122
" Like most humanoids, I am burdened with what the Buddhists call the " monkey mind" --the thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit and howl. From the distant past to the unknowable future, my mind swings wildly through time, touching on dozens of ideas a minute, unharnessed and undisciplined. This in itself is not necessarily a problem; the problem is the emotional attachment that goes along with the thinking. Happy thoughts make me happy, but-whoop!-how quickly I swing again into obsessive worry, blowing the mood; and then it's all over again; and then my mind decides it might be a good time to start feeling sorry for itself, and loneliness follows promptly. You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions. "
123
" It is your brain that decides to get you out of bed in the morning to exercise, to
give you a stronger, leaner body, or to cause you to hit the snooze button and
procrastinate your workout. It is your brain that pushes you away from the table telling
you that you have had enough, or that gives you permission to have the second bowl of
Rocky Road ice cream, making you look and feel like a blob. It is your brain that
manages the stress in your life and relaxes you so that you look vibrant, or, when left
unchecked, sends stress signals to the rest of your body and wrinkles your skin. And it is
your brain that turns away cigarettes, too much caffeine, and alcohol, helping you look
and feel healthy, or that gives you permission to smoke, to have that third cup of coffee,
or to drink that third glass of wine, thus making every system in your body look and feel
older.Your brain is the command and control center of your body. If you want a better
body, the first place to ALWAYS start is by having a better brain. "
― Daniel G. Amen , Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted
133
" We hear all this talk about integrating the world economically, but there is an argument to be made for not integrating the world economically. Because what is corporate globalization? It isn't as if the entire world is intermeshed with each other. It's not like India and Thailand or India and Korea or India and Turkey are connected. It's more like America is the hub of this huge cultural and economic airline system. It's the nodal point. Everyone has to be connected through America, and to some extent Europe.
When powers at the hub of the global economy decide that you have to be X or Y, then if you're part of that network, you have to do it. You don't have the independence of being nonaligned in some way, politically or culturally or economically. If America goes down, then everybody goes down. If tomorrow the United States decides that it wants these call center jobs back, then overnight this billion-dollar industry will collapse in India. It's important for countries to develop a certain degree of economic self-sufficiency. Just in a theoretical sense, it's important for everybody not to have their arms wrapped around each other or their fingers wrapped around each others' throats at all times, in all kinds of ways. "
― Arundhati Roy , The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy
136
" Omo explains Buddhism to Robbie:‘Some human dudes believe in reincarnation. Being born more than once? As if once wasn’t bad enough. Like, suppose the universe is a hologram, and the human dudes are outside the universe and some big ugly cosmic dude beams them into the hologram.’‘Why does he?’ asked Robbie.‘Because he wants to fuck with their heads. And it’s like his universe, his rules. So the proto-human dudes get sent into a body, and the body is male or female and more or less athletic, and more or less clever and good looking. And they live their lives and when it ends they are back in the place outside the universe until the big ugly cosmic dude decides he wants them back again to fuck with their heads some more, so the next time they might be a boy instead of a girl, and better looking, not so athletic, more quick tempered, less optimistic, whatever, whatever and so it goes on until they learn so much stuff that the big ugly cosmic dude can’t fuck with them any more and the proto-human dudes don’t get beamed into the universe any more. Unless the dudes want to be. Which would be weird. "
