- Learned how to realistically incorporate meditation in a "non-guru-like" fashion and this helps quiet one's "monkey mind," become responsive instead of reactive and realize that one's inner voice are simply thoughts and not reality
- RAIN - Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Non-Identification
- Acceptance is not passivity.
- Meditation helps quiet the "surge of habitual impulses" which so many of us simply fall prey to and obey
- Meditation can be as simple as sitting with your spine relatively straight in a chair, focusing on your breathing and when your mind wanders (which it inevitably will) simply to forgive yourself and get back to the breathing. Can start with just five minutes and feel the effects
- It is perfectly fine to plot and plan, but only up to the point of it being useful
- "The real superpower of meditation is not just to manage your ego more mindfully but to see that the ego itself has no actual substance."
- Through meditation, you don't feel different feelings, you simply learn to detach from them
- Detachment allows for space between stimulus and response
- When a feeling overcomes you, be aware and notice how it manifests itself (clenched fists, raised eyebrows, shoulder shrugged, etc.)
- The pursuit of happiness becomes the source of our unhappiness
- In the real world, "hide the zen" or else people will take advantage of you. Can feel the calm inside but don't need to show others or be too conspicuous with it
- Nonattachment to the result, not the process. Be ambitious!
- Striving is fine, as long as you realize that the final outcome is ultimately out of your control
- Brain is a pleasure seeking machine and through meditation you can teach it that being present feels far better than worrying about the past or the future
- Meditation is not about feeling a certain way, it's about being mindful of what you are feeling
What I got out of it
- More than anything, a realistic, practical and helpful book on meditation and how to implement it into your life