Like
gravity, karma is so basic we
often don't even notice it. -
Sakyong Mipham
Youth
is the time to study wisdom;
old age is the time to practice it. -
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
Walking
is the natural recreation for a person who desires not
absolutely
to suppress his or her intellect but to turn it out to play
for a season. -
Leslie Stephen
The
truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm
looking for the truth" and so it goes away.
Puzzling. -
Robert
M. Pirsig
Pain, specifically physical pain, varies moment by
moment with your state of mind, or more precisely, with
how present or not you are. So does your
vitality. When you are caught up in the thoughts
that generate fearfulness or despair, physical pain can
worsen and weaken you. The moment you relax into
the present and your thinking becomes quieter, the pain
signal may well decrease and your vitality returns.
This can happen in an instant, and that is an instant of
healing. Add up those instants of presence and
decreased pain, and at the end of an hour, or a day, you
will have more energy and optimism. Ten, twenty, a
hundred or more of those moments each day; and you have
an entirely different experience. You are more
healthy than sick, at least in your state of mind.
This is an immediate fruit of the path of learning to be
present: to be your aware self instead of
identified with your thinking--your ego. This is
why the great Indian spiritual teacher Sai Baba has
summarized his whole message to humanity with three
words: "Watch your thoughts."
For most people, the difference between awareness and
thinking is unfamiliar. We have believed that we
are what our thoughts tell us we are, and our world is
what our thoughts tell us it is. When we are told
that we are sick and then we tell this to ourselves, we
believe that we are sick. But the part of us that
is aware of whatever we are telling ourselves about
being sick is not in itself sick.
Letting
your awareness help you step away from your
thinking--which means being more present--brings you
back to a healthy state of mind. Without
identifying the thoughts that compare how you currently
are with how you used to be, aren't you actually okay
right now? If you don't identify with thoughts
that picture the future in terms of diminishing
capacity, or envision yourself lacking sufficient funds
for retirement, is there any real threat right
now? Without thoughts that generate emotions of
bitterness or hopelessness or of being a victim, this
moment will hold you in peace.
When you turn your attention away from your thoughts and
into the present moment, you restore yourself to a state
of open receptivity to a limitless source of
intelligence, a limitless field of love. You give
that love and intelligence a chance to join you and
transform you. Returning to a sense of wholeness
in yourself is being healthy. It is also the most
powerful way you have to change the future.
The ego, like a bad cell-phone connection that produces
cracked, clipped noise, is constantly producing
stressful mental and emotional noise that obscures the
signal of this deeper intelligence. It makes you
less intelligent. And it weakens your body's
connection to the vibration of wholeness that is the
deeper note of existence. At the level of ego, you
are always more or less out of tune.
Again and again, ego makes you into who you have
been instead of who you really are and can
be. Your ego can never envision the future in a
way that is new; it can only keep projecting what it has
known. When you become present and gain distance
from your ego's thinking, your whole being regains
alignment with that larger consciousness. Now
there is greater room for new possibility, including
restoring physical health.
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It's something we all have in common.
We're curious
about the future, wondering, "What's going to happen
in my life tomorrow, next week and next year?"
It's
human nature to think, analyze, and study life.
Sometimes the conclusion of that study is to worry about
the future. Today, there are so many negative messages
bombarding us through the media. People are worried
about paying the mortgage, putting food on the table,
whether or not they will have a job tomorrow, putting
their children through college, retirement and caring
for their families. These are real concerns of life, but
I'm convinced that simply worrying about what's going to
happen tomorrow won't change the outcome.
Many people assume that the future is a mystery that
we have little or no control over. Some view themselves
as victims of fate, dependent on the next lucky break.
They sing a powerless mantra of Qué Será, Será and
plod through life. The truth is that our greatest power
is our power to choose.
When I was in my late 20s, I recognized how quickly
life passes by. I began giving serious thought to my
future and I meditated on the ways that it was being
formed. As I began to study my life and the lives of
successful people ahead of me, I discovered a number of
forces at work that create the life we live. Once I
identify the forces that got me where I am, I can use
those forces to my advantage to form my future. Here are
a few that I found:
Force of Beliefs
Changing your belief system can change your life. You
can have something right in your heart, but wrong in
your mind and no amount of good intentions or right
motives will compensate for self-sabotaging beliefs.
