Canadian Quotes

Strictly speaking, you don't think: Thinking happens to you.

We can't have, like, willy-nilly proliferation of fake news. That's crazy. You can't have more types of fake news than real news. That's allowing public deception to go unchecked. That's crazy.

If you find here & now intolerable, you have options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.

As you heat the planet up, it's just like boiling a pot.

The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.

I think you should always bear in mind that entropy is not on your side.

Even the great scientists have reported that their creative break-throughs came at a time of mental quietude. The surprising result of a nationwide inquiry among America's most eminent mathematicians, including Einstein, to find out their working methods, was that thinking 'plays only a subordinate part in the brief, decisive phase of the creative act itself'.

Defining yourself through thought is limiting yourself.

And we need things in life that are exciting and inspiring. It can't just be about solving some awful problem. There have to be reasons to get up in the morning.

I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I'm really good at email.

Sometimes people need to experience acute suffering before the thinking and the awareness of the consciousness separate. People then realize there is another dimension in them that is not thinking but the ability to be aware of thinking. It is not emotion but the ability to be aware of emotion.

In order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.

Where ever you are, be there totally.

Because dogs and cats still live in the original state of connectedness with Being, they can help us regain it. When we do so, however, that original state deepens and turns into awareness.

I say something, and then it usually happens. Maybe not on schedule, but it usually happens.

The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future — which, of course, can only be experienced as the Now

Whenever you are able, have a "look" inside yourself to see whether you are unconsciously creating conflict between the inner and the outer, between your external circumstances at that moment - where you are, who you are with, or what you are doing - and your thoughts and feelings. Can you feel how painful it is to internally stand in opposition to what is? When you recognize this, you also realize that you are now free to give up this futile conflict, this inner state of war.

The future is usually imagined as either better or worse than the present. If the imagined future is better, it gives you hope or pleasurable anticipation. If it is worse, it creates anxiety. Both are illusory.

Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.

It is not necessary to do things in a state of anxiety or anguish. That is not the way to be aligned with life.

I believe from what I can see there is a good chance the shift will happen in humanity before it is too late.

Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. … The ultimate purpose of human existence, which is to say, your purpose, is to bring that power into this world.

To have your attention in the Now is not a denial of what is needed in your life. It is recognition of what is primary.

Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of what you're doing is as valuable as gold

All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry - all forms of fear - are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.

Always work with the present moment, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.

People often mistake technology for a static picture. It's less like a picture and more like a movie. It's the velocity of technology innovation that matters. It's the acceleration.

Fear seems to have many causes. Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of being hurt, and so on, but ultimately all fear is the ego's fear of death, of annihilation. To the ego, death is always just around the corner. In this mind-identified state, fear of death affects every aspect of your life.

You can't think about presence, and the mind can't understand it. Understanding presence is being present.

I think it's important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it's like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there.

When we got Tesla going at the very beginning, if you asked me what I thought the odds of success were, I would have said less than 50%. I would have said that failure is the most likely outcome.

Going from PayPal, I thought: 'Well, what are some of the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity?' Not from the perspective, 'What's the best way to make money?'

The idea of lying on a beach as my main thing just sounds like the worst. It sounds horrible to me. I would go bonkers. I would have to be on serious drugs. I'd be super-duper bored. I like high intensity.

I think there are too many smart people pursuing internet stuff, finance, and law. That is part of the reason why we haven't seen as much innovation.

When there is spiritual awakening, you awaken into the fullness, the aliveness, and also the sacredness of now. You were absent, asleep, and now you are present, awake.

The mind left to itself creates monstrosities, and not only in art galleries. Look at our urban landscapes and industrial wastelands. No civilization has ever produced so much ugliness.

When you see around you the human form suffering or dissolving, you have empathy on the human level. You share the suffering because it has to do with the fleetingness of form. But if that is the only level that operates in you, you haven't gone beyond suffering.

Acceptance of what is immediately frees you from mind identification and thus reconnects you with Being. Resistance is the mind.

The particular egoic patterns that you react to most strongly in others and misperceive as their identity tend to be the same patterns that are also in you, but that you are unable or unwilling to detect within yourself.

If you're co-founder or CEO, you have to do all kinds of tasks you might not want to do. If you don't do your chores, the company won't succeed. No task is too menial.

I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better.

Complaining is one of the ego's favorite strategies for strengthening itself.

If you are not taking responsibility for your state of consciousness, you are not taking responsibility for life.

Hope is what keeps you going, but hope keeps you focused on the future, and this continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and therefore your unhappiness.

Non- reaction is not weakness, But Strength!

Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. Death is the opposite of birth.

When people really understand it's do or die [and] if we work hard and pull through, it's going to be a great outcome; people will give it everything they've got.

That in you which recognizes madness as madness (even if it is your own) is sanity, is the arising awareness, is the end of insanity.

If you look at space companies, they've failed either because they've had a technical solution where success was not a possible outcome, they were unable to attract a critical mass of talent, or they just ran out of money. The finish line is usually a lot further away than you think.

When you struggle with a problem, that's when you understand it.

That is the real spiritual awakening, when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were. So, the person is still there, but one could almost say that something more powerful shines through the person.

People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.

Only when you've truly had enough suffering in your life, are you able to say ' I don't need it anymore'.

Failures lies concealed in every success in every failure.

People don't realize that now is all there ever is; there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind.

Let the end of the world be inside you, then you don't need to fear the end of the world out there.

Thoughts are fine when you don't confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. This is why we may also call it Presence.

A great silent space holds all of nature in its embrace. It also holds you.

The vital function that pets fulfill in this world hasn't been fully recognized. They keep millions of people sane.