Friday, July 15, 2022

๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ’ซ๐‘๐„๐€๐ƒ๐ˆ๐๐† ๐–๐ˆ๐“๐‡ ๐๐‘๐ˆ๐€๐: ๐’๐๐ˆ๐‘๐ˆ๐“๐”๐€๐‹ & ๐๐‡๐ˆ๐‹๐Ž๐’๐Ž๐๐‡๐ˆ๐‚๐€๐‹ ๐๐Ž๐Ž๐Š๐’๐Ÿ’ซ๐Ÿ™

Last week, weโ€™ve started talking about Brianโ€™s interest in Buddhism and spirituality, so this post comes as a follow-up to give you a better idea of his favourite books on the topic.
First of all, just to make it clear, Iโ€™m absolutely sure that Brian has read and keeps reading tons of books on different philosophies, both ancient and modern, religious concepts and spiritual teachings. Iโ€™m now focusing on only a couple of titles and authors, mentioned by Brian in the interviews.

Photo credit:Trip Fontaine

๐ŸŸฃ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐๐Ž๐–๐„๐‘ ๐Ž๐… ๐๐Ž๐– ๐›๐ฒ ๐„๐‚๐Š๐‡๐€๐‘๐“ ๐“๐Ž๐‹๐‹๐„๐ŸŸฃ
๐Ÿ“ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ง: I see the reason [of being more down to Earth] in my enthusiasm for Eastern culture. For Buddhism, for meditations, or for the work of German philosopher and spiritual person Eckhart Tolle, who wrote an amazing book called The Power of Now. Also, nowadays I live an incomparably healthier life than I did in my times.
(๐‘…๐‘œ๐‘๐‘˜ & ๐‘ƒ๐‘œ๐‘ ๐ถ๐‘ง๐‘’๐‘โ„Ž ๐‘…๐‘’๐‘๐‘ข๐‘๐‘™๐‘–๐‘, ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘š๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ 2013)


๐Ÿ“ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ง: There are books that I always carry with me. Thereโ€™s a couple that Iโ€™m in a perpetual state of reading. Simply because they are, for me, kind of like guides to living more than anything else. I suppose a born-again Christian would travel with the Bible. I travel everywhere with "The Power of Now," by Eckhart Tolle. And "The Four Agreements." Simply because they help me stay sane.
(๐‘€๐‘‡๐‘‰๐‘๐‘œ๐‘š, ๐‘‚๐‘๐‘ก๐‘œ๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ 29๐‘กโ„Ž 2013)


๐‘ฌ๐’„๐’Œ๐’‰๐’‚๐’“๐’• ๐‘ป๐’๐’๐’๐’† is a German-born spiritual teacher and self-help author of The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment and A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.
One night in 1977, at the age of 29, after long periods of depression, Tolle says he experienced an "inner transformation" and came to peace with everything.
In September 2009, Tolle appeared with the Dalai Lama at the Vancouver Peace Summit. While publishing his nature photography in 2018, he commented that "both art and nature can serve as portals into the transcendent dimension, your essence-identity."
โ–ช๏ธโ€œYour outer journey may contain million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step youโ€™re taking right now.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œPaying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œBe the ever-alert guardian of your inner space.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œThinking has become a disease.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œEven when the sky is heavily overcast, the sun hasnโ€™t disappeared, itโ€™s still there on the other side of the clouds.โ€

Photo credit: Marco Vittur 

๐ŸŸฃ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐…๐Ž๐”๐‘ ๐€๐†๐‘๐„๐„๐Œ๐„๐๐“๐’ ๐›๐ฒ ๐ƒ๐Ž๐ ๐Œ๐ˆ๐†๐”๐„๐‹ ๐‘๐”๐ˆ๐™๐ŸŸฃ
๐‘ซ๐’๐’ ๐‘ด๐’Š๐’ˆ๐’–๐’†๐’ ๐‘น๐’–๐’Š๐’› is a Mexican author of Toltec spiritualist and neoshamanistic texts. His work focuses on ancient teachings as a means to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Ruiz is listed as one of 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People in 2018.
โ–ช๏ธโ€œReal love is accepting other people the way they are without trying to change them.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œIt is always better to ask questions than to make an assumption, because assumptions set us up for suffering.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œSelf-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œForgiveness is the only way to heal. We can choose to forgive because we feel compassion for ourselves.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œYou are never responsible for the actions of others; you are only responsible for you.โ€


๐Ÿ“ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ง: [โ€ฆ] Iโ€™m also an admirer of Jiddu Krishnamurti and Don Miguel Ruiz, and one of my favourite philosophers is a comedian, Bill Hicks. [โ€ฆ] I reject all formal notions of society, morality and religion as bourgeois constructs, and I seek total freedom from what others consider the โ€œcorrectโ€ way of living.
[โ€ฆ] As Bill Hicks says, we are all one consciousness that experiences itself subjectively. Thereโ€™s no death. The reality that we perceive is a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves.
(๐‘…๐‘ข๐‘š๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘€๐‘Ž๐‘”๐‘Ž๐‘ง๐‘–๐‘›๐‘’ ๐‘›.362, ๐‘€๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘โ„Ž 2022)

 Photo credit: Joseph Llanes

๐ŸŸฃ๐‰๐ˆ๐ƒ๐ƒ๐” ๐Š๐‘๐ˆ๐’๐‡๐๐€๐Œ๐”๐‘๐“๐ˆ๐ŸŸฃ
๐‘ฑ๐’Š๐’…๐’…๐’– ๐‘ฒ๐’“๐’Š๐’”๐’‰๐’๐’‚๐’Ž๐’–๐’“๐’•๐’Š was a philosopher, speaker, and writer. His interests included psychological revolution, the nature of mind, meditation, holistic inquiry, human relationships, and bringing about radical change in society. Krishnamurti wrote many books, among them The First and Last Freedom, The Only Revolution, and Krishnamurti's Notebook.


