Quotes from Gudjon Bergmann

I believe that myths about spiritual masters as perfect human beings have done more harm than good in our society. While looking for what you may perceive as a spiritual master (and in many cases the search is a mere reflection of your own likes and dislikes) you may overlook a simple and profound teacher that could easily guide you along the spiritual path. When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

I don't know why tobacco producers are exempt when it comes to listing ingredients, but that's just the way it is (it's all covered within the one word – tar).

She had lived in Iceland from birth, a total of 36 years, without knowing that she had the right to live, work and vote in the USA.

If knowing about the dangers of smoking were enough, almost no one would smoke.

Concentration is the key to success in anything in life. You need concentration to carry on a conversation, to raise children, to stay positive, to be able to communicate effectively, to succeed academically, to meditate, to succeed in business, to become good at sports, to achieve the goals you set for yourself, and the list can go on and on.

Would you ever buy chocolate with DDT? How about Cheerios with arsenic? Not very likely!

You may have known for many, many years that smoking isn't good for you, but you're still smoking. You have become a master of deluding yourself. Direct experience is the only thing that can crush your delusion. If you really want to quit and be free, this is the most important step you can take in that direction.

The worst part is when cells feel so threatened by their chemically marinated surroundings, that they decide to mutate as a defensive mechanism, and start to reproduce without taking their immediate surroundings into account. This mutation is called cancer.

Teaching should not be confused with personal practice.

Nicotine is a fast acting drug with short lived effects, which you can assume by the fact that you need to smoke often.

Here is my theory: If smoking is really good, you should be able to smoke and do nothing else at the same time, really focusing all your attention on smoking and how it makes you feel.

I also urge you not to wash your hands, face or mouth in between cigarettes. Let the taste and smell stay with you, in your hair, your clothes, hands and face.

The first men to set foot on the moon were sent to Iceland for acclimation—that's how unlike to anything else the Icelandic landscape is.

It is imperative that your work habits from school do not make their way into your book writing process. I am talking about the practice of typing the last words just before the deadline every time you would hand in an assignment, a paper, or even a thesis. Your book needs time to mature, and you must allow yourself the luxury of rewriting and editing until you are satisfied.

One of the hallmarks of great teachers is that they rejoice when their students surpass them. Encouraging an atmosphere of questioning and inviting people to grow within your classroom isn't necessarily easy; which must explain why people who want to create cults or die hard followers discourage questioning in general. They would rather have people reciting their dogma than asking hard questions.

Imagine willpower as a closed fist and longing as an open hand. Try closing your fist. How long do you think you can hold that pose? A closed fist requires a lot of attention and energy, and so does willpower. Longing is effortless; it's just there, like an open hand.

Co-dependency essentially revolves around the sentence: "I am not enough." A co-dependent person will always need another person to validate their worth, their feelings, their ideas and even their existence. This either shows itself as a need to manipulate and control surroundings; or as a need to bend over backwards to make other people feel good, the reason being that "I can't feel good if you don't feel good.

Contrary to popular belief, positive affirmations cannot change everything and they are not likely to attract wealth and prosperity to you without considerable talent or action; but positive affirmations will help you to change your underlying beliefs and longings - they will help you to quit smoking.

Restlessness is the number one enemy of people who have just quit smoking.

The most important principle in your relationship with time is that time is perishable. No one can save time. It's not like money. You can't deposit the time you don't use into an account and use it later. Time passes. Time is a constantly depleting resource. Once it's gone, it's gone, and you will never get it back.

If you have ever procrastinated and then found yourself energized to complete a task at the last minute, then you have used the beneficial aspect of the fight or flight response (not the procrastinating part, but the energizing part). You see, with all its negative long term effects, the fight or flight response still gives us energy, and if we know how to use that energy, then stress is potentially good, at least in the short term.

Instead of pitting nature against nurture, we must understand that both work in harmony. We can influence our nature through nurture.

When people ask us why we moved to Austin we can truthfully answer: We pointed at the map.

If you are able to show goodness to yourself, your family, friends, and maybe to some in your community, you are doing better than most. In fact, it can be harder to show goodness to those who stand close to you than to those who are in faraway places. If more people tended to their own gardens, all of society would flourish as a result.