It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection. — Bhagavad Gita 3.35 - Jay Shetty

your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody

This ten-year-old monk added, “When you get stressed — what changes? Your breath. When you get angry — what changes? Your breath. We experience every emotion with the change of the breath. When you learn to navigate and manage your breath, you can navigate any situation in life.

Senses recklessly transport our minds away from where we want them to be. Don’t tease your own senses. Don’t set yourself up to fail. A monk doesn’t spend time in a strip club. We want to minimize the mind’s reactive tendencies, and the easiest way to do that is for the intellect to proactively steer the senses away from stimuli that could make the mind react in ways that are hard to control. It’s up to the intellect to know when you’re vulnerable and to tighten the reins, just as a charioteer does when going through a field of tasty grass.

Śāntideva, “It is not possible to control all external events; but if I simply control my mind, what need is there to control other things?