The Monk Who Sold His Ferarri by Robin Sharma

The 7 Timeless Virtues of Enlightened Living by Robin S. Sharma

Robin S. Sharma's little book "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" was recommended to me during my Camino Frances pilgrimage in 2006 by a New York Broadway director who I ran into. I did not pick up that book till last year. It just seemed to fishy, new age like. But I had it during those years always on my reading list and eventually looked up the synopsis. A star lawyer in a physical (thus also mental) life crisis sells everything to become an enlightened monk who continues to serve only one purpose: spread a message of enlightened living. I was somehow reminded of John Grisham's novels, which I loved to read before and during law school, but the book soon turned into a very practical guide on how to get one's life under control and how to reach more fulfillment. It was the perfect "positive literature" which I like to read in a small dosis before I go to bed. After finishing I realized that Sharma had written a great fable that can be also used as a course book, like Julia Cameron's "The Artist Way" or Tim Ferriss' "The 4 Hour Week". Thus I started to make an excerpt of the book like I had it done with all my text books in university - a condensed version that facilitates studying the main concepts.

My Reading Notes

Chapter Chapter 7 – The Most Extraordinary Garden

the sages taught me that on an average day the average person runs about sixty thousand thoughts through his mind. 95% of these thoughts were the same as the ones you thought the day before! This is the tyranny of impoverished thinking. Those people who think the same thoughts every day, mot of them negative, have fallen into bad mental habits. Rather than focusing on all the good in their lives and thinking of ways to make things even better, they are captives of their past. These people never realize that mind management is the essence of life management.
What really separates people who are habitually upbeat and optimistic from those who are consistently miserable is how the circumstances of life are interpreted and processed.
Quick fixes do not work. All lasting inner change requires time and effort. Persistence is the mother of personal change. Ironically, the less you focus on the end result, the quicker it will come.
What is luck my friend? It is nothing more than the marriage of preparation with opportunity.
The secret of happiness is simple: find out what you truly love to do and then direct all of your energy towards it.
Viktor Frankl said it more elegantly than I ever could when he wrote: success, like happiness, cannot be pursued. It must ensue. And it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.
Once you find out what your life’s work is, your world will come alive. Your will wake up every morning with a limitless reservoir of energy and enthusiasm.
Take the roads less travelled. Most people live within the confines of their comfort zone. The best thing that you can do for yourself is regularly move beyond it. This is the way to lasting personal mastery and to realize the true potential of your human endowments.
Stillness is the stepping stone to connecting with the universal source of intelligence that throbs through every living thing.
The secret of the lake: shut the door, hold all calls and close your eyes. Then take a few breaths. After 2 or 3 minutes you will feel relaxed. Next, visualize mental pictures of all that you want to be, to have and to attain in your life. If you want to be the world’s best father, then envision yourself laughing and playing with your children, responding to their questions with an open heart.
Understand once and for all that your mind has magnetic power to attract all that you desire into your life. If there is lack in your life it is because there is lack in your thoughts.

