The Joy of Living: My Favourite Notes from the Meditation Book

Book: The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness

Author: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Favourite Notes:

Every kind word, every smile you offer someone who might be having a bad day, comes back to you in ways you’d never expect.
If I observed every thought, feeling, and sensation that passed through my mind, the illusion of a limited self would dissolve, to be replaced by a sense of awareness that is much more calm, spacious, and serene.
The key—the how of Buddhist practice—lies in learning to simply rest in a bare awareness of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions as they occur.
I were to become aware of my habitual thoughts, perceptions, and sensations, rather than being carried away by them, their power over me would begin to fade. I would experience their coming and going as nothing more than the natural function of the mind, in the same way that waves naturally ripple across the surface of a lake or ocean.
Simply sit up straight, breathe normally, and allow yourself to become aware of your breath coming in and going out. As you relax into simply being aware of your inhalation and exhalation, you’ll probably start to notice hundreds of thoughts passing through your mind. Some of them are easy to let go of, while others may lead you down a long avenue of related thoughts. When you find yourself chasing after a thought, simply bring yourself back to focusing on your breath.
Becoming mindful is a gradual process of establishing new neuronal connections and inhibiting the gossip among old ones. It requires patiently taking one small step at a time, practicing in very short intervals.
Walk gently and you’ll reach your goal.
Confusion, I was taught, is the beginning of understanding, the first stage of letting go of the neuronal gossip that used to keep you chained to very specific ideas about who you are and what you’re capable of.
When the mind is realized, that is the buddha.
The Tibetan word for meditation, gom, literally means “becoming familiar with,” and Buddhist meditation practice is really about becoming familiar with the nature of your own mind—a bit like getting to know a friend on deeper and deeper levels.
The only difference between meditation and ordinary social interaction is that the friend you’re gradually coming to know is yourself.
The only difference between meditation and the ordinary, everyday process of thinking, feeling, and sensation is the application of the simple, bare awareness that occurs when you allow your mind to rest simply as it is— without chasing after thoughts or becoming distracted by feelings or sensations.
Most conflicts between people stem from a misunderstanding of one another’s motives.
Meditation is actually a very simple exercise in resting in the natural state of your present mind, and allowing yourself to be simply and clearly present to whatever thoughts, sensations, or emotions occur.
Many people resist the idea of meditation because the image that first comes to mind involves hours and hours of sitting ramrod straight, with legs crossed, and an absolutely blank mind. None of this is necessary.
There’s no way to achieve thoughtless meditation. Buddhist meditation does not in any way involve attempting to make the mind a blank. Meditation is really a process of nonjudgmental awareness.
Thinking is the natural activity of the mind. Meditation is not about stopping your thoughts. Meditation is simply a process of resting the mind in its natural state, which is open to and naturally aware of thoughts, emotions, and sensations as they occur. The mind is like a river, and, as with a river, there’s no point in trying to stop its flow. You may as well try to stop your heart from beating or your lungs from breathing. What purpose would that serve?
Meditation is so much easier than most people think: Whatever you experience, as long as you are aware of what’s going on, is meditation!
Meditation is a uniquely personal process, and no two people’s experiences are alike.
As long as you maintain awareness or mindfulness, no matter what happens when you practice, your practice is meditation
If you watch your thoughts, that is meditation. If you can’t watch your thoughts, that is meditation, too.
The essential thing is to maintain awareness, no matter what thoughts, emotions, or sensations occur. If you remember that awareness of whatever occurs is meditation, then meditation becomes much easier than you may think.
If you take a gradual path, your life might not change tomorrow, next week, or even a month from now. But as you look back over the course of a year or many years, you will see a difference.
The way I was taught, the development of loving-kindness and compassion begins with learning how to appreciate oneself.
Sanskrit word for “human being” is purusha, which basically means “something that possesses power.” Being human means having power; specifically, the power to accomplish whatever we want. And what we want goes back to the basic biological urge to be happy and to avoid pain.
Though you can practice formally at any time of day, I was taught that the best period to begin formal practice is first thing in the morning after a good night’s sleep, at which point the mind is most refreshed and relaxed, before getting involved with all the daily stuff. Taking the time to practice before you leave the house for work or to run whatever errands you have to do sets the tone for your entire day.
Given the busy schedules most people have nowadays, setting aside even fifteen minutes a day at the beginning for formal practice represents a substantial commitment. Whether you divide it up into three five-minute sessions or five three-minute sessions doesn’t matter.
Meditation is not a competition. The fifteen minutes you spend lightly in meditation practice may in the end prove much more beneficial than the hours spent by people trying too hard by practicing for longer periods of time.
Bringing meditation into your daily life is one of the main objectives of Buddhist practice. it’s possible to meditate anytime, anywhere.
You can watch your thoughts as you go through your day, rest your attention momentarily on experiences like taste, smell, form, or sound, or simply rest for a few seconds on the marvelous experience of simply being aware of the experiences going on in your mind.
You can practice anywhere—on the beach, at the movies, on the job, in a restaurant, on the bus or subway, or at school—as long as you remember that your intention to meditate is meditation.
When you bring conscious awareness to your activity, distractions and anxieties will gradually fade and your mind will become more peaceful and relaxed.
Enlightenment is possible only in that one way—from the inside.
There are two kinds of happiness: temporary and permanent. Temporary happiness is like aspirin for the mind, providing a few hours of relief from emotional pain. Permanent happiness comes from treating the underlying causes of suffering.
Genetically, it appears that human beings are programmed to seek temporary states of happiness rather than lasting traits. Eating, drinking, making love, and other activities release hormones that produce physical and psychological sensations of well-being. By releasing these hormones, survival-based activities play an important role in ensuring that we survive as individuals, and that the genes we carry are passed on to future generations.
We live in an interdependent world. If you want to improve the condition of your own life, then you need to depend on others to help you along the way.
When you deal with others in a compassionate, empathetic way, you can only improve the conditions of your own life.
Great benefit of developing compassion is that through understanding the needs, fears, and desires of others, you develop a deeper capacity to understand your own self—what you hope for, what you hope to avoid, and the truth about your own nature.
Everything you think, everything you say, and everything you do is reflected back to you as your own experience.
The first few months are always difficult. It’s hard to learn all the skills you need to master a job; it’s hard to motivate yourself to exercise; it’s hard to eat healthfully every day. But after a while the difficulties subside, you start to feel a sense of pleasure or accomplishment, and your entire sense of self begins to change.

