The danger of religious faith is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy. Because each new … - Sam Harris

We are, even now, killing ourselves over ancient literature. Who would have thought something so tragically absurd could be possible?

La mayor parte de las formas de degradación personal y maldad pública se desencadenan y sustentan con la mentira. Los actos de adulterio y demás deslealtades personales, el fraude económico, la corrupción gubernamental... hasta el asesinato y el genocidio suelen requerir un defecto moral adicional: la disposición para mentir.

What we discover when you begin practicing meditation is that there is no such thing as a boring object of attention. Boredom is simply a lack of attention. We only become convinced that we are bored because we have not found something compelling enough to capture our attention. Our attention is normally so blunt an intrument that we need something thrilling or terrifying to capture us. What pleases us most in those moments when we are fully captured by experience is the state of complete attention to the present. If you can muster that on your own through meditation, then any arbitrary object — the feeling of the wind past your hand as you walk — can be an exquisitely pleasureable thing to notice... Concentration is intrinsically pleasureable.

But it is your mind, rather than circumstances themselves, that determines the quality of your life. Your mind is the basis of everything you experience and of every contribution you make to the lives of others. Given this fact, it makes sense to train it.