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The narrative you are living can be changed at any time because it is being written in real time—by you.
Life is not suffering. Suffering is part of life, but it does not have to be the majority of it.
we see that most of our yearnings for approval, money, and significance stem from a desire to experience certain feelings. Feelings such as love, joy, peace, freedom, and fulfillment.
Truth cannot be intellectualized; it can only be experienced.
If you want to find the truth, look for simplicity.
Never forget your own divinity, because it is only through our divinity that we have our humanity.
what we hold on to perpetuates our reality what we let go of creates new possibilities
two arrows fly our way whenever we experience a negative event. Being struck by the first arrow hurts—that arrow is pain. The second arrow is our emotional reaction to the first, and often, it is even more painful than the first arrow. That second arrow is where suffering originates from. The Buddha explained, “In life, we can’t always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. The second arrow is optional.” In other words, pain is unavoidable, but how we react to that pain is up to us, and that reaction will dictate whether or not we suffer.
One who looks around him is intelligent; one who looks within him is wise.
“Thought is not reality, yet it is through thought that our realities are created.”
Reality is what is happening right now. It is the objective circumstance that is occurring without any meaning or judgment attached to it. And so what we experience is not reality itself but our perception of reality. Any meaning or thinking we give something is self-created and our choice.
It’s not the events that happen in our lives but our interpretation of them that causes us to feel good or bad. This is how people in developing countries can be happier than people in developed countries and how people in developed countries can be more miserable than people in developing countries.
Our feelings come not from external events but from our own thinking about the events.
Now, you may say that you’re only feeling unhappy because a negative external circumstance, your job, is causing you stress. To that, I’ll ask, While a job may be demanding, does that mean it must lead to suffering? Or put another way, Is it absolutely true that every person who has the same intense job feels the exact same way about that job?
No... But how to escape?
The question is, What determines which experience someone will have? Let’s do a quick thought experiment to see. Consider again the theoretically stressful job, the one that you hate. How would you feel if you didn’t think that you hated your job?
If i didnt think i hated my job, then i wouldnt think i hated it so much
The root cause of our suffering is our own thinking.
We feel what we think, and our emotions are real. That is undeniable. However, what I am saying is that how we feel will look like an inevitable, unchangeable reality until we recognize the role that our thinking plays in creating it. By changing our thinking, we can change our reality. And if that is true, then we are only ever one thought away from transforming our lives and letting go of our suffering. In short, the moment we stop thinking is when our happiness begins.
Hmmmm??
To reiterate, our emotions come not from external events but from our thinking about them.
Thinking leads to emotions
Event + Same thinking = Same experience Event + New thinking = New experience
while we can change our thinking, the most ideal path to serenity is to let go of our thinking entirely. Without our own thinking about an event, we find peace because we are experiencing exactly what reality is without our own judgments, stories, or expectations of it.
Event + Thinking = Perception of reality Event without thinking = Reality Event without thinking = Peace
“Do you know what is really making you angry?” Now he knew he had his answer. “It’s not other people, situations, or circumstances. It’s not the empty boat but my reaction to it that causes my anger. All the people or situations that upset me are like the empty boat. Without my reaction, they don’t have the power to make me angry.”
No one else to blame. Just your own reaction causing your own suffering and rage and pain
He returned to the monastery and started meditating along with the others. There were still noises and disturbances, but he treated them as empty boats and continued meditating peacefully.
true freedom isn’t in having complete control of our minds but in the ability to be unattached to whatever happens in it
Ah. Its not about control!!!! Once again, its about letting go of control
I think and think and think, I’ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it. —Jonathan Safran Foer
Interesting point
in prehistoric times, many things—animals, weather, illness—were a threat to our existence. We survived because of our ability to communicate, work together, form strong social bonds, and pass down knowledge from one generation to the next. It was vital to stay in our social groups, and being thrown out of our tribe meant certain death. And so our minds evolved to fear being judged or doing the wrong thing in order to remain accepted by others and not get kicked out of the tribe. Because of this, we sacrificed our individuality and uniqueness to fit in. We learned to not be too different or
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Brain hard wired to want to be accepted. Makes sense to me
Our mind’s duty is to keep us alive. Our consciousness’s duty is to help us feel fulfilled. Our soul is the reason why we’re even on this journey in the first place—to find peace within ourselves.