Chapter 8 – Kindling Your Inner Fire

We are living in a very troubled world. Negativity pervades it and many in our society are floating like ships without rudders, weary souls searching for a lighthouse that will keep them from crashing against the rocky shores.
Those who are truly enlightened know what they want out of life, emotionally, materially, physically and spiritually.
You must know your life’s aim and then manifest this vision into reality by constant action. This is called Dharma, which is the Sanskrit word for life’s purpose. From Dharma springs inner harmony and lasting satisfaction.
Many people quit jobs that have stifled their progress the moment they discover the true purpose of their existence.
The secret of success is the constancy of purpose.
The key is to have the discipline and vision to see your heroic mission and to ensure that it serves other people while you realize it.
Anyone who wishes to improve the quality of their inner as well as their outer world would do well to take out a piece of paper and start writing out their life aims. At the very moment that this is done, natural forces will come into play which start to transform these dreams into reality.
We think about 60.000 thoughts on an average day. By writing out your desires and goals on a piece of paper, you send a red flag to your subconscious mind that these thoughts are far more important than the remaining 59.999 other ones.
You change your life the moment you set your goals and start to seek out your Dharma.
The main reason people do not follow through on any resolution they make is that it is too easy to slip back into their old ways. Pressure is not always a bad thing. Pressure can inspire you to achieve great ends. People generally achieve magnificent things when their backs are up against the wall and they are forced to tap into the wellspring of human potential that lies within them.
The point is simply that if you train your mind to associate pleasure with good habits and punishment with bad ones, your weaknesses will quickly fall by the wayside.
Fill your dream book with all your desires, objectives and dreams. Get to know yourself and what you are all about. Divide it into separate sections for goals relating to the different areas of your life, like physical fitness, financial goals, personal empowerment goals, relationship and social goals, spiritual goals. Fill it with pictures of the things you desire and images of people who have cultivated the abilities, talents and qualities that you hope to emulate. Review this book daily, make it your friend; the results will startle you.
Magic Rule of 21: the only way to install new habits is to direct so much energy toward it that the old one slips away like an unwelcome guest. The installation is generally complete in about 21 days, the time it takes to create a new neural pathway.

Chapter 9 – The Ancient Art of Self-Leadership

Good people strengthen themselves ceaselessly. (Confucius)
You practice the art of kaizen by pushing yourself daily. Work hard to improve your mind and body. Nourish your spirit.
Identify the things that are holding you back. Make a written inventory of your weaknesses.
Truly enlightened people, those who experience deep happiness daily, are prepared to put off short-term pleasure for the sake of long-term fulfillment.
Doing what you love, requires a great deal of courage. It requires you to step out of your comfort zone.

Ritual of Solitude – Sanctuary for the Self

Solitude and quiet connectsyou to your creative source and releases the limitless intelligence of the universe. The mind is like a lake. In our chaotic world most people’s minds are not still. We are full of inner turbulence. However, by simply taking the time to be still and quiet every day, the lake of the mind becomes as smooth as a plate of glass. This inner quietness brings with it a wealth of benefits including a deep sense of wellbeing, inner peace and boundless energy. The point is to reserve a spot for your renewal activities, a place that sits there quietly awaiting your arrival. The ritual of solitude works best when you practice it at the same time every day. By practicing it at the same time every day, a daily dose of silence will soon become a habit that you will never neglect. And positive life habits guide you inevitably to your destiny.

Ritual of Physicality – Commune with Nature; Practice Yoga

Communie with nature daily. A quick walk through the woods or even a few minutes spent cultivating your tomato garden in the backyard will reconnect you to the wellspring of calm that may now be dormant within you. A week has 168 hours and 5 hours a week should be invested in the ritual of physicality. As you train your body, so you train your mind.

Ritual of Radiant Living – Live Nourishment

Life foods are foods that are not dead. Never eat after 8pm. The digestive activity a late dinner induces reduces the quality of your sleep.

Ritual of Abundant Knowledge

Try not to live your life bound by the shackles of your schedule. Instead focus on the things that your conscience and your heart tell you to do.

Ritual of Personal Reflection

By looking at what you are doing, how you are spending your day and the thoughts you are thinking, you give yourself a benchmark for measuring improvement. The only way to improve tomorrow is to know what you did wrong today.

Ritual of Earthly Awakening

Rise with the sun to start the day off well. Sleep is really nothing more than a habit and like any other habit, you can train yourself to achieve the result you want; sleeping less in this case. There are few things more natural than rising with the glory of the first rays of a new day. The ten minutes before and after your sleep are profoundly influential on your subconscious mind. Only the most inspiring and serene thoughts should be programmed into your mind at those times.Stay with the early rise routine for about three weeks before you give up because it feels to uncomfortable. By then it will be part of your life. Think positive thoughts. Give a prayer of thanks for all you have. Work on your gratitude list.

