-
Awareness is a destination, that needs to continuously be reached. Like a tightrope walker, one cannot say, “I have reached my destination” while on the tightrope.
-
When awareness is reached it must be maintained.
-
It is very rare to find a successful person who is not aware.
-
Awareness is concentrating on what you want to concentrate on, even if it is not pleasurable or even if it is downright painful.
-
Awareness is the ability to recognize yourself.
-
Most people do not base their decisions on reality. Rather they base decisions on what they want reality to be and then hope and expect that reality will conform with their decision.
-
Anything that they think will lead them to these goals they will jump at without considering if it is realistic for they expect reality to fit in with their goals.
-
Someone who is pursuing an unrealistic means of making money will always believe that they are pursuing a realistic means of making money.
-
The reason for this is that their brain only concentrates on what gives them pleasure, so they only concentrate on the money they will make and how others made money just like this and how they will be very rich etc.
-
There is no business, no education, and no relationship that is all pleasurable.
-
In fact the deeper one is involved with their goals the more one realizes that a host of unpleasurable activities needs their attention. People who are successful manage to focus and do their tasks despite the un-pleasure it gives them.
-
Success of a goal is dependent on the ability to be aware, and to focus, and do what is un-pleasurable for a greater pleasure later.
-
Self-control is one of the hardest things in the world to achieve for you are fighting against your own wishes and desires for pleasure.
-
No one who is a “self made man” as most wealthy people these days are, did it without hard work.
-
They suffered pain but reaped pleasure.
-
Others who remove the pain by not planting at all never sleep a peaceful night for they always have much to worry about.
-
We choose what to see, hear, taste, etc. If we continually choose to only see what we enjoy and look away from what we don’t enjoy, we are living an “awake” dream.
-
There is not a very big difference between us in our awake or dream stage. We are seeing both when we are asleep and when we are awake, and we are seeing only what we want to see.
-
The biased person is like someone who is dreaming. Many intricate facts are presented which support his or her desires. The fact that he or she is presenting the facts makes the person vulnerable, for the presentation of facts is in order to achieve what he or she desires and wants to believe.
-
Realizing what your objectives are is the first part of becoming aware.
-
A person only wants to be rich and famous because they believe that this is how they will be happy.
-
Almost every ambition and every goal that humans can conceive of involves obtaining pleasure from this goal.
-
It makes no sense to pursue a goal which won’t bring you to your destination.
-
There is a major difference between the pleasure achieved by eating and drinking and listening to music and the pleasure achieved by feeling good about oneself.
-
I am sure you will agree that feeling good about yourself is far more pleasurable (and conversely far more painful) than the best food in the world. One is a physical pleasure and one is a mental pleasure. How can one eat the worst food and feel good about oneself. The answer is by accomplishing what is seen as important.
-
Imagine you are saving the world. That is a pretty big accomplishment. You would not need to listen to good music because the pleasure of your accomplishment would far outweigh any pleasure from music or anything else.
-
Drugs are so detrimental for it releases the pleasure chemicals and gives you lots of pleasure for nothing.
-
By helping other people you get pleasure. It is that simple.
-
By giving ourselves physical pleasure we just need an infinite amount which is why drug addicts always need drugs.
-
Pleasure comes either by mentally feeling good about oneself, commonly referred to as pride. “I am proud of myself for helping someone.” Or pleasure is a chemical reaction which needs to be done indefinitely as in the case of drugs.
-
Pleasure can also be the lack of pain but this is the prevention of displeasure not the acquiring of pleasure.
-
I can’t stress enough how important it is to be certain what your goal is, something that it will give you a lasting pleasure and not a temporary pleasure which will need to be consistently renewed in order for you to feel like you have any pleasure in life.
-
The only reason that we have the ability to work hard is because our mind is stronger and more powerful than our body. Our mind can instruct our body to do something that will give it pain. This happens every time you go to the dentist for a checkup.
-
We try to avoid shame like the plague. For this reason if someone makes fun of our goals it often becomes debilitating.
-
It is almost impossible not to have someone mock our goals. People get jealous at other people and make fun of us as a way to prevent our success.
