Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day
Rating
4/5
Date Started
1/13/2023
Date Completed
1/27/2023
Five Powerful Quotes from the Book
Quote 1
“I flash back to a class Gauranga Das taught called “Cancers of the Mind: Comparing, Complaining, Criticizing.” In the class, we talked about negative thought habits, including gossip. One of the exercises we did was keeping a tally of every criticism we spoke or thought. For each one, we had to write down ten good things about the person…
“I went through the exercise, dutifully noting every criticism I let slip. Next to each, I jotted down ten positive qualities. The point of the exercise wasn’t hard to figure out—every person was more good than bad—but seeing it on the page made the ratio sink in. This helped me see my own weaknesses differently. I tended to focus on my mistakes without balancing them against my strengths. When I found myself being self-critical, I reminded myself that I too had positive qualities. Putting my negative qualities in context helped me recognize the same ratio in myself, that I am more good than bad. We talked about this feedback loop in class: When we criticize others, we can’t help but notice the bad in ourselves. But when we look for the good in others, we start to see the best in ourselves too…
“Becoming aware of negativity means learning to spot the toxic impulses around you. To help us confront our own negativity, our monk teachers told us to try not to complain, compare, or criticize for a week, and keep a tally of how many times we failed. The goal was to see the daily tally decrease. The more aware we became of these tendencies, the more we might free ourselves from them.
“Listing your negative thoughts and comments will help you contemplate their origins. Are you judging a friend’s appearance, and are you equally hard on your own? Are you muttering about work without considering your own contribution? Are you reporting on a friend’s illness to call attention to your own compassion, or are you hoping to solicit more support for that friend?”
Pithy Summary
Quote 2
“Monks understand that routine frees your mind, but the biggest threat to that freedom is monotony. People complain about their poor memories, but I’ve heard it said that we don’t have a retention problem, we have an attention problem. By searching for the new, you are reminding your brain to pay attention and rewiring it to recognize that there’s something to learn in everything. Life isn’t as certain as we assume.
“How can I advocate both for establishing routines and seeking out novelty? Aren’t these contradictory? But it is precisely doing the familiar that creates room for discovery. The late Kobe Bryant was onto this. The basketball legend had started showing his creative side, developing books and a video series. As Bryant told me on my podcast, On Purpose, having a routine is critical to his work. ‘A lot of the time, creativity comes from structure. When you have those parameters and structure, then within that you can be creative. If you don’t have structure, you’re just aimlessly doing stuff.’ Rules and routines ease our cognitive burden so we have bandwidth for creativity. Structure enhances spontaneity. And discovery reinvigorates the routine.
“This approach leads to delight in small things. We tend to anticipate the big events of life: holidays, promotions, birthday parties. We put pressure on these events to live up to our expectations. But if we look for small joys, we don’t have to wait for them to come up on the calendar. Instead they await us every day if we take the time to look for them.”
Pithy Summary
Quote 3
“The more we can evaluate, understand, train, and strengthen our relationship with the mind, the more successfully we navigate our lives and overcome challenges.
“This battle in our mind is waged over the smallest daily choices (Do I have to get up right now?) and the biggest (Should I end this relationship?). All of us face such battles every single day.
“A senior monk once told me an old Cherokee story about these dilemmas which all of us agonize over: “An elder tells his grandson, ‘Every choice in life is a battle between two wolves inside us. One represents anger, envy, greed, fear, lies, insecurity, and ego. The other represents peace, love, compassion, kindness, humility, and positivity. They are competing for supremacy.’
“”‘Which wolf wins?’ the grandson asks. ‘The one you feed,’ the elder replies.”
“‘But how do we feed them?’ I asked my teacher.
“The monk said, ‘By what we read and hear. By who we spend time with. By what we do with our time. By where we focus our energy and attention.’
“The Bhagavad Gita states, ‘For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his very mind will be the greatest enemy.'”
Pithy Summary
Quote 4
“No matter what we achieve, we can aspire to greater scale and depth. I’m not concerned with vanity metrics. I often say that I want to take wisdom viral, but I want it to be meaningful. How can I reach a lot of people but without losing an intimate connection? Until the whole world is healed and happy, I haven’t finished. Aiming higher and higher—beyond ourselves to our community, our country, our planet—and realizing the ultimate goal is unattainable is what keeps us humble.