Do
you think you got the short end of the stick? Do you
believe you have insurmountable adversity? Do you wonder
whether you are a chump or a champ? Do you believe that
you are strong or weak?
- Remember this: your most dominant beliefs always win.
So choose to believe good things about yourself and your
future.
Force of Relationships
Going anywhere substantial is impossible alone. For
instance, when I board an airplane to take me to another
city, there are teams of people who are involved in my
journey. There are members of the security team who keep
me safe. There are the pilots I trust to be competent
and qualified to get me to my destination. There are the
flight attendants, who make the journey comfortable and
more enjoyable. This team helps me get to where I want
to go. My journey is better, safer and complete because
of these people. In the same way, your life's journey
will involve people connections.
- Evaluate the relationships in your life, taking the
initiative to surround yourself with people who will
help you get to the places of your highest potential.
Force of Habits
Great people have great habits. The power of our success
or failure is in what we do repeatedly. One does not
become a coffee drinker because he or she drank one cup of
coffee, or a smoker because he or she smoked one cigarette, or
a generous person because of one gift given. We improve
our lives when we change our habits. Don't put all your
energy into getting rid of bad habits. Instead, focus on
developing good habits to replace the bad ones. For
example, giving compliments breaks the habit of being
critical, eating healthy foods breaks the yearning for
unhealthy foods, and paying attention to time breaks the
habit of being late.
- Put your energy into developing good habits.
Force of Words
More than a sound, words are a creative force. They have
the power to bring encouragement, blessing, healing and
wisdom or hurt, shame and discouragement. Words change
the course of history. The words of Abraham Lincoln and
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pointed us toward the goals
of justice and equality, and Patrick Henry's "Give
me liberty or give me death'' speech connected with his
countrymen and rallied them to victory in the
Revolutionary War. Words have the power to bless or
curse the future. The people you influence are counting
on you to speak words of life, truth and hope.
- Think about this: how would your life be different if
your words were more positive, uplifting and
encouraging?
This is what I love about the future:
We can do
something about it. These are just a few of the factors
that impact our life. We don't have to feel powerless,
pessimistic or anxious about what lies ahead. I believe
we can partner with God to live the best lives He has
called us to. It is never too late to decide that you're
going to take ownership of the choices you make in life.
Our greatest power is our power to choose.
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.
It's been said that to wonder is to begin to understand.
Wonder most definitely
creates possibilities! Where's your
sense of wonder? Have you gotten so
bogged
down in the
minute-to minute "stuff" that life has become
dull? Bring
forth your
curious, creative, sense of wonder
and dust if off -- lighten up and
wonder about
everything!
We are all amazing and awesome beings and our world
is
extraordinary
even when days may be dark. A sense of wonder
reminds us
of just how vast
the unknown is and how much we have to
learn each day.
I used to look at a lot of people and wish that I
could be like them. I used to wish that I could
be more outgoing, more encouraging, more friendly,
more helpful, more useful to others. I used to
wish that I was a person whom others would search out
when they wanted friendship, company, encouragement,
or simply the presence of another person.
But even though I wished I could do some of the things
that other people did, I always had a built-in excuse
ready to counter those thoughts: "I'm not
like that." Even if I did wish that I were
like that, I told myself I wasn't. And that
ended my wish right then and there.
What
would life be if we had
no courage to attempt anything?
Vincent
van Gogh
Now that I'm older, though, I react differently when I
see people doing things I wish I could do and acting
in ways I wish I could act. Instead of saying
that I'm not like that person, I now ask myself,
"What would I need to do in order to be like
that? What fears would I have to face?
What risks would I have to take?"
For example, I know someone who very simply and easily
gives hugs to other people. I was raised in a
family in which we had almost no physical contact, and
hugs were rare--very, very rare. Because of this
fact, I grew up not giving hugs to others, and even
feeling a bit awkward when other people wanted to hug
me. I knew that I liked hugging others, but it
just wasn't the way that I was.
Any
life truly lived
is a risky
business,
and if one puts up
too many
fences
against the
risks one
ends by shutting
out life itself.
