Don't Believe Everything You Think

QHB's 10 Points of Focus and Summaries

Don't Believe Everything You Think 10 Points:

1. The Root of Suffering: The book argues that psychological and emotional suffering stems from our thinking, not external events. We have the power to control our response to situations, reducing suffering by altering our mindset.

2. Thought vs. Thinking: The book distinguishes between thoughts (which arise naturally) and thinking (the act of engaging with those thoughts). It is the act of thinking that leads to suffering, not the mere presence of thoughts.

3. Power of Non-Thinking: Achieving a state of non-thinking leads to greater peace, joy, and clarity. By reducing unnecessary thinking, we free ourselves from negative emotions and enter a state of flow and productivity.

4. Perception of Reality: Our feelings come from our thoughts about events, not the events themselves. By changing how we think about a situation, we can change how we feel about it.

5. The Three Principles: The human experience is created by three elements: Universal Mind, Consciousness, and Thought. These principles explain how we interpret and interact with the world around us.

6. Positive Emotions Without Thinking: Positive emotions do not require thinking. By letting go of overthinking, we allow space for natural emotions like peace, joy, and love to arise.

7. Intuition and Inner Wisdom: The book emphasizes following intuition over intellectualizing decisions. Our inner wisdom, or gut feeling, often knows what is best for us.

8. Unconditional Love and Creation: Unconditional love and creation stem from acting without conditions or expectations. This pure form of creation leads to fulfillment and positive emotions.

9. Miracles and Creativity: Space for new thoughts and creativity is created when we stop overthinking. The book encourages embracing stillness and non-thinking to allow for new ideas and miracles to unfold.

10. Living in Peace: The ultimate message is that peace, love, and joy are always available to us, just one thought away. By recognizing and reducing our thinking, we can live in a state of contentment and fulfillment.

QHB's Selected Book Quotes and Summaries

*** JN = Joseph Nguyen (The Author)

=== Introduction: What you will discover in this book & How to get most out of reading it ===

# “The only constant is change. Growth is an inevitable process of life and it will be impossible for you not to change …” - JN

# “We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” - Sheryl Sanberg

# “If you want to find truth, look beyond the words, and look for a feeling. … The truth comes in the form of a feeling. From that feeling will come the wisdom and truth you’re looking for, which will set you free.” - JN

# “I want you to remember that the truth is always simple. … If you want the truth, look for simplicity.” - JN

=== Chapter 1: The Journey to Finding the Root Cause of Suffering ===

# “When I mention suffering in this book, I'm referring to psychological and emotional suffering.” - JN

# “Although pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.” - JN

# “Pain is unavoidable, but how we react to the events and circumstances that happens to our lives is up to us, and that will dictate whether we suffer or not.” - JN

# “In life, we can’t always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. The second arrow is optional.” - Buddha

=== Chapter 2: The Root Cause of All Suffering ===

# “One who looks around him is intelligent, one who looks within him is wise.” - Matshona Dhliwayo

# “Thought is not reality, yet it is our thought that our realities are created.” - Sydney Banks

# “We live in a perception of reality, not in reality itself. Reality is that the event happened, with no meaning, thinking, or interpretation of it.” - JN

# “Our feelings do not come from external events, but from our own thinking about the events. Therefore, we can only ever feel what we are thinking.” - JN

# “the cause of all our human psychological suffering … The Root cause of our suffering is our own thinking.” - JN

# “Our perception of reality is very real. We will feel what we think, and our feelings are real. That is completely undeniable. … If we know that we can only ever feel what we are thinking, then we know that we can change our feelings by changing our thinking.” - JN

# “In short, the moment we stop thinking is when our happiness begins.” - JN

# “Do you know what is really making you angry? It’s not the empty boat, but my reaction to it that causes my anger. All the people or situations that makes me upset and angry are just like the empty boat. They don’t have the power to make me angry without my own reaction.” - The Young Monk

# “ I see that you have found what is really making you angry and overcome that.” - The Elder Monk

=== Chapter 3: Why do we even think? ===

# “I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.” - Jonathan Safran Foer

# “Our minds do an incredible job to keep us alive, but it does not help us to thrive. It is concerned solely with our safety and survival, but not our fulfillment or joy.” - JN

