Olympic sprinters, when in a race, do not look sideways to benchmark themselves against the competition. This analogy extends well to corporate governance, as captured in Berkshire's 1986 annual report, where Buffett urged executives to eschew the "institutional imperative"

The best CEOs rarely focus on GAAP reported earnings - they hone in on adjusted, cash flow-based figures to evaluate their company's performance

Like the Sun, the Self can be temporarily obscured but it never disappears

To be truly successful, you need to be obsessive about the trees while still being HIGHLY conscious about the forest

Thoughts and emotions blend into our Self and overtake/obscure it. The goal of meditation is to decompose our emotions from the Self to perceive them as independent parts.

We have bi-partite psyches, consisting of young, vulnerable/fearful parts combined with "protector" parts (emotions such as anger). As human beings, we strive to achieve a sense of homeostasis and safety between these conflicting parts.

Mukesh Ambani is a true maverick, at the level of Andrew Carnegie or Henry Ford, transforming his family enterprise Reliance Industries from a chemicals company to India's leading broadband provider. The potential for Reliance is huge

American culture greatly opposes the first Noble Truth of Buddhism, which is that "Life is Suffering." Our society indoctrinates us into thinking that we should be happy all the time, when the irony is that we'd be a lot more content if we accepted the negativity of existence.

As a side note, the American ethos of constant elation makes us fundamentally averse to any type of discomfort and pain, which are requisites for true joy and fulfillment.

It helps to think of life as a sculptor - the more you take away and minimize, the greater a sense you have of what you truly want.