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“Some people are content in the midst of deprivation and danger, while others are miserable despite having all the luck in the world. This is not to say that external circumstances do not matter. But it is your mind, rather than circumstances themselves, that determines the quality of your life. Your mind is the basis of everything you experience and of every contribution you make to the lives of others. Given this fact, it makes sense to train it.”
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
“I’m not denying the importance of achieving one’s goals, maintaining one’s health, or keeping one’s children clothed and fed—but most of us spend our time seeking happiness and security without acknowledging the underlying purpose of our search. Each of us is looking for a path back to the present: We are trying to find good enough reasons to be satisfied now.”
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
“a human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.”
― Waking Up: Searching for Spirituality Without Religion
― Waking Up: Searching for Spirituality Without Religion
“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
“There is nothing novel about trying to become happy. And one can become happy, within certain limits, without any recourse to the practice of meditation. But conventional sources of happiness are unreliable, being dependent upon changing conditions. It is difficult to raise a happy family, to keep yourself and those you love healthy, to acquire wealth and find creative and fulfilling ways to enjoy it, to form deep friendships, to contribute to society in ways that are emotionally rewarding, to perfect a wide variety of artistic, athletic, and intellectual skills—and to keep the machinery of happiness running day after day. There is nothing wrong with being fulfilled in all these ways—except for the fact that, if you pay close attention, you will see that there is still something wrong with it. These forms of happiness aren’t good enough. Our feelings of fulfillment do not last. And the stress of life continues.”
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
― Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
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