10% Happier

The Book in One Sentence

Establishing a meditation practice is the most practical & effective "self-help" thing you can do.

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3 Big Ideas

1) You CAN'T control your thoughts, only how you respond to them.

"In the Buddhist view, you can’t control what comes up in your head; it all arises out of a mysterious void.

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We spend a lot of time judging ourselves harshly for feelings that we had no role in summoning.

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The only thing you can control is how you handle it.”

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2) Being enlightened & being ambitious CAN coexist.

"When you are wisely ambitious, you do everything you can to succeed, but you are not attached to the outcome—

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so that if you fail, you will be maximally resilient, able to get up, dust yourself off, and get back in the fray.

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That, to use a loaded term, is enlightened self-interest.”

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3) True happiness doesn't come from GETTING things, but from LETTING GO of our attachments to them.

"Everything in the world is ultimately unsatisfying and unreliable because it won’t last.

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That's why the ego is never satisfied.

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No matter how much stuff we buy, no matter how many arguments we win or delicious meals we consume, the ego never feels complete."

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Conclusion

We know we that in order to be happy, we need to "rise above thought" or "be fully present"... but HOW!?

Harris argues that establishing a meditation practice is the simplest, most effective answer to that question.