The Urban Monk Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus The Urban Monk

Einleitung anhören

00:00

Zusammenfassung von The Urban Monk

Name: The Urban Monk
Rating: 4.6 (104 reviews)
Author: Pedram Shojai

Pedram Shojai

Eastern Wisdom and Modern Hacks to Stop Time and Find Success, Happiness, and Peace

4.6 (104 Bewertungen)

30 Min.

Themen

Spirituality Success Happiness Self-Help Diets Meditation

Inhaltsübersicht

The Urban Monk
in 10 Kernaussagen verstehen

Audio & Text in der Blinkist App

Kernaussage 1 von 10

What’s in it for me? Learn how to live like a monk – without quitting your day job.

In recent years, many of us have become interested in the ancient spiritual practices of the East. But let’s be honest – we’ve got jobs to do, bills to pay, and families to take care of. We can barely manage to attend a yoga class once a week, let alone a month-long meditation retreat.

We’re definitely not about to head off to the Himalayas and join a monastery. But without that level of dedication, how can we experience the inner peace enjoyed by those monks who live in the mountains?

The answer is to become an urban monk: someone who integrates ancient wisdom into the urban – or suburban – lifestyles that most of us live nowadays. And there is no better person to learn how to do this from than Pedram Shojai.

Shojal is a former Taoist monk. He’s dedicated his life to helping people lead more fulfilling lives using his own experiences and knowledge of ancient practices. Through his Urban Monk podcast, his teaching, and books such as The Art of Stopping Time, Shojai has helped countless people. Let these blinks help you.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why chopping wood and fetching water are more than just chores;
why meditation is like an operating system, not an icon; and
why you should learn kung fu.

Our ancestors can teach us how to live in better alignment with our needs.

Despite advances in technology, medicine, and living standards, we modern humans aren’t exactly the happiest or healthiest bunch. We’re lacking in time, energy, sleep, and exercise. We’re lonely, stressed, disconnected from nature, and pumped full of junk food. And on top of all of that, we’re missing a sense of purpose in our lives.

What’s going on? And what can we do about it? Well, the short answer is that our modern ways of life are out of alignment with our needs. To fix this problem, we’re going to have to recalibrate our lifestyles.

Fortunately, we don’t have to start from scratch. There’s a lot of ancient wisdom we can learn from. Much of it’s been passed down to us by the Eastern spiritual traditions, but some of it comes from an even older source: our ancestors.

The key message here is: Our ancestors can teach us how to live in better alignment with our needs.

To be an Urban Monk, you don’t have to subscribe to any particular belief system. You’re free to learn from any source of wisdom. Our ancestors are a great place to start, because their lifestyles were in natural harmony with human needs. If we lived more like them, we’d solve many of our modern problems.

Consider sleep – one of our most fundamental needs. When the sun went down, our ancestors didn’t have any light to fill up the darkness, except for the soft glow of fire, moon, and stars. But the resulting dimness was a blessing in disguise. It triggered a series of biochemical reactions that prepared their bodies for sleep.

In contrast, we modern humans bathe ourselves in the artificial brightness of light bulbs and electronic screens late into the night. This tricks our brains into thinking it’s still daytime, which results in the release of hormones designed to keep us awake, making it difficult to sleep.

So, how can we get ready for bedtime more like our ancestors? Easy: turn off your devices after 7:00 p.m. Better yet, lay off the light bulbs, too, and illuminate your home with soothing candlelight instead.

It’s the perfect way to wind down at night. And it illustrates a more general point: You don’t have to join a monastery to be an Urban Monk. With the help of some simple but effective hacks, you can change your life without heading to the mountains.

We need to spend more time being physically active, connecting with other people, and enjoying the great outdoors.

Getting ready for bed is just the beginning of what we can learn from our ancestors. If we look at how they lived their lives, our Palaeolithic forebears can give us a whole master class on how to avoid many of our modern problems.

Loneliness? They lived in tight-knit extended families and tribes. Lack of exercise? They spent their days hunting prey, gathering fruit, walking through forests, climbing cliffs, jumping across gorges, and running from predators. Disconnection from nature? They were surrounded by it all day long, and they needed intimate knowledge of their environments to survive.

Being an Urban Monk takes hard work, both physical and mental.

“Now wait a minute,” you might be thinking. “Getting outside to exercise more is certainly good health advice, but what does it have to do with being a monk? The two things seem completely unrelated.”

But that might be because you have some common misconceptions about what being a monk is all about. The monks of ancient times didn’t just sit around their monasteries, meditating all day. They spent much of their time outside doing physically demanding chores, like fetching water and chopping wood. In fact, Zen Buddhist monks even had an old saying about this: “Before Zen, fetch water, chop wood. After Zen, fetch water, chop wood.”

