The Book in 3 Sentences

1. Man is imprisoned by his own mind, desires, and conditioned responses, living under the illusion of freedom while actually being bound by the ego and the constant chatter of thought.
2. True liberation and bliss are not found through effort-based practices like mindfulness, which is unsustainable, but through the state of "No-Mind" where one transcends thought and experiences life directly.
3. By realising that life is inherently meaningless and that death is inevitable, one can stop treating life as work to be achieved and start treating it as play to be experienced.

Overview & Impressions

Atmamun is easily one of my favourite reads of all time. It serves as a great introduction to the nature of the mind, the trap of the ego and the pursuit of true internal freedom. I found the book moving and eye-opening, particularly in how it challenges the modern obsession with mindfulness and meaning, arguing instead for "No-Mind" and the freedom of meaninglessness. It is very interesting and engaging because it doesn’t avoid challenging you. It is very practical and avoids wishy-washy language or spiritual fluff. Gupta’s direct, surgical approach forces you to confront the fact that your misery is self-manufactured, offering a path not of doing more, but of understanding deep enough to finally walk away from the false self.

Top Quotes

Mind stands as the single barrier between ourselves and the life that nature intended for us to live.

The greatest freedom that we have is the freedom to walk away from ourselves.

If there is one truth that I have learned, it is that unless you find it inside of Today, you will never find it inside of Tomorrow.

Summary, Quotes & Notes

There is pain and risk in asking real questions. Intellectualization is risk- free.

Man cannot be free until he realizes how deeply he is bound.

The Sanskrit translation of Atmamun is “Mind of the Spirit.”

No-Mind is the gateway to Atmamun. No matter what sights or sounds you encounter, they do not register as thought, but as experience. You experience them intimately. Without the intermediary known as thought.

Man’s greatest dilemma is that he lives in a prison and he believes that he is free.

When you have likes and dislikes, you have a desire for one thing and an aversion for another.

We are imprisoned by desires, cravings, preferences, prejudices, hopes, wishes, vices, ideals, philosophies, and on and on.

Man is NOT his mind.

How often are the prayers and the worships about God himself? For his betterment? Without asking for anything in return?

Man will take any opportunity to avoid that which is most immediate in his life.

Do whatever you wish, freely and completely. Without the guilt of morality. Or the burden of should’s and shouldn’ts.

Become God or give yourself to one.

To submit oneself whole to this God is to achieve bliss. And master life. And become whole. And “enlightened.”

The leaf that gives itself whole to the river, becomes the river.

It matters not who your God is, or where you believe he resides. If you give yourself to him, you will experience your life as he experiences his. You will assume his power. And feel his bliss.

If believing in a God is your way, then it let it be your way completely. Do not use your God as an insurance policy. Do not pray to him. Or worship him. Or make requests to him. Discover what you are using God for. Discover the ways in which you’re playing a clever game. This requires great sincerity. But if you wish to truly attain something or arrive somewhere, this is absolutely essential.

The truth is that holy followers around the world, even the most devoted ones, fail to reach any high attainment in the world of God. They may shave their head. And beg alms. And acquiesce to a life of celibacy. But, in many cases, they are simply part of a group. They enjoy the “idea” of following such a path. The spiritual order is no different than any other worldly institution. There are the common. And there are the elite. And what separates the two is a Sincere and Heartfelt Desire.

Animals large and small know nothing of the chemical nature of water, but drinking it sustains their lives, does it not? Is it not the same with God?

Knowledge is a cop out. It is a token demonstration of passing interest. It is a clever little game. For while it may fill the head, it leaves the heart empty.

To drink the kingdom of God means that you are willing to relinquish everything in order to attain it.

You need not give away your personal possessions. But in order to make room for him, you must cleanse yourself of the NEED for anything else.

Insights are achieved in silence. When they are spoken of, they are poisoned.

Feelings are feelings. And, in many ways, to speak is to lie. For language cannot do justice to the subtleties and nuances of feeling.

