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Favorite Books
I love reading. I like to think of life as a relay race where those before us have taken the baton as far as they can go. We pick up that baton and run a little farther but only if we are willing to learn from them. Here are some of my favorites accompanied by a favorite quote.
The inner journey was sparked with this book
"But before we can have a complete relationship with another, we must first have a complete relationship with ourselves. Before we can ever be loved, respected, supported, and adored by another, we must feel loving, respectful, and supportive of ourselves."
Puts life into a beautiful perspective
"But if you've really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know you have other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell-type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars - compassion, love, the subsurface unity of all things."
My first taste of spirituality
"As long as you are defining what you like and what you don't like, you will open and close. You are actually defining your limits. You are allowing your mind to create triggers that open and close you. Let go of that. Dare to be different. Enjoy all of life."
A must-read for anyone in a helping profession
"For one who has not examined the mind and has always identified completely with passing thoughts, the possibility of being able to rest in awareness free of thoughts may be a bit disconcerting. It's a little like the caterpillar pointing up at the butterfly and saying, "You'll never get me up in one of those things."
A book that shows how simple the truth is
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" "Kind" said the boy
The reason I'm a certified life coach from Jay's school
"Material gratification is external, but happiness is internal. When monks talk about happiness, they tell the story of the musk deer... The musk deer picks up an irrestistible scent in the forest and chases it, searching for the source, not realizing that the scent comes from its own pores. It spends its whole life wandering fruitlessly. In the same way we search for happiness, finding it elusive, when it can be found within us."
Helped me stop believing the stories of the mind
"If you think that someone wronged you, you might want to take that thought to inquiry. I often say, "No one can hurt me - that's my job." It's not what they said or did that causes our suffering - it's what we believe about what they said or did. This is an essential truth. It's life changing. When you understand it, everything about your relationships with yourself, other people, and the world becomes transparent."
Helped me to stop seeking outside what is already inside
"I'm going away," he said. "And I want you to know that I'm coming back. I love you because..." "Don't say anything," Fatima interrupted. "One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving."
Watts' humor immediately cuts through the games of life
"For unless one is able to live fully in the present, the future is a hoax. There is no point whatsoever in making plans for a future which you will never be able to enjoy. When your plans mature, you will still be living for some other future beyond. You will never, never be able to sit back with full contentment and say, "Now, I've arrived!"
A book of love
"If you call the name of the child in the Congo, I answer, "Yes." If you call the name of those who produce the bombs and guns, I also answer, "Yes." When I'm able to see that I am all those people, my hatred disappears, and I am determined to live in such a way that I can help the victims, and also help those who create and perpetrate wars and destruction."
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