Writing/reading is like visiting another person's brain. And a short book or article is like a short stay. You come in, have a coffee, talk about the weather or sports, and then move on.
Interpretation
Reading and writing allow us to explore others' thoughts and experiences briefly.
This quote by Mark Manson highlights the intimate and ephemeral nature of reading and writing. It suggests that engaging with someone else's written words is akin to visiting their mind, where we can share brief moments of connection and interaction, ultimately leading to a temporary but enriching experience before we move on with our own lives.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of literature, one might quote this to emphasize the connection readers make with authors.
Whereas a lot of Buddhism concerns itself with stages of enlightenment, various precepts and moral codes, and even power structures and hierarchies, Zen is just like, 'Shut up, sit down, and observe your thoughts - oh, and by the way, what you perceive as you' doesn't actually exist.' I loved the minimalist approach of it.
I think people who become compulsive about fitness or eating right, a lot of the time it's out of fear that they're going to lose control or that they're not good enough, so I think anything done out of fear or motivated by fear is often unhealthy.
Many people come to self-help material because they feel like something is wrong with them or the way they are. The problem is that anything that tells you how to improve your life is also implying that there is something inherently wrong with you the way you are.
The first and perhaps most important thing to realize about being happier in life is to stop trying to be so happy in life.
I think humility - which I think is a very good value to adopt - is basically an extension of understanding your own ignorance.
A lot of cases, what makes you an interesting and complex person makes you a really horrible person to be with romantically.
Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.
Teach by doing whenever you can, and only fall back upon words when doing it is out of the question.
I always individuate myself from other writers who say they would die if they couldn't write. For me, I'd die if I couldn't read.
There are books that one reads over and over again, books that become part of the furniture of one's mind and alter one's whole attitude to life, books that one dips into but never reads through, books that one reads at a single sitting and forgets a week later.
Someday, hopefully very soon, 'diving within' as a preparation for learning and as a tool for developing the creative potential of the mind will be a standard part of every schoolβs curriculum.
The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.
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