I firmly believe that life will continually try to teach you the same lesson, with increasing pain, until you heed the call.

The very fact that you can observe this thinking mind is proof that you are not this thinking mind.

Jiu Jitsu gives me an ideal to strive toward. Technical mastery lies on an infinite continuum and completion of this skill is impossible. Every time I train I have something that I can improve upon,...

To know our values is to have a foundation on which to build a great life. Our environment and education will play a large part in influencing our formulation of this world view, but is...

When you give your weakness permission to be because you understand that it is simply an expression of your strength, it tends to no longer be a weakness.

The most obvious, most absurdly recognizable phenomena in day-to-day life often become the hardest to remain consciously aware of.

we must remember that the end of personal mastery is service to others.

We see that the vast majority of our suffering is needless, and simply arises from the misidentification with our thinking mind.

The only way to consistently perform at your potential is to ask: Am I better than I was yesterday?

Thoreau and Huxley calmly state what I have spent years trying to articulate, and never found the words for doing so. To read the words of these great men is to read the highest expression...

The most fulfilled among us are those who serve others.

This is what it means to be mindful. To watch the thoughts as they come and go without judgment while completely accepting what arises in the present moment.

Your job as a young adult is to become as valuable to the marketplace as you can. Your job as a human is to do so without working a day in your life.

An intelligent consistency is the foundation of genius.

You have become more and therefore expect more, but never become too purpose-driven to step back and realize just how far you have progressed.

Our most valuable victories are those which go without praise.

In my own life, I have always viewed personal mastery as simply a medium through which I become capable of providing more service toward my fellow man.

The more we have outside ourselves the harder it is to get inside ourselves.

Jiu Jitsu is a vehicle for self-discovery and growth. It reminds me of my ego, of my insecurities, and of my shortcomings.

Every opportunity with another was an opportunity to serve my fellow man. Every moment alone was a chance to grow and become more of who I already was. I instantly felt how great a life...

I believe the devil exists in those little, seemingly unnoticeable moments when we choose to value our own insecurities over the service of others.

For many of us, especially being so fortunate to live in a first-world country, the vast majority of pain we experience is due to the seriousness with which we identify with our thoughts.

He plays the same game, but for the first time in his life he is truly playing, rather than working, being a human, and this is a vast distinction realized by few.

I believe we must pursue mastery for who we become along the way in its achievement. When we progress in Jiu Jitsu, that newfound experience and wisdom transcends into all areas of our lives. We...

Let’s live our lives with great meaning and purpose in the attempt to influence the world to whatever degree our circumstance allows.

Jiu Jitsu forges friendships in a way I’ve never known. Being involved in an art as intimate as this, where bodily connection is a prerequisite, the common cultural boundaries of personal space are broken. You...

Being part of the whole, as I grow so does that which contains me.

It is important to realize that we so often define ourselves by what is in opposition to ourselves.

There is no higher calling than service to your fellow man, and to do so through your own personal mastery of a craft is a gift enjoyed by few. Cultivate this gift, and give it...

It is only when we admit our ignorance that we can hope to overcome it.

The more closely two organisms depend upon each other the harder it becomes to tell where one organism ends and the other begins.

When your words enter the material world in the form of ink or on screen, you are immediately afforded the opportunity to judge their worth.

The major events in our lives receive the entire spotlight, but ultimately your life will be defined by the same handful of choices you make each day.

I believe the real reason we pursue anything in life is not for the thing itself, but for who we become on the way to its accomplishment. We strive to accomplish things in the attempt...

I believe it is the responsibility of each of us to pass on whatever we have learned in our time here. If I reach enlightenment after meditating in a cave for 10 years, but do...

Constantly re-evaluating your purpose is the best way to ensure that you are pursuing the goals of who you are and not who you used to be.

The rare opportunity to exist, no matter how brief, is worth the pain left in the wake of its disappearance.

I have always found that effort is most easily produced when performed for the benefit of something external to ourselves.

This constant mental diatribe and the frustrations, worries, insecurities and muscular tension that ensues are the self.

There is an undeniable truth that as one progresses further in his understanding of a craft the rest of his life progresses along with it. This symbiotic relationship between all things is experienced on a...

In the history of history, there has never been someone with your particular genetic make-up or life experiences. This being the case, we have no reference points with which to compare ourselves, and therefore it...

The best indicator of a man’s philosophy is not what he reads or says, but the way in which he lives his life, the way in which he acts.

We are now forced to actively pursue our struggles. If we do not go out of our way to stretch our comfort zones and grow, no one nor nature will do it for us.

Self-improvement is generally a removal of a vice rather than an acquisition of a virtue.

Empathy is a breaking down of the false constructs of division between the observer and the observed.

Deep down I believe each of us is a well-spring of understanding and wisdom, but we simply never allow the space or time for this understanding to rise to the level of conscious thought.

Jesus was not a carpenter forever.

We must know where we want to go in order to get there. Our modern lives are growing increasingly chaotic, and it is only a clear, definitive purpose that will keep us on track.

Those who serve others have purpose. Those who serve themselves are lost.

That nagging state of constant thought that exists somewhere between the ears and behind the eyes is the self.