To Think Beyond

“The bad news is you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is there’s no ground.”

“Becoming ‘awake’ involves seeing our confusion more clearly.”

“There is no need to struggle to be free; the absence of struggle is in itself freedom.”

“It’s easier to put on a pair of shoes than to wrap the earth in leather.”

“The idea is not to regard the spiritual path as something very luxurious and pleasurable, but to see it as just facing the facts of life.”

“We must try to think beyond our homes, beyond the fire burning in the fireplace, beyond sending our children to school or getting to work in the morning. We must try to think how we can help this world. If we don’t help, nobody will. It is our turn to help the world.”

All quotes by Chögyam Trungpa

Quotes & Questions from James Clear

The Price of Admission

“Growth means risking failure. Expansion comes to those who invite discomfort. And the person you aspire to become waits on the other side of that thing you’re hiding from. Invest in experience. In that which scares you. And watch your life change.” – Rich Roll

“The more you practice tolerating discomfort, the more confidence you’ll gain in your ability to accept new challenges.” – Amy Morin

“Be not afraid of discomfort. If you can’t put yourself in a situation where you are uncomfortable, then you will never grow. You will never change. You’ll never learn.” – Jason Reynolds

“If you’re never able to tolerate a little bit of pain and discomfort, you’ll never get better.” – Angela Duckworth

“Lean into the discomfort of the work.” – Brene Brown

“Fear, uncertainty and discomfort are your compasses toward growth.” – Barack Obama

“Discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life.” – Susan David

Your Own Salvation

I snagged this piece of writing from Busy Philipps’ Instagram account…

Being in Love with Your Life

What if there’s no contradiction between being your idiosyncratic self in love with your life and serving others with the best gifts you have to give?

What if exploring your inner world to activate your personal genius dovetails perfectly with fighting to recreate the soulless culture we’re embedded in?

What if working on your own salvation makes you a more effective force in liberating others from their suffering?

And then it made me think of this quote…

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

– Gospel of Thomas

Like a Rebirth

“I think it is very important for people to run away…from home, from the mainstream, from their family, from the culture, from the society that produced them…because the moment I have to learn something new, like new habits, new languages, I myself have something like a rebirth. I reduce myself to the lowest denominator and this is very healthy for an artist. To start all over again.”

Quote by Saul Steinberg

The Purpose of Life

“The biggest breakthroughs in consciousness occur when things are difficult; when we have a choice to fall to the worst of ourselves or rise to the best of ourselves.”

“Darkness is the only path to light. It is not our wonderful gifts that make us closer to God: it’s using our garbage to transform ourselves. This is the key that unlocks the door that opens to God.”

“Unfortunately, it is human nature for us to only learn and grow from a place of emptiness. It’s hard to learn when we are winning and on top of the world.”

“God never answers prayers. It is people who answer their own prayers by knowing how to connect and utilize the divine energy of the Creator and the God-like force in their own souls.”

“If I said it once, I’ll say it again: ‘We have the power to change everything.'”

“The whole point of all of this – why we are here, why the world is here, and why we have the political system and leaders that we do – is to achieve change. This is the purpose of life.”

All quotes by Yehuda Berg

Taste It, Enjoy It — Find Out

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.”

“Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you’re going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.”

“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”

“Everyone is flailing through this life without an owner’s manual, with whatever modicum of grace and good humor we can manage.”

“I am going to notice the lights of the earth, the sun and the moon and the stars, the lights of our candles as we march, the lights with which spring teases us, the light that is already present.”

“These days cry out, as never before, for us to pay attention, so we can move through them and get our joy and pride back.”

“Pay attention to the beauty surrounding you.”

All quotes by Anne Lamott