We do all kinds of things to remain beautiful. Yet, we spend surprisingly little time taking care of what matters most - the way our mind functions.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of mental well-being over superficial beauty.
Matthieu Ricard points out the irony in how people often dedicate significant time and resources to maintaining their physical appearance while neglecting their mental health. The quote urges us to reflect on our priorities and focus more on nurturing our minds, which is crucial for overall well-being and happiness.
In practice
This quote can be used in a mental health awareness campaign.
Happiness is the result of inner maturity. It depends on us alone, and requires patient work, carried out from day to day. Happiness must be built, and this requires time and effort. In the long term, happiness and unhappiness are therefore a way of being, or a life skill.
Happiness is the main object of our aspirations, whatever name we give to it: fulfilment, deep satisfaction, serenity, accomplishment, wisdom, fortune, joy or inner peace, and however we try to seek it: creativity, justice, altruism, striving, completion of a plan or a piece of work.
True freedom means freeing oneself from the dictates of the ego and its accompanying emotions.
Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment.
Knowledge does not mean mastering a great quantity of different information, but understanding the nature of mind. This knowledge can penetrate each one of our thoughts and illuminate each one of our perceptions.
Empathy is the faculty to resonate with the feelings of others. When we meet someone who is joyful, we smile. When we witness someone in pain, we suffer in resonance with his or her suffering.
Telling the truth ... is not solely a matter of moral character; it is also a matter of correct appreciation of real situations and of serious reflection upon them.
Once, in a spasm of sappiness, you asked Q-Jo if she thought your dreams would ever come true. 'You aren't talking about dreams,' she corrected you, 'you're referring to your pathetic bourgeoisie ambitions. Dreams don't come true. Dreams are true.
My past is everything I failed to be.
Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head.
Procrastinating is a vice when it comes to productivity, but it can be a virtue for creativity.
The new midlife is where you realize that even your failures make you more beautiful and are turned spiritually into success if you became a better person because of them. You became a more humble person. You became a more merciful and compassionate person.
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