Ritual of Music

Spend every day some time listening to music. It is one of the finest motivators that exist.
William James: We don’t laugh because we are happy, we are happy because we laugh.

Ritual of the Spoken Word

You are what you think all day long. You are also what you say to yourself all day long. Create a mantra that works as a positive affirmation of what you what to be.

Ritual of the Congruent Character

Industry, compassion, humility, patience, honesty and courage. When all your actions are congruent and aligned with these principles, you will feel a deep sense of inner harmony and peace. You will be acting in a way that is in accordance with the laws of nature and the laws of the universe.

Ritual of Simplicity

Focus only on your priorities, those activities which are truly meaningful. Stop wearing expensive clothes, stop reading news three hours every day, stop needing to be available to everybody all the time. Spend more time with your beloved ones. Lifelong happiness does come from striving to realize your dream. Never fear failure. Failure is your friend.

Chapter 10 – The Power of Discipline

To build a will of iron it is essential to take small, tiny acts in tibute to the virtue of personal discipline. Routinely performed, the little acts pile one on top of another to eventually produce an abundance of inner strength.
Lack of will is a mental disease
Truly enlightened people never seek to be like others
Most people have liberty. They can go where they want and do the things they fell like doing. But too many people are also slaves to their impulses. They have grown reactive rather than proactive, meaning that they are like seafoam pounding against a rocky shore, going in whatever direction the tide might take them. If they are spending time with their families and someone from work calls with a crisis, they hit the ground running, never stopping to think which activity is more vital to their overall wellbeing and to their life’s purpose. They lack the ability to see the forest beyond the trees, the freedom to chose what is right over what seems pressing.
When you control your thoughts, you control your mind. When you control your mind, you control your life. And once you reach the stage of being in total control of your life, you become the master of your destiny.
Satori – Japanese for instant awakening
Go to a quiet place. Sit with your eyes closed. Do not let your mind wander. Keep your body still, as the surest sign of a weak mind is a body that cannot rest. Repeat a mantra at least thirty times a day: I am more than I appear to be, all the world’s strength and power rests inside me.
To hold the tongue for an extended period of time is believed to have the effect of enhancing one’s discipline. By keeping silent for a day, you are conditioning your will to do as you command it to do. Each time the urge to speak arises, you actively curb this impulse and remain quiet.
Most people believe they don’t have any willpower. They blame everyone and everything except themselves for this apparent weakness. Those who have a vicious temper will tell you, “I can’t help it, my father was the same way.” Those who worry too much will tell you, “It’s not my fault, my job is too stressful.” Such people lack the self-responsibility that comes through knowing the extraordinary potential, which lies deep within every one of us, waiting to be inspired into action. When you come to know the timeless laws of nature, those that govern the operation of this universe and all that lives within it, you will also know that it is your birthright to be all that you can be. You have the power to be more than your environment. Similarly, you have the capacity to be more than a prisoner of your past. To do this, you must become the master of your will.

Chapter 11 – Your Most Precious Commodity

Chapter 12 – The Ultimate Purpose of Life

Chapter 13 – The Timeless Secret of Lifelong Happiness.

happiness is a journey, not a destination
never put off happiness for the sake of achievement
we all have been given certain talents. Every single person on the planet is a genius. We all have something that we are meant to do. Your genius will shine through, and happiness will fill your life, the instant you discover your higher purpose and then direct all your energies towards it.

