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141 " Although we speak of attaining the dao,” Lao Tzu once said, “there is really nothing to obtain.” Or to borrow a master’s reply to a student who asked where he might find Zen: “You are seeking for an ox while you are yourself on it. "
― Ryan Holiday , Stillness Is the Key
142 " No one is alone, in suffering or in joy. "
143 " Marcus Aurelius pointed out that we don’t need to “get away from it all.” We just need to look within. “Nowhere you can go is more peaceful—more free of interruptions,” he said, “than your own soul. "
144 " The best insights on enough come to us from the East. “When you realize there is nothing lacking,” Lao Tzu says, “the whole world belongs to you.” The verse in The Daodejing: The greatest misfortune is to not know contentment. The word calamity is the desire to acquire. And so those who know the contentment of contentment are always content. "
145 " Our soul is where we secure our happiness and unhappiness, contentment or emptiness - and ultimately, determine the extent of our greatness. We must maintain a good one. "
146 " Joe,” he said, “how does it feel that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel has earned in its entire history?” “I’ve got something he can never have,” Heller replied. “And what on earth could that be?” Vonnegut asked. “The knowledge that I’ve got enough. "
147 " You can’t make something great flitting around. You have to stick fast, like an axis of the earth. Those who think they will find solutions to all their problems by traveling far from home, perhaps as they stare at the Colosseum or some enormous moss-covered statue of Buddha, Emerson said, are bringing ruins to ruins. Wherever they go, whatever they do, their sad self comes along. "
148 " Después de reconocer y aceptar a tu niño interior, la tercera función de la atención es aplacar y aliviar nuestras emociones difíciles. Abrazar afectuosamente a ese niño suaviza esas emociones y nos hace sentir aliviados. Cuando reconocemos nuestras emociones intensas con atención y concentración, somos capaces de ver las raíces de esas formaciones mentales. Sabemos de dónde proceden nuestros sufrimientos. Cuando vemos las raíces de las cosas, nuestro sufrimiento disminuye. Así, la atención reconoce, acepta y alivia. "
149 " Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down. "
150 " Indeed, most desires are at their core irrational emotions, and that’s why stillness requires that we sit down and dissect them. We want to think ahead to the refractory period, to consider the inevitable hangover before we take a drink. When we do that, these desires lose some of their power. "
151 " Mill stopped to think, for the first time, about what he was chasing. As he writes: It occurred to me to put the question directly to myself, “Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you?” And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, “No!” At this my heart sank within me: the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down. "
152 " Life is meaningless to the person who decides their choices have no meaning. "
153 " Earned. Rational. Objective. Still. "
154 " Many of us carry wounds from our childhood. Maybe someone didn't treat us right. Or we experienced something terrible. Or our parents were just a little too busy or a little too critical or a little too stuck dealing with their own issues to be what we needed. "
155 " Our job is not to “go with our gut” or fixate on the first impression we form about an issue. No, we need to be strong enough to resist thinking that is too neat, too plausible, and therefore almost always wrong. Because if the leader can’t take the time to develop a clear sense of the bigger picture, who will? If the leader isn’t thinking through all the way to the end, who is? "
156 " The health of our spiritual ideals depends on what we do with our bodies in moments of truth. "
157 " And if you’ve had trouble with this in the past? That’s okay. That’s the nice thing about the present. It keeps showing up to give you a second chance. "
158 " People say, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” as they hasten that very death, both literally and figuratively. They trade their health for a few more working hours. They trade the long-term viability of their business or their career before the urgency of some temporal crisis. "
159 " The truly philosophical view is that not only is originality necessary, but everyone is necessary. Even the people you don’t like. Even the ones who really piss you off. Even the people wasting their lives, cheating, or breaking the rules are part of the larger equation. We can appreciate—or at least sympathize with—them, rather than try to fight or change them. "
160 " Yes, we are in motion when we walk, but it is not frenzied motion or even conscious motion—it is repetitive, ritualized motion. It is deliberate. It is an exercise in peace. "