Instaread Summaries

Summary of High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove- Includes Analysis Preview: First published in 1983, High Output Management by Andrew Grove is a management guide based on Grove's 15 years of managerial experience and knowledge as a co-founder, president, and chief executive of Intel. As Grove emphasizes in a new introduction to the book, globalization and the information revolution have dramatically changed the workforce, making people ever more replaceable and the market ever more competitive. Companies must adapt to these changes or face their own irrelevance and extinction. The same holds true for workers andmanagers. Managers, especially middle managers, are often overlooked in business books and forgotten in organizations, yet they are immensely important not only to businesses but to society more broadly. In order to survive and to thrive in their careers, managers must constantly enhance their value by learning and adapting to a changing, often unpredictable business environment... PLEASE NOTE: This is key takeaways and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary of High Output Management - Overview of the book - Important People - Key Takeaways - Analysis of Key Takeaways About the Author With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

By Andrew S. Grove Includes Analysis

Summary of High Output Management

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of the book and NOT the original book. How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson - A 15-minute Summary Inside this Instaread Summary: • Overview of the entire book • Introduction to the important people in the book • Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book • Key Takeaways of the book • A Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Chapter 1 Glass formed in the Libyan desert about twenty-six million years ago when grains of silica became superheated for some unknown reason. People began making ornaments from it about ten thousand years later. Still later, Roman artisans learned to make glass windows and drinking vessels from these early examples of glass. In 1204, Turkish glassmakers migrated to Venice, a major trade hub. The merchants of Venice happily began trading in this new commodity, but the high heat required for glassmaking kept sparking fires in the city. In 1291, the glassmakers were relocated to the island of Murano, where their creative community has thrived due to new levels of competition and shared innovation. Murano glassmakers developed crystal, an extremely clear glass that bends light very precisely. Monks in northern Italy used it to create the first eyeglasses. Other than monks, most people did not read, so there was little demand for glasses until Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press made books accessible in the 1440s. Other innovators began studying the properties of convex pieces of glass. In 1590, a father and son in the Netherlands invented the microscope, which British scientist, Robert Hooke, used in the next century to discover the cell, the building block for life. In 1608, Hans Lippershey patented a lens that magnified what a person was viewing through it. Galileo improved on the Lippershey’s design and, two years later, was using a telescope to challenge the assumption that all heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth. The printed word spread his ideas and helped pave the way for the Renaissance. One hummingbird effect of glass came from a quest to measure things. In 1887, British physicist, Charles Vernon Boys, created a thin fiber of glass to use as a balance arm. The new type of glass, which would come to be called fiberglass, was very strong. Within a hundred years, fiberglass was widely used in insulation, airplanes and computer circuits.

Six Innovations That Made the Modern World

How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson - A 15-minute Summary

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of the book and NOT the original book. Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull: A 30-minute Summary Inside this Instaread Summary:Overview of the entire bookIntroduction to the Important people in the bookSummary and analysis of all the chapters in the bookKey Takeaways of the bookA Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Chapter 1 Every Sunday, as a kid, Catmull watched on TV The Wonderful World of Disney, where Disney explained how they made their animations and incorporated technological breakthroughs into their work. One day, Catmull had a life-changing realization: a good animation was measured by whether or not the character on the screen made you believe it was a thinking being. He decided he wanted to become an animator and create emotional characters. Catmull graduated with a double major in Physics and Computer Science from the University of Utah. In his graduate program he met professor Ivan Sutherland, a pioneer in computer graphics and director of the computer graphics program. The program was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the creators of the first computer network, ARPANET, which would later evolve into the Internet. ARPA was developed as a response to the threat of the Soviet Sputnik satellite, the first of its kind. The U.S. felt threatened by Soviet technological advancements and they developed ARPA to stay up with the Soviets. To Catmull, the lesson to be learned from this was when the competition gets smart, you need to get smarter. Catmull found enormous inspiration in the computer graphics program, not only from the technology he was discovering but also from his fellow students. The collaborative and creative atmosphere he experienced there was something he later tried to emulate at Pixar. In 1972, Catmull made his first animated film, a digitized model of his left hand. Hand became a reference for state-of-the-art computer animation. Professor Sutherland came up with the idea of an exchange program with Disney. Disney would send an animator to the University of Utah to learn about new technologies, and the university would send one of their students to learn about storytelling. Catmull was sent to propose....

