5 December 2023
|
|
|
There
can be no friendship when there is no freedom. Friendship
loves the free air, and will not be fenced up in straight and narrow
enclosures. -William Penn
|
In
the time we have it is surely our duty to do all the good we can to
all the people we can in all the ways we can. -William Barclay
|
Is
life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too
small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must
grow up. -Dag Hammarskjold
|
There
can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from
the things we do. -Freya Stark
|
|
|
|
|
Saying
Good-Bye
(an excerpt)
Alan Cohen
I sat beside my grandmother’s bed, watching her body wither.
How painful it was to see this once-vital woman shrivel to nearly nothing.
The doctor said that he had done all he could do for her; now it was just a matter of time until she would be gone.
I held Grandma’s hand and looked into her glassy eyes.
She turned her head on her pillow and offered a soft smile.
She had always been so kind to me. It was hard to see her go.
I turned to my sister Biyu and took her hand. She, too, loved Grandmother, and I could see tears in her eyes. Biyu was very strong and I rarely saw her weep.
But today she showed her tender heart. We were saying good-bye.
I looked down at Biyu’s pregnant belly. It would be just two months now until her baby came.
I wondered if perhaps Grandmother’s spirit would return as her own great-granddaughter.
I had heard of such things. I silently prayed that it might be so.
After the funeral, I went to see Lao Tse. “Why do people have to die?” I asked him.
The master stirred the embers in the fire slowly and then came to sit beside me.
“It’s just the way the world was set up,” he told me.
|
|
“When someone or something dies, that person or thing has played its part. It has no more purpose here.
If it had a purpose, it would remain.”
His answer didn’t satisfy me. “Why can’t we just live forever?”
He smiled, the glow of the fire falling softly on his weathered cheek. “We do. It is but the body that dies.
Our true self lives on. What dies never really lived.
The body is simply dust animated by spirit. The spirit is not confined to the body.
We all live forever, I promise you.”
That brought me some comfort to think that a part of my grandmother lived on, as we all might.
Lao Tse looked into my eyes intently. “The Tao calls you to trust comings and goings.
Each occurs in its own right time and leads to the next step in the cycle.
Life does not go in circles. It is constantly cycling upward.
Let cycles play themselves out and they will reveal their purpose to you.”
The master’s answer made sense to my mind, but my heart was still aching over losing my grandmother.
He sensed my disquiet.
“The heart knows the answers to the questions the mind cannot satisfy,” he said.
“Your grandmother is safe and loved, as you are.”
When Lao Tse said that, a peace came over me. My mind still hungered, but my heart was filled.
That was what I was yearning for.
|
more
thoughts and ideas on life
|
|
|
|
quotations
- contents
-
welcome
page
-
obstacles
the
people behind the words
-
our
current e-zine
-
articles
and excerpts
Daily
Meditations, Year One - Year
Two - Year Three
- Year Four
Sign up
for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign
up for your free daily meditation
|
|
|
|
|
We
have some
inspiring and motivational books that may interest you. Our main way of supporting this site is
through the sale of books, either physical copies
or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the
online reader). All of the money that we earn
through them comes back to the site
in one way or another. Just click on the picture
to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and
non-fiction! |
|
|
|
|
Picture
Your Way To Success!
Jeff
Keller
In a recent television interview, singer Celine Dion was
asked if she ever thought she'd sell millions of records and
be on tour, singing in front of tens of thousands of people
each week. The singer replied that none of this surprised her,
as she had pictured the whole thing since she was five years
old! She was not bragging, and she has worked unbelievably
hard to earn every bit of her success. What she learned at an
early age was her ability to tap into the power of holding a
vivid, powerful image and to become the star that she always
pictured.
World class athletes also incorporate the power of imagery
to reinforce in their mind exactly how they want to
perform. Whether it's a figure skater completing a difficult
jump, a tennis pro acing the perfect serve or a golfer driving
the ball long and straight down the fairway, many top
competitors mentally envision a successful outcome before
actually achieving it in "the real world."
Visualization, however, is not something reserved solely
for singers, athletes or movie stars. In fact, it's something you've
used since childhood to create the circumstances of your
own life. Let me clarify what I mean. Author Adelaide Bry has
described visualization as "movies-of-the-mind,"
"inner pictures" or "images." Each of us
stores pictures in our minds about the type of relationships
we deserve, the degree of success we'll attain at work, the
extent of our leadership ability, the amount of money we'll
earn and accumulate, and so on.
