QUOTE

FindCenter AddIcon
Quote Author Image
FindCenter Quotes Image

All too easily, however, we can become distracted, scared, frustrated, gullible, cynical, or just plain inattentive. We suppress our natural questing spirit. We plow ahead without taking a good, hard look at what we’re doing and why. And whether we realize it or not, we buy into ready made systems of thought, habit, and belief sold to us by our culture, families, friends, and associates. We fall into step with the herd and almost unthinkingly adhere to whatever cult(ure) we’re brought up in, unconsciously living our received beliefs and assumptions, for the most part without question or examination.

By Lama Surya Das
FindCenter Flag Image

There are known concerns about this teacher’s actions. Please see our Teacher Policy in the footer menu on this page for more information.

Quote Author Image

Lama Surya Das is an American poet, author, and Western Buddhist meditation teacher and scholar. He is one of the main interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism in the West and is a leading spokesperson for American Buddhism. He is also the founder of the Dzogchen Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

FindCenter Video Image

FindCenter Quotes ImageAvoidance will make you feel less vulnerable in the short run, but it will never make you less afraid.

FindCenter AddIcon
FindCenter Video Image

FindCenter Quotes ImageExcessive use of external motivation can slow and even stop your journey to mastery.

FindCenter AddIcon
FindCenter Video Image

FindCenter Quotes ImageLearning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateau somewhat higher in most cases than that which preceded it . . . the upward spurts vary; the plateaus have their own dips and rises along the way. . . .

FindCenter AddIcon
FindCenter Video Image

FindCenter Quotes ImageWhat we call ‘mastery’ can be defined as that mysterious process through which what is at first difficult or even impossible becomes easy and pleasurable through diligent, patient, long-term practice.

FindCenter AddIcon
FindCenter Video Image

FindCenter Quotes ImageIndecision leads to inaction, which leads to low energy, depression, despair.

FindCenter AddIcon
FindCenter Video Image

FindCenter Quotes ImageUltimately, nothing in this life is ‘commonplace,’ nothing is ‘in between.’ The threads that join your every act, your every thought, are infinite. All paths of mastery eventually merge. [Each person has a] vantage point that offers a truth of its own.

FindCenter AddIcon
FindCenter Video Image

FindCenter Quotes ImageResolve to do the things you find to be difficult. That’s what confident people do. They tackle those things that are scary and they get addicted to doing it.

FindCenter AddIcon
FindCenter Video Image

FindCenter Quotes ImageIt is not fear that stops you from doing the brave and true thing in your daily life. Rather, the problem is avoidance. You want to feel comfortable so you avoid doing or saying the thing that will evoke fear and other difficult emotions.

FindCenter AddIcon
FindCenter Video Image

FindCenter Quotes ImageWhen we try to protect ourselves from the inevitability of change, we are not listening to the soul. We are listening to our fear of life and death, our lack of faith, our smaller ego’s will to prevail.

FindCenter AddIcon
FindCenter Video Image

FindCenter Quotes ImageI have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

FindCenter AddIcon

EXPLORE TOPIC

Fear