3 parts of us
If we keep allowing this thinking to direct our lives, we will stay in a state of fight or flight, anxiety, fear, frustration, depression, anger, resentment, and negative emotion because the mind views everything as a threat to our very existence. And it is this tendency of our minds that leads us to the torturous thinking at the root of our suffering.
Cant believe everything we think!!!
You are not just a product of your environment but a co-creator of it. With this understanding, you can begin to shift your experience of reality from merely surviving to truly thriving.
the path to self-actualization isn’t to try to improve ourselves because we think we’re not enough but to let go of the illusion that we’re not already enough as we are
Thinking, on the other hand, is the judgment or opinion we have about our thoughts. Thinking takes a significant amount of energy, effort, and willpower, which are finite resources. You don’t have to ruminate on each thought that enters your mind, but when you do, that is thinking.
A simple way to recall the distinction between thoughts and thinking is to remember that thought is a noun and isn’t something that we do but something we have. Thinking, on the other hand, is a verb and is something we do. It is the act of engaging with our thoughts.
The goal is to decrease the amount of time it takes for us to regulate our emotions and return to a state of peace when we experience something stressful.
My goal too
It would be difficult to function because most of our time would be spent thinking about our lives instead of actually living them.
Do i do this now? Strive to LIVE life!
Children are innately open, curious, happy, and full of wonder and laughter. This is also the natural state of adults until we think ourselves out of it.
you will realize that when you’re not thinking, you experience calm, peace, or even joy. This is the secret to your serenity.
The only time we don’t naturally feel at peace are when we begin to think about the thoughts we’re having, thereby blocking our direct connection to the present.
Thinking takes us away from the present moment and into the past or future, which are the only times regret or anxiety exist.
Omg this is why i take gummies, to stop overthinking
More times than not, the solution to our problems is not the addition of action but the removal of what’s causing those problems in the first place.
most of us are chasing external things so that we can feel something inside innocently forgetting that all feelings are generated within us
what you most want to experience can only be found within you don’t wait for something outside of you to give you permission to feel how you want inside
The goal is to minimize the time we spend thinking about our thoughts so that eventually, we can get to the point where we spend most of our day not caught up in our thinking and live in a harmonious state more often. But how do we do this? This may surprise you, but we don’t have to do anything to minimize our thinking; we only have to become aware of it and choose to let it go rather than hold on to it.
What we resist persists. What we accept and let be will inevitably leave.
The way to break free from our thinking is to relax our minds and trust that our natural inner wisdom will guide us back to clarity and peace like it always has.
thoughts are transient they come and go but You always stay if you want to know who you are look beyond your thoughts to experience your true nature
Whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed by your thinking, pause, go through the five steps, and remember that you have the power to let go of it at any time. P—Pause and take deep breaths to calm your nervous system and ground yourself in the present. Become aware that you are thinking, but do not judge it. A—Ask yourself, “Is this thinking making me feel the way I want?” or “Do I want to keep suffering?” If not, you always have the choice to let your thinking go in order to find peace. U—Understand that you have the choice to stop and let go of it. S—Say and repeat the mantra “Thinking is the
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One of the most effective ways to make this a sustainable and permanent change is to use negative emotions as a reminder that you are thinking. Then go through this process of letting go to return to a state of peace.
This is why i turn red when i speak and sort of black out bc my thinking is judging me the whole time
Anxiety is thought without control. Flow is control without thought. —James Clear
After practice, thinking hinders the performance of athletes, and the same is true for everyone. We only hesitate, are reluctant, and have doubts when we begin thinking and overanalyzing. We function and perform our best and embody our full potential when we enter a state of non-thinking.
