In reality, there is no such thing as a “should” or a “shouldn’t.” These are only thoughts that we impose onto reality. The mind is like a carpenter’s level. When the bubble is off to one side—“It shouldn’t be raining”—we can know that the mind is caught in its thinking. When the bubble is right in the middle—“It’s raining”—we can know that the surface level and the mind is accepting reality as it is. Without the “should” and “shouldn’t,” we can see reality as it is, and this leaves us free to act efficiently, clearly, and sanely. Asking “What’s the reality of it?” can help bring the mind out of its story, back into the real world.

When you're used to getting just a piece of bread for a meal, you don't realize that you can ask for a plate of pasta. You have never seen a plate of pasta. You don't even know it exists. So, to ask for it is totally out of your reality. Hopefully, at some point, either someone shows you a plate of pasta, you read about it, or you hear about it enough so that it becomes real, and it's not just a fantasy anymore, and then you start thinking "Hey, I want that pasta."

"Oh, Little Blue Engine," cried the dolls and toys. "Will you pull us over the mountain? Our engine has broken down and the boys and girls on the other side won't have any toys to play with or good food to eat, unless you help us. Please, please, let us, Little Blue Engine." "I'm not very big," said the Little Blue Engine. "They use me only for switching trains in the yard. I have never been over the mountains." ... Puff, puff, chug, chug, went the Little Blue Engine. "I think I can--I think I can--I think can--I think can--I think I can--I think can--I think can--I think I can--I think can--I think can."

Einstein was a man who could ask immensely simple questions. And what his work showed was that when the answers are simple, too, then you can hear God thinking.

Here's what I mean by building your own subculture...I don't mean you disregard every rule of your community. I don't go around naked, for example. I don't run through red lights. The little things, I can obey. But the big things--how we think, what we value--those you must choose for yourself. You can't let anyone--or any society--determine those for you.

I was thinking to myself, "If the world were just perfect and you didn't have to ask for anything, if people were just sensitive to all of our needs, that would be much easier."

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.

Our opinions become fixed at the point where we stop thinking.

It is the act of forgiveness that opens up the only possible way to think creatively about the future at all.

When you do The Work, you see who you are by seeing who you think other people are. Eventually you come to see that everything outside you is a reflection of your own thinking. You are the storyteller, the projector of all stories, and the world is the projected image of your thoughts.

Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.

Teachers
Topics