Thinking

The highest form

J. Krishnamurti, India

(Submitted by The Art of Living Team)

The highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgement.

The creations of our mind

Lama Anagarika Govinda, Germany

(Submitted by Matt Murphy, Australia)

If we do not dissolve or integrate the creations of our mind, we will get attached to them and become their prisoners.

Intelligent optimism

Jurriaan Kamp, Netherlands

(Submitted by The Art of Living Team)

All of us are born intelligent optimists. All of us! You don’t believe me? Let me ask you this: have you ever met a pessimistic 5-year-old? Did you ever see a child who fell to the ground, bloodied his knees and, after drying his tears, said he wasn’t going to run anymore?

Such children don’t exist. They get up, try again and keep smiling - even if sometimes through their tears. Each kid instinctively has the intelligence that getting past failure and continuing to try is a good, fulfilling and natural state.

Whirlwinds

Paul Fleischman, USA

(Submitted by the author)

The art of living consists of balancing two whirlwinds, by walking down a middle path, that allows both sets of demands to scintillate yet keeps both of them in check. The arena on one side is competence, and on the other is realization. Everyone grows up under the pressure of establishing competence.

Up to now

Suso de Toro, Spain

(Submitted by Mireia Lorenzo, Spain )

Up to now, we’ve been working with ideas from the second half of the twentieth century, and they’re dead ideas.

A why

Friedrich Nietzsche, Germany

(Submitted by The Art of Living team)

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Wisdom

Hermann Hesse, Germany

(Submitted by Cheryl Chandler, Tasmania)

Wisdom is nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment of life.

Brain diversity

Thomas Armstrong, USA

(Submitted by Dorothy Huber, Australia)

Imagine for a moment that our society has been transformed into a culture of flowers. Now let’s say for the sake of argument that the psychiatrists are the roses. Visualize a gigantic sunflower coming into the rose psychiatrist’s office. The psychiatrist pulls out his diagnostic tools and in a matter of a half-an-hour or so has come up with a diagnosis: “You suffer from huge-ism. It’s a treatable condition if caught early enough, but alas, there’s not too much we can do for you at this point in your development."

Self-knowledge

George I. Gurdjieff, Armenia

(Submitted by The Art of Living Team)

Without self-knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.