Daniel Kahneman's popular book Thinking Fast and Slow introduced me to this book. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has done extensive study on what he has defined as 'FLOW' state . A state at which humans perform optimally .I am sure many of us would have experienced this state .Some days while doing some tasks ,we seem to forget the notion of time. We do not get tired and everything is 'just right' and we feel happy to stay on this state for long hours without being fatigued..
This is a book about happiness and how, a state of FLOW in your daily tasks can help you attain sustained satisfaction and happiness.
I loved the book a lot and I highly recommend this for anyone interested to sustain a happy and contended state of mind!
Below are some quotes and passages that I liked a lot.
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The universe is not hostile, not yet it is friendly , it is simplly indifferent - pg 9
if Christ had returned to preach his message of liberation in the middle ages, he would have been criticized again and again by the leaders of the very church whose worldly power was built on His name - pg 21
The work of a person who is in control of his consciousness is the ability to focus attention at will , to be oblivious to distractions , to concentrate for as long as it to achieve a goal and not longer - pg 31.
The shape and control of life depends on how attention has been used.Entirely different realities will emerge based on how it is invested - pg 33
A man possesses nothing certainly save a brief loan of his own body . Yet the body of man is capable of much curious pleasure - pg 94
enjoyment , as we have seen does not depend on what you do but rather how you do it.- pg 99
Romance - the ritual of wooing first developed in the Romance region of Southern France (hence the name) - pg 102
Repression is not the way to virtual. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished .. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed - pg 115.
when bad times befell pygmies of the Ituri forest in Central Africa, they assumed that their misfortune was due to the fact that the benevolent forest which usually provided for all their needs , had accidentally fallen asleep . At that point, the leaders of the tribe would dig up their sacred horns buried underground , and bow them for days and nights on end, in a attempt to wake the forest , thus restoring the good times . - pg 109
it is not unreasonable to regrade yoga as the oldest and the most systematic methods of producing flow experience - pg 106.
Nothing quite like Hatha Yoga has ever been created in the west - pg 104.
Entropy is the natural state of consciousness . A condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable . -pg 119
Having a record of a past can make a great contribution to the quality of life. It frees us from tyranny of the present.
There is one anecdote that is told about him that describes his commitment towards his work.In the 1950's Chandrashekar was staying at Williams Bay , Wisconson, where the main astronomical observatory of the university is located, about 80 miles away from campus.That winter, he was scheduled to teach one advanced seminar on astrophysics. Only two students signed up for it..Chandrashekar was supposed to cancel the seminar, but he did not , and instead he drove back to chicao twice a week , along back country roads to teach the class. In a few years, the first one and then the later of those two former students won the Nobel prize for physics.
(on the dedication of S.Chandrashekar, Indian origin Nobel prize winner) - Pg 136.
Breakthroughs in science shall depend primarily on the resources of a single mind - pg 136.
Ideally the end of extrinsically applied education should be the start of an education that is motivated intrinsically. At that point, the goal of education is no longer to make the grade and earn a diploma and find a good job. Rather it is to understand what is happening around one to develop a personally meaniningful sense of what ones experience is all about - pg 142 (On the true approach to Education).
Stress exists only if we experience it - pg 161.
A true friend is someone who you can occasionaly be crazy with , someone who does not expect us to be always true to form.It is someone who shares our goal of self realization and therefore is wiling to share the risks that any increase in complexity entails . - pg 189.
of all the virtues one can learn , no trait is more useful , more essential for survival , and more likely to improve the quality of life that the ability to transform adversity to enjoyable challenge - pg 200.
Pradoxically , this sense of humility - the recognition that one's goal may have to be subordinated to a greater entity ;and that to scucced , one may have to play by a different set of rules from what one would prefer, is a hallmark of strong people. - pg 204.
(on strong people and humility)
Almost every situation that we encounter in life presents prossibilites for growth - pg 208 .
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