"It's not necessarily the amount of time you spend at practice that counts; it's what you put into the practice."
~ Eric Lindros
~ Eric Lindros
- Thread starter David Baxter PhD
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"Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first."
~ Arthur Schopenhauer
~ Arthur Schopenhauer
"The default mode network of the brain...it's a connected series of brain regions that are active during most of our waking hours when we're doing that thing that human beings do all the time -- which is obsessing about ourselves, thinking about the past, thinking about the future, doing anything but being focused on what's happening right now."
~ Dan Harris
~ Dan Harris
“Behaviors relevant to both ambition and mindfulness are often described positively—being “in the zone,” “Zen-like,” and generally being both attentive and aware.”
~ You Can Be Mindful And Ambitious At The Same Time, Say Psychologists
~ You Can Be Mindful And Ambitious At The Same Time, Say Psychologists
"If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."
~ Oprah Winfrey
~ Oprah Winfrey
“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure. ”
~ Oprah Winfrey
~ Oprah Winfrey
"The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed."
~ Jung
~ Jung
"If attention is directed to the unconscious, the unconscious will yield up its contents, and these in turn will fructify the conscious like a fountain of living water. For consciousness is just as arid as the unconscious if the two halves of our psychic life are separated."
~ Jung
~ Jung
"Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above ground lasts only a single summer. What we see is the blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains."
~ Jung
~ Jung
“Smile, breathe and go slowly.”
"Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful."
“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.”
“While you are walking, smile and be in the here and now, and you will transform that place into paradise.”
"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."
"To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is. A pessimistic attitude can never create the calm and serene smile..."
"Life is both dreadful and wonderful. To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects. Please do not think we must be solemn in order to meditate. In fact, to meditate well, we have to smile a lot."
“If a child smiles, if an adult smiles, that is very important. If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind.”
"Recently, one friend asked me, "How can I force myself to smile when I am filled with sorrow? It isn't natural." I told her she must be able to smile to her sorrow, because we are more than our sorrow. A human being is like a television set with millions of channels...If we turn sorrow on, we are sorrow. If we turn a smile on, we really are the smile. We can't let just one channel dominate us."
— Thich Nhat Hanh
"Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful."
“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.”
“While you are walking, smile and be in the here and now, and you will transform that place into paradise.”
"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."
"To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is. A pessimistic attitude can never create the calm and serene smile..."
"Life is both dreadful and wonderful. To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects. Please do not think we must be solemn in order to meditate. In fact, to meditate well, we have to smile a lot."
“If a child smiles, if an adult smiles, that is very important. If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind.”
"Recently, one friend asked me, "How can I force myself to smile when I am filled with sorrow? It isn't natural." I told her she must be able to smile to her sorrow, because we are more than our sorrow. A human being is like a television set with millions of channels...If we turn sorrow on, we are sorrow. If we turn a smile on, we really are the smile. We can't let just one channel dominate us."
— Thich Nhat Hanh
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"Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it."
~ Joseph Campbell
~ Joseph Campbell
"As I look at all of the self-defeating behaviors out there, I think the biggest one is found in looking outside ourselves for the secret to happiness. I have learned there is no way to happiness. Happiness itself is the way."
~ Wayne Dyer, Happiness Is The Way
~ Wayne Dyer, Happiness Is The Way
“But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
“Your brain is like Velcro for negative experiences but Teflon for positive ones.”
“To survive and pass on their genes, our ancestors needed to be especially aware of dangers, losses, and conflicts. Consequently, the brain evolved a negativity bias that looks for bad news, reacts intensely to it, and quickly stores the experience in neural structure. We can still be happy, but this bias creates an ongoing vulnerability to stress, anxiety, disappointment, and hurt.”
“Staying with a negative experience past the point that’s useful is like running laps in Hell: You dig the track a little deeper in your brain each time.”
“I think the sweet spot in life is to pursue your dreams and take care of others with your whole heart while not getting fixated on or stressed out about the results. In this place, you live with purpose and passion but without losing your balance and falling into a sense of pressure, strain, or depletion. This sweet spot is very valuable, so take it in whenever you experience it.”
― Rick Hanson, Hardwiring Happiness: The Practical Science of Reshaping Your Brain and Your Life
“To survive and pass on their genes, our ancestors needed to be especially aware of dangers, losses, and conflicts. Consequently, the brain evolved a negativity bias that looks for bad news, reacts intensely to it, and quickly stores the experience in neural structure. We can still be happy, but this bias creates an ongoing vulnerability to stress, anxiety, disappointment, and hurt.”
“Staying with a negative experience past the point that’s useful is like running laps in Hell: You dig the track a little deeper in your brain each time.”
“I think the sweet spot in life is to pursue your dreams and take care of others with your whole heart while not getting fixated on or stressed out about the results. In this place, you live with purpose and passion but without losing your balance and falling into a sense of pressure, strain, or depletion. This sweet spot is very valuable, so take it in whenever you experience it.”
― Rick Hanson, Hardwiring Happiness: The Practical Science of Reshaping Your Brain and Your Life
"In my view, the realistic goal to be attained through spiritual practice is not some permanent state of enlightenment that admits of no further efforts but a capacity to be free in this moment, in the midst of whatever is happening. If you can do that, you have already solved most of the problems you will encounter in life."
~ Sam Harris, Waking Up: Searching for Spirituality Without Religion
~ Sam Harris, Waking Up: Searching for Spirituality Without Religion
“Only we humans worry about the future, regret the past, and blame ourselves for the present.”
“You can do small things inside your mind that will lead to big changes in your brain and your experience of living.”
“The autobiographical self (D’Amasio 2000) incorporates the reflective self and some of the emotional self, and it provides the sense of “I” having a unique past and future. The core self involves an underlying and largely nonverbal feeling of “I” that has little sense of the past or the future. If the PFC—which provides most of the neural substrate of the autobiographical self—were to be damaged, the core self would remain, though with little sense of continuity with the past or future. On the other hand, if the subcortical and brain stem structures which the core self relies upon were damaged, then both the core and autobiographical selves would disappear, which suggests that the core self is the neural and mental foundation of the autobiographical self (D’Amasio 2000). When your mind is very quiet, the autobiographical self seems largely absent, which presumably corresponds to a relative deactivation of its neural substrate. Meditations that still the mind, such as the concentration practices we explored in the previous chapter, improve conscious control over that deactivation process.”
― Rick Hanson, Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
“You can do small things inside your mind that will lead to big changes in your brain and your experience of living.”
“The autobiographical self (D’Amasio 2000) incorporates the reflective self and some of the emotional self, and it provides the sense of “I” having a unique past and future. The core self involves an underlying and largely nonverbal feeling of “I” that has little sense of the past or the future. If the PFC—which provides most of the neural substrate of the autobiographical self—were to be damaged, the core self would remain, though with little sense of continuity with the past or future. On the other hand, if the subcortical and brain stem structures which the core self relies upon were damaged, then both the core and autobiographical selves would disappear, which suggests that the core self is the neural and mental foundation of the autobiographical self (D’Amasio 2000). When your mind is very quiet, the autobiographical self seems largely absent, which presumably corresponds to a relative deactivation of its neural substrate. Meditations that still the mind, such as the concentration practices we explored in the previous chapter, improve conscious control over that deactivation process.”
― Rick Hanson, Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light‐years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”
– Eckhart Tolle
– Eckhart Tolle
"It's the unknown dangers that paralyze: Darkness. Confusion. Solitude. Vulnerability."
~ Michael J. Fox, No Time Like the Future
~ Michael J. Fox, No Time Like the Future
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