Here's a way to think about what the masses regard as being 'good' things. If you would first start by setting your mind upon things that are unquestionably good- wisdom, self-control, justice, courage- with this preconception you'll no longer be able to listen to the popular refrain that there are too many good things to experience in a lifetime. —Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.12 (resource), Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic
[Javits Wild] When he was in the country, he always asked the people he chanced to meet what "normal life" was like, because he had forgotten. The answers varied, and he gradually came to realize that, even when he was surrounded by other people, he was absolutely alone in the world. He decided to draw up a list of what constituted normal attitudes and behavior, based on what people did rather than on what they said.
In object-referral we also feel an intense need to control things, and the need for external power. The need for approval, the need to control things, the need for external power are needs based on fear. This kind of power is not the power of pure potentiality, or the power of the Self, or real power. When we experience the power of the Self, there is an absence of fear, there is no compulsion to control, and no struggle for approval or external power.
(resource)Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
