Awareness
Anthony Di Mello
Summary
One of the best books I've read. It made me question everything I thought I knew about myself and reality. All of life comes down to awareness.
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Spirituality means waking up because most people are asleep
The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens
You are never in love with anyone, you’re in love with your prejudiced idea of that person
‘Every great idea starts out as blasphemy.’ - Bertrand Russell
People are crazy, they’re lunatics and the sooner you see this, the better for your spiritual and mental health
Learning spirituality is unlearning, unlearning almost everything you’ve been taught
Step one is readiness to admit you don’t want to wake up. Step 2 is readiness to understand, to listen, to challenge your whole belief system
Life is a banquet and the tragedy is most people are starving to death
You’re brainwashed if you take on an idea that isn’t yours
The one thing you need most of all is the readiness to learn something new
It’s never fear of the unknown because you cannot fear something you don’t know but loss of the known
Expect the worst because you’re dealing with selfish people. They’re as bad as you are and they’re seeking their own self interest like you
Drop your false ideas. See through people. If you see through yourself, you’ll see through everyone
When you’re ready to exchange your illusions for reality, your dreams for factors, that’s the way you find it all
The most important thing of all is self-observation which means to watch everything around you as far as possible as if it were happening to someone else
You’re not OK and you’re not not OK, you’re you
Watch yourself with no judgement and don’t try to change it
Anytime you have a negative feeling toward anyone, you’re living an illusion. The one who has to change is you.
To depend on another human being psychologically or emotionally means you depend on them for your happiness. Don’t do that.
Loneliness is cured by contact with reality
When you suddenly understand who ‘I’ is, you’ll never be the same again. No one will ever hurt you again. You will fear no one and nothing
When you’re living for nothing, you’ve got all your skills, you’ve got all your energy, you’re relaxed, you don’t care because it doesn’t matter if you win or lose
There are only two things in this world, love and fear
The person who is truly non-violent is fearless
You have to dis-identify from the idea of ‘me’ and understand I’
The unaware life is not worth living
Don’t be the rescuer
What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you
Don’t seek the truth, just drop your opinions
The main preoccupation of society is to keep it sick
You’re a success in life when you wake up
People are miserable because they identify with a label. Never identify ‘I’ with a label
‘I’ is none of these labels. ‘Me’ is. Drop the illusion of labels
Negative feelings are in you, not in reality. Never identify ‘I’ with that feeling, it has nothing to do with happiness. It is the ‘me’
When you wake up, you realize reality is not problematic, you are the problem
We see people and things not as they are, but as we are
Put this into place
- Identify the negative feelings in you
- Understand they are in you, not in the world/external reality
- Do not see them as an essential part of ‘I’, those things come and go
- Understand that when you change, everything changes
To say no to people, that’s part of waking up
Those who know do not say; those who say do not know
Pleasant experiences make life delightful, painful experiences lead to growth
Desire in the healthy sense is energy and understand it
When you hold on to anything, you cease to live. Smash the labels and then you will be free
Falling in love has nothing to do with love at all. It’s about burning desire
Concepts are frozen, reality flows
Awareness means to watch, to observe what is going on within you and around you. You will understand this thing called reality is beyond words and concepts
Don’t carry experiences from the past, even good ones
The root of sorrow is craving. It destroys and distorts perception.
You don’t need anyone’s love, you just need to get in touch with reality
Happiness is a state of dropping the illusions of life
You will never understand yourself if you seek to change yourself
As soon as you look at the world through an ideology, you are finished
Insight into reality and understanding
Awareness, insight. But then you have to deal with the villain or self-condemnation, self-hatred and self-dissatisfaction
If the mind is unobstructed, the result is wisdom. If the heart is unobstructed, the result is love.
We’re always condemning ourselves, making ourselves feel guilty
Slow down and taste and smell and hear and let your senses come alive
You don’t change yourself, change takes place through you
When you’re ready to lose your life, you’ll lie it
Life is for the gambler
Every child has a god in him. Our attempt to mold the child will turn god into the devil
The root of evil is within you. Nourish yourself and you’ll break addictions to other feelings.
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Free E-book download here
Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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Free E-book download here
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