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“A foreign publisher of my first book [ The Selfish Gene ] confessed that he could not sleep for three nights after reading it, so troubled was he by what he saw as its cold, bleak message. Others have asked me how I can bear to get up in the mornings. A teacher from a distant country wrote to me reproachfully that a pupil had come to him in tears after reading the same book, because it had persuaded her that life was empty and purposeless. He advised her not to show the book to any of her friends, for fear of contaminating them with the same nihilistic pessimism.”
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“We must have beginner's mind, free from possessing anything, a mind that knows everything is in flowing change. Nothing exists but momentarily in its present form and color. One thing flows into another and cannot be grasped. Before the rain stops we hear a bird. Even under the heavy snow we see snowdrops and some new growth. In the East I saw rhubarb already. In Japan in the spring we eat cucumbers.”
― Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
― Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“To run an efficient team, you only need three people: a Hipster, a Hacker, and a Hustler.”
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“What I discovered after years of meditation practice is that when you immerse yourself fully in the moment, you start developing a much deeper awareness of what’s going on, right here, right now. And that awareness ultimately leads to a greater sense of oneness — the essence of teamwork.”
― Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success
― Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success
“So the awareness we are talking about here is not constant awareness as an object of mind. Instead of taking awareness as an object, you become one with awareness, one with the open space, which of course also means becoming one with the actual things you're working with. Then the whole process becomes a very easy one-way process, rather than a situation in which you're trying to split yourself into different levels of awareness, with one level minding the other. With this easy one-way, one-step process, you begin to make a real relationship with objects and with the beauty of objects as well.
Don't try to possess the openness, but just acknowledge it and then turn away from it. It is important to turn away, because if you try to possess the openness, you have to chase after it. You try to follow it, which you can't actually do. You can't actually possess it at all. If you let go of it and disown it, and then continue working, this feeling stays with you all the way along.”
― Work, Sex, Money: Real Life on the Path of Mindfulness
Don't try to possess the openness, but just acknowledge it and then turn away from it. It is important to turn away, because if you try to possess the openness, you have to chase after it. You try to follow it, which you can't actually do. You can't actually possess it at all. If you let go of it and disown it, and then continue working, this feeling stays with you all the way along.”
― Work, Sex, Money: Real Life on the Path of Mindfulness
Giedrius’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Giedrius’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
0 books
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229 friends
520 books
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1,158 friends
2,418 books
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382 friends
726 books
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217 friends
778 books
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80 friends
253 books
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10 friends
260 books
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95 friends
868 books
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42 friends
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