Where do these pictures come from? Well, we begin to
develop our "mental movies" early in life. If we
were criticized or felt unworthy as a youngster, we record the
events (and the feelings associated with those events) as
images in our minds. Because we frequently dwell on these
pictures (both consciously and subconsciously), we tend to
create life situations that correspond to the original image.
For example, you may still hold a vibrant image of being
criticized by a teacher in elementary school. You felt
humiliated in front of the whole class. Later on, when you
were tempted to offer your opinion in school or in a group of
people, you held back and kept quiet all the while remembering
(even if only on a subconscious level) how painful it was when
you were criticized. The picture remains in your mind, and
exerts tremendous influence over your present actions.
Unfortunately, many of us have not updated or revised our
childhood movies, so we are continually producing results that
fall short of our full potential. Here are some techniques for
using the power of visualization to improve virtually every
aspect of your personal and professional life:
Take responsibility for the pictures you are playing
in your mind. No matter what the source of those
images, it's you that keeps playing them. Let's try
a short experiment. Think about an ice cream cone filled
with your favorite flavor of ice cream. Does that create a
picture or image for you? I'll bet it does. Okay, now
think about an elephant. Can you see it? Change the color
of the elephant to pink. In a fraction of a second, you
probably formed an image of the pink elephant. Can you
bring back the picture of the ice cream cone? Of course,
you can. You have full control over the pictures that
occupy your mind. However, when you do not consciously decide
which pictures to play, your mind will look into the
"archives" and keep re-playing old movies on
file in your mental library.
Accept what happened in the old movie - but change
its meaning. It doesn't serve you to deny what
happened in a past experience, no matter how painful or
disappointing. You can't, for instance, change the fact
that you were criticized by the teacher. You can, however,
alter your interpretation of the event. That is, at
the time you were originally criticized, the meaning you
might have assigned to the experience was: "I'm not
good enough," or "My opinions are
worthless." While this was the interpretation of a
child, you may have inadvertently carried it into your
adult life. Today, though, you can consciously choose to
view the situation differently -- for example, the teacher
may have disagreed with you, but it wasn't a statement
about your intelligence or your overall worth as a person!
Create new pictures to move you toward what you want.
We
can create new mental movies whenever we choose to do so.
And, when we develop (and concentrate on) new images that
evoke powerful feelings and sensations, we will act in
ways that support those new pictures! So, the first step
is to create an image of your desired outcome. You are
limited only by your imagination. Recognize, however, that
the pictures in your mind are not fulfilled overnight!
But, by being patient and by persistently focusing on
these mental images, you'll automatically start acting in
ways that support your vision.
Relax and involve your senses. What's the best
method to use when concentrating on your new images? It's
been proven that your mind is most receptive to
visualization when you are calm and not thinking about a
lot of things simultaneously. So, sit down in a
comfortable chair at home, close your eyes and do some
deep breathing exercises to clear your mind and relax your
body. Now, strive to develop images that involve as many
senses as you can. The more sights, sounds, smells, tastes
and touches you put in your pictures, the more powerful
the "pull" for you to make your vision a
reality.
Here's an example. Let's say you always dreamed of owning a
beach-front house in the Caribbean. Picture the white and
peach colored house. See the green palm trees slowly swaying
in the gentle breeze. Smell the salt air. Feel the warm sand
between you toes. Can't you just taste it? And all this
can be yours, if you hold onto this image and do what it takes
to achieve it!
Also, remember that those images associated with strong emotions
have even more power, so be sure to add positive feelings
to your vision. For instance, when visualizing your ideal job,
combine the vivid mental picture and the physical senses with
the terrific emotions of pride and satisfaction you'll have
working in that new position.
Finally, don't be concerned with the quality of your images
at the outset. Some people can create lively color pictures
... while others have trouble getting anything more than a
fuzzy image, or no image at all. It's also possible that you
may only be able to get a particular feeling at the
beginning as opposed to a clear image.
In any case, don't worry about it. Do the best you can and
don't compare yourself to anyone else. Your images will become
sharper over time. The key is to spend several minutes each
day running these new movies in your mind.
Well, there you have it--some suggestions for creating and
benefiting from your own mental pictures. Remember, if you
don't take control and develop your own movies, you'll
continue to replay the old ones. If the old movies are serving
you, that's great. But, if they're holding you back in any
way, get started today and use the incredible power of
your mind to picture your way to greater success!