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull: A 30-minute Summary

Key Takeaways & Analysis of The Checklist Manifesto

Key Takeaways & Analysis of Misbehaving

A 15-minute Summary & Analysis Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of the book and NOT the original book. Me Before You by JoJo Moyes - A 30-minute Instaread Summary Inside this Instaread Summary: • Overview of the entire book • Introduction to the important people in the book • Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book • Key Takeaways of the book • A Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Chapter 1 Louisa ‘Lou’ Clark, a member of a working class family in a small English village, has just lost her job. Although both Lou’s father, Bernard, and her sister, Treena, work, neither makes enough money to help the family make ends meet without Lou’s income. For this reason, it is decided that Lou should apply for a new job at the Job Centre as soon as possible. The next day Lou goes to the gym to see her boyfriend, Patrick. He sees Lou’s lost job as an opportunity for her to improve herself and find something better. The counselor at the Job Centre suggests Lou apply as a care assistant for a man in a wheelchair. She is not interested in this job, but she is running out of options. She agrees to go for the interview. Chapter 2 Lou usually wears odd, eccentric clothes. For the job interview, Josie, her mother, insists she wear a business suit. Lou goes to Granta House, an elegant and expensive home next to the local tourist attraction, Stortfold Castle. She is interviewed by Camilla Traynor. Camilla is Will Traynor’s mother. Will became a quadriplegic after being hit by a motorcycle. He already has a nurse named Nathan to take care of his personal and medical needs. Camilla wants to hire someone to be a companion for Will and to stay with him during the day when no one else can be there. Lou thinks the interview goes badly. Therefore, she is surprised when Camilla offers her the job with a six-month contract and generous pay. Chapter 3 Lou reports for work at Granta House the following morning. Camilla shows her around the annexe, a space that was once stables but was turned into guest quarters. This is where Will lives now that he is confined to a wheelchair. Camilla explains her duties to Lou. She makes it clear that Lou is not to leave Will alone and unattended for more than 15 minutes at any one time. Camilla introduces Lou to Will and Nathan, Will’s nurse. Nathan explains Will’s medications to Lou and tells her she is there to cheer Will. Nathan leaves, and Lou and Will are left to get to know each other. It does not go well. Will is sullen, quiet, and talks very little. She keeps herself busy with cleaning and household chores to fill in the time. Lou is unhappy about the first day at her new job. She talks to her sister Treena about it. Treena asks her to stick with the job because she has decided to quit her job and go back to college. She has received a grant to help pay her tuition, but will have to quit her job. Lou feels this puts more pressure on her to earn an income...

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes - A 30-minute Instaread Summary