# “If you want to be free, happy, peaceful and full of love, then you need to let go of listening only to your mind and go beyond it by tuning into something much greater that will help you not just to survive, but to thrive … you do not have to have thoughts or think to feel positive emotions.” - JN

=== Chapter 4: Thoughts vs Thinking ===

# “Stop thinking and end your problems.” - Lao Tzu

# “A thought takes no effort or force on our end, and it is something that just happens. … Thinking, on the other hand, is the act of thinking about our thoughts.” - JN

# “Thinking is the root cause of all of our psychological suffering.” - JN

# “Thoughts are not inherently bad. … the moment we think about our thoughts is when we begin to get taken on an emotional roller coaster. When we think about our thoughts, we begin to judge and criticize the thoughts and experience all sorts of internal emotional turmoil.” - JN

# “Having the initial thought of how much you wanted to make didn't cause any suffering until you begin thinking about the thought of how much you wanted to make.” - JN

# “Thoughts create. Thinking destroys. The reason thinking destroys is because as soon as we begin to think about the thoughts, we cast our own limiting beliefs, judgements, criticism, programming, and conditioning onto the thought, thinking of infinite reasons as to why we can’t do it and why we can’t have it.” - JN

=== Chapter 5: If we can only feel what we’re thinking, don’t we need to think positively to feel that way? ===

# “This brings us to another truth: you do not have to have thoughts or think to feel positive emotions. The beautiful part about truth is that it needs no justification because it can be experienced right here right now.” - JN

# “It is not the content of our thinking that causes us stress, but we are thinking, period. The amount of thinking we have going on is directly correlated to the magnitude of stress and negative emotions we are experiencing at any given moment.” - JN

# “Therefore, it’s not WHAT we’re thinking about that is causing us suffering, but THAT we are thinking.”’- JN

# “It is not about the content of our thinking, but that we’re thinking, which is the root cause of our suffering.” - JN

# “The less thinking we have, the more space we create for positive emotions to naturally surface.” - JN

=== Chapter 6: How the Human Experience is Created - The Three Principles ===

# “If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.” - Sydney Banks

# “Human experience is created by these 3 principles: Universal Mind, Consciousness, and Thought. These three principle work together to allow us to experience everything we do in life…” - JN

# “Universal mind is the intelligence behind all living things. … Consciousness is the collective consciousness of all things. … Universal Thought is the raw material of the universe from which we can create from.” - JN

# “Thought is like the DVD disc that contains all the information for us to be able to watch the movie on TV. The TV & DVD player is like consciousness - it allows us to have a mechanism to bring information from the DVD disc to life for us to be able to watch and experience the movie. The electricity that’s needed to power the DVD player and TV is the Universal Mind in the sense that it is the invisible energy/force that connects and power all things.” - JN

=== Chapter 7: If thinking is the root cause of our suffering, How do we stop thinking? ===

# “A crowded mind leaves no space for a peaceful heart.” - Christine Evangelou

# “It’s not possible to just entirely stop thinking, but what we can do is reduce the time we spend thinking so that it gets smaller and smaller each day that passes. Eventually we can get to the point where we spend most of our day not caught up in our thinking and live in a blissful state most of the time.” - JN

# “Once we become aware of the fact that we are only feeling what we’re thinking and that thinking is the root cause of our unpleasant experience, we see it for what it truly is. Then we allow it to settle by giving it space, and slowly we will see how we begin to have a clear mind again.” - JN

# “The only way to break free from our thinking is to let go and trust that our natural inner wisdom will guide us back to clarity and peace like it always has.” - JN

# “We are ever really one moment away from remembering that we always have that infinite well of clarity, love, joy, peace and fulfilment.” - JN

=== Chapter 8: How can we possibly thrive in the world without thinking? ===

# “In other words, the state of peak performance for humans can be described as the state of non-thinking. It may seem crazy, but we do our best work when we aren’t thinking, and you just proved it with your own experience.” - JN

# “The highest performing athletes will describe when they are in their peak state that they are in “the Zone”. This “Zone” is the state of flow or the state or non-thinking.” - JN

