"Your fundamental assumption is wrong. You think you are this vehicle. This naked ape. Homo sapiens. I tell you, you are no more human than a driver is the car he is driving. You would never go to a junkyard to look for the driver would you?"

"The yogic scriptures paint a picture of perfection, and perfection can be your aim, but I can tell you sad stories about myself and others who have entered into a state of premature holiness with unpleasant consequences."

"If people think they can 'do meditation, then they become frustrated every time they don't achieve the state. In the same way that making more of an effort to fall asleep - trying to force yourself to sleep - often backfires, the meditative state becomes more elusive the more you try. On the other hand, if people understand that meditation is a state, then their only job is to create the right circumstances. They focus on what they can do - relax, sit still, concentrate - and then sometimes the state comes, while sometimes it does not. Either one is fine."

"Meditation is, a state that can best be described as deep dreamless sleep while awake."

"Stress is a natural and normal part of being alive. Stress - free promises set people up for failure. Even when used with good intentions and accompanied by relevant and beneficial ideas and practices, the use of the words stress - free is still ill advised because the approach is infused with an erroneous idea that will never come to fruition. The stress - free idea has become a significant hurdle on the path to real stress management, which is the balance between using stress productively and relieving harmful stress symptoms."

"There is no such thing as a stress - free life. No evidence has ever been presented which suggests that a stress - free life can ever be achieved. Stress can be managed, relieved and lessened, but never eliminated."

"When studying the world's religions, there appear to be two primary paths available to those who want to practice their faith. One path is internal and contemplative in nature. The other is emotional, external, and actionable in nature. I have identified these as the paths of oneness and goodness."

"These superhero and mythical stories have, in many cases, replaced Biblical stories as vehicles for communal myths, but they are hardly any better than ancient magical adventures tinged with mythical archetypes and the decidedly unnuanced black - and - white struggle between good and evil."

"Self - confidence can be defined in two sentences. (1) I trust myself to face life's challenges and (2) I trust myself to follow my dreams and goals."

"By thinking mostly about everything that has gone wrong, is going wrong, and can possibly go wrong, the thinker is bound to end up in a lousy mental and emotional state."

"Breaking away from old psychological memes requires a Herculean effort in many cases. In essence, we are outgrowing a worldview while maintaining a relation - ship of sorts. Transcending an ideology can feel like going through a divorce and having to stay friends because of the kids."

"Know this Mr. Davis. I am not crazy. I am not sane. I am not alive. I am not dead. I am not even the human being who you call Dr. Vigo Andersen. I was never born and I will never die. I am an eternal being. I am that I am. This, what you call reality, is just a collective dream. I was about to wake up from it permanently when I was yanked back into this temporal space. I did not try to kill myself. I tried to wake up."

"The most powerful word in time management is NO."

"A person with less knowledge and more self - confidence (which is primarily a way of thinking and acting) will often run circles around a person with more knowledge and less self - confidence; which means that self - confidence has the upper hand to knowledge when it comes to acting in the world. It has been interesting to see many of my star academic students struggle with teaching in the real world, while others who were less qualified in the academic field but had more self - confidence have gone out and positively affected many more people through their teaching."

"The building blocks of meditation are relaxation and concentration. If you cannot relax, you cannot meditate. If you cannot concentrate, you cannot meditate. No exceptions."

"Experifaith is distinctly different from storyfaith. It does not provide answers to life's big questions. Rather, it proposes a path of discovery through practice, where a person can come to his or her own conclusions. As such, it has more in common with the modern scientific method than storyfaith does, and, when practiced properly, experifaith is mostly verifiable within a community of practitioners."

"None of us understand the infinite universe. Most people who start thinking about it, get overwhelmed, shrug their shoulders, and turn their attention back to something mundane, like drinking beer or watching TV. Only a few great minds have ever actually contemplated the nature of the universe. Fewer still have done it without going insane."

"What I call stupidity is not only lack of knowledge, although much of humanity could be elevated from poverty, dogma, illusions and war through traditional education. A thriving education system is the foundation for progress. But stupidity is not merely ignorance; it can also be a way of acting. If you act contrary to your own goals in life ' you're stupid."

"In our youth, we may have ridiculed the cost - of - living - index family, with their house, two cars, and two kids, but today we are pro - family. We have seen the damage done by the previous generation and have doubled our efforts when it comes to caring for our families. Our children come first."

"Habits equal autopilot. Take brushing your teeth for example. Once that becomes a habit, you don't have to write positive affirmations or remind yourself constantly to brush your teeth. It is simply a habitual part of what you do every day. That is why I emphasize the five habits of stress management, not the five rules or the five goals. If you make these five habits an essential part of your life, then you will be able to manage stress effectively."

"It is imperative that your work habits from school do not make their way into your book writing process. I am talking about the practice of typing the last words just before the deadline every time you would hand in an assignment, a paper, or even a thesis. Your book needs time to mature, and you must allow yourself the luxury of rewriting and editing until you are satisfied."

"In an ideal world, both experifaith and storyfaith would provide spiritual aspirants of all faiths with guidance. Storyfaith would preserve tradition and teach morals through parables and examples. Experifaith would provide the blueprint for a personal path to follow. In the context of chocolate, storyfaith is a lecture about chocolate, including information about origins and fables about positive attributes, while experifaith is the literal act of tasting the chocolate."

"Once we got closer to the origins of these Eastern practices, we found that the monks and swamis were just as dogmatic and paternalistic, just as literal and conservative in their approach to spirituality as the Christian priests and ministers we were trying to get away from."