With InstaRead Chapter-by-Chapter Summaries, you can get the essence of a book in 30 minutes or less. We read every chapter and summarize it in one or two paragraphs so you can get the information contained in the book at a much faster rate. This is an InstaRead Summary of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. Below is a preview of the earlier sections of the summary: Prologue The year is 1995. Cheryl, the narrator and author of the story, explains that she was 26 years old when at the lowest point of her life she began her solo trek on the Pacific Crest Trail. She describes the trail as being 2,663 miles long and two feet wide, stretching from Mexico to Canada and including nine mountain ranges. She has embarked on her journey just 38 days before in an effort to find herself. As she stops to rest at the peak of a mountain, one of her hiking boots tumbles away down the mountain and into some trees far below. Realizing the other is of no use to her anymore, she tosses it out into the trees as well. She reflects on her situation and decides that though she is alone, battered and bruised, shoeless, and at least days from the next supply stop, she must walk on. Part One: The Ten Thousand Things Chapter One: The Ten Thousand Things Cheryl reflects on when her journey actually began and decides that it truly began a over four years ago, on the day that she had learned her forty-five year-old mother was going to die of advanced stage lung cancer. She recalls being at the Mayo clinic with her mother and stepfather on the day of the diagnosis and cursing the smaller town doctors that had given the same diagnosis in the weeks leading up to the visit to Mayo. She had wanted them to be wrong. Angry at her absent older sister and younger brother, and refusing to believe that her extremely health-conscious, non-smoking mother could possibly have cancer, she argues with the doctor, then crumbles at the news that her mother has a year, at most, to live. She describes the deep love and devotion of her mother to her and her two siblings. Pregnant at nineteen, her mother had married her father only to find out within three short days that he was brutal and abusive. Her mother left him several times, but not permanently until she was twenty-eight years old. A single mother of three, her mother worked all the time, but never seemed to get ahead. She sugar-coated poverty for her children, making games out of their plight and dating an interesting slew of men. Her mother finally met Eddie, a man eight years her junior, and he married her and took on the roles of husband and father with ease. After a disabling accident and settlement, the couple bought forty acres of land an hour and half from Duluth, Minnesota...

A 30 Minute Chapter by Chapter Summary

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of the book and NOT the original book. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King - A 30-minute Summary of the Novel Inside this Instaread Summary: Overview of the entire book Introduction to the Important people in the book Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book Key Takeaways of the book A Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Part1 Chapter 1 Down-on-his-luck, Augie Odenkirk helps homeless Janice Cray care for her baby as they wait in the early morning fog for a job fair. A gray Mercedes plows into the crowd. Augie, Janice and the baby are among the victims. Part 2 Chapters 1-3 About a year after the Mercedes crash, Retired Detective K. William Hodges watches more grubby reality shows, fails to enjoy his beer, and thinks, again, of shooting himself. The arrival of the mail distracts him. A letter, allegedly from the driver of the killer Mercedes, stuns him. The writer brags about killing eight and wounding many. He says that he got off sexually at he drove into the crowd. He wore a condom and used bleach to get rid of any DNA. He wore a hair net under a clown mask for the same reason. He knows Hodges is miserable and hopes the letter cheers him up. He gives Hodges a website where they can talk, including a username: kermitfrog19. Chapters 4-6 Hodges wonders if he should turn the letter over to his former partner, Pete Huntley. He believes the writer is the killer because he knows inside information about the condom and the bleach. The idea of using this letter, and chats on line, to catch the killer gives Hodges a reason to live. Chapter 7-9 Hodges analyzes the letter and sees that the writer has several identifying traits, including misusing perk for perp and peppering his words with an image of a smiley face. The same smiley face was glued onto the steering wheel of the Mercedes. Hodges calls Pete and makes a lunch date....

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King - a 30-Minute Summary

InstaRead Summaries Staff

Summary of Platform Revolution by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Choudary Includes Analysis Preview: Platform Revolution by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Choudary is a comprehensive look at the emergence of platforms as market dominators, their competition against pipeline businesses, and best practices in founding and managing platforms. Platforms connect two types of users in order to exchange something of value. This is different than the traditional pipeline model of business where something of value is created by transferring it from producer to producer with the consumer receiving it at the last step. Platforms are dominating production processes particularly because they reduce the costs of value creation, consumption, and quality control. Platforms serve consumer-facing markets as well as business-to-business markets and can power rapid growth through economies of scale. Each side of the network depends on the other side to be in place in order to function, so a central challenge of any platform is to recruit users on both sides... PLEASE NOTE: This is key takeaways and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary of Platform Revolution by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Choudary Includes Analysis Overview of the Book Important People Key Takeaways Analysis of Key Takeaways About the Author With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience. Visit our website at instaread.co.

By Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Choudary | Includes Analysis

Summary of Platform Revolution

Reza Aslan

With InstaRead Chapter-by-Chapter Summaries, you can get the essence of a book in 30 minutes or less. We read every chapter and summarize it in one or two paragraphs so you can get the information contained in the book at a faster rate. This is an InstaRead Summary of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan. Below is a preview of the earlier sections of the summary: Author's Note Aslan found Jesus during an evangelical youth camp in his sophomore year. He was told the story of Jesus being born as a mortal and innocent man who later became the Christ. Jesus challenged the Jews and they crucified him. His sacrifice and resurrection saved us. An exile of the Iranian revolution, Aslan's family was no longer religious because Islam was to them a symbol of everything they had lost. Aslan didn't feel much like a Muslim anyway, being in America. But Jesus was America, and it made his conversion easier. Jesus became his best friend. As he started to share his faith, he began to notice the large distance between the Jesus of the Gospels and the Jesus of history. This intensified when he started to study history of religions in College and realized that the Bible is full of errors and contradictions. This gave him a more critical distance to study the Bible, making him see the real Jesus with clarity. Aslan wrote this book to spread the good news of Jesus of Nazareth, the man – not Jesus the Christ. His arguments are based on two decades of exhaustive research, and he provides any contrary arguments from other sources in notes at the end of the book. He relies mostly on the gospel of Mark and material unique to Matthew and Luke. A.D. is substituted by C.E. (Common Era) and B.C. by B.C.E. (Before Common Era). Introduction At a time when many would-be messiahs wandered Roman land, Jesus of Nazareth was mocked by Romans for what they considered apocalyptic rambling and delusions. The Gospels, most likely authored by anonymous writers who never knew Jesus, shed very little light on his life. Rather, they focus on his divine figure. Jesus was a Jew who led a Jewish movement in Palestine, and Rome crucified him for the crime of sedition. Combining these historical facts with reliable historical records sheds a clearer light on his life than do the Gospels: Jesus was not a gentle shepherd but rather a zealous revolutionary. The Gospels were written after dark times in Rome. Jewish rebellions led to bloodbath and the exile of Jews from Jerusalem. To portray a messiah that Romans would accept, Christians reinterpreted the figure of Jesus: from a revolutionary Jewish nationalist to a peaceful spiritual leader. This book reclaims the historical, pre-Christianity Jesus by placing him within the correct social, religious and political context of his era. The Jesus that emerges will be much different from what Christianity has portrayed.

A 30 Minute Chapter by Chapter Summary. the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Zealot

By Joshua Foer - Summary and Analysis

Moonwalking with Einstein

Summary of Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson Includes Analysis Preview: Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty is an examination of the causes of economic inequality. Authors Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson conclude that underdevelopment is caused by political institutions and not by geography, climate, or other cultural factors. Elites in underdeveloped countries deliberately plunder their people and keep them impoverished. The city of Nogales is half in Mexico and half in the United States. People in Nogales on the US side of the border are well-educated, prosperous, and have long life expectancies. Those on the Mexican side are poor, poorly educated, and have shorter life expectancies. The differences in Nogales can't be explained by geography or culture. Instead, different governments cause the differences in development. The United States historically established pluralist institutions that encouraged technological innovation and spread wealth throughout the population. By contrast, in Mexico, Spanish conquerors established extractive institutions that were intended to... PLEASE NOTE: This is key takeaways and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary of Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson Includes Analysis Overview of the Book Important People Key Takeaways Analysis of Key Takeaways About the Author With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience. Visit our website at instaread.co.

By Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson | Includes Analysis

Summary of Why Nations Fail

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of the book and NOT the original book. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown | A 30-minute Summary Inside this Instaread Summary: * Overview of the entire book * Introduction to the important people in the book * Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book * Key Takeaways of the book * A Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Chapter 1 It is necessary to practice courage, compassion, and connection on a daily basis in order to develop worthiness. It is a mistake to try and win someone over, because it means trading in the sense of self in search of approval from another. By doing this, people stop believing in their own worth. The first step toward living wholeheartedly is for people to have the courage to reach out to others and to share their own stories of shame. When in need of compassion, people should reach out to the right person, someone who supports them whether they are feeling strong or whether they are struggling. When people are willing to reveal that they are imperfect and real, their relationships are strengthened. They make a connection. This is why courage, compassion, and connection are the gifts of imperfection. Courage is displayed when people are willing to speak honestly and openly about who they are, what they are feeling, and their experiences both good and bad. Courage is about being vulnerable. It takes courage for someone to ask for what he or she needs and to risk disappointment. When one person has courage, it can create a ripple effect, making others around that person a little braver. Compassion is a relationship between two equals. It occurs when people recognize they share humanity with others. The heart of compassion is acceptance by people of themselves and of others. In order for compassion to occur, people need to set boundaries and hold others accountable for their behavior. The key to compassion is being able to separate people from their behaviors. It is necessary to address what people do, not who they are. Connection exists as the energy between people who feel they have been seen, heard, and valued without judgment. People feel strengthened by this relationship and need connection to do well emotionally, physically, spiritually, and intellectually. Connections happen when people both give and receive with an open heart. Chapter 2 Love and belonging are necessary in people's lives. In order for people to experience love and belonging, they must believe they are worthy. People who accept themselves for who they are and who stop worrying about what others think are worthy of love and belonging. At the heart of wholeheartedness is that people have to believe they are worthy now, as they are, not if or when they become or do something in the future....

Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are ; A 30-minute Instaread Summary

The Gifts of Imperfection

Inside this Instaread of Who Moved My Cheese:* Overview of the book* Important People* Key Takeaways* Analysis of Key Takeaways

By Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard | Includes Analysis

Summary of Who Moved My Cheese?

With InstaRead Summaries, you can get the essence of a book in 30 minutes or less. We read every chapter and summarize it in one or two paragraphs so you can get the information contained in the book at a faster rate. This is an InstaRead Summary of The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz. Below is a preview of the earlier sections of the summary: Introduction Ben explains that every time he reads a self-help or management book, he thinks about the fact that it didn't really address the hard things like laying people off or having good people start demanding unreasonable things. The problem with self-help books is that they try to provide a recipe for dealing with difficult, dynamic situations. Challenging situations can not be solved with a formula. Instead of using a formula in this book, the author presents his story as he progressed from an entrepreneur to CEO to venture capitalist. He shares some of the lessons he has learned along the way. He explains that although circumstances may differ, patterns and lessons resonate with each experience. For the last several years, he has shared lessons learned on his popular blog. Many people have emailed him to ask about the stories behind the lessons. Ben shares that he has been inspired along the way by many family members, friends, and advisers who have helped him. Hip-hop/rap music has also inspired him because these artists aspire to be both great and successful. He also admires that rappers see themselves as entrepreneurs.

