Millionaire Monk's Most Valuable Lessons
Learn your brain and your mental state
Awareness is key
Be aware of aliveness
Relax and breathe
Brains are like space and thoughts are like clouds
Have balance
On Awareness
Train your mind to become more aware. To do so you can practice by being self-aware of your physical being.
Feeling your inner energy
Becoming aware that your physical body exists
On Stress
Mentions: Studies, deadlines, exams, relationships
“When our mind becomes stressful, we think too much, worry too much… Our mind is like a monkey, crazy monkey, restless, jumping here and there. And what happens is we tend to forget our body, we forget our heart.”
Our mind is up there, completely separate from our body, jumping between past and future. Do you feel that? Maybe you are not aware, but what happens is we are thinking way into the future and we are not happy with the past events and thus we loose present.
“I like it very much, Kung Fu Panda Part 1” “The Past is history, future is mystery, present is the gift” “Do you know this phrase?”
How to be in the present?
– With your body. The awareness, bring into your body.
How do you bring this awareness into your body?
– Very easy, first let me ask you a question. Do you have a body or not?
Do you feel that you have a body? Do you know you have a body? If you feel you have your body.
That is awareness. The awareness of the body.
Simple steps: Just feel your body and the gravity within the body and feel any sensation within the body. Just become aware.
Where and when can you meditate?
– Anywhere and anytime.
Even two minutes in the morning can change your whole day. It is good for your study, good for creativity.
“Normally, our mind has so many jams. For example, the hard drive is full of virus, the memory of the computer. Therefore, there is no space for the new programme, so if you meditate, it becomes the best anti-virus.”
Clean your hard drive and memory. The capacity of the memory increases.
On Happiness
Our happiness is like the stock market, it goes up and down. This affects our emotions and our daily lives significantly. We have a baseline which goes back to normal after some time, could be days, weeks, months and even years depending on the situation. However, through meditation, we can even change this baseline. You become happy even when you are not meditating.
On Balance
It is very important to have balance.
Sometimes we are too tight and sometimes too loose. If our mind is too tight, it makes extra problems. And if you don’t make any effort; too loose, no good.
So have a balance, take necessary steps and don’t forget to relax.
My question: What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt in your life?
Rinpoche’s Answer: Transforming panic into meditation.
Youngey Mingyur Rinpoche has authored four books and two of the books we’re New York Times Bestseller.
