LEADERSHIP LIBRARY

IN BRIEF

This book describes Harris’s journey from skeptic to practitioner of meditation. What I found most helpful is that he talks about the struggles of the journey, not just the abstract benefits of meditation.

Key Concepts

Meditation can help with a focus on the present and not clinging to things that will change.

Deepak Chopra: “It’s not a mind trick. When you’re totally present, whatever the situation is, good or bad, it’s gonna pass. The only thing that remains is the moment.” (p. 73)

As best I could understand it, the Buddha’s main thesis was that in a world where everything is constantly changing, we suffer because we cling to things that won’t last. (p. 89)

Meditation can build one’s awareness and emotional control muscles

“In a nutshell, mindfulness is the ability to recognize what is happening in your mind right now—anger, jealousy, sadness, the pain of a stubbed toe, whatever—without getting carried away by it.” (p. 103)

“What mindfulness does is create some space in your head so you can, as the Buddhists say, ‘respond’ rather than simply ‘react.’” (p. 115)

It’s not that one does not worry about real outcomes; but living in the Now can reduce needless or unproductive worrying

“‘Is this useful?’ It’s a simple, elegant corrective to my ‘price of security’ motto. It’s okay to worry, plot, and plan, he’s saying—but only until it’s not useful anymore.” (p. 149)

Meditation can boost performance at work

“Another tip: take short mindfulness breaks throughout the day. She called them “purposeful pauses.” So, for example, instead of fidgeting or tapping your fingers while your computer boots up, try to watch your breath for a few minutes. When driving, turn off the radio and feel your hands on the wheel. Or when walking between meetings, leave your phone in your pocket and just notice the sensations of your legs moving.” (p. 173)

Janice Marturano: “Yeah, but that assumes that those pauses aren’t helping you. Those pauses are the ways to make you a more clear thinker and for you to be more focused on what’s important.” (p. 173)

Harris found that adding the compassion meditation (metta) to his practice unlocked a new energy

“Whatever the cause, in the months after I started adding compassion into my meditation practice, things started to change. It’s not that I was suddenly a saint or that I began to exhibit extra-virgin extroversion, just that being nice—always important to me in the abstract, at least—now became a conscious, daily priority.” (p. 187)

Quotables

“Meditation suffers from a towering PR problem, largely because its most prominent proponents talk as if they have a perpetual pan flute accompaniment.” (p. XXII)

“If you can get past the cultural baggage, though, what you’ll find is that meditation is simply exercise for your brain.” (p. XXII)

“Your demons may have been ejected from the building, but they’re out in the parking lot, doing push-ups.” (p. 52)

“But as Tolle pointed out, it is, quite literally, always Now.” (p. 58)

“In eighth grade, an ex-girlfriend told me, ‘When you have one foot in the future and the other in the past, you piss on the present.’” (p. 58)

“To my surprise, Epstein seemed to be arguing that Buddhism was better than seeing a shrink. Therapy, he said, often leads to ‘understanding without relief.’” (p. 88)

“It was a rigorous brain exercise: rep after rep of trying to tame the runaway train of the mind. The repeated attempt to bring the compulsive thought machine to heel was like holding a live fish in your hands. Wrestling your mind to the ground, repeatedly hauling your attention back to the breath in the face of the inner onslaught required genuine grit. This was a badass endeavor.” (p. 101)