To improve your diet, eat slowly and softly.

At this point in your journey to becoming an Urban Monk, you’ve transformed yourself from a modern couch potato into an active human being. You’re getting outside and exercising more. You’ve taken up kung fu or tai chi. You’re chopping wood and fetching water. Okay, maybe not literally – but you’re adopting a tougher, more monk-like mindset that embraces challenges and chores.

To fuel all this activity, you’ll probably need to follow a diet healthier than that of most modern people. The problems with the food we eat are numerous, but a lot of them boil down to two issues: a lack of nutritional quality and an excess of caloric quantity. In simpler terms, we eat too much food that contains too little nutrition.

Feeling more energetic isn’t just about obtaining more energy; it’s also about letting it flow more freely.

If you follow the advice we’ve looked at so far, you’ll end up better meeting your needs for sleep, exercise, nutrition, social connection, and time spent in nature. That’s good news by itself, but there’s an added bonus that comes with it: you’ll also have more energy – another thing that many of us modern humans lack.

Now, it’s probably no surprise that better sleep, more exercise, and improved nutrition will boost your energy levels. But there’s another energy-booster that’s often overlooked these days: spending time in nature. Even if you’re just sitting still or going on a leisurely walk, there’s something deeply invigorating about being surrounded by trees, flowers, and other living things.

You can improve your energy flow by practicing qigong, meditating, and spending less time sitting.

As long as you don’t overdo it to the point of exhaustion, just about any form of exercise can help you generate more energy and get it flowing better: walking, running, swimming, dancing, lifting weights, practicing yoga, doing push ups – anything, as long as it involves movement.

Add to it all of those outdoor activities we talked about earlier, along with kung fu, tai chi, and other martial arts. And don’t forget chopping wood and fetching water – chores can be another great way to get your body moving and your energy flowing!

Meditation can be therapeutic.

Let’s begin with a stress-relief meditation.

Find a comfortable sitting position, set a timer for five to ten minutes, and focus on your breath. Inhale and exhale gently through your nose, down into your lower abdomen.

Think about meditation as a mental operating system, rather than an icon.

Meditation has become quite a buzzword in recent years, so the fact that it can offer therapeutic benefits might seem like old news. But hold on – even if you’re already familiar with the benefits of meditation, there’s still something to be learned here.

As ideas and practices become popular, they are often oversimplified and misunderstood. Unfortunately, that’s been the case with the ancient art of meditation. Many people now think about it the wrong way, and even those of us who already practice it might be approaching it from the wrong angle as a result.

Tranquility comes from within.

Imagine you’re at the grocery store, waiting in line at the checkout counter. Something is wrong with the cash register, and it’s holding everything up. Five minutes later, you’re still waiting. How do you react?

If you’re like most people, you probably get stressed. But what if, instead of grinding your teeth, you checked in with yourself and used those five minutes of downtime as a chance to practice a quick meditation exercise? If you've already installed meditation as your mental operating system, you’ll be ready to do just that – nipping your stress in the bud, enjoying a few minutes of calm, and further developing a monk-like mentality in the process.

Meditation can help you slow down time and remind you of your place in the universe.

Our journey through these blinks is coming to an end, but your journey to becoming an Urban Monk is just beginning. At this point, you’ve got your energy flowing, you’ve reduced stress, your meditating operating system is up and running, and your kung fu mindset is firmly established. Now you’re ready to tackle two more problems that afflict many of us in the modern era: a lack of time and a lack of a sense of purpose.

In this final blink, we're going to look at two final mediation exercises that can help you with these problems.

Du möchtest die gesamte Zusammenfassung von The Urban Monk sehen?

Kernaussagen in The Urban Monk

Mehr Wissen in weniger Zeit

Sachbücher auf den Punkt gebracht

Kernaussagen aus Sachbüchern in ca. 15 Minuten pro Titel lesen & anhören mit den „Blinks”

Zeitsparende Empfehlungen

Titel, die dein Leben bereichern, passend zu deinen Interessen und Zielen

Podcasts in Kurzform ^Neu

Kernaussagen wichtiger Podcasts im Kurzformat mit den neuen „Shortcasts”

Worum geht es in The Urban Monk?

The Urban Monk (2016) is a field guide for how to navigate modern life with a more monk-like mentality. Drawing on Eastern spiritual traditions, contemporary science, and the lives of our ancestors, it’s packed full of practical tips on how we can integrate ancient wisdom into our modern lifestyles. It addresses a wide range of personal problems, including stress, unhealthy diets, and a lack of time, energy, and sense of purpose.