You Are Not YOU. The life that you are currently living is not your real life. Because you are living through the sheath known as Mind.

The Ego is not that which says that you are great. It is that which says that you exist at all!

The creation of this persona is the genesis of all of Naomi’s problems. How? Because whatever happens in Naomi’s life does not “just happen.” It happens To Her. The breakups, the disappointments, the conflicts, and all of life’s endless upheavals happen To Naomi. As a result, she is simply doomed to a life as a piñata, battered by circumstance.

Hasn’t this You become a burden yet? For how long will you carry it around? Why not just park it in storage while the non-You goes for a stroll?

The greatest freedom that we have is the freedom to walk away from ourselves.

Is Your Life Really A Life? . . . Really?

Let the events happen around you, knowing that none of them are happening TO You. And you will live an equanimous life. You will live a life without the burden of hope. Or the weight of despair.

If there is one truth that I have learned, it is that unless you find it inside of Today, you will never find it inside of Tomorrow.

What is the meaning of life? This is on the lips of millions of human beings. And every one of these human beings is an adult.

Meaning is an intellectual concept. And living is living.

If your pursuits and exploits in life have meaning to you, you will be burdened by expectation.

Climb the greatest mountain. Achieve all the accolades in the world. Become the greatest in your field. Achieve fame. Earn millions. And you will enjoy every bit of the journey, if and only if you understand that none of it means anything.

When something has meaning, it becomes work. When something is meaningless, it becomes play. The joy that you experience in honing your craft is the greatest reward. Spending your life exactly the way you wish to spend it is a wonderful liberation.

Rewards fade from memory. Experiences remain forever.

Life is simply a joke. An absurdity. A non-linear, haphazard, and unpredictable trail that is fertile for the imagination of hallucinatory human beings.

There was a day that you were not here. And there will soon be a day when you are no longer here. And once you realise this, you will understand that all there is left to do is play.

Play with your work. Play with your kids. Play with your wife. Play with your surroundings. Play with your happiness. Play with your sorrows. Play with all of those things that you consider to be your miseries and misfortunes.

If you understand that life has no meaning, the events of your life will not affect you.

You have forever been on the road to pain. And you are headed toward more pain.

But this is your only chance at freedom. For when you see that life is inherently and fundamentally full of strife, pain, disappointment, anxiety, and misery, you will stop looking for bliss within the events of your life.

You will begin to live inside this very moment. Not because of silly little prescriptions such as “mindfulness” but because you fundamentally will have understood that to live anywhere else is simply a lie.

The man who is in love with his trade is not a worker. He is an artist. Whether he makes a million dollars or a thousand, he is living in accordance with his nature. And thus his days are filled with joy.

Your “job” may indeed earn you a living, but it will not earn you a life.

Wealth, success, and luxury do not harm a man. What harms a man is the attachment to these things.

The man who is attached to the idea of achieving spirituality is equally doomed.

Attachment is the antithesis of life.

Unless a man first helps himself, he cannot really help another.

How will you feel when you realize that you have wasted your entire life never having explored the talents that were meant only for You?

Nature created you as an original. Originals are invested with glorious talents. Discover the talent within yourself that nature has been waiting for you to show to the world. You are a creator. And you always have been. Give yourself the permission to create. For if you do not, the world will take advantage of you being ignorant to this fact. And it will put you to “work!”

Man is addicted to mediocrity.

No matter how outrageous a result or situation is, if he is exposed to it enough times, he accepts it as the norm.

Human beings tend to become the norm that they are exposed to. This is the astonishing power of environment.

Blood, sweat, and tears are fine. But rather than bleeding from wounds, is it not better to bleed from passion?

Hard work never made anyone a success. It may have played a catalytic role.

The man who knows that he will be a success makes “hard work” work for him. To him it is a tool in his arsenal. The man who does not know Works For hard work. He relies upon hard work as the engine and the vehicle to get him there. And this latter instance rarely works.

