Through meditation, we learn to live consciously… it’s a simple idea, but it’s the key to everything. It’s about switching from autopilot to actually being in the driver’s seat of your own life.
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Meaning
At its core, this quote is about the fundamental shift from reacting to the world to responding to it with awareness. It’s the difference between being a puppet on a string of your habits and emotions, and being the one who holds the strings.
Explanation
Let me break this down for you. The “mechanical” life Goleman talks about? That’s most of us, most of the time. You know the feeling. You finish a bag of chips without even tasting them. You drive home and can’t remember the journey. You snap at a colleague because you’re stressed, and it was just the automatic, mechanical response. Meditation is the training ground where you learn to spot that autopilot. You sit, you notice your mind wandering, and you gently bring it back. That simple, frustrating, powerful act of noticing is the rep. You’re building the muscle of attention. And that muscle, once strong, lets you live consciously. You get to choose your response instead of being hijacked by a reaction. It’s the ultimate upgrade to your internal operating system.
Quote Summary
| Context | Attributes |
|---|---|
| Original Language | English (4111) |
| Category | Personal Development (752) |
| Topics | awareness (133), consciousness (5), habits (96) |
| Literary Style | didactic (393) |
| Emotion / Mood | awakening (3), calm (545) |
| Overall Quote Score | 85 (347) |
Origin & Factcheck
This gem comes straight from Daniel Goleman’s 1988 book, The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of Meditative Experience. It’s a foundational text from before Goleman became a household name with “Emotional Intelligence.” You sometimes see this sentiment floating around attributed to random spiritual influencers, but the credit firmly belongs to Goleman’s early, scholarly work in the US.
Attribution Summary
| Context | Attributes |
|---|---|
| Author | Daniel Goleman (125) |
| Source Type | Book (4668) |
| Source/Book Name | The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of Meditative Experience (60) |
| Origin Timeperiod | Modern (866) |
| Original Language | English (4111) |
| Authenticity | Verified (4668) |
Author Bio
Daniel Goleman is a psychologist and bestselling author whose journalism at The New York Times brought brain and behavior science to a wide audience. He earned a BA from Amherst and a PhD in psychology from Harvard, and studied in India on a Harvard fellowship. Goleman’s research and writing helped mainstream emotional intelligence, leadership competencies, attention, and contemplative science. He co-founded CASEL and a leading research consortium on EI at work. The Daniel Goleman book list includes Emotional Intelligence, Working with Emotional Intelligence, Primal Leadership, Social Intelligence, Focus, and Altered Traits.
| Official Website
Where is this quotation located?
| Quotation | Through meditation, we learn to live consciously rather than mechanically |
| Book Details | Publication Year/Date: 1977 (originally as The Varieties of Meditative Experience, revised 1988 as The Meditative Mind); ISBN: 9780874778335; Last Edition: Tarcher/Putnam 1988; Number of pages: 320. |
| Where is it? | Approximate page from 1988 edition, Chapter 5: The Stages of Meditation |