Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – P. ix “This book summarizes…decades of research on the positive aspects of human experience – joy, creativity, the process of total involvement with life that I call flow. …a joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe. …this book presents general principles…to transform boring and meaningless lives into ones full of enjoyment.” P. 1 “Aristotle concluded that, more than anything else, men and women seek happiness.”… “We do not understand what happiness is any better than Aristotle did… people often end up...
Read MoreThe Monk and the Philosopher
By J-F Revel and M. Ricard – 1. Revel is a renowned French philosopher and atheist and Ricard is his son who has a PhD in biology and a very western education before moving to Asia to become a monk some 30 years ago. 2. In this dialogue, Ricard defends the validity of his life-changing experience of enlightenment. He does not see his conversion to Buddhism as any repudiation of what he knew as a scientist. Revel is a formidable proponent of liberal Western individualism, of that enlightened self-interest which accords so well with Western science. 3. Ricard became an interpreter for the...
Read MoreTeachings of the Buddha
1. The word “Buddha” means ‘one who is awake’. It is the experience of awakening to the truth of life that is offered in the Buddhist tradition. 2. The Buddha saw that human freedom must come from practicing a life of inner and outer balance, and he called this discovery the Middle Path. 3. The Buddha sat in the midst of these forces with his heart open and his mind clear until he could see to the depths of human consciousness, until he discovered a place of peace at the center of them all. 4. From the Buddha’s enlightenment, two great powers were awakened in him: transcendent...
Read MoreThe Seat of the Soul
By Gary Zukav p. 21 “Our deepest understanding tells us that a truly evolved being is one that values others more than it values itself, and that values love more than it values the physical world and what is in it.” p. 22 “The need for physical dominance produces a type of competition that affects every aspect of our lives.” p. 23 “All of our institutions—social, economic and political—reflect our understanding of power as external.” (The author sees external power as bad) p. 24 “We have come to perceive power as in the possession of a few while the majority serve it...
Read MoreHow to Win Friends and Influence People
By Dale Carnegie – p. XIX “Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.” William James p. XIX “Education is the ability to meet life’s situations.” John G. Hibben p. 6 “By criticizing, we do not make lasting changes.” p. 8 “Criticisms are like homing pigeons. They always return home.” p. 17 “To know all is to forgive...
Read MoreGood to Great
By Jim Collins – 1. “Good is the enemy of great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.” 2. “We believe that almost any organization can substantially improve its stature and performance, perhaps even become great, if it conscientiously applies the framework of ideas we’ve uncovered… Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.” 3. “They first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the...
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