It is also important to remember that your actions always create reactions. This is a simple law of cause and effect. Once you take personal responsibility for creating your life, you must be constantly watchful that you don't create what you don't want through actions that will have negative repercussions. As you become more aware of your own thoughts, and watch yourself talking and moving in the world, you will see a connection between what you sow and what you reap. Kind people seem to live in a friendly world, and angry people seem to live in a hostile world.
Simplify your life. Why burden yourself with the stress that accompanies hugh mortgage payments you can't really afford emotionally, revolving charge plans, and expenses resulting from costly playthings? As we grow in consciousness, material possessions become less and less important. Simplification of lifestyle, just like simplification of diet, produces optimal health. Examine your life and see how you can simplify it.
You can use love, joy, nurturing friends, laughter and happiness as measures of your own successes. Don't use money as a measure of your success. Many people allow the quality of their lives to deteriorate because their financial propserity has misled them into believing that they were winning, when they were actually losing. Should a person consider himself a success, if he has earned several million dollars, but his diet, personality and lifestyles have resulted in his having ulcers, hypertension, cardiac deficiencies and miserable relationships?
Because Westerners have been intensely conditioned to equate monetary gain with success, we have compromised our entire culture by polluting the environment and destroying the minds and morale of countless millions. So long as the economy prospers, our governments tell us there is cause for celebration. Nonsense! Through simplification of lifestyle and a reordering of your priorities, you can create heaven on Earth every day. Once you realise ho wlittle money is really needed to survive, you can spend more time dancing, running through the forest, hugging your children, and enjoying hobbies, sports and pastimes. Don't confuse quantity with quality.
Train yourself to be consistently optimistic and positive in your thinking.Even when diet and exercise are deficient, right thinking can maintain perfect health. A positive mental attitude can keep you looking young and radiant when others your age are old and wrinkled. There are no limits to this power.
Above all else, rely on positive thinking as your vehicle for attaining your goals - nothing is strong enough to resist you when you keep your mind focused on love, happiness and joy. Instead of lamenting that roses have thorns, why not rejoice that thorns have magnificent flowers adorning them? Replace your doubt with positivity and you will notice immediate changes in your experience of living. Research has clearly shown that our entire body chemistry can be changed by changing our thoughts.
~ Let it be easy (pp. 120-2) by Tolly Burkan
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Support your growth
When you plant a small tree, it is wise to erect a fence around it so that animals don't eat it and people don't inadvertently trample it. When the trees grows large enough, the fence can then be removed since the tree can easily stand on its own. Care for yourself in a similar way.
Support yourself by seeking the company of people who are also dedicated to personal growth. Surround yourself with a community of conscious friends. By having a network of emotional support in your life, you'll get touched, and hugged, and listened to, whenever you need it.
Release negative influences from your life. Disengage from people who are constantly negative or perpetually critical and destructive with their words, thoughts and deeds. Only after you regard yourself as a pillar of strength may you wish to return to that type of company to perhaps show them a better way of living.
~ Let it be easy (pp. 120) by Tolly Burkan
Support yourself by seeking the company of people who are also dedicated to personal growth. Surround yourself with a community of conscious friends. By having a network of emotional support in your life, you'll get touched, and hugged, and listened to, whenever you need it.
Release negative influences from your life. Disengage from people who are constantly negative or perpetually critical and destructive with their words, thoughts and deeds. Only after you regard yourself as a pillar of strength may you wish to return to that type of company to perhaps show them a better way of living.
~ Let it be easy (pp. 120) by Tolly Burkan
Peace
Make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
~ Frances of Assisi, Let it be easy (pp 115) by Tolly Burkan
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
~ Frances of Assisi, Let it be easy (pp 115) by Tolly Burkan
The best teacher - you
When you cultivate the ability to focus your attention one hundred percent, you will become your own best teacher. You will be able to learn from situations you never even noticed before. so many problems are juts byproducts of not paying attention. Children spill milk as a result of not paying attention. Someone fall down a flight of stairs because they are not paying attention. Litter, war, pollution and prejudice are all a result of not paying attention. In fact, when you are behind the wheel of a car, paying attention can literally save your life.