The one who hopes for success creates backup plans, “just in case.” The one who knows has no need for a backup plan. Because he simply cannot imagine doing anything else with his life, he simply has no choice but to succeed.

Legends are created from the inside rather than the outside. They are those who simply see things in a different way.

If you seek to be a legend in your field, it will help you to understand that you will have to be comfortable being an outcast.

If you seek to be a legend, bring to the world something that it has never before seen. There is something unique in you. For nature makes one-of-a-kind creations. Society makes clones.

To be truly great, you must understand that the human body does not respond very well to goals or hopes or expectations. It responds to Perceptions. And the more clear cut your perceptions, the more consistent your results will be.

The truth is always rare. It is never found in the middle of the street. It is typically found in remote corners of the world. For it requires a true seeker to find it.

Whether something is possible or impossible is not your business.

Success and failure are ideas that will only serve as a burden to your quest.

Rather than finding the thing that you can imagine yourself becoming, find the thing that you simply cannot imagine yourself Not Becoming.

Thinking is a tool that man can employ in order to carry out an activity or reach a particular goal. But it certainly doesn’t make the man. And for the vast majority of humanity, it is his undoing.

During those rare moments in your life that you were Here, you had clarity. You had joy. And the reason for this clarity and joy is because for that brief period of time that you were Here, you were free of thoughts. And because you were free of thoughts, you were free of the mind.

Mindfulness Binds. MindLESSness Liberates.

The trouble with mindfulness is that it requires persistent effort. It is like attempting to empty the ocean with a teacup.

Mindfulness is simply not sustainable. And thus it is impractical. Is it not a more realistic solution to be aware of one’s lack of mindfulness?

Become aware of the mind’s patterns and you will awaken.

Ask yourself, what precisely is preventing you from having Freedom TODAY!

Mind stands as the single barrier between ourselves and the life that nature intended for us to live.

Our addictions and our vices are an example of our enslavement to the mind. It is the mind that is addicted to things. And rather than challenge the addiction and refuse to do the mind’s bidding, we ascribe the addiction to ourselves! We internalise it as a part of our “personality.”

You have never been addicted to anything in your life. You have never had a single preference. You have never had any ideal. You have never had a single prejudice. You have never in your life had a single opinion.

It is far more important at this stage to understand who you are Not. It will lead you to freedom much quicker if you learn who and what you are Not. For if you keep subtracting, there soon comes a time when you can subtract no more. And when you reach this point you will discover who you are.

When your thoughts feel like imposters. And your ideas seem like noise. And your preferences fail to move you. And your pride is easily dropped. You will experience the state of No-Mind.

When you lose yourself in the activity you are involved in, and that which seemed to be an insignificant chore now seems like the only thing in the world, you will experience the state of No-Mind.

I do not disagree with the end product of mindfulness. I disagree with the idea that mindfulness is a practical vehicle through which to reach this end product.

The mind cannot be calmed or tamed. It can only be transcended. And it is transcended not through activities. It is transcended through Understanding.

Understand very clearly that for as long as you are the mind, It will use you. And when you reach the state of No-Mind, you will be able to use It.

Once you get a taste of No- Mind, your personality will begin to deconstruct. The baggage that you have been carrying for decades will drop away.

A partial truth is just as harmful as a whole untruth. For it leads to greater frustration when the partial truths does not bear fruit.

The masses are unserious. And thus their appetite for unserious information is exploited.

Meditation will get you nowhere. Meditativeness will give you the keys to your inner kingdom.

When everything is a meditation, you have become Meditative. And when you have become meditative, there is nothing that is done reflexively. And when nothing is done reflexively, it is done perfectly.

Meditation is Not an action. And the world has been taught to treat it as an action.

Meditation is about becoming LESS than you ever thought possible.

If you train yourself to become what you are doing, you will be meditative.

