Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

At times i fall into the trap of thinking that all desire is bad and that i must at all times be in the present moment. It is OK to have desires and think about the future/past. What you want is to be able to do both. Sometimes desiring-machine, sometimes zen.

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

Inspired by Naval:

Primary desires: health (physical and mental), relationships, low levels of Maslow's etc.

Secondary desires (preferred indifferents): money, grades, status.

You might think you want the latter, but really you want the former. This is easy to forget.

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

Besides quotes, part of the purpose of this account is to help me articulate some of my thoughts and questions in a clear and concise way. I am very curious and think about a lot of different things, but there is always some info loss from thought to speech/text. For me at least.

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

The annual produce of the land and labour of any nation can be increased in its value by no other means but by increasing either the number of its productive labourers, or the productive powers of those labourers who had before been employed. - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

If civilization is the necessary trend of development that leads from the family to humanity as a whole, it follows that the intensification of the sense of guilt, perhaps to a degree that the individual finds hard to endure, is indissolubly linked with it ... - Sigmund Freud

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

... it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. - On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

To put it in another way: one does not practice Zen to become a Buddha; one practices it because one is a Buddha from the beginning–and this “original realization” is the starting point of the Zen life. - Alan Watts, The Way of Zen

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

As a Zen master said, “Nothing is left to you at this moment but to have a good laugh.”

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have the right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same - Ted Chiang

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

And what does your Majesty propose to do then ? said the Favourite.--I propose then, said the King, to enjoy myself with my friends, and endeavour to be good company over a bottle.--And what hinders your Majesty from doing so now? replied the Favourite.

[Meditations, quotes & thoughts on life @LifeofJZB]

What the favourite of the king of Epirus said to his master, may be applied to men in all the ordinary situations of human life. When the King had recounted to him, in their proper order, all the conquests which he proposed to make, and had come to the last of them;