mastery

to have to combat one__ instincts__hat is the formula for decadence: as long as life is ascending, happiness and instinct are one.

Excellence is inconveniently difficult.

The best yardstick for our progress is not other people, but ourselves. Am I better than I was yesterday? This is the only question worth asking. As long as you go to bed at night a better practitioner than the one who woke up that morning, you have succeeded. Your worth should have nothing to do with how your progress stacks up relative to another.

Every task you are given, no matter how menial, offers opportunities to observe this world at work. No detail about the people within it is too trivial. Everything you see or hear is a sign for you to decode. Over time, you will begin to see and understand more of the reality that eluded you at first. For instance, a person whom you initially thought had great power ended up being someone with more bark than bite. Slowly, you begin to see behind the appearances. As you amass more information about the rules and power dynamics of your new environment, you can begin to analyze why they exist, and how they relate to larger trends in the field. You move from observation to analysis, honing your reasoning skills, but only after months of careful attention.

The phrase "I dont know" is the most honest thing anyone could ever say.

Whatever liberates our spirit without giving us mastery over ourselves is destructive.

Truly creative people in all fields can temporarily suspend their ego and simply experience what they are seeing, without the need to assert a judgment, for as long as possible. They are more than ready to find their most cherished opinions contradicted by reality.

Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather.

Fear is a powerful beast, if it is allowed the mastery.

Love is a practice of self-mastery.

Any master skill in practice is about comprehending myriad elements and fitting them together in inspired ways that satisfy the objective.

A man cannot understand the art he is studying if he only looks for the end result without taking the time to delve deeply into the reasoning of the study.

If you are fortunate enough to have a particular activity with which you find greatest joy and technical success, it is your responsibility as a growing human being to continue that study. Whatever your endeavor, if you can expand upon the knowledge in your strongest subject, that new found understanding of all things will trickle down to every other area of your life.

Self Mastery is the ability to maneuver through life without the mind or emotional attachment. It is being a mindfully present observer instead of the mind identified perceiver.

Mastery does not exist.

If we do not master ourselves, we will be a slave to ourselves.

Every part of you is a master intelligence and is speaking truth to you, and through you, at all times.

Loving is like any other art-craft where the masters have carefully practiced and where the novices have languished in their carelessness.