INTRODUCTION OF BOOK THINK LIKE A MONK

The monk teachings talk about forgiveness, energy, intentions, living with purpose, and other topics in ways that are as resonant today as they must have been when they were written.

For millennia, monks have believed that meditation and mindfulness are beneficial, that gratitude is good for you, that service makes you happier, and more that you will learn in this book. They developed practices around these ideas long before modern science could show or validate them.

Our culture and media feed us images and concepts about who and what we should be, while holding up models of accomplishment and success. Fame, money, glamour, sex—in the end none of these things can satisfy us. We’ll simply seek more and more, a circuit that leads to frustration, disillusion, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and exhaustion.

We can elevate to the monk mindset by digging down to the root of what we want and creating actionable steps for growth. The monk mindset lifts us out of confusion and distraction and helps us find clarity, meaning, and direction.

You don’t need to go to any mountains by leaving your home to think like a monk. You can live a happy life even in the modern world. Its only need to train your mind to see new ideas, thoughts, and values.

Now the question is, what is the
need to think like a monk?

Jay Shetty says, If you want to innovate something then you will learn from Elon Musk. If you want to learn about business then you will go to Warren Buffet or Jeff Bezos. If you want to become a basketball player, then you will learn from LeBron James or Michael Jordan.

Similarly, If you want to train your mind for calm and peace. Then you will have to learn from a Monk. Because Monks are experts in this work. Calm, Happy, Discipline, and Clarity are the strong characteristics of Monk’s mind. And to build this thing, the author tells us to think like a Monk. So let’s know, how can you develop a Monk Mindset.

FIND YOUR TRUE IDENTITY

Suppose, You are standing in front of a mirror to see your face. But there is very dust on that mirror. Then, will you see your face clearly? Obviously, No.

The author says that this mirror is your Identity. On which there is the dust of others’ Influence. By which you don’t see your real identity. By influencing with someone’s Wealth,
we run after Wealth. And by influencing with someone’s look, we start changing our bodies and styles. But You will find your real identity when you will know your Values.

This might seems to be very simple and easy. But today many people don’t know their self values. To whom you wake up and sleep, to whom you follow, there is a strong influence of them in your life. If your favourite celebrity says that Money is Success, then you started running after Money. And if someone says wealth is everything, then your mind changes again. Which is totally wrong. Because you are totally following their identity.

Now, taking inspiration from someone and learning is not bad. But the thing to think is “What are your internal values actually?”. The content you consume, Like News, Movies, Television show, Video Games, These factors together put the dust of influence on your mind. To which the author says “External Noise”. That force you every time
“What should you do and what not?”. And by clearing that External Noise, Your real identity will come out.

Jay Shetty says that Values are of two types. Higher and Lower Values. Higher Values give us Happiness, fulfillment, and Meaningful life. While Lower Values give us Anxiety, Depression, and Suffering. Your Values also depend on your Free Time, Action and Spending Behaviour. So to find your real values you will have to find steps,

First, You will have to do your “Self Audit“. You have to find, -what you do in your free time? -How much Social Media do you use in a whole day? -And how do you utilise your money? Because you can also see by your spending that on which values you are living. And the second is…..

“Self Isolation“. You have to choose a place where there are no people, mobile and distracting things like laptops. Now in that personal space, you will have to ask yourself, after totally avoiding the outer noise. On what things do you believe? you will have to analyze, which is right and wrong according to you? You have to think.

Do you live with the people to which your values are fit? And if you don’t understand whether other people are fit for your values or not, Then ask a question to yourself. By spending time with this person, Am I going near to the thing that I wanted to become? Or far from that? You should live with the people that understand your values and help you to improve. When you give Time and Stillness to yourself, Then you can easily hear the sound of your inside by clearing the dust of the influence of others.

REMOVE NEGATIVITY

You would find many different negative people. Who always focus on negative
things instead of positive ones. If I expand negative people a little more, some people always complain, some people blame others for their mistakes, and some people always use to criticise others.

Some people know the limitation, but still, they make pressure on others. Some people talks with negative orders, and some people are like that they always do comparisons instead of appreciating.

Now I’m sure, in these all types, some types people would be in your life. Now see, every day, you will find some negative people. but it is not possible to avoid all. So, to deal with them, Jay Shetty tells us 3 methods to follow.

The first method is “Allocate Time“. See, every person has a limit to tolerate. Similarly, every person has a limit to enduring. You can endure some people for 1 day. for some people, one month or one week. And you can’t endure some people even for 1 minute. So, decide before, that, how much time you will have to spend with which person. By which your limit to tolerate doesn’t cross. And you could get rid of that person’s negativity.

The second method is the ” 75/25 Principle“. According to this rule, You have to spend 75% time with someone, who thinks like you and inspires you. And try that only 25% or even less than that time you give to negative people. So that, positivity remains in you.