-
It is very good to have a support system if you are easily ashamed or put-off when other people mock you.
-
The idea that you should not be afraid of what other people say is a prerequisite for success.
-
Only by extreme self-control can one motivate oneself to progress on ones course and ignore all other mockers.
-
There are no magic bullets that will eliminate your laziness or any other tendencies, which obstruct your ability to reach your goal. A consistent method and system whereby you gradually learn to push away your negative tendencies for a greater goal is what is needed.
-
Depending on how much pleasure or more importantly how much you desire the pleasure of your goals, you will feel the ability to forego pain for pleasure.
-
You are always thinking; meaning, your brain is always active but you can decide what to think about.
-
The reality is that unless you are aware of your motives, you cannot choose anything.
-
Your desires will always overpower your logic and you will always be very predictable.
-
Can you yourself not worry about what your friends will say and make the choices in life you feel are important?
-
Awareness is about recognizing what it is that you want to do. As we often have conflicting desires this may be difficult.
-
Every thought spoken word or behavior travels through a journey of mind and heart.
-
Heart, the seat of passion has two major components: Love and Fear: I am attracted to what I love and I retract from what I fear.
-
Naturally I am attracted to what I believe is good for me and I recoil or distance myself from what I believe is painful for me.
-
If a person is caught up in the pleasure instinct then they recoil from that which is not pleasurable although it may actually be good for them.
-
People who sometimes need to fire people do not find it any easier then lower level people, the only difference is that they can force themselves to do the unpleasurable.
-
Self-control is the ability to have your mind control your emotions. Although your natural instinct may be to not go to the dentist nevertheless if it is better for your teeth one can force oneself to do what one needs to.
-
Pleasure is the most basic of all human drives, however as discussed before, in order to achieve pleasure, pain must be endured.
-
A person who cannot sacrifice pain for pleasure will never be able to achieve their goals.
-
Humans naturally fear the unknown. People often stay in very unhealthy relationships for they are more afraid of what they know nothing about than an abusive relationship which they are at least familiar with.
-
Knowing why we want to do things allows us the ability to decide if we want to do them.
-
There is nothing wrong with quitting if a person knows why they are quitting.
-
In other words, a person must be aware of what is going on in their own mind.
-
I believe very few people are conscious of their own thoughts.
-
Usually life goes fairly good for most people these days and therefore nothing shakes them out of their dream-like state.
-
Jung writes that there is no birth of consciousness without pain.
-
Daniel Goleman explains that the human mind is like a movie director: setting the people, the scenes, the conversations all to his or her liking. When reality interferes we simply move the set and continue with our movie.
-
The mid-life crises stage is when people realize that the movie will not come true. The fairy tale will not be realized and a bunch of desperate measures are taken.
-
In the end of the day feeling proud of oneself is far more pleasurable and meaningful then giving oneself transitory pleasure.
-
To feel good about oneself a person should join a nonprofit organization, donate generously to the less fortunate, become a better spouse or parent or child and thereby become special.
-
Imagine the joy of knowing that you brought health and happiness to tens of thousands of people.
-
There is no such a thing as a free lunch. If a person wants to be happy they need to pursue what will really make them happy at the expense of temporary pleasure.
-
This is a simple mathematical equation, temporary pleasure or lasting pleasure. It sounds simple but how many people successfully diet. Very few.
-
Animals work on instinct with no ability to control themselves. Humans have instincts however they can control themselves. We are given the option. Most of us never choose.
-
I BELIEVE THAT MOST OF US DON’T EVEN REALIZE THAT WE CAN CHOOSE.
-
We are not aware that we can change our thoughts.
-
Survivors do not let the abuse control them rather they control the abuse. They control what they are thinking about.
-
It is a miracle that anyone who lived through the holocaust is sane. The survivors somehow put it behind them and moved on with life.
-
It is far easier to live instinctively and reactively instead of assertively and consciously.
-
For us to truly make the world a better place, to truly achieve that which we long for, we need to come to terms that if we won’t do it no one will.
-
If we are not aware of our thoughts and if we are not in control of them – and our speech and actions – there is simply no way we will ever achieve our dreams.
KabbalahWisdom.org 