This is a self-help book, but it truly teaches you how to be in a perpetual positive mode. It teaches you how to not sweat the little things in life. These are my favorite quotes from this book:
"Transformation means radical change of form, the way a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. In human terms, it means turning fear, aggression, doubt, insecurity, hatred, and emptiness into their opposites".
"Your purpose in life is to help creation to expand and grow".
"Every cell in your body agrees to work for the welfare of the whole; its individual welfare comes second. If necessary, it will die to protect the body, and often does - the lifetime of any given cell is a fraction of our own lifetime. Skin cells perish by the thousands every hour, as do immune cells fighting off invading microbes. Selfishness is not an option, even when it comes to a cell's own survival".
The primary activity of cells is giving, which maintains the integrity of all other cells. Total commitment to giving makes receiving automatic - it is the other half of a natural cycle".
"When an experience is so powerful that it motivates people to change the whole pattern of their lives, we call that a breakthrough, or an epiphany".
"Let the center be your home: To be centered is considered desirable; when they feel distracted or scattered, people often say, 'I lost my center'."
"The beginning of suffering is often a refusal to look at how the situation really is."
"There are only three kinds of people in your life: those who leave you alone, those who help you , and those who hurt you."
"If you find yourself blocked by your suffering, returning to the same old thoughts again and again, a belief system has trapped you. You can escape the trap only by ending your need to cling to these beliefs".
Samskara - "A samskara is a groove in the mind that makes thoughts flow in the same direction. Buddhist psychology makes sophisticated use of the concept by speaking of the samskara as imprints in the mind that have a life of their own. Your personal samskaras, built up from memories of the past, force you to react in the same limited way over and over, robbing you of free choice."
"Control is the great mask of insecurity."
"Everyone knows how to choose; few know how to let go. But it's only by letting go of each experience that you make room for the next. The skill of letting go can be learned; once learned, you will enjoy living much more spontaneously."
"It's hard to let go when you don't know if you have made the right choice in the first place. Doubt lingers and ties us to the past. When you are in doubt, however, you put the universe on hold for a while. It favors no particular direction."
"The universe has more in store for us than we can ever predict, and bad choices frequently smooth out in the end because our hidden aspirations know where we are going."
"For most people, the strongest externals come down to what other people think because fitting in is the path of least resistance. But fitting in is like embracing inertia. Social acceptance is the lowest common denominator of the self-it's you as a social unit rather than you as a unique person. Find out who you really are; let fitting in be the last thing on your mind."
"The purpose of death is to imagine yourself into a new form with a new location in space and time."
"Time is meant to be the vehicle for evolution, but if you misuse time, it becomes a source of fear and anxiety."
"If you can learn from your mistakes you haven't failed".