a mark.......................

 

It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

-Attributed to Aristotle

Maybe.......................

 

To think independently of other human beings is impossible, and if it were possible it would be undesirable.  Thinking is necessarily, thoroughly, and wonderfully social.  Everything you think is a response to what someone else has thought and said.  And when people commend someone for "thinking for herself" they usually mean "ceasing to sound like people I dislike and starting to sound more like people I approve of." . . .

. . . it should remind us that all of us at various times in our lives believe true things for poor reasons, and false things for good reasons, and that whatever we think we know, whether we're right or wrong, arises from our interactions with other human beings.  Thinking independently, solitarily, "for ourselves," is not an option.

-Alan Jacobs, How To Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds

Calmness.....................

 

     Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.  It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control.  Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought. . . .

     Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled passion, is tumultuous with ungoverned grief, is blown about by anxiety and doubt.  Only those whose thoughts are controlled and purified make the winds and the storms of the soul obey them.

     Tempest-tossed souls, wherever you may be, under whatsoever conditions you may live, know this—in the ocean of life the isles of blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of our ideal awaits your coming.  Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought.  In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does not sleep; wake Him.  Self-control is strength.  Right thought is master.  Calmness is power.  Say unto your heart, "Peace, be still!"

-James Allen, Serenity

untouched...............

 

"Why are you so wary of thought?" said the philosopher.  "Thought is the one tool we have for organizing the world."

"True.  But thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it."

To his disciples he later said, "A thought is a screen, not a mirror; that is why you live in a thought envelope, untouched by Reality."

-Anthony de Mello, One Minute Wisdom

Really good advice.........

 

hard enough to control your own.................

 

      The fact is, it is impossible to control someone else's thoughts.  Therefore, fearing what other people think, or trying to control their thoughts, is a complete waste of your time.

     You will never feel in control of your life, your feelings, your thoughts, or your actions until you stop being consumed with or trying to control what other people think about you.

-Mel Robbins, The Let Them Theory

the light......................

 

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny - it is the light that guides your way.

-attributed to Heraclitus

Homework........................

 

Withdraw from the unrest of external activities, then flee away and hide from the turmoil of inward thoughts, for they create discord.

-Meister Eckhart

A few thoughts..........................

.....................from Kevin Kelly:

It's thrilling to be extremely polite to rude strangers.

Your time and space are limited.  Remove, give away, throw out anything that no longer gives you joy in order to make room for those that do.

Actual great opportunities will not have "Great Opportunities" in the subject line.

Do more of what looks like work to others but is play to you.

If you repeated what you did today 365 more times, will you be where you want to be next year?

alone but not lonely............

 . . . when I’m walking or biking, I don’t consider being alone with my own thoughts to be a waste of time.

-Arnold Kling, from here  

Eight thoughts about risk..............

First, risk is highest when everything seems perfect.

Second, the conditions that create prosperous outcomes often plant the seeds of their own unwindings.

Third, risk happens fast.

Fourth, boring is often a feature, not a flaw. Leaving money on the table isn’t a bad thing if it provides a margin for error.

Fifth, there is never one single catalyst to any existential risk.

Sixth, the biggest risks, by their very nature, can’t be forecasted.

Seventh, when you have already achieved “success,” no terminal tail risk is worth it, regardless of the probability.

 Eighth, the biggest risks always look obvious in hindsight, yet we never catch them beforehand.

-Jack Raines furthers the discussion about each here.

Wisdom...........................

 I’ve given up on trying to avoid 3:00 a.m. thoughts.  Instead, over the years, I’ve tried to channel them to a more productive use.

-more here

Heart......................

 More says to his arch-enemy Cromwell, “What you have hunted me for is not my actions, but the thoughts of my heart. It is a long road you have opened. For first men will disclaim their hearts and presently they will have no hearts. God help the people whose Statesmen walk your road.”

-as culled from here

Hmmm...............................

 from Zen Flash

About the mind.........................

      Just as it is the nature of fire to burn, it is the nature of the mind to think and wander all the time.  The mind is comprised  of thoughts and doubts.  It constantly casts up dreams and fantasies, creating its own world and then destroying it.  It builds thought castles in the sky and then gets entangled in its own creation.  In this way, it creates its own suffering and undergoes the consequences.  Some modern psychologists believe that the mind can be satisfied if you let it run free, if you let it have whatever it wants.  But this is not the case.  The mind can never be satisfied in this way;  it will always create a mountain of desires.

-Swami Muktananda,  Mystery of the Mind

Nice..........................

“Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.” 

-Henri Bergson

On self-fulfilling prophesies........

         via

Wouldn't an even higher................

...........................stage be when we actually begin to control them?

"The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive, is when we recognise that we ought to control our thoughts."

-Charles Darwin

Change................................

"Your essence is changeable, like your mind.  Every action you take, every thought you have, changes you, even if just a little, making you a little more elevated or a little more degraded."

-David Brooks, from his introduction to The Second Mountain:  The Quest for a Moral Life

The secret life of thought..............

Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life.  Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot;  it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.

-James Allen,  As A Man Thinketh