And the third is “Don’t try to solve every problem, and get involved in every discussion“. Till you don’t have full knowledge and expertise of that thing. These were the things of Outer negativity.

Negativity can be Inside us. The author tells us to use a technique to get rid of that negativity. Named “SPOT, STOP, and SWAP technique“. Everybody would tell you that control your thought. And be positive always. But it is not possible. Good and Bad thoughts can come in life. But try to replace that thought with new thought instead of controlling it.

In which the first step is SPOT. Means, find your negative feeling. that, What you are feeling?

The second step is STOP. Stop and think, for what reason you are feeling this? and go to the root of that.

And the third step is SWAP. Means, replace that thought with some good thought.

The best example is the computer programmer and internet entrepreneur “Brian Acton”. Who applied on Twitter for Job. then he gets rejection there. Then Acton thought that Come on, whatever happened is good. Some good things would be waiting for me. Then he applied on Facebook. But he was also rejected from there. Then again Brian thought, it was Gratitude. It’s ok, some good thing would be waiting for me. And instead of so many rejections like this, Brian Action never complained.

Only he thought of everything as Gratitude. And after sometimes, he made an app by working in their personal time, that The company that rejected him i.e Facebook, bought it for $19B. To which we say WhatsApp today.

If you put a teaspoon of salt in half glass of water. You will feel salty in drinking that water. But if you drink that the same one teaspoon salt by mixing in a pitcher. Then you will find no difference. Where Salt is rejection and Water is your Perspective. If your perspective on seeing your life will be big. No matter which type of rejection or failure is,
they won’t spoil your anything.

If you only feel happy with your own success and tease others then the happiness of your life will be limited. But if you learned to live happily with others’ success, then your life happiness will become unlimited. When you deal with negative thoughts, then usually you say, “I’m angry, I’m sad etc.”. But you are not angry and sad in actuality.

You only feel that emotion for some time. So you should say, “I’m feeling Angry, I’m feeling Sad”. By which you can be detached from that emotion. And can get a good solution.

KNOW YOUR INTENSION

When you want to achieve something. And you don’t feel satisfied even after achieving that thing. Then understand that your intention to achieve that was wrong. It is very necessary to understand the intention hidden behind any work that you want to do. Either you do some work due to Fear, Or some personal Desire, Some work you do like a Duty and some like out of Love.

For example, Many people want to be rich. But even after getting rich, some people don’t get happiness and satisfaction, to which he was searching. So the behind this is their Wrong Intention. Being a millionaire is not a natural desire of humans. If you see this mentality of getting rich by expanding,

So, people want to become rich because they could buy expensive and good things. If you expand a little more, They want to buy expensive and good things because they can get Love and Respect from others. When you get to know that your Deep desire is Love and Respect.

Then try to fulfil that true desire, not a surface-level desire. By clearing the intention hidden behind any work, you can truly identify the purpose of your life. And a meaningful life gives us true satisfaction.

KNOW YOUR SPACE AND TIME

Jay says, “Location has Energy and Time has Memory”. Means, every location has Energy. and every location gives us a different type of feeling. So that, people study well in the library, not in the garden.

So the author says that we should find a specific location for every work. And Time saves the Memory. If you do sake task at the same time regularly, then work get saved in your mind like memory. And start doing that task without setting any alarm.

So if you want to be productive. Then do the same task at the same time and at the same location. By which you will be able to do more productive and Deep work with less effort.

SERVE OTHER

Jay Shetty says that human beings’ highest purpose is to help others. The work you like and the world also need it, then that work will become your Dharma. Means both concepts focus on the same path. Helping others should be your ultimate goal.

Because Help and Love are like a circle. not like the one-to-one exchange. If you help someone. Then you will get in return by some other way. The problem comes when you expect this Help and Love from that same person.

So, more unconditionally love you will spread more will come to you. If I tell the Screenshot Summary of all the things, I have learned from Jay Shetty’s book “Think Like A Monk”.

WHAT YOU LEARN

1. When you give Time and Stillness to yourself. Then you can listen to your inner voice by clearing the dust of the influence of others.

2. To remove External Negativity. Use the techniques of Time allocation, the 75/25 principle, and Don’t Get Involved. And you can change your Internal Negativity by SPOT-STOP-SWAP.

3. You can truly identify the purpose of your life by clearing the intention behind any work. And a meaningful life gives us satisfaction.

4. If you want to become productive then do the same task, at the same time and at the same location. By which you could do more productive and deep work with less effort. And the last point is, The highest purpose of a human being is to help others.

So, these were some amazing lessons.

That I learned from Jay Shetty’s book “Think Like A Monk”.

If you want to learn more then read this book yourself.

Thank You.

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