― 10% Happier
― 10% Happier
“What mindfulness does is create some space in your head so you can, as the Buddhists say, “respond” rather than simply “react.” In the Buddhist view, you can’t control what comes up in your head; it all arises out of a mysterious void. We spend a lot of time judging ourselves harshly for feelings that we had no role in summoning. The only thing you can control is how you handle it.”
― 10% Happier
― 10% Happier
Mimi’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Mimi’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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