an undisturbable stillness.

Radically for his time, the Buddha said that it is not birth but intentional actions of thought, word, and deed that make a person truly noble.

It’s helpful to extend your exhalations because the “rest-and-digest” parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) handles exhaling while also slowing your heart rate, so longer exhalations are naturally relaxing.

In the Theravadan tradition, there’s a lovely meditation that offers four kinds of warm wishes for five types of people,

Whatever your object is, try to remain steadily mindful of it. Be aware of the sense of applying attention to an object, like shifting a spotlight onto something. Also be aware of sustaining attention to an object—staying in touch with it continuously.

It’s really useful to be interested in how you make your own suffering.

The painful residues of events can get caught in the nets of emotional memory, but without context and perspective. The conscious mind may forget, but as Babette Rothschild wrote, the body remembers.

The five types of people are benefactor, friend, neutral person, oneself, and someone who is challenging for you.

The “mind,” as I mean it in this book, consists of the experiences and information that are represented by a nervous system.