Man is very clever. He attaches himself to high-minded ideals in order to avoid doing the work that needs to be done.

The way to help the world is to help yourself. Not in the form of indulgence, but in the form of self-examination.

The state of the world will do nothing for you. The state of your interiority will do everything for you.

Parents do not raise children. Nature does.

Nature does not make mistakes with children. Parents do. He attempts to correct him. And mend him. And improve upon him. And in doing so, he destroys him.

If a man or a woman is wise, they will look at their children in a completely different way. They will stop teaching and begin listening.

Should the parent teach the child to be miserable? Or should he learn from the child how to be joyful?

To address an issue from the standpoint of behavior is like addressing the problems of a tree at the level of the branch, rather than at the level of the root.

Behavior, whether in the child or the adult, is the natural byproduct of the person’s outlook, perception, and level of understanding.

Parents are enslaved by their need for their children to do well. And this causes an enormous amount of pain in their lives.

The parent’s ultimate duty is to allow the child to never lose sight of himself.

When your life becomes meaningless. When you can live, instead of asking from life, you will have the capacity to give love. And it will look far different than it does now.

The one who gives love has no need to control.

What they needed was for you to be so madly in love with them, that they would never feel the need to leave you.

Do not kiss them on the cheek. Or tell them your lies about loving them. Or fill them with your high-minded advice. Lose yourself in their eyes. And fall completely in love with who they are.

For what sort of love is a love that can be reduced into words?

Parents are in the habit of giving too much to their children.

The child’s mind is far superior to that of the parent. This is because it is not well developed. A well developed mind is simply a trash bin that is more full.

If there is someone to learn from, who should it be? The one who searches for answers? Or the one who has no need for them?

Virtually everything that you do every single day of the week is done automatically and reflexively.

You have everything. But do you have peace?

Truth be told, there is great solace to be found in misery. There is comfort in pain. But we pay for it with our lives.

The mind enjoys pain, perhaps because it enjoys setting up the guilt and the reconciliation that follows.

The question is NOT “How do I solve my problems?’ The question is “Why do I have problems in the first place?” But who asks such a question?

The reason that you have problems is because you gain something from them. And unless the perceived gain from Peace exceeds the perceived gain from Misery, you will forever live in misery.

Happiness and sadness are moods. Moods are a byproduct of thought. And thought is the very constitution of the mind.

Cosmetic fixes will always lead to results equally cosmetic.

Happiness and misery are two sides of the very same coin. To seek one is to seek the other. The only way out is bliss. Bliss is beyond both happiness and sadness. For it is not dependent upon a fortuitous event or an enjoyable circumstance. It is a byproduct of wisdom. The wisdom that comes from seeing things the way they truly are.

Are you ready for the secret to instant bliss? Here it is: You Are Going To Die!

Our problem is that although we thirst, we do not know what exactly we are thirsting for. As a result, we wander through life grasping at shiny and colorful things hoping to quench our thirst. But the things we find never do the job.

Unless we viscerally come face to face with our own demise we will never know death. And if we never have the luxury of knowing death, we will forever suffer the misery of not having lived.

If you knew that you were going to die tomorrow, today would be the most blissful day of your life.

Just because everyone around you has the same conditioned responses, you consider it to be “natural.”

Anger is not a form of self-defense. It is a manifestation of inner conflict.

If someone calls you an idiot, something within you at least partially entertains or accepts the idea that you are an idiot. This idea that you may be an idiot, in turn, causes you to feel very uneasy about yourself. And this uneasiness is manifested as anger.

If we come to terms with our own strengths and misgivings, we cannot be bothered by anyone or anything.

The man with little to no money is just as attached to his meager possessions as the rich man is to his luxurious ones.

The poor man has no time to fill his soul. For his first priority is to fill his stomach.

Attachment to poverty is just as imprisoning as an attachment to wealth.

Behavior is the natural consequence of the degree to which we live within the mind.

What are the things in your life and outlook that you would like to completely abandon?

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