Meditation and Its Methods : My Favourite Notes from Book

Recently I finished reading an awesome book on meditation and its technique. The book “Meditation and Its Methods” by Swami Vivekananda. The book is written specially for beginners in meditation. The book is written in two sections, first section talks about what is meditation, why it is important and how it is performed. First part covers the very basic techniques of meditation. Second part is devoted to spirituality and how meditation is the best way to connect with God.

As I have a habit of collecting good notes, thoughts and quotes from every book which I read so here is highlights of my favourite notes from the book.

The mind is like a lake, and every stone that drops into it raises waves. These waves do not let us see what we are. The full moon is reflected in the water of the lake, but the surface is so disturbed that we do not see the reflection clearly. Let it be calm. Do not let nature raise the wave. Keep quiet, and then after a little while she will give you up. Then we know what we are. God is there already, but the mind is so agitated, always running after the senses.
What right has a man to say he has a soul if he does not feel it, or that there is a God if he does not see Him? If there is a God we must see Him, if there is a soul we must perceive it; otherwise it is better not to believe. It is better to be an outspoken atheist than a hypocrite.
According to the Yogis, there are three principal nerve currents: one they call the Ida, the other the Pingala, and the middle one the Sushumna, and all these are inside the spinal column.
Make it a rule not to eat until you have practised; if you do this, the sheer force of hunger will break your laziness.
Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.
First hear, then understand, and then, leaving all distractions, shut your minds to outside influences, and devote yourselves to developing the truth within you.
To control the mind you must go deep down into the subconscious mind, classify and arrange in order all the different impressions, thoughts, etc., stored up there, and control them. This is the first step. By the control of the subconscious mind you get control over the conscious.
The living God is within you, and yet you are building churches and temples and believing all sorts of imaginary nonsense. The only God to worship is the human soul in the human body.
Do you feel for others? If you do, you are growing in oneness. If you do not feel for others, you may be the most intellectual giant ever born, but you will be nothing;
Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God. It is through the heart that the Lord is seen, and not through the intellect.
The cause of all miseries from which we suffer is desire. You desire something, and the desire is not fulfilled; and the result is distress. If there is no desire, there is no suffering.

