The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is a transformative tale of hope, inspiration and spiritual wellness told in a narrative format. Centred around a simple visual model, Robert Sharma teaches New Age wisdom through the use of evocative symbolic imagery.
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robert Sharma
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is a classic self help / spiritual text.
Based around a 7-step model, Robert Sharma advises us how to live an enlightened life in the form of a conversation between two lawyers. Squarely within the new age genre, this is a book that will appeal to anyone interested in mind mastery, gratitude, consciousness, visualisation, manifestation and self discipline.
Below are some of the key ideas I took from this book:
Key Insights
- You are an artist of your living, and the work of art is your life.
- Always judge advice by its results.
- You can think of life as a fable of the garden involving seven core spiritual virtues.
- The Garden represents mind mastery. As the quality of our life is determined by the quality of our thoughts, it’s important we cultivate only our highest passions and see all events as lessons for improving our body, mind and soul.
- The Lighthouse represents our life purpose. It’s important to set clear goals and have the courage to act on them daily. Every moment is a gift that builds momentum if we stay focused on our highest expectations.
- The Sumo Wrestler represents self-mastery, reflecting that external success always comes from internal self-discipline and continuous improvement (Kaizen) of mind, body and soul. The universe favours the brave.
- The Sumo Belt represents willpower. The more we master our own impulses, the better our life can become. Use mantras, deliberative practice, habits and rituals to strengthen our character at all times.
- The Gold Stopwatch represents time. Time is the most precious commodity and is always non-renewable. Have the courage to say No and adopt a deathbed mentality to cut through time and focus only on what is most important.
- The Yellow Roses represent contribution. As we enter and leave life with nothing, our purpose is solely to serve others like roses leave fragrance upon the hand of the giver. Our lifetime contribution is our highest goals.
- The Path of Diamonds represents the present. It’s important to savour the now, admiring the diamonds that line our path, practicing gratitude and living for our children’s childhood. We cannot be prisoners of our past but rather architects of our future.
- Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement.
- Life doesn’t give you what you ask but always what you need.
- A child laughs 200 times a day, an adult just 15 times
- The universe is contained within ourselves.