I spent a good amount of time reading after quitting my full time job last year. I read on various subjects ranging from food, health, science, literature and philosophy. I found Philosophy the most interesting among them all. Some of my favorites were J Krishnamurti, Epicurus, Seneca, Socrates and Marcus Aurelius. I maintain my reading list on Kit.
These are my learnings so far:
- We have to treat the world as one without any division.
- We have to live our life moment by moment.
- Life is very short.
- We have to let go of our anger, ego and attachments with things or people.
- Nothing is permanent.
- Empathy makes you rich.
- We can only control things which are in our hand so worrying about things which are not in our control will harm us.
- We have to observe our thoughts (the monkey mind) and not control it.
- Having a set of virtues and principles is the key to living our life with fulfillment.
- Appreciate what nature offers us. Take short walks to the woods, listen to birds chirping.
- Always indulge in any discussion with proper reasoning and logic. Apply the same in everyday life.
- Living a life of honesty and truth is more satisfying.
- Happiness and pleasure have 3 key ingredients:
- Company of close friends who are honest and share the same set of values.
- Independence to live life on our own conditions not under someone we don’t like.
- Being aware of our thoughts.
- We are conditioned since birth about our associations with race, caste, religion, belief et al.
- Love requires no return favors, it is like a free flowing stream.
- Anger arises due to conflict and leads to misery and unhappiness.
I will be updating the list as my reading journey evolves.