Rating: Good
A Quiet Mind blurb excerpt: Offering powerful insights, simple tips, and helpful advice, A Quiet Mind is the key to achieving ease, finding balance, and calm in a chaotic world. Life is full of endless noise - from your phone, the buzz of people, traffic, and television. You are also subject to internal noise - worries, fears, negative emotions, and racing thoughts. Fuelling stress and anxiety, this overload is harmful to your mental and physical health, distracting you from living a fulfilling, purposeful and peaceful life.
Drawing on the practices, beliefs, and teachings of Buddhism, this book explains the causes of the 'noise', looking at your relationship with people, money, and technology. It reveals the benefits of turning your consciousness inwards and with a new awareness teaches you how to quieten your mind.
My opinion: For the benefit of transparency, I am not religious. I read this book out of curiosity and because the title appealed to me. Firstly, this book is the most beautifully presented book I have ever come across. If you have read it you will know what I mean. As for the content, it was good. It provided a layman's introduction to the philosophies of Buddhism, a practice that is surprisingly simple and practical. At least from what I could gather. If I am to take one thing away from this book it would be that it has positively changed my perception of this religion.
Lessons from A Quiet Mind:
Modern life is noisy and distracting. We need quiet time to absorb and learn from our experiences. Buddhism can help us in this process of growth.
In Buddhist teachings, the destructive emotions raga, dvesha, and moha, collectively known as the "three poisons", are said to be the cause of our suffering.
Raga is a mind of greed and an attachment to material items.
Dvesha is a mind of anger that becomes enraged.
Moha is a mind of delusion and loss of self through instinct and desire.
It is said that by controlling these three emotions, we will overcome the evils and suffering of humanity.
Internal noise from negative emotions can be more harmful than external noise. Find a healthy way to release stress before it explodes. Taking your stress out on others just makes things worse for everyone.
To have a quiet mind you do not need quiet surroundings, you just need to change your interpretation of the sounds in your environment. Accept that these sounds are inevitable and they will cease to be a noisy distraction.
There are truths that our selfishness stops us from seeing clearly. One is that everything is constantly changing, including ourselves. Another is that things will never turn out the way we want. Accepting these truths will help to quieten our minds.
The first step to calmness is recognizing destructive emotions within us. Then we can take a step back to understand the cause of our anger or frustration and neutralize it before it traps us in a vicious circle.
We all need quiet time alone to collect our thoughts, but being physically alone doesn't guarantee us quiet time. Turn off the TV if it is on for no reason and use the time instead to focus on an absorbing mental or physical activity.
The mind and body are a single entity. Changes in one affect the other, so for example, when your mind is agitated your body responds with increased heart rate and perspiration and faster shallower breathing. Conscious, deep breathing is the key to restoring calm to your body - and your mind.
Seek out the places that bring you peace.
Steady, regular walking is an ideal way to calm your mind and organise your thoughts.
Writing is not only a means of communication with others but also a way to gain a deeper understanding of our thoughts and feeling. Confront your negative thoughts: write them down and then write down an alternative, more constructive way of thinking.
The early morning is the quietest time of the day. Rise early to make use of this precious time by getting ahead with work or study, or simply enjoy being alone without interruptions. This will take the pressure off the rest of the day.
In Buddhism cleaning is an important spiritual practice. Doing seemingly menial tasks properly is a path to enlightenment. Working in a clean, tidy, well-ordered space is motivating and inspiring.
Food is a great blessing and should be received with gratitude. Never forget that life has gone into the food you eat, whether animal or vegetable.
The ability to choose from an array of options can feel empowering. However, if we spend our lives sifting through information to make our choices, it is the information that gains power over us. Learn to control the amount of information that you receive.
Our minds are easily distracted. We are often tempted to speculate on questions about the future that we cannot possibly answer or dwell on regrets from the past that we cannot do anything about. Stay focused on the here and now.
When things go wrong, it can be hard to acknowledge that we have made a mistake and we blame other people. Learn from your own mistakes or you will keep repeating them.
Suppressing your desires never works. Instead, acknowledge them and try to work around them by keeping yourself away from temptation as far as possible.
Comparing yourself to other people only leads to feelings of superiority or inferiority, neither of which are good for you. Instead, compare yourself to your past or future self. Seek comrades for mutual support on your path. Rivals can be a positive influence if you use their achievements as inspiration for your own."
We all view the world through coloured glasses tinted by our own experiences and prejudices. We cannot change this, but we can learn to take account of our preconceptions. No matter how unreliable our view, we should base our decision on our own judgments not anyone else's.
Being honest with yourself about why you dislike someone will help you build more authentic relationship with them. Make sure that your love for other people is founded on a genuine concern for them, not on what they offer you.
No matter how hard we try, we cannot guarantee that things will turn out the way we want them to - and they generally don't. Don't let your happiness depend on events you cannot control. Instead, accept whatever happens, learn from it and keep going in hope, not expectation.
Do not what is evil, do what is good, and purify one's own mind. Easy to remember, this is also hard to do.
Modern society conditions us to base our actions on what we stand to gain or lose. Try to resist this tendency. Be generous. Let go of the things you treasure.
The four evil deeds of the mouth are lying, duplicity, abuse, and idle words. In each case, they disturb the minds of the person committing the misdeed and the people on the receiving end. Think before you speak.
Do not lie, say things to please others, speak ill of others of delivering false flattery.
Complaining does us no good at all. We may think it helps us let off steam, but it actually makes us feel worse. It wastes our time, alienates our friends, and drains our energy. Look for things to be grateful for, not to complain about.
We are each responsible for the path we follow. There are rules to guide us, but we have to make up our own minds which ones to obey. Consider the intention behind rules and the consequences, for ourselves and others of disobeying them.
Three strategies for dealing with stress:
Distance yourself from the cause.
Boost your resistance towards stress.
Eliminate the casue.
Conquer your stress by taking a step back and recognizing what is causing it. Cultivating your mind can help you understand the stress caused by pursuing material wealth and can help you appreciate the viewpoint of people you dislike who cause you stress.
The middle way is a path between the extremes of self-deprivation and self-indulgence. It is not easy to follow the middle way, as we are forever being tipped towards one extreme or the other. But it is important that we do our best.
Whatever you decide to do, make sure it's your own decision. It doesn't matter if you make the wrong decision, so long as you learn from it. You will learn nothing from following the crowd.
When following the path of your career or your life as a whole, stay focused on yourself. It's easy to lose sight of who we are as we pursue our goals, but our achievements will ring hollow if we don't understand ourselves.
Don't avoid short-term conflict by creating long-term disharmony within you. Create harmony for the future, not just the present.
A Quiet Mind Best Quotes:
“If you want to lead a peaceful life, try to pay careful attention not just to noise from the outside but also to the noise that wells up from within."
"Sounds come from both the outside and from within, and whether or not they ultimately resonate as noise will depend on our own mind."
"If we can use our strength to place our feet on the ground and make steady progress with each step, then little by little we will regain our momentum."
"Don't ignore feelings of anger but instead face up to those emotions and search for the cause"
"Walking the path of Buddhism doesn't mean learning many things. It means being thorough in whatever you do."
"When we want money for the sake of having money, we become slaves to money."
"People who complain may think of it as a "necessary evil", but in fact, it's just an evil"
"By complaining you stand to lose time, friends, credibility and opportunities"
"Once the mind is troubled, it is not easily settled"
What Next:
If you are interested in this book, you may want to check out our list of reviewed Personal Development Books.
My personal recommendation for those who loved this book - The Courage To Be Disliked
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