Photo by evoo73

How to Win Friends and Influence People – My Favourite Notes from the Book

My Favourite notes from the book : How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Learning is an active process. We learn by doing.
By criticising, we do not make lasting changes and often incur resentment.
Any fool can criticise, condemn and complain – and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving. ‘A great man shows his greatness,’ said Carlyle, ‘by the way he treats little men.’
Everything you and I do springs from two motives: the sex urge and the desire to be great.
We often take our spouses so much for granted that we never let them know we appreciate them.
The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned.
Don’t be afraid of enemies who attack you. Be afraid of the friends who flatter you.
Flattery is telling the other person precisely what he thinks about himself.
One of the most neglected virtues of our daily existence is appreciation. Somehow, we neglect to praise our son or daughter when he or she brings home a good report card, and we fail to encourage our children when they first succeed in baking a cake or building a birdhouse. Nothing pleases children more than this kind of parental interest and approval.
The next time you enjoy filet mignon at the club, send word to the chef that it was excellently prepared. Appreciate others effort often.
Try leaving a friendly trail of little sparks of gratitude on your daily trips. You will be surprised how they will set small flames of friendship that will be rose beacons on your next visit.
Only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it.
Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.
If there is any one secret of success, said Henry Ford, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.
Did you ever stop to think that a dog is the only animal that doesn’t have to work for a living? A hen has to lay eggs, a cow has to give milk, and a canary has to sing. But a dog makes his living by giving you nothing but love.
You can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
Showing a genuine interest in others not only wins friends for you, but may develop in its customers a loyalty to your company.
People who smile, tend to manage, teach and sell more effectively, and to raise happier children.
You must have a good time meeting people if you expect them to have a good time meeting you.
A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.
Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Always make the other person feel important.
The desire to be important is the deepest urge in human nature; and William James said: ‘The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
If you argue and rankle and contradict, you may achieve a victory sometimes; but it will be an empty victory because you will never get your opponent’s good will.
Buddha said: ‘Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love,’ and a misunderstanding is never ended by a argument but by tact, diplomacy, conciliation and a sympathetic desire to see the other person’s viewpoint.
The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, ‘You’re wrong.’
If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari – My Favourite Notes

I have a habit of collecting notes and quotes from each and every book which I read. Collecting notes or favourite quotes and writing down them have many learning advantages. My Favourite notes from the book : The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma

No man is free who is not a master of himself.
The only limits on your life are those that you set yourself.
You sow a thought, you reap an action. Reap an action, you sow a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, you reap your destiny.
Don’t race against others. Race against yourself.
When you control your thoughts, you control your mind. When you control your mind, you control your life.And once you reach the stage of being in total control of your life, you become the master of your destiny.
I am more than I appear to be, all the world’s strength and power rests inside me.
Guard time well. Remember, it’s a non-renewable resource.
The most meaningful things in your life should never be sacrificed to those that are the least meaningful.
80 percent of the results you achieve in your life come from only 20 percent of the activities that occupy your time.
Enlightened people are priority driven.
Laughter opens your heart and soothes your soul. No one should ever take life so seriously that they forget to laugh at themselves.
Never be a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future. You will never be the same.