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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Kapil Gupta
Read between
May 16 - May 21, 2019
A: He would live a life of equanimity. He would be content and complete in each moment. Though he may involve himself in lofty pursuits, his contentedness and completeness would go with him. He would have abandoned the ceaseless chase. And when a man no longer feels the need to chase, life begins to chase him.
A: If they did not contain pleasure somewhere within, a human would not pursue them.
HOW DO I HAVE BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIPS IN MY LIFE?
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A: In order to have peace in a relationship, there must be freedom.
Q: But if I don’t compromise on what I want, and the other person doesn’t compromise on what they want, will this not produce conflict? A: Each person must examine the source of the want. The why’s and wherefores of the want. In doing so one is able to separate the wants that are reactive and baseless from the wants that are genuine and innocent. It is often the case, that as the reactive wants are removed, the sincere wants are shared between the two individuals.
Q: And what does compromise do? A: Compromise muddies the water. It is a cheap and fruitless bartering between the reactive wants of each individual. It perpetuates itself. And moves inevitably toward conflict.
Q: What else leads to a peaceful relationship? A: The abandonment of need. Q: But if two individuals don’t need each other, what is the point of a relationship? A: Two individuals who need each other will ...
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Q: So if there’s no need, what binds them together?
A: The enjoyment of each other’s company.
Q: So no need, and no compromise. Is this correct? A: A relationship of peace is a relationship that is more parallel than perpendicular. It is two individuals that move side by side. Rather than two individuals that intersect. A maintenance of individuality and freedom results in the prevalence of peace.
HOW DO I BECOME MORE DISCIPLINED?
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A: Man is not lazy.
A: Man is lazy and undisciplined for the things that do not move him. He is motivated and voracious for the things that inspire him. Q: So discipline doesn’t matter? A: Discipline is an attempt to force oneself to do that which he fundamentally does not wish to do.
A: It is far more fruitful to evaluate the desires for achievement, than it is to force discipline. If one’s desire for achievement is pure, he will be sufficiently motivated to do all that needs to be done in order to achieve. If it is not, he will play clever and ineffective games such as discipline.
A: Forcing oneself is short-lived. As all things that are insincere are short-lived. If one is honest and sincere about his motivations, he will move with himself, instead of against himself.
HOW DO I BECOME HAPPY?
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Q: How do I become happy? A: Are you seeking a sustained feeling of happiness? Q: Yes. A: This does not exist. Q: Why not? A: Because happiness is a myth.
A: The idea of happiness is born as a reaction to misery. If a human being did not have misery, he would not seek happiness. Q: Isn’t misery the absence of happiness? A: Happiness is the attempt to escape from misery. Q: So humans don’t seek happiness. They seek escape from misery? A: Yes.
Q: Then what should a person seek? A: There is no should. Q: What would it benefit a person to seek? A: Freedom from misery. Freedom from the need for happiness.
Q: Wow. How do I do that? A: Through understanding. Q: Understanding what? A: Understanding that happiness is a fleeting
emotion. One cannot build a home in it. In understanding this, one naturally begin...
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I HAVE ALREADY ACHIEVED EVERYTHING. WHAT DO I DO FOR THE REMAINDER OF MY LIFE?
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Q: Doesn’t every man have such an opportunity? A: Theoretically, yes. Practically, no.
A: There is something within you that is causing an emptiness. It seeks to be satisfied. Until it is satisfied, it will create within you a feeling of aimlessness.
We are first and foremost a piece of life. And this life seeks to live. It seeks to bloom. The way in which man has attempted to make it bloom has not worked.
A: The single most important characteristic of a Journey toward the Ultimate is that upon reaching it, one becomes satisfied for the rest of his life. For he becomes life itself.
HOW IS LIFE TO BE LIVED?
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Instead of trying to “live” a life, one must become life itself.
A: If a man tries to “live” a life, he suffers at every turn. If he devotes his life, the game changes.
A: If one dabbles, he suffers endlessly and fails. If he devotes the whole of his life to something, he is due for an ultimate boon, and is engaged during the Journey.
But to devote the whole of oneself to god or to any other endeavor takes one away from oneself. And this is the door to freedom. The door to becoming life itself.
HOW DO I BECOME A LEGEND?
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Q: How do I become a legend? A: It begins by wanting to become a legend.
A: I’m not suggesting. I’m stating it as a Truth.
A: You are confusing ‘want’ with ‘preference.’ You are confusing it with ‘it would be nice if . . .’
I am speaking of a life-and-death sort of want.
A: It begins with a vision. A precise determination of who one seeks to become.
But the approach and the philosophy centers around discovering the Truth about what gets one to his vision. Rather than myths such as “hard work,” “pain vs gain,” and “striving.”
HOW DO I ENSURE A GREAT PERFORMANCE?
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Q: How do I ensure a great performance? A: By understanding what performance is. And from where it does and does not arise. Q: What is performance? A: Performance is a side effect.
A: In every domain, performance waxes and wanes. In every domain, one is taught to compete. In every domain, one day a person “has it” and the next day he “doesn’t have it.” One day he is “in the zone” and an hour later, he “falls out of the zone.” And he is “in the zone” only a fraction of his entire career. These are the consequences of not knowing the Truth.
Performance is traditionally pursued as a goal. As a result, it is viewed from the standpoint of activities, rituals, behaviors, and do’s and don’ts. This is not where consistent, world class performance comes from.
One must be genuinely interested in where it lives, how it moves, and what causes it to emerge.
A: It does not rain because it wishes to rain. When the conditions are ripe, rain has no choice but to fall. It is the same for performance.
One must understand the conditions that allow performance to emerge.
WHY DOES ONE HAVE GREAT SUCCESS, WHILE ANOTHER STRUGGLES?
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A: That the successful identify themselves as successes. While those who struggle identify themselves as unfortunate failures. The successful view themselves as conquerors. While those who struggle view themselves as victims of circumstance.
Q: Why would an individual view himself as a victim of circumstance, rather than become a conqueror? A: The fear of having to leave behind the comfort of his identity. The fear of loss.
A: The luxury of self-pity. The sympathies of victimhood. Such things are not easily sacrificed.
WHAT IS THE MIND?
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