Kenneth
S. Davis
I had to ask myself, though, if I could be a person
who gives hugs, who actually initiates hugs when I see
people I care for. And if I could be such a
person, what would it mean? What kinds of risks
would I have to take? What kinds of fears would
I have to face? First of all, the obvious one is
the discomfort with physical contact that resulted
from years of having little to none as a child.
Second, I'd have to face my fear of rejection and put
it aside, taking the risk that I would be rejected if
I tried to hug someone.
But when I faced my fears and started to hug people
more often, I found that it was much easier than I had
thought it would be. I was able to do something
that I had thought I wouldn't be able to do, and with
no real problems at all. I still don't hug
everyone I meet, but I am much better at hugging
people than I ever was before I finally rejected the
"I'm Not like That" attitude and started
asking myself what it would take to actually be like
that.
If
your life is ever going to get better, you'll have to take
risks.
There is simply no way you can grow without taking
chances.
David
Viscot
There are plenty of traits that I admire in other
people. I admire some people's creativity, work
habits, interpersonal skills, business skills,
attitudes, and accomplishments. But I don't want
to be like all of them. I'd love to be able to
play the piano, but when I asked myself what it would
take to be a decent player, I realized that I was
neither willing nor able to devote the kind of time
that would have been necessary to do so. So when
someone sits down and plays and it sounds great, I can
say "I can't do that" with no trace of
regret, for I've made the decision not to pursue that
hobby.
But when I see someone stand up for what is right in a
very assertive manner and realize that I feel that I
should be doing the same thing, then it's important
for me to realize that I can be that way--if I make
the decision to do so and follow through on what I
need to do. It definitely is up to me
completely, and it also is something that's within my
reach as long as I'm willing to make the effort.
Like so much else, people have also misunderstood the place
of love in life, they have made it into play and pleasure because
they thought that play and pleasure were more blissful than work;
but there is nothing happier than work, and love, just because
it is the extreme happiness, can be nothing else but work.
Most of us spend our lives trying to escape from
self-centeredness. Maybe that's the whole point, the
whole challenge, what the whole thing is all about.
Some of us succeed better than others. It seems to me
that the ones who have the most success are those who
somehow turn self-caring into what might be called
other-caring.
It takes courage to be an other-carer, because people who
care run the risk of being hurt. It's not easy to let
your guard down, open your heart, react with sympathy or
compassion or indignation or enthusiasm when usually it's
much easier--and sometimes much safer--not to get involved.
But people who take the risk make a tremendous
discovery: the more things you care about, and the
more intensely you care, the more alive you are.
This capacity for caring can illuminate any
relationship: marriage, family, friendships--even the
ties of affection that often join humans and animals.
Each of us is born with some of it, but whether we let it
expand or diminish is largely up to us.
To care, you have to surrender the armor of
indifference. You have to be willing to act, to make
the first move. Once at sunset my small daughter and I
were watching the tide come in. It was a quiet
evening, calm and opalescent. The waves sent thin
sheets of molten gold across the dry sand--closer and
closer. Finally, almost like a caress, an arm of the
ocean curled around the base of the dune. And my
daughter said, pensively, "Isn't it wonderful--how much
the sea cares about the land?"
She was right, with the infallible instinct of
childhood: It was a kind of caring. The
land was merely passive--and so it waited. But the sea
cared--and so it came. The lesson was all there in
that lovely symbol: the willingness to act, to
approach, to be absorbed, and in the absorption--to be
fulfilled.
Arthur Gordon A
Touch of Wonder
Watch your manner of speech if
you wish to develop a peaceful
state of mind. Start each day by
affirming peaceful, contented and
happy attitudes and your days will
tend to be pleasant and successful.
Yes, life
can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's
actually rather dependable and reliable. Some principles apply
to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called
universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use
them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever
learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning. I use it a lot when I
teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to
the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.
What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or
generous, compassionate or arrogant? In this book, I've done my
best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life,
writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.
Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too! Universal Principles of Living Life Fully. Awareness of
these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration
out of the lives we lead.
Explore all of our
quotations pages--these links will take you to the first page of each
topic, and those pages will contain links to any additional pages on
the same topic (there are five pages on adversity, for example).
™
