The title is a little misleading. This is a book about finding inner peace and perspective.
Quotes to live by:
“If you can recognize the illusion, it dissolves.”
“Do you realize you will have to let go of [that which troubles you] at some point, perhaps quite soon? How much more time do you need before you will be ready to let go of it? Will you become less when you let go of it? Has who you are become diminished by the loss?”
“If no action is possible you rest in the peace and inner stillness that come with surrender. You rest in God.”
“There is a ‘me’ that loves to feel personally offended by the cold soup and is going to make the most of it, a ‘me’ that enjoys making someone wrong. The complaining we are talking about is in the service of the ego, not of change . . . The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind-pattern.”
“The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that.”
“When you are in touch with that dimension within yourself – and being in touch with it is your natural state, not some miraculous achievement – all your actions an relationships will reflect the oneness with all life that you sense deep within.”
“When you fully accept that you don’t know, you actually enter a state of peace and clarity that is closer to who you truly are than thought could ever be. Defining yourself through thought is limiting yourself.”
“The truth is that you need to say yes to suffering before you can transcend it.”
“Doing is never enough if you neglect Being.”
“Ask yourself, ‘ Is there negativity in me at this moment?’ Then, become alert, attentive to your thoughts as well as your emotions. Watch out for the low level unhappiness in whatever form . . . such as discontent, nervous ness, being ‘fed up,’ and so on. Watch out for thoughts that appear to justify or explain this unhappiness but in reality cause it. The moment you become aware of a negative state within yourself, it does not mean you have failed. It means you have succeeded. Until that awareness happens, there is identification with inner states, and such identification is ego. With awareness comes disidentification from thoughts, emotions, and reactions . . . Before you were your thoughts, emotions, and reactions; now you are the awareness, the conscious Presence that witnesses those states.”
“Our duck’s lessons is this: Flap your wings – which translates as ‘ let go of the story’ – and return to the only place of power: the present moment.”
“Nothing ever happened in the past that can present you from being present now; and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?”
“When you realize that pain-bodies unconsciously seek more pain, that is to say, that they want something bad to happen, you will understand that many traffic accidents are caused by drivers whose pain-bodies are active at that time.”
“When the pain-body is activated, know that what you are feeling is the pain-body in you. This knowing is all that is needed to break your identification with it. And when identification with it ceases, the transmutation begins. The knowing prevents the old emotion fro rising up into your head and taking over not only the internal dialogue, but also your actions as well as interactions with other people. This means the pain-body cannot use you anymore and renew itself through you.”
“Whatever you think people are withholding from you – praise, appreciation, assistance, loving care, and soon- give it to them. You don’t have it? Act as if you had it, and it will come. Then, soon after you start giving, you will start receiving. You cannot receive what you cannot give.”
“When you become aware of the transience of all forms, your attachment to them lessens, and you disidentify from them to some extent. . . Once you see and accept the transience of all things and the inevitability of change, you can enjoy the pleasures of the world while they last without fear of loss or anxiety of the future.”
“One conscious breath is enough to make some space where before there was the uninterrupted succession of one thought after another. One conscious breath (two or three would be even better), taken many times a day, is an excellent way of bringing space into your life.”
“When you look upon what you do or where you are as the main purpose of your life, you negate time. This is enormously empowering. “
“We could say that totality – Life – wants the sapling to become a tree, but the sapling doesn’t see itself as separate from life and so wants nothing for itself. It is one with what Life wants. That’s why it isn’t worried or stressed. And if it has to die prematurely, it dies with ease. It is as surrendered in death as it is in life. It sense, no matter how obscurely, its rootedness in Being, the formless and eternal one Life.”