The Key to Your Security
There's a lot of talk these days about the lack of security
in the workplace, especially in corporate America. Events such
as downsizing, re-structuring, mergers and acquisitions have
many workers wondering whether the job they have today will be
there tomorrow. This uncertainty has, in some places, resulted
in a loss of morale and an unwillingness for some employees to
give their best. After all, they think, "If I could be
gone soon or have my job radically changed, why give 100% to
this organization?"
But, while it's true that the days of working for a company
for 30 years, getting a gold watch and a secure retirement
package are long gone, the person who suffers most when you
don't give your best is YOU!
Why? To begin with, excellence is a habit that cannot be
turned on and off like a faucet. We are creatures of habit and
either we have a commitment to do the best job we can... or we
condition ourselves to put forth less than our best efforts.
Whichever approach we take, it will not be easy to change.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that you can withhold your
talents and enthusiasm today, then give your all tomorrow.
To illustrate, consider one of your daily habits - how neat
you keep your bedroom. If you're the type that throws shirts
and pants on top of a chair (or on the floor), how difficult
would it be for you to change that habit and fold all of your
clothes and neatly put them away in a closet or drawer? I'll
bet that you'd find the new pattern almost impossible to
follow. Within a day or two, you'd probably take your socks
and throw them on the chair, just as you did before! The same
is true of the way you approach your work. You either make the
commitment to do an excellent job, or you develop a pattern of
doing just enough to get by.
That's why, if you're looking for security in a job, you're
looking in the wrong place. There is no security in any job.
The security lies within you. The key to developing
your security is by becoming excellent at what you do, and by
continuing to improve your skills. Add to that a very positive
attitude and an ability to work well with others... and, voila,
you have job security!
Now, I didn't say that you are guaranteed to work
for the same company for the rest of your life, or even that
you will remain in your current position. But, by always
giving your very best, you'll assure yourself of having a
decisive edge in any future situation. Think about it. If your
company was acquired by another, which employees would have
the best chance of sticking around - those who
enthusiastically gave their best, or those who dragged their
feet, complained, and had little interest in learning new
skills?
And, even if the excellent performer does not get a
position in the new company, that person, because of his or
her commitment to excellence and positive attitude is going to
have an advantage in the marketplace when securing a new
position.
When you put forth 100% effort, people notice. You may not
be rewarded immediately but you are building a reputation that
will serve you well in your current organization, and in any
other place you may work In the future.
The bottom line is this: giving less than your best
effort in your current position can only hurt you.
So, if you want to obtain real security, ask yourself these
questions: Do I enthusiastically give my very best at work
every day? Do I cooperate with others and support their
efforts? Do I maintain a positive attitude? Am I learning to
be better at what I do and am I developing the skills that
will be important in my field in the future?
Answer these questions and re-evaluate yourself on a
regular basis. When you can finally reply with a resounding,
"YES!," you'll have the type of job security that no
one can ever take away from you.
|
|
|
|
Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a
place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement. Our
articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live
life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you
each week. |
|
|
Whatever
noble aims we may have, paths we may be on, or necessary efforts
we may make, our only real freedom is to awaken now, this very
instant, to
the mystery and miracle of being, to the spacious awareness that we
are.
It is only this immediate awakening to the deepest levels of
ourselves, to the
conscious source that connects us all, that will enable us to
experience and
manifest real harmony, intelligence, kindness, love, and compassion
in our
lives and bring about the transformation in the world that we all
wish for.
Dennis
Lewis
|
|
Angry
I had a very
interesting--and rather sad--experience the other
day. I was driving to an afternoon class that I
teach at an elementary school when a car started
tailgating me. I simply did what I always do in
that case--I touched the brake pedal to show the brake
lights in the universal signal of "back off,
please." I didn't slow down at all, just
tapped the brakes. The speed limit where we were
was 25, and I was going about 27, I think (I always go a
mile or two over the limit in the hope of avoid
tailgaters, but it wasn't working that day!).
She backed off for a couple of moments, then was quickly
back on my tail. I looked in the rear-view mirror
to see a young woman who was incredibly agitated, making
hand gestures and actually yelling at me, it looked
like.
