This book is about the visit of Desmond Tutu (Archbishop) to the Dalai Lama's place for his 80th birthday. It is not a religious book but rather focuses on compassion and the human way of living beyond religion. Here are a few quotes that struck me...
So much of human suffering occurs within our own head and heart.
The suffering from a natural disaster we cannot control but the suffering from our daily disasters we can.
Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.
Wherever you have friends thats your country and wherever you receive love, thats your home.
Self centered attitude is the source of the problem.
Obsessing about getting what you want and avoiding what you don't want does not result in happiness.
Trying to seek happiness through sensory gratification is like trying to quench your thirst by drinking saltwater.
There are 4 independent brain circuits:
- Our ability to maintain positive state
- Our ability recover from negative state
- Our ability to focus and avoid mind-wandering
- Our ability to be generous.
The concept of Ubuntu. It says: A person is a person through other person.
It is unhappy people who tend to be most self-focused and are socially withdrawn.
Source of happiness is simply a healthy body and a warm heart.
One must develop the mind over time and cultivate mental immunity.
We should not berate ourselves for our negative thoughts and emotions, that they are natural and unavoidable.
When a fear or frustration comes, we have to think what is causing it ? In most cases, fear is simply a mental projection.
You are made for perfection, but you are not yet perfect. you are masterpiece in the making.
The brave man is not he who doesn't feel afraid, but he who conquers the fear.
Courage is NOT the absence of fear, but the ability to act despite it.
So in many cases our stress is caused by our expectations and our ambition.
Constant fear, constant anger, constant hatred harms our immune system.
While fear lasted on average 30 minutes, sadness often lasted up to a 124 hours, or almost five days.
You can spend three years, three months and three days in a cave and not be lonely, but you can be lonely in the middle of a crowd.
People who disproportionately use the first-person pronouns I, Me and mine have a significantly greater risk of having a heart attack.
General patter of how we relate to others: "Envy toward the above, competitiveness toward the equal and contempt toward the lower".
If you want to be poor, find some rich friends. If you want to be rich, find some poor friends.
Envy doesn't leave room for joy.
The suffering is what makes you appreciate the joy.
If there are no difficulties and you are always relaxed, then you complain more.
Prayer is when we speak to god, and meditation is when god answers OR the wiser part of your brain.
With our mind we create our own world.
The very fact of not thinking about your own frustration and pain does something. I don't know why. But it will make you feel much better.
When things go smoothly, then we can pretend we are something very special.
When Hinton was asked if he was angry about those people who put him in jail for 30 years, he responded, "If I am angry and unforgiving, they will have taken the rest of my life".
I'm happy because I choose to be happy.
Volunteering reduces the risk of death by 24%.
There is no joy without sorrow, that in fact it is the pain, the suffering that allows us to experience and appreciate the joy.
Anything that has a birth has a death, and I am no exception.
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