Peter and the Magic Thread

Peter was a very lively little boy. Everyone loved him: his family his teachers and his friends. But he did have one weakness. Peter could never live in the moment. He had not learned to enjoy the process of life. When he was in school, he dreamed of being outside playing. When he was outside playing he dreamed of his summer vacation. Peter constantly daydreamed, never taking the time to savor the special moments that filled his days. One morning, Peter was out walking in a forest near his home. Feeling tired, he decided to rest on a patch of grass and eventually dozed off. After only a few minutes of deep sleep, he heard someone calling his name. Peter! Peter! Came the shrill voice from above. As he opened his eyes, he was startled to see a striking woman standing above him. She most have been over a hundred years old and her snow-white hair dangled well below her shoulders like a matted blanket of wool. In this woman’s wrinkled hand was a magical little ball with a hole in the center and out of the hole dangled a long, golden thread.
Peter, she said, this is the thread of your life. If you pull the thread just a bit, an hour will pass in seconds. If you pull a little harder, whole days will pass in minutes. And if you pull with all your might, months, even years, will pass by in days. Peter grew very exited at this discovery. I’d like to have it if I may, he asked. The elderly women quickly reached down and gave the ball with the magic thread to the young boy.
The next day, Peter was sitting in the classroom feeling restless and bored. Suddenly, he remembered his new toy. As he pulled a little bit of the golden thread, he quickly found himself at home, playing in his garden. Realizing the power of the magic thread, Peter soon grew tired of being a schoolboy and longed to be a teenager, with all the excitement that phase of life would bring. So again he pulled out the ball and pulled hard on the golden thread.
Suddenly he was a teenager with a very pretty young girlfriend named Elise. But Peter sill wasn’t content. He had never learned to enjoy the moment and to explore the simple wonders of every stage of his life. Instead, he dreamed of being an adult. So again he pulled on the thread and many years whizzed by in an instant. Now he found that he had been transformed into a middle aged adult. Elise was now his wife and Peter was surrounded with a houseful of kids. But Peter also noticed something else. His once jet black hair had started to turn grey. And his once youthful mother whom he loved so dearly had grown old and frail. Yet Peter sill could not live in the moment. He had never learned to live in the now. So, once again, he pulled on the magic thread and waited for the changes to appear.
Peter now found that he was a ninety year old man. His thick dark hair had turned white as snow and his beautiful young wife Elise had also grown old and had passed away a few years earlier. His wonderful children had grown up and left home to lead lives of their own. For the first time in his entire life, Peter realized that he had not taken the time to embrace the wonders of living. He had never gone fishing with his kids or taken a moonlight stroll with Elise. He had never planted a garden or read those wonderful books his mother had loved to read. Instead, he had hurried through life, never resting to see all that was good along the way.
Peter became very sad at this discovery. He decided to go out to the forest where he used to walk as a boy to clear his head and warm his spirit. As he entered the forest, he noticed that the little saplings of his childhood had grown into mighty oaks. The forest itself had matured into a paradise of nature. He lay down on a small patch of grass and fell into a deep slumber. After only a minute, he heard someone calling to him. Peter! Peter! Cried the voice. He looked up in astonishment to see that it was none other than the old woman who had given him the ball with the magic golden thread many years earlier. How have you enjoyed my special gift? She asked. Peter was direct in his reply. At first it was fun but now I hate it. My whole life has passed before my eyes without giving me the chance to enjoy it. Sure, there would have been sad times as well as great times but I haven’t had the chance to experience either. I feel empty inside. I have missed the gift of living.
You are very ungrateful, said the old woman. Still, I will give you one last wish. Peter thought for an instant and then answered hastily. I’d like to go back to being a schoolboy and live my life over again. He then returned to his deep sleep. Again he heard someone calling his name and opened his eyes. Who could it be this time? He wondered. When he opened his eyes, he was absolutely delighted to see his mother standing over his bedside. She looked young and healthy. Peter realized that the strange woman of the forest had indeed granted his wish and he had returned to his former life.

We here in the real world will never get a chance to live life to the fullest. Time really does slip through your fingers like tiny grains of sand. Make the decision once and for all to focus on what is truly important to you. Make the decision to spend more time with those who make your life meaningful.
We are all here for a special reason. Meditate on what your true calling is, and how you can give yourself to others.