By Ben Horowitz

Summary of the Hard Thing About Hard Things

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of the book and NOT the original book. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz - A 30-minute Summary & Analysis Inside this Instaread Summary: • Overview of the entire book • Introduction to the important people in the book • Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book • Key Takeaways of the book • A Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Introduction Ben explains that every time he reads a self-help or management book, he thinks about the fact that it didn’t really address the hard things like laying people off or having good people start demanding unreasonable things. The problem with self-help books is that they try to provide a recipe for dealing with difficult, dynamic situations. Challenging situations can not be solved with a formula. Instead of using a formula in this book, the author presents his story as he progressed from an entrepreneur to CEO to venture capitalist. He shares some of the lessons he has learned along the way. He explains that although circumstances may differ, patterns and lessons resonate with each experience. For the last several years, he has shared lessons learned on his popular blog. Many people have emailed him to ask about the stories behind the lessons. Ben shares that he has been inspired along the way by many family members, friends, and advisers who have helped him. Hip-hop/rap music has also inspired him because these artists aspire to be both great and successful. He also admires that rappers see themselves as entrepreneurs. 1: From Communist to Venture Capitalist Ben’s grandparents were card-carrying Communists. His dad grew up indoctrinated in the Communist philosophy. Ben’s family moved to Berkeley, California, in 1968. His dad then became the editor of the famous New Left magazine, Ramparts. When Ben was five, his family moved to Bonita Avenue, a middle-class Berkeley neighborhood. One day, a friend of Ben’s older brother, Roger, pointed to an African American kid down the block who happened to be riding in a red wagon. Roger dared Ben to go tell the kid to give him his wagon, and if he refused,to spit in his face and call him a racial epithet. Roger wasn’t a racist and did not come from a bad family. Ben later found out that he had schizophrenia. He had wanted to see a fight. Ben was afraid of Roger, and his demand put him in a very tough situation. He thought Roger would beat him up if he didn’t do what he told him to do. He was also afraid to ask for the wagon. He walked toward the boy and when he got near enough, he said, “Can I ride in your wagon?” The boy, Joel Clark Jr., said, “Sure.” Ben turned to look at Roger and saw that he was gone. Ben went on to play with Joel all day, and they have been best friends ever since. That experience taught Ben that being scared didn’t mean he was gutless. He learned that what he did mattered and determined whether he would be a hero or a coward. If he had completely followed Roger’s order, he would have never met his best friend. He also learned not to judge things by appearance alone. If a...

Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz - A 30-minute Summary & Analysis

By Suki Kim | Includes Analysis

Summary of Without You, There Is No Us

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of the book and NOT the original book. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle - A 15-minute Instaread Summary Inside this Instaread Summary: * Overview of the entire book * Introduction to the important people in the book * Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book * Key Takeaways of the book * A Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Chapter 1 Enlightenment, a feeling of awareness, peace, and joy, comes from within a person, not from outside sources. Enlightenment is an end to suffering and a feeling of connection to a person's own true self and to the world. Enlightenment is being aware of a person's own deepest self or Being. People have difficulty experiencing Being because of their identification with their own minds. Their own thoughts keep them from finding the stillness needed to experience Being. When people identify with their thoughts, it blocks their relationships with others, nature, and God. Those who can observe themselves thinking realize that they are not their mind and that all things of importance, such as beauty, joy, love, and inner peace, come from beyond the mind. This state of consciousness is achieved when people feel their own presence beyond their thoughts, emotions, and physical bodies. Another way to experience enlightenment is to focus all attention on the now, the present moment. The ego, or false self, barely notices the present moment. To the ego, only the past and the future are important. Emotions are thoughts that are felt in the body. To reach full consciousness, people need to be able to see their emotions as separate from themselves...

A 15-minute Instaread Summary

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of the book and NOT the original book. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle - A 15-minute Instaread Summary Inside this Instaread Summary: • Overview of the entire book • Introduction to the important people in the book • Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book • Key Takeaways of the book • A Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary:Chapter 1 Enlightenment, a feeling of awareness, peace, and joy, comes from within a person, not from outside sources. Enlightenment is an end to suffering and a feeling of connection to a person’s own true self and to the world. Enlightenment is being aware of a person’s own deepest self or Being. People have difficulty experiencing Being because of their identification with their own minds. Their own thoughts keep them from finding the stillness needed to experience Being. When people identify with their thoughts, it blocks their relationships with others, nature, and God. Those who can observe themselves thinking realize that they are not their mind and that all things of importance, such as beauty, joy, love, and inner peace, come from beyond the mind. This state of consciousness is achieved when people feel their own presence beyond their thoughts, emotions, and physical bodies. Another way to experience enlightenment is to focus all attention on the now, the present moment. The ego, or false self, barely notices the present moment. To the ego, only the past and the future are important. Emotions are thoughts that are felt in the body. To reach full consciousness, people need to be able to see their emotions as separate from themselves…

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