Joy, it seemed, was a strange alchemy of mind over matter. The path to joy, like with sadness, did not lead away from suffering and adversity but through it.
The Book of Joy
Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Carlton Abrams
‘It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.’
The Midnight Library
Matt Haig
The science, in fact — and it’s a developing area of knowledge — supports what athletes instinctively know to be true: Testosterone suppression doesn’t undo the biological and physiological advantages — in bone mass, in blood circulation, lower body fat, more resistant connective tissue, larger hearts and lungs and more — that males enjoy from puberty. These are key factors particularly in strength and power sports.
There is a Tibetan Buddhist teaching that says what causes suffering in life is a general pattern of how we relate to others: “Envy toward the above, competitiveness toward the equal, and contempt toward the lower.”
The Book of Joy
Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Carlton Abrams
The men and women on death row have some combination of bad genes, bad parents, bad environments, and bad ideas (and the innocent, of course, have supremely bad luck). Which of these quantities, exactly, were they responsible for? No human being is responsible for his genes or his upbringing, yet we have every reason to believe that these factors determine his character. Our system of justice should reflect an understanding that any of us could have been dealt a very different hand in life. In fact, it seems immoral not to recognize just how much luck is involved in morality itself.
Free Will
Sam Harris