The book I read this week is “No Mud, No Lotus – The Art of Transforming Suffering” (2014) by Thích Nhất Hạnh, a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk born in 1926.
“Most people are afraid of suffering. But suffering is a kind of mud to help the lotus flower of happiness grow. There can be no lotus flower without the mud.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
Here you can find a mind map (I’ll write soon an article about my method).
Please note that the following work is only intended to be used for educational purposes, under fair use. I recommend you to buy the book, it’s really worth it.
Some of my thoughts about.
- I used to draw a lot, I discovered that you can’t represent a light if you don’t draw darkness around it.
- Remember that once a snap was enough, without taking vitamin supplements
- Stop overthinking: mind is a tool, we are NOT our mind
- “Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.” (“Fight Club“)
- If earning and more and thinking about investing cause you anxiety and sleep debt, remember that health worths much more than money
- You can eat at a three stars restaurant but distracted by phone or negative thoughts
- You can be fully present even remote if you are really 100% in the moment
- Try to understand that sometimes haters gonna hate just because they feel angry with themselves and the world.
- Find time to go for a walk in the nature, whether in the mountain or at the shore and think deeply to find and understand yourself
- If you think you just need more money to be happier, see the Easterlin paradox about the link between income and happiness and some of the most recent studies about it, like “High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being” (D. Kahneman et al., 2010) and “Happiness, income satiation and turning points around the world” (A. Jebb et al., 2018)
- If you think you are different from the other commuters, see on Youtube the experiment made with violin virtuoso Joshua Bell outside a Metro stop in Washington D.C., as featured also on the news with titles like “Joshua Bell: no ordinary busker“
Finally, here’s a little text that I remember I have read more than 20 years ago, present everywhere with little edits (please note that numbers there are purely indicative):
“If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of the world.
If you have money in your bank, your wallet, and some spare change, you are among the top 8% of the world.
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture or the horrible pangs of starvation, you are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering.
If you can read this message, you are more fortunate than 1 billion people in the world who cannot read at all.”
Have you ever thought about it?
If you’re interested in my books list for 2021 updated to this week, just click here!
Impressive.