I want to share...
is this, again from Lao Tzu...
"Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of your being.
Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world."
30 October 2013
And possibly the only and best solution....
to dealing with our limitations - imagined, created, and real, is this from Lao Tzu, Chinese Taoist philosopher and founder of Taoism:
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
Let go...............................In this moment, I am not even what I was a moment ago, and what I am in this moment is not who I will be in the next - so what am I hanging on to and holding on to..........In fact, when I am tempted to say, when I react to something in a typically predictable way, 'Oh this is what I am,' the question is which moment are we referring to???????? With every moment we are different.....we need to enjoy that difference and make that matter - of course it's not going to be all good, but then can one really have a photograph without negatives? can we have day without the night? and can we have a rainbow without rain?
This actually frees up the spirit and loosens us up, gives us the push to soar..................and we will be doing ourselves a great disservice if we let 'Oh this is what I am,' limit us...
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
Let go...............................In this moment, I am not even what I was a moment ago, and what I am in this moment is not who I will be in the next - so what am I hanging on to and holding on to..........In fact, when I am tempted to say, when I react to something in a typically predictable way, 'Oh this is what I am,' the question is which moment are we referring to???????? With every moment we are different.....we need to enjoy that difference and make that matter - of course it's not going to be all good, but then can one really have a photograph without negatives? can we have day without the night? and can we have a rainbow without rain?
This actually frees up the spirit and loosens us up, gives us the push to soar..................and we will be doing ourselves a great disservice if we let 'Oh this is what I am,' limit us...
25 October 2013
Adding to my blog on Limitations, 21 October...
As we go through the various stages of life, we tend to get labelled...Could it be that, very often, we label ourselves too, for reasons of emotional security, or the need for identification with someone, or an organization, or our profession.....or a hundred other reasons that the monkey mind springs on us? (that is why Buddhists believe that one should never take seriously all that the mind throws up....)
The thing is that these labels in their own way, while providing us with identities, become our limitations....we get comfortable in them, and are afraid to go out into situations that will challenge them. Simply put, we give only a teeny-weeny bit of weightage to our own real identity...only thing is that that teeny-weeny weightage, in fact, is limitless....but we've busily erected walls all around,effectively limiting ourselves and our growth. Worse, when someone or something breaches the wall, we feel lost and confused....Once again, we don't have to feel this way, because we are all blessed with deep, deep inner resources...........but we do, rather, we allow ourselves to...
Our various identities are merely the various roles we play - in a drama we don different clothes with different make-up for different roles, remaining our own limited selves....actors in a play. What happens in real life is that we make-up our souls and heads too to fit the part, confirming and reaffirming our limited selves.
The thing is......Of course we need to appreciate the different roles we play - mother, father, daughter, son, employee, boss, sister, brother, friend, lover, husband, wife.....whatever...but we must never let our real persons get hidden or limited. This is the only way we can get through the many travails of life, and the many stages we pass through...
The thing is that these labels in their own way, while providing us with identities, become our limitations....we get comfortable in them, and are afraid to go out into situations that will challenge them. Simply put, we give only a teeny-weeny bit of weightage to our own real identity...only thing is that that teeny-weeny weightage, in fact, is limitless....but we've busily erected walls all around,effectively limiting ourselves and our growth. Worse, when someone or something breaches the wall, we feel lost and confused....Once again, we don't have to feel this way, because we are all blessed with deep, deep inner resources...........but we do, rather, we allow ourselves to...
Our various identities are merely the various roles we play - in a drama we don different clothes with different make-up for different roles, remaining our own limited selves....actors in a play. What happens in real life is that we make-up our souls and heads too to fit the part, confirming and reaffirming our limited selves.
The thing is......Of course we need to appreciate the different roles we play - mother, father, daughter, son, employee, boss, sister, brother, friend, lover, husband, wife.....whatever...but we must never let our real persons get hidden or limited. This is the only way we can get through the many travails of life, and the many stages we pass through...
