Meditation is not a means of forgetting the ego; it is a method of using the ego to observe and tame its own manifestations.
Mark EpsteinRead
It’s one of my theories that when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Advice often reflects the giver's own past experiences and challenges.
This quote suggests that when people offer advice, they are often projecting their own past struggles and lessons onto someone else. It highlights the idea that the act of giving advice is not only about helping others but also about a form of self-reflection and understanding one's own journey.
Themes
AdviceSelf-ReflectionPastExperienceWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal growth.
More from Mark Epstein
All quotes →While the primary function of formal Buddhist meditation is to create the possibility of the experience of "being," my work as a therapist has shown me that the demands of intimate life can be just as useful as meditation in moving people toward this capacity. Just as in formal meditation, intimate relationships teach us that the more we relate to each other as objects, the greater our disappointment. The trick, as in meditation, is to use this disappointment to change the way we relate.
Mark EpsteinRead
Desire is a teacher: When we immerse ourselves in it without guilt, shame, or clinging, it can show us something special about our own minds that allows us to embrace life fully.
Mark EpsteinRead
If aspects of the person remain undigested-cut off, denied, projected, rejected, indulged, or otherwise unassimilated-they become the points around which the core forces of greed, hatred and delusion attach themselves.
Mark EpsteinRead
It is exceedingly difficult to maintain a sense of absence without turning that absence into some kind of presence
Mark EpsteinRead
We are looking for a way to feel more real, but we do not realize that to feel more real we have to push ourselves further into the unknown.
Mark EpsteinRead
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