In this week’s talk, Zach encourages us to take the path to the heart by pointing out the uselessness of the mind. The mind is often on repeat and is strongly based on past conditioning. We all addicted to something, and everyone is addicted to their own way of thinking. Although the mind has brought incredible progress, it has also created terrible evil. Only the heart will evolve human consciousnesses to end violence and create connection.
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Quotes from the episode:
No matter what is going on
Never give up
Develop the heart
Too much energy in your country
Is spent developing the mind
Instead of the heart
Be compassionate
Not just to your friends
But to everyone
Be compassionate
Work for peace
In your heart and in the world
Work for peace
And I say again
Never give up
No matter what is going on around you
Never give up
– Dalai Lama XIV
The human mind is like that monkey, incessantly active by its own nature; then it becomes drunk with the wine of desire, thus increasing its turbulence. After desire takes possession comes the sting of the scorpion of jealousy at the success of others, and last of all the demon of pride enters the mind, making it think itself of all importance.
– Swami Vivekananda
My dear
is it true
that your mind is sometimes like
a battering ram
running all through the city,
shouting so madly inside and out
about the ten thousand things
that do not matter?
– Hafiz
Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being.
If not, leave this gathering.
Half-heartedness doesn’t reach into majesty.
You set out to find God,
but then you keep stopping for long periods
at meanspirited roadhouses.
Don’t wait any longer.
— Rumi
If I can say anything to you, it is to invite you to look deeply and recognize the real enemy. The enemy is not a person. That enemy is a way of thinking that has brought a lot of suffering for everyone.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
What about evil, you may ask? Aren’t some people just evil, just monsters, and aren’t such people just unforgivable? I do believe there are monstrous and evil acts, but I do not believe those who commit such acts are monsters or evil. To relegate someone to the level of monster is to deny that person’s ability to change and to take away that person’s accountability for his or her actions and behavior.
― Desmond Tutu
Our minds are like crows. They pick up everything that glitters, no matter how uncomfortable our nests get with all that metal in them.
— Thomas Merton
8.18
Indeed, O foolish and afflicted mind,
You want, you crave for everything,
This “everything” will grow and turn
To suffering increased a thousandfold.
– Shantideva
Martha, Martha, you worry about “the ten thousand things.”
So few are necessary. Indeed, only one.
—Luke 10:42
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery
However, I say to you, love your enemy, bless the one who curses you, do something wonderful for the one who hates you, and respond to the very ones who persecute you by praying for them. For that will reveal your identity as children of your heavenly Father. He is kind to all by bringing the sunrise to warm and rainfall to refresh whether a person does what is good or evil.
– Matthew 5:44-45