# “Thinking hinders the performance of athletes and the same is true for everyone. … We function and perform our best and embody our full potential the moment we enter a state of non-thinking.” - JN

=== Chapter 9: If we stop thinking, what do we do about our goals, dreams and ambitions? ===

# “There is no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.” - Napoleon Hill

# “I think, therefore I suffer.” - JN

# “There are two sources of goals: goals created out of inspiration and goals created out of desperation.” - JN

# “When goals are created out of desperation, we feel a large sense of scarcity and urgency. … When we create goals out of inspiration versus desperation, it is a completely different story. In this state, we are creating because we feel deeply moved, Inspired and expansive. … This is why painters paint, dancers dance, why writer writes, and why singers sing, even if they never get paid or make a living from it.” - JN

# “How can we tell when a goal or dream is created out of inspiration or desperation? A simple way to know if a goal or dream is created out of inspiration is to remember the distinction between thoughts and thinking. Goals and dreams that come in the form of thoughts are created out of Inspiration. Goals and dreams that come from thinking are created out of desperation.” - JN

# “‘A question that greatly helps me to settle the thinking and tap into the limitless well of possibilities of what I could create is: “If i had infinite money, already traveled the world, had no fear, and didn’t receive any recognition for what I do, what would I do or what would i create?” Whenever we ask questions, answer always arise.” - JN

# “To a mind without the limits of thinking, anything is possible.” - JN

=== Chapter 10: Unconditional Love & Creation ===

# “The greatest power that mankind could ever achieve is the power of unconditional love. This is when people love with no limitations, conditions or boundaries.” - Tony Green

# “I learned to make my love for Makenna unconditional by not placing reasons or conditions for when I would love her (because if I did that, by default I place conditions on when I would not love her).” - JN

# “When we create something without conditions or reasons, we actually immediately feel all of the positive feelings we want.” - JN

# “For example, whenever we are working to achieve a goal of making more money, we might go and try to create income for ourselves. This is conditional creation because no one wants money just to have money. …. Unconditional creation is creating something without it being for another purpose, but purely to create it because we just want to create it.” - JN

=== Chapter 11: What do you do next after experiencing Peace, Joy, Love & Fulfilment in the present? ===

# “Don’t think. It complicates things. Just feel, and if it feels like home then follow its path.” - R. M. Drake

# “remember that all of our negative feelings come from our thinking. … Remember that your thinking is the only cause of your negative feelings. The point is not try to prevent your thinking from ever entering your mind, but to shorten the time that it takes for you to remember that it is just your thinking that’s causing the negative emotions.” - JN

# “When we stop thinking, this energy you used to use to think is now “freed up” … what we can do in this case is to channel the newfound energy into our goals of inspiration. This is the cure and intervention of preventing this energy from going back to overthinking.” - JN

=== Chapter 12: Nothing is either good or Bad ===

# “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” - William Shakespeare

# “Instead of looking for right or wrong, good or bad in the world, look for truth. Instead of trying to prove we are right and they are wrong, or how they’re better and we’re worse, look for the truth in what’s in front of you.” - JN

# “All you have to do is remember that thinking is the root cause of how we’re feeling. Once this is brought into your awareness, don’t fight the thinking. Just become aware that it is your thinking that’s causing the ill feelings, welcome it with love, and it will slowly dissipate before your eyes. Not too long after, you’ll return to your natural state of peace, love and joy.” - JN

=== Chapter 13: How do you know what to do without thinking? ===

# “Most of the time, we already know deep down what to do in any specific situation. This is often referred to as your gut feeling, intuition or inner wisdom. What we do is try to confirm our intuition with the external world and this is where most of the negative emotions begin to surface, wreaking havoc on our mental state because of everyone’s opinion.” - JN

# “Only you can know what you want to do. No one else can tell you this. … This is why many of us experience the phenomenon of regret when we know deep down what we should have done based on our gut feeling, but we ignored it and listened to someone else’s advice or opinion.” - JN

# “The truth is most of us know what to do, but we are just afraid to do it. … For anything in life, you most likely already know deep down what to do, but are afraid of doing it or don’t believe that you are good enough to do it.” - JN