21 October 2013
A must read...
for teachers, students, parents, and anyone interested in creating a fair system. It also helps understand the raison d'être of a judicial system:
Elements of a Fair Judicial System by Daniel Greenberg.
Found on http://www.sudval.com/05_essay.html
Elements of a Fair Judicial System by Daniel Greenberg.
Found on http://www.sudval.com/05_essay.html
Limitations...
Fact: We all have limitations. Actually, we, very often, decide (most often arbitrarily) the areas we are limited in and then allow our limitations to draw our boundaries.
Fact: My limitations will never limit me unless I allow them to...
Fact: My limitations will never limit me unless I allow them to...
20 October 2013
There is...
The Blessing of Unanswered Prayers (http://www.beliefnet.com/Prayers/Protestant/Gratitude/The-Blessing-Of-Unanswered-Prayers.aspx)
that I always keep handy....
Now, when taking stock of my life (something I periodically do), I realize that, in fact, I got nothing that I had asked for, or wished for, or dreamt about....but I was given gifts (the greatest one being my DD) that taught me the real value of life, I was given good friends that lend a shoulder when I need one, I was given all those situations - hard, painful ones - which taught me the wisdom to choose, and to appreciate the finer (and not always obvious) things of life, and in truth, "I was given life that I might enjoy all things"....
that I always keep handy....
Now, when taking stock of my life (something I periodically do), I realize that, in fact, I got nothing that I had asked for, or wished for, or dreamt about....but I was given gifts (the greatest one being my DD) that taught me the real value of life, I was given good friends that lend a shoulder when I need one, I was given all those situations - hard, painful ones - which taught me the wisdom to choose, and to appreciate the finer (and not always obvious) things of life, and in truth, "I was given life that I might enjoy all things"....
18 October 2013
Some thoughts...
1. There is a price tag for everything - EVERYTHING. It may be a big tag and you may choose either to pay or not to pay depending on how much you value it, how much it means to you, or how much you want it....
........Or, it may be a small tag, but it does not resonate with you, and so you decide to give it a pass...
But whatever it is, your payment of that price or your passing it up, or your choices about it define and redefine you as a person.
2. We've often heard the saying: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." We've also, at times, got variations of this....
What I think is that there are ways and ways of making lemon juice with the lemons that life throws at you....and this lemonade carries into it an essence of you....so it can never be the same as anyone else's lemonade...even if you use the recipe given to you by someone else, it will still be different because it would have absorbed your distinctive, your very own signature.
And so.....
Good to keep in mind what Nate Berkus says:
........Or, it may be a small tag, but it does not resonate with you, and so you decide to give it a pass...
But whatever it is, your payment of that price or your passing it up, or your choices about it define and redefine you as a person.
2. We've often heard the saying: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." We've also, at times, got variations of this....
What I think is that there are ways and ways of making lemon juice with the lemons that life throws at you....and this lemonade carries into it an essence of you....so it can never be the same as anyone else's lemonade...even if you use the recipe given to you by someone else, it will still be different because it would have absorbed your distinctive, your very own signature.
And so.....
Good to keep in mind what Nate Berkus says:
"It's the little things that we do for ourselves - like having a small bud vase with one fresh flower - that impacts the way we feel about ourselves, that lifts our spirits, lifts our mood and changes the course of our day."
10 October 2013
Heading...
to the hills...
for sustenance and replenishment...As always, these words uplift me....
I will lift up my eyes to the hills
~Ps 121
for sustenance and replenishment...As always, these words uplift me....
I will lift up my eyes to the hills
~Ps 121
09 October 2013
If you feel you are...
out of rhythm with yourself...
estranged from those you love...
isolated from the world...
trapped in memories...
enslaved in the daily grind...
or separated from happiness...
Today would be a good day to tweak all that and renew yourself....hook yourself on to a new you - be grateful that you still have your own special 'you', and look towards that...............it would certainly be better and less painful than drowning in the morass you are trapped in right now.
estranged from those you love...
isolated from the world...
trapped in memories...
enslaved in the daily grind...
or separated from happiness...