Now, there might have been some sort of emergency that I
didn't know about, but we were on a residential street
in a long line of cars--even if I were to pull over and
let her pass me, she wouldn't have gone far. And
if it were a true emergency, then she easily could have
passed me. Instead, she chose to stay on my tail,
continuing to gesture and yell at me.
|
|
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel
in
which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
Mark Twain
|
|
Within a few moments,
her hand gestures turned into rude gestures--she was
flipping me off with both hands, and the look on her
face (her car was close enough for me to see it) was
one of pure anger. I was still actually going
over the speed limit, but that obviously didn't mean
anything to her.
All I could think about was, "What could
possibly be making her so angry?" It
obviously wasn't me--there was nothing going on that
could justify such anger. If I had been going
15 in a 30-mile-an-hour zone, I could understand a
bit of anger--heck, I would have been pretty angry
myself. But we even passed at least two
"Speed Limit 25" signs in the next mile,
so she had to know that I wasn't driving at all
slowly.
And I still wonder what it must be like to allow
anger to take over like that. It couldn't have
been a pleasant three or four minutes of her
life. Whatever stress or problems that she was
facing in her life, it couldn't have been helping to
add anger to the mix. She couldn't have been
feeling happy and content and fulfilled sitting
there in her truck--she had to have been making
worse whatever was bad to begin with.
|
|
Anger burns up all that is noble. It is
a consuming fire, born in the fires
of destruction. At the end, it leaves the victim nothing but a
wreck of
his or her better self, burned out, blackened and dead,
like forest trees over which a great fire has swept.
Julian P. Johnson
|
|
I also wonder what the
next few minutes were like. Was she cursing me
out because of my driving, blaming me for the bad
feelings that she had? Did she think about it
for ten more minutes--or twenty, or
thirty--continuing to make herself more stressed and
miserable as she dwelled on something that truly
wasn't an issue at all, except in her own
mind? I've known many people who do that, and
it's not pleasant to be around them, usually.
Hopefully, she forgot about it very quickly and
moved on with her life, not dwelling on the incident
that wasn't really an incident, but who knows?
I get angry, of course, but I sincerely hope that I
never let my anger consume me to a point at which
I'm miserable. I hope that I can maintain a
healthy level of equanimity when I'm faced with
challenging situations so that the anger doesn't
affect me much. I know that anger can actually
be a positive thing in some situations, but I also
know that it can harm us significantly, and that it
can cause significant damage, and not just to
ourselves.
|
|
You
will not be punished for your anger,
you will be punished by your anger. . . .
Let a person overcome anger by love.
the Buddha
|
|
Sometimes, getting
angry or not really isn't a choice. Sometimes
it's more important how we respond to our own
anger--whether we allow it to consume us or whether
we try to understand it and work with it--that's
more important. I think that I can guarantee
you something, though: if your anger is so
strong that you get terribly angry at someone who's
actually going a bit above the speed limit, and you
sit in your car and flip that person off with both
hands while probably saying obscenities out loud
(she was saying something even though she was alone
in the car), your anger probably has more control
over you than you have over it.
|
More
on anger.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HOME
- contents - Daily
Meditations - abundance - acceptance
- achievement
- action
- adversity
-
advertising
- aging - ambition
anger
- anticipation
- anxiety - apathy - appreciation -
arrogance
- art - attitude
- authenticity
- awakening - awareness
-
awe
balance - beauty
-
being yourself
- beliefs
- body
- brooding
- busyness - caring -
celebration
- challenges -
change - character
charity - children
-
choices
-
Christianity
- coincidence
- commitment
- common
sense
- community
- comparison - compassion
competition - complaining
- compliments -
compromise
- confidence - conformity
- conscience
-
contentment - control
- cooperation
courage -
covetousness
- creativity
- crisis - criticism
-
cruelty
- death
- decisions
- desire
- determination
- disappointment
discipline -
discouragement - diversity -
doubt - dreams
- earth - education -
ego - emotions -
encouragement
- enlightenment
enthusiasm - envy
- eternity
- ethics - example - exercise - experience - failure
-
faith
- fame
- family - fate - fathers
-
fault-finding
fear
- feelings - finances
- flowers - forgiveness
-
freedom
- friendship
- frustration - fun - the future
- garden of life - gardening
generosity -
gentleness
- giving
- goals - God
- goodness
- grace -
gratitude
- greatness
- greed