Wer The Urban Monk lesen sollte

Lifestyle hackers
Those who suffer from stress and low energy
People interested in Eastern spiritual traditions

Über den Autor

Pedram Shojai, a former Taoist monk, is a doctor of Oriental medicine, a qigong master, and a decades-long practitioner of kung fu and tai chi. He is the host of The Urban Monk podcast, the founder of Well.org, and the producer of the documentary films Vitality, Origins, and Prosperity. His other books include The Art of Stopping Time and Inner Alchemy.

Kategorien mit The Urban Monk

Personal Development Mindfulness & Happiness

Ähnlich wie The Urban Monk

The Art of Stopping Time

Pedram Shojai

Practical Mindfulness for Busy People

25 min

4.5

Understanding Artificial Intelligence

Nicolas Sabouret

A Straightforward Explanation of AI and Its Possibilities

16 min

4.3

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Intuition or deliberation? Where you can (and can't) trust your brain

Lose Weight, Supercharge Your Energy, and Sleep Well Every Night

20 min

4.5

Becoming Supernatural

Joe Dispenza

How Common People are Doing the Uncommon

What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know

101 Simple Truths for a Better Life

Create a Life You Really Love with Less Stress and More Flow

A Practical Guide to Awakening

Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation, and Eat Like the High-Performing Human You Were Meant to Be

20 min

4.6

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Robin Sharma

A guide to using ancient practices to improve your quality of life and achieve your goals

The secrets of 40 millionaires' wealth, revealed

15 min

4.4

10x Is Easier Than 2x

Dan Sullivan with Benjamin Hardy

How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less

How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and be More Productive

How to Attract the Right Relationships and Deepen Your Connections

18 min

4.5

Buddhism – Plain and Simple

Steve Hagen

The Practice of Being Aware, Right Now, Every Day

Healing the Shame-Fueled Relationship Between What You Eat and How You Feel

How to Focus on Your Goals and Create a Life You Love

21 min

4.3

The 4 Day Week

Andrew Barnes with Stephanie Jones

How the flexible work revolution can increase productivity, profitability, and wellbeing, and help create a sustainable future

How to Feel Alive Again

26 min

4.4

The Book of Joy

Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu

Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

The Science of Self-Healing - A Practical Guide

What the Rich Teach Their Kids about Money – That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Timeless Stoic and Buddhist philosophy

Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha

A Revolutionary Approach to Success

Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

24 min

4.5

How to Be a Productivity Ninja

Graham Allcott

Worry Less, Achieve More and Love What You Do

25 min

4.4

Reinventing Your Life

Jeffrey E. Young and Janet S. Klosko

The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behaviour...and Feel Great Again

17 min

4.4

How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less

Nicholas Boothman

Make Instant, Meaningful Connections for Interviewing, Selling, Managing, Pitching

How to Release Your Trapped Emotions for Abundant Health, Love, and Happiness

25 min

3.9

30 Ways to Reboot Your Body

Ben Greenfield

A Complete User Manual for Getting the Most Out of the Human Body

10 min

3.5

Who Will Cry When You Die?

Robin Sharma

Life Lessons from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

23 min

4.4

Think Like a Freak

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Find the unconvential yet brilliant ideas hidden in data

Taoist Philosophy for Peace, Contentment & Balance in Life

16 min

4.3

Discipline Equals Freedom

The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Baltasar Gracián y Morales

92 Tools to Unlock the Secrets to Innovation, Growth, and Sustainability

25 min

4.2

How to Meet Your Self

Nicole LePera

The Workbook for Self-Discovery

16 min

4.2

Business Writing Tips

Robert Bullard

For Easy and Effective Results

Work Less, Worry Less, Succeed More, Enjoy More

13 min

4.1

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Ramit Sethi

The easy approach to smart banking, saving, spending and investing

17 min

4.0

Rest

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Why You Get More Done When You Work Less

Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You

Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

16 min

4.3

The Mental Toughness Handbook

Damon Zahariades

A Step-By-Step Guide to Facing Life's Challenges, Managing Negative Emotions, and Overcoming Adversity with Courage and Poise

Living Better Together, the African Way

23 min

4.5

12 Months to $1 Million

Ryan Daniel Moran

How to Pick a Winning Product, Build a Real Business, and Become a Seven-Figure Entrepreneur

The Surprising Solution to Overthinking

20 min

4.4

❤️ für Blinkist️️️

Ines S.

Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.

Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.

Ekaterina S.

Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll

Nils S.

Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.

Julia P.

Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.