Today would be a good day to tweak all that and renew yourself....hook yourself on to a new you - be grateful that you still have your own special 'you', and look towards that...............it would certainly be better and less painful than drowning in the morass you are trapped in right now.
07 October 2013
Are we...
unconsciously, subconsciously, consciously always looking for perfection and trying to live up to some 'perfect ideal' that we have conjured up out of our mind, with the belief that happiness lies in perfection?
DO NOT
Striving for perfection at all times and in all places, and for ourselves and others, will only end in grief....for none of us can be perfect. If we say, 'Well, at least we can try,' we are still, then, turning the screws both on ourselves and on others and on everything around us.
The Kabbalah says, 'looking for the perfect thing (according to our idea of perfection) often keeps us from the many imperfect things that would make us perfectly happy.'
DO NOT
Striving for perfection at all times and in all places, and for ourselves and others, will only end in grief....for none of us can be perfect. If we say, 'Well, at least we can try,' we are still, then, turning the screws both on ourselves and on others and on everything around us.
The Kabbalah says, 'looking for the perfect thing (according to our idea of perfection) often keeps us from the many imperfect things that would make us perfectly happy.'
Continuing 'The only thing that matters is'...
Janis Joplin in her final interview admonished: "You are what you settle for. You are ONLY as much as you settle for"
So don't settle for less...or sell yourself short...
So don't settle for less...or sell yourself short...
Sometimes...
it's good to reinforce thoughts that are already in our minds....
Here's one 'reinforcement' popped out at me from a movie - There was this very young girl who seemed to have only trouble coming at her. Everything she attempted or tried boomeranged, and boomeranged badly. Time and time again she would lift herself up and something worse than before would knock her down. And yet, she was always smiling and pepping up her friends. In fact, she was the life and soul of her friends' circle. Finally, after yet another episode of being pushed down, one of her friends asks her how she can still smile and laugh. To which she replies:
This is Life. But if we hang on to all the bad things, we won't have time to see the good things, or enjoy them, will we?
Here's one 'reinforcement' popped out at me from a movie - There was this very young girl who seemed to have only trouble coming at her. Everything she attempted or tried boomeranged, and boomeranged badly. Time and time again she would lift herself up and something worse than before would knock her down. And yet, she was always smiling and pepping up her friends. In fact, she was the life and soul of her friends' circle. Finally, after yet another episode of being pushed down, one of her friends asks her how she can still smile and laugh. To which she replies:
This is Life. But if we hang on to all the bad things, we won't have time to see the good things, or enjoy them, will we?
03 October 2013
Just had to share some Native American wisdom...
What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
~Crowfoot
The only thing that matters is...
the person I would like to become...
And this can be changed/modified/tweaked every day....
And this can be changed/modified/tweaked every day....
Quit...
rationalizing...
For one, it is a totally energy-sapping activity and gets us nowhere - the amount of energy we use, brain power we expend, and thinking we do to get around something or explain away something could have been put to better use - we could have forged ahead, instead...maybe taken a different path...maybe just taken time off...
And for another, it really doesn't solve the issue. We just end up going round and round in circles trying to explain something to ourselves and to those around us, and see that not only have we got ourselves entangled in a web, but we've also ended up in the same spot we started out from, not having resolved anything.
Better would be to walk away...
For, if something was really important, we would not need to rationalize it.
For one, it is a totally energy-sapping activity and gets us nowhere - the amount of energy we use, brain power we expend, and thinking we do to get around something or explain away something could have been put to better use - we could have forged ahead, instead...maybe taken a different path...maybe just taken time off...
And for another, it really doesn't solve the issue. We just end up going round and round in circles trying to explain something to ourselves and to those around us, and see that not only have we got ourselves entangled in a web, but we've also ended up in the same spot we started out from, not having resolved anything.
Better would be to walk away...
For, if something was really important, we would not need to rationalize it.
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