William P. Young Quotes

Watch the things you say you can't believe, and then recall the things you accept without thinking, like your own existence.

It’s critical that we know what we believe, no matter what we feel...that we know what is true, no matter what we see.

When you're overwhelmed by your emotion, you listen less and you judge more. This is also the reality of the dogmatic mind.

You don't have to believe everything you think.

Not that believing such things has anything to do with whether they are true. You see that, don't you?

The truth is that stress doesn't come from your boss, your kids, your spouse, traffic jams, health challenges, or other circumstances. It comes from your thoughts about these circumstances.

Don't believe everything you think - or feel.

The mind is a funny thing in how it works. Sometimes you have to tell yourself what's really true. If you don't, your mind starts trying to tell you lies.

The problem is not what other people think, do or say; it is your reaction.

The first lesson about trusting your senses is: don't. Just because you believe something to be true, just because you know it's true, that doesn't mean it is true.

Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.

You have to be careful what you think you know.

Attitudes are much more important than facts.

If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do.

Our capacity to think, except in the service of what we are dangerously deluded in supposing is our self-interest and in conformity with common sense, is pitifully limited: our capacity even to see, hear, touch, taste and smell is so shrouded in veils of mystification that an intensive discipline of unlearning is necessary for anyone before one can begin to experience the world afresh, with innocence, truth and love.

Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality.

Looking deeply into the wrong perceptions, ideas, and notions that are at the base of our suffering is the most important practice in Buddhist meditation.

When you hear a true story, there is a part of you that responds to it regardless of art, regardless of evidence. Let it be the most obvious fabrication and you will still believe whatever truth is in it, because you can not deny truth no matter how shabbily it is dressed.

Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.

Emotional intelligence grows through perception. Look around at your present situation and observe it through the level of feeling.

I tell myself that I know you, and then when I think about it, I realize that I don't.

Seeing is not believing - it is only seeing.

It is unwise to feel too much if we think too little.

Everything hangs on one's thinking.