It was the longest, most exquisite high of my life, but the hangover came first.
In his books, Tolle repeatedly denigrated the habit of worrying, which he characterized as a useless process of projecting fearfully into an imaginary future. There is no way that you can cope with su...
I was always hurtling headlong through the day, checking things off my to-do list, constantly picturing completion instead of calmly and carefully enjoying the process.
Many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment.
Just radiated curiosity and enthusiasm. Toward the end of our interview, he said, The most important thing to me is probably, like, being kind and also trying to do something awesome.
Acknowledged that the Jewish penchant for anxiety probably played a role in their collective attraction to Buddhism. Over the ensuing decades, the Jew-Bus had been a major force in figuring out how to...
You can do your best and then, if things don't go your way, still become unconstructively upset, in a way that hinders your ability to bounce back. Dropping the attachment is the real trick.
With uncontrived sincerity he said, I want to know you. That was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to me.
What’s with you and the whole meditation thing? Trying to avoid another long, unsuccessful answer, I blurted out, I do it because it makes me 10% happier. The look on her face instantly changed. What...
We now know that happiness, resilience, and compassion are skills, susceptible to training. You don't have to resign yourself to your current level of well-being, or wait for your life circumstances t...
They had a suggestion for me: I should go on a retreat. Recognizing the look of dread on my face, they acknowledged it could be a little tough, but assured me it would be worth it. They knew an amazin...
The fact that you exist is a highly statistically improbable event, and if you are not perpetually surprised by the fact that you exist you don’t deserve to be here.
The Buddhists had a helpful analogy here. Picture the mind like a waterfall, they said: the water is the torrent of thoughts and emotions; mindfulness is the space behind the waterfall. Again, elegant...
On meditation Real Happiness, Sharon Salzberg Insight Meditation, Joseph Goldstein On Buddhism and mindfulness in general Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart, Dr. Mark Epstein Buddhism Without Belie...
Mindfulness provides space between impulse and action, so you're not a slave to whatever neurotic obsession pops into your head.
Including salutary effects on the following: • major depression • drug addiction • binge eating • smoking cessation • stress among cancer patients • loneliness among senior citizens • ADHD • asthma • ...
Brain is a pleasure-seeking machine.
What mindfulness does is create some space in your head so you can, as the Buddhists say, respond rather than simply react. In
We live so much of our lives pushed forward by these if only thoughts, and yet the itch remains. The pursuit of happiness becomes the source of our unhappiness.
Unlike many of the faiths I'd come across as a religion reporter, the Buddha wasn't promising salvation in the form of some death-defying dogma, but rather through the embrace of the very stuff that w...