- grief - growing up
- guilt -
habit
happiness
- hatred
- healing
-
health -
heart
- helpfulness
- home - honesty
- hope
- hospitality - humility
- hurry
-
ideals - identity
idleness - idolatry
- ignorance
- illusion -
imagination - impatience
-
individuality
- the inner child - inspiration -
integrity - intimacy
introspection - intuition
- jealousy
- journey of life - joy
- judgment - karma - kindness
-
knowledge - language
- laughter
-
laziness
leadership
-
learning - letting
go - life
- listening - loneliness
- love
- lying - magic - marriage
-
materialism
- meanness
- meditation
mindfulness
- miracles
-
mistakes - mistrust
- moderation - money -
mothers
- motivation - music - mystery
- nature
-
negative
attitude
now -
oneness
- open-mindedness
- opportunity
-
optimism
-
pain - parenting - passion
- the past - patience
-
peace -
perfectionism
perseverance
- perspective - pessimism
- play
- poetry -
positive
thoughts
- possessions
-
potential - poverty -
power - praise
prayer
- prejudice
- pride - principle
- problems - progress
- prosperity
- purpose
- reading -recreation
- reflection
- relationships
religion
- reputation - resentment
-
respect - responsibility
- rest - revenge
-
risk - role models
- running -
ruts - sadness
-
safety
seasons of
life - self - self-love
-
self-pity
-
self-reliance - self-respect
- selfishness - serving others - shame
- silence
- simplicity
slowing
down - smiles
-solitude - sorrow -
spirit -
stories -
strength - stress
- stupidity
- success -
suffering - talent
the tapestry of life - teachers - thoughts
- time
- today - tolerance
-
traditions
-
trees
-
trust
- truth - unfulfilled
dreams
- values
vanity
- virtue
- vulnerability - walking - war
- wealth - weight
issues - wisdom
-
women -
wonder - work
-
worry - worship
youth
- spring - summer
- fall - winter
-
Christmas - Thanksgiving
-
New Year - America
-
Zen sayings -
articles
& excerpts
Native American
wisdom
-
The Law of Attraction -
obstacles to
living
life fully
- e-zine archives
-
quotations
contents
our most recent e-zine - Great
Thinkers - the people behind the words
|
|
™
|
All contents
© 2023 Living Life Fully™,
all rights reserved.
Please feel
free to re-use material from this site other than
copyrighted articles--
contact each author for permission to use those.
If you use material, it would be
greatly appreciated if you would provide credit and
a link back to the original
source, and let us know where the material is
published. Thank you. |
|
|
Our
business is to wake up. We have to find ways in which to
detect the
whole of reality in the one illusory part which our self-centered
consciousness
permits us to see. We must not live thoughtlessly, taking our
illusion for the
complete reality, but at the same time we must not live too
thoughtfully in the
sense of trying to escape from the dream state. We must be
continuously
on watch for ways in which we may enlarge our consciousness.
-Aldous Huxley
|
|
|
|
Every mind seems capable of entertaining a certain quantity of Happiness, which no institutions can increase, no circumstances alter, and entirely independent of Fortune.
"Let any person compare his present fortune with the past, and he
or she will probably find themselves, upon the whole, neither better nor worse than
formerly."—Goldsmith.
The youth should be so trained in the science of happiness as to be able to say to a
person who has millions of dollars but very little else —"I have set my face towards making a success of life, not merely a success of dollars.
If any one can get more out of life than I can he is welcome to it."
What a misfortune to the world, if wealth could produce the happiness which most people think it can!
If wealth were essential, if a person had to be rich to be happy, the wealthy would always be happy and the poor unhappy.
But riches alone do not make people happy or blessed. Money, to make a
person happy, must serve their higher nature, the development of the good in
them or in others, and not pander to anything which tends to bring out the mere animal in
them. Wealth in the hands of ignoramuses, in the hands of people with coarse tastes and low ideals, does not contribute to real happiness.
The brute qualities lead away from happiness.
No one can be really happy who does not have a high ideal and a grand life purpose.
Most people are deluded with the idea that happiness consists in gratifying desires.
They do not realize that "desire is as insatiable as the ocean, and clamors louder and louder as its demands are attended to."
"There is no satiety in riches," said a Roman philosopher.
Gratification, satisfaction of our selfish cravings, only increases our real soul-hunger.
Principle alone can give permanent happiness; material things are ever changing, ever elusive; there is no permanency, no endurance in them.
Orison Swett
Marden
The Joys of Living (1913)
|
|
|
|
|
|
You
have to count on living every single day in a way
you believe will make you feel good about your life--so that
even if it were over tomorrow, you'd be content with
yourself.
Jane Seymour
|
|
|