“Indeed, our goal of humility is ultimately unattainable.
“The moment you feel like you have arrived, you’re starting the journey again. This paradox is true for many things: If you feel safe, that’s when you’re most vulnerable; if you feel infallible, that’s when you’re at your weakest. André Gide said, “Believe those who search for the truth; doubt those who have found it.” Too often when you do good, you feel good, you live well, and you start to say, “I got this,” and that’s when you fall. If I sat here and said I had no ego, that would be a complete lie. Overcoming your ego is a practice not an accomplishment.
“Real greatness is when you use your own achievements to teach others, and they learn how to teach others, and the greatness that you’ve accomplished expands exponentially. Rather than seeing achievement as status, think of the role you play in other people’s lives as the most valuable currency. When you expand your vision, you realize that even people who have it all derive the greatest satisfaction from service.”
Pithy Summary
Quote 5
“Don’t judge the moment. As soon as you label something as bad, your mind starts to believe it. Instead, be grateful for setbacks. Allow the journey of life to progress at its own pace and in its own roundabout way. The universe may have other plans in store for you.
“There’s a story about a monk who carried water from a well in two buckets, one of which had holes in it. He did this every day, without repairing the bucket. One day, a passer-by asked him why he continued to carry the leaky bucket. The monk pointed out that the side of the path where he carried the full bucket was barren, but on the other side of the path, where the bucket had leaked, beautiful wildflowers had flourished. ‘My imperfection has brought beauty to those around me,’ he said.
“Helen Keller, who became deaf and blind as a toddler after an unidentified illness, wrote, ‘When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.’
“When something doesn’t go your way, say to yourself, ‘There’s more for me out there.’ That’s all. You don’t have to think, I’m so grateful I lost my job! When you say, ‘This is what I wanted. This was the only answer,’ all the energy goes to ‘this.’ When you say, ‘This didn’t work out, but there’s more out there,’ the energy shifts to a future full of possibility.”
Pithy Summary
About the Book
Original Date Published
September 8, 2020
Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day – Audiobook | Ebook | Hardcover – “Shetty grew up in a family where you could become one of three things—a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. His family was convinced he had chosen option three: instead of attending his college graduation ceremony, he headed to India to become a monk, to meditate every day for four to eight hours, and devote his life to helping others. After three years, one of his teachers told him that he would have more impact on the world if he left the monk’s path to share his experience and wisdom with others. Heavily in debt, and with no recognizable skills on his résumé, he moved back home in north London with his parents.
“Shetty reconnected with old school friends—many working for some of the world’s largest corporations—who were experiencing tremendous stress, pressure, and unhappiness, and they invited Shetty to coach them on well-being, purpose, and mindfulness. Since then, Shetty has become one of the world’s most popular influencers. In 2017, he was named in the Forbes magazine 30-under-30 for being a game-changer in the world of media. In 2018, he had the #1 video on Facebook with over 360 million views. His social media following totals over 38 million, he has produced over 400 viral videos which have amassed more than 8 billion views, and his podcast, On Purpose, is consistently ranked the world’s #1 Health and Wellness podcast.”
About the Author
Jay Shetty – “Hearing a monk speak for the first time at age 21 changed my life. For the next three years, I spent half my summer vacations working for a large financial organization with suits, steak houses and bars and the other half living as a monk in India wearing robes, sleeping on the floor and living out of a gym locker. After three years of back-and-forth, I chose the self-growth and service-focused life of being a monk. For the next three years, I went to live with monks. I woke up at 4 am, meditated for 4-8 hours, studied timeless wisdom and served others in nearby communities. But I couldn’t stay there forever. I knew there was a different purpose for my life. It was time to go home. When I left, I applied what I learned in the real world. Gratitude wasn’t just a concept, it boosted my immune system, mood and quality of sleep. Mastering the mind didn’t just make me feel calm, it helped me manage negativity and overcome overthinking. Discipline wasn’t joyless, it was a meaningful and powerful force to make an impact. Meditation wasn’t just a practice, it gave me clarity, confidence and focus. Empathy didn’t just apply to monks, it improved all my relationships. Mindfulness wasn’t just a tool, it was a way of life.”
Additional Resources
Tags
New Age | Nonfiction | Religion & Spirituality | Self-Improvement