# “In short, know that you already know and if you don’t know, know that you can know what you need to know. If you know that you can always know, then what you need to know will always come to you. Trust in your own intuition and inner wisdom.” - JN

=== Chapter 14: How to follow your intuition ===

# “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs

# “The only time we can really be in a state of non-thinking is in the present moment. We can only see reality in the present moment and when we are actively thinking, it means we are either in the past of future (which don’t exist). Only in the present moment can the truth be found.” - JN

# “The truth is that we don’t have to have it all figured ourselves out, nor do we even have to figure it out. How can our limited minds possibly understand and try to manipulate the entire world to our desires? It is only when we think we know more than God that we run into problems.” - JN

# “When we realize that we don’t have to control and try to force everything to happen our way, we become free from suffering, pain and frustration and begin to fall into this state of non-thinking where things just all happen for us instead of to us.” - JN

# “The path forward is only revealed when we begin walking. There’s never going to be a time where the entire path is illuminated for us to see beforehand.” - JN

# “So why don’t more people listen to their intuition if it always knows what to do and create abundance whenever it is follower? Fear. We as humans always fear the unknown because we can’t predict what might happen. It is only when we step into the unknown that we can begin to experience the limitless possibilities that life can bring to us.”’- JN

# “It’s not like you’re going to feel fear all of the time. The fear is only present as long as your thinking is revolving around fear. Once you acknowledge the fear and understand that it’s only your thinking that’s causing those feelings, the illusion will fall apart, and you’ll fall back into peace, joy, and pure love.” - JN

=== Chapter 15: Creating Space for Miracles ===

# “You are like this cup - so full of ideas that nothing more will fit in. Come back to me with an empty cup.” - Zen Master

# “For there to be creation, there must first be space. … If you want something new to be created, such as new thoughts, then you must first create space so that you can receive new ideas that can change your life. … The way we can create this space is through non-thinking.” - JN

# “ What’s important is not when we get caught in our thinking (because it is inevitable), but what we can do when we catch ourselves thinking again. As long as you continually remember that we can only ever feel what we’re thinking and that thinking is the root cause of all of our suffering, then you’re free.” - JN

=== Chapter 16: What Happens when you begin living in non-thinking (potential obstacles) ===

# “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” - Dalai Lama

# “The truth is we are most productive as humans when we are happy and in a state of non-thinking. Time seems to fly when we are in a state of pure joy. … You just have to stay in a state of non-thinking long enough to experience these things and you’ll never go back.” - JN

# “This is when faith becomes of the outmost importance - having faith that things will be okay. … that everything happens for a reason and there are no failures in life, just lessons and opportunities for us to grow.” - JN

# “The unknown is where all the possibilities exist, including everything you could possibly ever want in your life. Once you have the courage to make the leap into the unknown and not be afraid of it anymore, it’s impossible that your life won’t change. … We can either choose to be free and happy in the unknown or to be confined and suffer in the familiar.” - JN

# “Know that it’s absolutely human to think. Once you catch yourself and see that it is your thinking that’s causing your suffering, that's all you need to do in order to bring yourself to a state of peace, happiness and love again. The transition can happen painlessly and effortlessly if you let it.” - JN

=== Chapter 17: Now what? ===

# “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished, that will be the beginning.” - Louis L’Amor

# “You are only ever one thought away from peace, love and joy - which comes from a state of non-thinking. Remember this and keep it close to your heart because it is all the hope you need when life gets inevitably tough.” - JN

# “If this seems like it is too simple and that it can’t be all there is, that is just your mind causing you to think again. The truth is always simple and will always be. Anything that makes something complex and intricate is only taking you further away from the truth.” - JN

# “The world will continuously advertise to us that we are not enough, that we are missing something or don’t have everything we want. People will constantly bombard you with their own opinions, judgements and advice … but do not fall into the illusion that you need any of that. Everything you could possibly ever want and need is already inside of you. … It is only when we forget that fact and get caught up in our thinking that we do not see it.” - JN

# “Continue to live in this state of pure peace and let go of any thinking that may pop up in your mind. The longer you stay in this space, the more miracles will show up in your life.” - JN

=== END OF BOOK ===