Eldest

I found many spritual truths in the book, Eldest by Christopher Paolini

• 361:7 Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn’t exist and never shall.  There is only now.
• 400:6 Because when you’re in pain, notheing else can exist.  Not thought.  Not emotion.  Only the drive to escape the pain.
• 440:7 After your mediations, do you truly believe that any of us are so different from a woodrat?  That we are gifted with a miraculous quality that other creatures do not enjoy and that somehow preserves our beings after death?
• 441:2 Everyone dies alone, Eragon.  Whether you are a king on a battlefield or a lowly peasant lying in bed among your family, no one can accompany you into the void.
• 538:4 … he was able to attain a state of inner peace so profound that, during that time, he ceased to exist as a individual.  He allowed himself to become a nonentity, a void, a receptacle for the voices of the world.  Nothing escaped his attention, for his attention was focused on nothing.
• 544:2 [On religion] It is far better to be taught to think critically and then be allowed to make your own decisions than to thave someone else’s notions thrust upon you.
• 603:0 Trianna deals with the world in the best way she can, as do we all.  I understand that, even if I don’t approve, and understanding—as Oromis said—breeds empathy.
• 620:2 It takes courage to admit you were wrong.

This is amazing stuff for the author, a teenage boy, to have learned already.  I certainly didn’t learn them until much much later.