"Many people close themselves off from the world when they are under pressure. That is understandable. I have gone through periods when I didn't want to meet people because I didn't feel good about my situation in life and that made my life even more stressful. Remind yourself often about how much of an impact compassion and friendship can have on your life. You need to get out there, be compassionate and share your time and your life with your friends and other people that need your support. It's worth it on every level."

"You can tend to a garden every day for 20, 30 or 40 years. But if one day you stop giving it loving attention and care it will rapidly deteriorate. Weeds will start to grow, and in a relatively short period of time the garden will become a jungle. On the other hand, it is much easier to turn things around and start cultivating the garden again if it has flourished in the past. The same is true with the human mind and respectively the actions we take every day. If we cultivate our life with dedication, positive thinking, and consistent actions, it will be much easier to turn away from destructive behavior, however far we stray away from our original course."

"Forgiveness is probably the most important self - esteem building process anyone can undertake. Forgiveness is an internal response to the fact that we cannot, under any circumstances, change the past. The only things we can change are our thoughts about the past. Forgiveness happens when we stop wishing for a better past and understand that we are carrying hatred, anger and resentment within us."

"If you have ever procrastinated and then found yourself energized to complete a task at the last minute, then you have used the beneficial aspect of the fight or flight response (not the procrastinating part, but the energizing part). You see, with all its negative long term effects, the fight or flight response still gives us energy, and if we know how to use that energy, then stress is potentially good, at least in the short term."

"Meditation should be on the same list as brushing your teeth, sleeping and eating. Meditation is an addition to your routine, not a final goal to accomplish. Once meditation is in your routine, then your mind will feel fuzzy if you don't meditate, in the same way that your teeth feel fuzzy when you don't brush."

"Saying, 'I don't agree with you, or going so far as to say, 'I think your belief structure is childish, does not amount to persecution. Insensitivity is not the same as harassment or oppression."

"I started reading my manuscripts out loud, to hear what they sounded like. If the text flows with little effort, then I am satisfied, but if I keep stumbling and stuttering while I read, then I rewrite."

"Concentration is, a relaxed mental state, where the stream of consciousness flows in a single direction, either focusing on a phrase or mental picture, or alternately, a state in which the mind is alert and aware."

"Perfectionism is the enemy of the author. There is a difference between good writing habits and perfectionism. The author who displays good writing habits delivers on time. The aspiring author who is prone to perfectionism will likely never fin."

"Meditation is a state, often defined as deep dreamless sleep awake. But, in the same way that you cannot sleep on demand, you cannot meditate on demand - that is, you can't reach the state instantly in the same way that you can raise your right hand. The practices preceding meditation are relaxation, stillness and mental focus. Those are all things you can do. They are the preparation. Then, if you the circumstances are right, you can transition from the waking to the meditative state."

"Write a book, not the book."

"Self - confidence is built from the inside out and has little or nothing to do with outside circumstances."

"It is not lack of ability, but lack of motivation, lack of focus, and lack of self - confidence that prevents most aspiring authors from finishing what they started."

"The most important principle in your relationship with time is that time is perishable. No one can save time. It's not like money. You can't deposit the time you don't use into an account and use it later. Time passes. Time is a constantly depleting resource. Once it's gone, it's gone, and you will never get it back."

"If you are able to show goodness to yourself, your family, friends, and maybe to some in your community, you are doing better than most. In fact, it can be harder to show goodness to those who stand close to you than to those who are in faraway places. If more people tended to their own gardens, all of society would flourish as a result."

"Despite an ever increasing diversity when it comes to yoga brands, there are only four major paths in yoga and they have the same end goal; enlightenment. The end goal can be likened to the top of a pyramid. Even though people may start climbing the pyramid from different sides, at the end they will reach the same goal and thusly achieve unity."

"Gandhi is an example of a man who grew from being self - centered as he was learning to become a lawyer in England, to becoming more family - and social oriented in South - Africa, where he led a reformation of Indian rights, to becoming determined in helping his nation recover from British rule at which he succeeded in the end with the help of a great many people. At the end of his life Gandhi was increasingly focused on a larger picture, encasing the whole world in his vision of a peaceful future."

"The real difference between yoga and religion is this: Religion says believe, do not doubt, often citing the word of God and promises of an eternal afterlife, reciting dogma (unsubstantiated pre - modern myths), while yoga only points the way and urges its students to practice and experience for themselves. In this way yoga is very scientific in its approach to self - knowledge, transcendence and enlightenment. Its message is: Try the practice for yourself and only then can you truly believe."

"Stay within the confines of your chosen topic. If you start to stray away from your topic and find an urge to showcase everything that you know, resist that urge. Remember that you are writing a book, not the book."

"Walk into any church, and you will see people swimming in a sea of emotions (everything from shame and guilt to love and ecstasy). That may be the reason some people think that the more emotional they are, the more spiritual they are. But, as we will explore later in the book, undiluted spirituality has little to do with emotions, and what little it does have has more to do with emotional growth than feelings of elation."

"When the patient began speaking, Robert continued, he sounded unlike any person I have ever met before. Sure, his actions signaled that he was crazy, but his presence, Jessica, his presence was like what I imagine it would be to be close to a holy person or a spiritual master. I mean, that is really the only conclusion I can come to.And the holy guy tried to kill himself? Come on Robert. That just sounds ridiculous."