The beauty of biographies, self-help books, and spiritual texts is not the knowledge or advice they provide, but the spark they ignite in you to examine your own existence.
Opt-Out, Don’t Tough Through
Billions of dollars are spent to steal my attention on devices, websites, and applications.
I likely don’t stand a chance. So better to opt-out then tough through.
You Set The Limits
An issue for many forms of work is that you can always do more. Ultimately, you have to set the limits.
Conditioning
It’s easy to feel trapped in your own negative conditioning—acting in impulsive, counterproductive ways and suffering in avoidable circumstances. Tempting it is to recondition yourself into “positive” ways of being, incorporating “better habits” with “more productive” ways of acting. This too is conditioning: the same mechanism that brought you suffering in the first place. Eliminating conditioning cannot happen by deconditioning yourself, as this is simply reconditioning by another name—a clever trick of the brain. Eliminating conditioning can only be done indirectly, through awareness of your conditioning, seeing it clearly for all it is, without trying to change it.
The Limits of Self-Awareness
Being self-aware or telegraphing self-awareness of your harmful behaviors doesn’t absolve you of them.
Boredom
Beaches nourish us because they’re one of the few places we allow ourselves to be bored.
Limitations of Money
No amount of money will clear your conscious. It’s not something you can buy.
All Knowledge Is Experiential
It’s a lot easier to know that money won’t buy you happiness after you’re already rich.
Three Options For Three Life Elements
With our situation, we have three options at any given time: accept it, change it, leave it.
With our bodies, we have three options at any given time: sit, stand, lie.
With our minds, we have three options at any given time: ego, self-awareness, emptiness.
Differences
The thought—”the world would be a better place if everyone thought like me”—is pretty flawed when you think about it.
