Mindfulness

“Our minds are all we have. They are all we have ever had. And they are all we can offer others. This might not be obvious, especially when there are aspects of your life that seem in need of improvement—when your goals are unrealized, or you are struggling to find a career, or you have relationships that need repairing. But it’s the truth. Every experience you have ever had has been shaped by your mind. Every relationship is as good or as bad as it is because of the minds involved. If you are perpetually angry, depressed, confused, and unloving, or your attention is elsewhere, it won’t matter how successful you become or who is in your life—you won’t enjoy any of it.” ― Sam Harris

“My mind begins to seem like a video game: I can either play it intelligently, learning more in each round, or I can be killed in the same spot by the same monster, again and again.” ― Sam Harris

“Our minds are all we have. They are all we have ever had. And they are all we can offer others.” ― Sam Harris

“Some people are content in the midst of deprivation and danger, while others are miserable despite having all the luck in the world. This is not to say that external circumstances do not matter. But it is your mind, rather than circumstances themselves, that determines the quality of your life. Your mind is the basis of everything you experience and of every contribution you make to the lives of others. Given this fact, it makes sense to train it.” ― Sam Harris

“We are all seeking fulfillment while living at the mercy of changing experience. Whatever we acquire in life gets dispersed. Our bodies age. Our relationships fall away. Even the most intense pleasures last only a few moments. And every morning, we are chased out of bed by our thoughts.” ― Sam Harris

“If you are thinking without knowing you are thinking, you are confused about who and what you are.” ― Sam Harris

“A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.” ― Sam Harris

“As manuals for contemplative understanding, the Bible and the Koran are worse than useless. Whatever wisdom can be found in their pages is never best found there, and it is subverted, time and again, by ancient savagery and superstition.” ― Sam Harris

“Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel love and avoid loneliness…. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person's thoughts. Every waking moment, and even in our dreams, we struggle to direct the flow of sensation, emotion, and cognition towards states of consciousness that we value.” ― Sam Harris

“This is not to say that external circumstances do not matter. But it is your mind, rather than circumstances themselves, that determines the quality of your life. Your mind is the basis of everything you experience” ― Sam Harris

“Confusion and suffering may be our birthright, but wisdom and happiness are available.” ― Sam Harris

“The only differences between a cult and a religion are the numbers of adherents and the degree to which they are marginalized by the rest of society.” ― Sam Harris

“One thing each of us knows for certain is that reality vastly exceeds our awareness of it.” ― Sam Harris