โ–ช๏ธโ€œIf, living in the world, you refuse to be a part of it, you will help others out of this chaos - not in the future, not tomorrow, but now.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œWe are so sluggish in our mentality that we think the world's problems are not our business, that they have to be resolved by the United Nations or by substituting new leaders for the old.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œLove is love, not to be defined or described by the mind as exclusive or inclusive. Love is its own eternity: it is the real, the supreme, the immeasurable.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œThe ending is the beginning, and the beginning is the first step, and the first step is the only step.โ€


๐ŸŸฃ๐๐ˆ๐‹๐‹ ๐‡๐ˆ๐‚๐Š๐’๐ŸŸฃ
๐‘ฉ๐’Š๐’๐’ ๐‘ฏ๐’Š๐’„๐’Œ๐’” was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material - encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy - was controversial and often steeped in dark comedy. Heโ€™s the author of the book โ€œLove All the People.โ€


โ–ช๏ธโ€œWe all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œFolks, it's time to evolve. That's why we're troubled. You know why our institutions are failing us, the church, the state, everything's failing? It's because, um โ€“ they're no longer relevant. We're supposed to keep evolving. Evolution did not end with us growing opposable thumbs. You do know that, right?โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œWatching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œIt is, and has been, and will forever be, this world of ours, a fucking joke.โ€

Photo credit: Kevin Westenberg

๐ŸŸฃ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐€๐‘๐“ ๐Ž๐… ๐‡๐€๐๐๐ˆ๐๐„๐’๐’ ๐›๐ฒ ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐ƒ๐€๐‹๐€๐ˆ ๐‹๐€๐Œ๐€๐ŸŸฃ
๐Ÿ“ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ง: The Dalai Lama has written several very readable books which had a positive effect on me. The best-known and probably most successful is 'The art of happinessโ€™.
(๐‘€๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘–๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘ฅ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ , ๐‘‚๐‘๐‘ก๐‘œ๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ 2013)


๐‘ป๐’‰๐’† ๐‘จ๐’“๐’• ๐’๐’‡ ๐‘ฏ๐’‚๐’‘๐’‘๐’Š๐’๐’†๐’”๐’” is a book by the 14th Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, a psychiatrist who posed questions to the Dalai Lama. Cutler quotes the Dalai Lama, providing context and describing some details of the settings in which the interviews took place, as well as adding his own reflections on issues raised.
The book states that the purpose of life is happiness, that happiness is determined more by the state of one's mind than by one's external conditions, circumstances, or eventsโ€”at least once one's basic survival needs are met, and that happiness can be achieved through the systematic training of our hearts and minds.


โ–ช๏ธโ€œLove and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œIf you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œAlthough you may not always be able to avoid difficult situations, you can modify the extent to which you can suffer by how you choose to respond to the situation.โ€
โ–ช๏ธโ€œIn general, if we carefully examine any given situation in a very unbiased and honest way, we will realize that to a large extent we are also responsible for the unfolding of events.โ€

Photo credit:Trip Fontaine

๐ŸŸฃ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ:๐Ÿ๐Ÿ: ๐ˆ๐๐’๐ˆ๐ƒ๐„ ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐ƒ๐Ž๐Ž๐‘๐–๐€๐˜ ๐›๐ฒ ๐’๐Ž๐‹๐€๐‘๐€๐ŸŸฃ
About Solara and her metaphysical ideas, Brian rather speaks with some irony. But the fact he included a quote from her introduction of 11:11 Doorway into the song Hold On To Me, confirms that the visionaryโ€™s texts made an impression on him.
๐€๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ "๐‡๐จ๐ฅ๐ ๐Ž๐ง ๐“๐จ ๐Œ๐ž" ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐š๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ? ๐ˆ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐จ๐ค๐ž๐ง ๐ฉ๐š๐ซ๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐  ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ฎ๐จ๐ญ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐š๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ซ ๐’๐จ๐ฅ๐š๐ซ๐š ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ž๐š๐ค ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐š ๐ ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฐ๐š๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐š๐ง๐จ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐ž.
๐Ÿ“ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ง: It's about a gate into a new, spiritual world, about reaching a collective consciousness, leaving the physical world and becoming part of the universe in its origin (laughs). I admit that sounds totally stupid. But it sounds really good on the record!
(๐‘†๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘š๐‘š๐‘’, ๐‘†๐‘’๐‘๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘š๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ 2013)


๐‘บ๐’๐’๐’‚๐’“๐’‚ is a visionary who travels around the world and gives talks, workshops, master classes. Sheโ€™s written six books; 11:11: Inside the Doorway is one of them.
โ–ช๏ธโ€œWe all come from the Stars,
We all originate from the One.โ€

Post by Olga