Paying attention to your thoughts will reveal how you yourself create most of your problems. Paying attention to your habits, actions and relationships will give you insights that will add to your personal power and effectiveness in the world. For example, make a conscious decision to pay attention to a certain habit you'd like to control. Start with small things, something easy.
As you begin to pay attention, you'll notice more and more every time those unconscious interjections occur in your speech. Don't judge yourself or even try to change the habit. Just continue to pay attention.
Before long, the habit will have corrected itself as if by magic. You will not have to make any conscious effort to do anything at all to bring about the results you desire. All you do is to begin to pay attention in a new way, and your life suddenly improves.
Attentive awareness enables us to cope with life' seemingly contradictory and paradoxical nature. It enables us to be aware of our egos and see them clearly. It permits us to step back from the melodrama of our lives and watch it all unfold as if on a movie screen. It creates the needed detachment to laugh at our own foibles and shortcomings.
~ Let it be easy: Simple actions to create an extraordinary life (pp. 100-2) by Tolly Burkan
Paying attention to your thoughts will reveal how you yourself create most of your problems. Paying attention to your habits, actions and relationships will give you insights that will add to your personal power and effectiveness in the world. For example, make a conscious decision to pay attention to a certain habit you'd like to control. Start with small things, something easy.
As you begin to pay attention, you'll notice more and more every time those unconscious interjections occur in your speech. Don't judge yourself or even try to change the habit. Just continue to pay attention.
Before long, the habit will have corrected itself as if by magic. You will not have to make any conscious effort to do anything at all to bring about the results you desire. All you do is to begin to pay attention in a new way, and your life suddenly improves.
Attentive awareness enables us to cope with life' seemingly contradictory and paradoxical nature. It enables us to be aware of our egos and see them clearly. It permits us to step back from the melodrama of our lives and watch it all unfold as if on a movie screen. It creates the needed detachment to laugh at our own foibles and shortcomings.
~ Let it be easy: Simple actions to create an extraordinary life (pp. 100-2) by Tolly Burkan
Friday, October 17, 2008
Anger and Anxiety
Everyone of us feels anger at times, but it is an emotion to be wary of. Anger shrinks us and contaminates us, keeping us poor and fearful. It kills love and keeps us distant from other people.
Anger is a signal we must listen to. When you are angry, it is a sign that something needs to change. Listen to it and make the change, but do not simply stay angry. Those who are angry for much of the time are blocking their own paths to spiritual development. You cannot transform fear into security while you are angry. So when anger rises in you, do nothing to feed it. Choose instead to dissolve it with loving kindness.
If you are around another person who is constantly angry, then protext yourselves by moving away from them, at the same time sending them energy of love and forgiveness.
You cannot fight anger with force. Loving patience is far more effective. Impatience, which leads to anger, breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness and a generous attitude, which leads to success.
~ The Tibetan Art of Serenity (pp. 61-2) by Christopher Hansard
Anger is a signal we must listen to. When you are angry, it is a sign that something needs to change. Listen to it and make the change, but do not simply stay angry. Those who are angry for much of the time are blocking their own paths to spiritual development. You cannot transform fear into security while you are angry. So when anger rises in you, do nothing to feed it. Choose instead to dissolve it with loving kindness.
If you are around another person who is constantly angry, then protext yourselves by moving away from them, at the same time sending them energy of love and forgiveness.
You cannot fight anger with force. Loving patience is far more effective. Impatience, which leads to anger, breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness and a generous attitude, which leads to success.
~ The Tibetan Art of Serenity (pp. 61-2) by Christopher Hansard
Forgiveness
Each time we truly forgive, a little more goodness comes into the world. Forgiveness takes courage, self-knowledge, self-love and serenityu. The ability to forgive is the attribute of the truly strong. It is easy to say that you are a forgiving person until you are faced with having to forgive a deep hurt or wound inflicted by another person. Life is an adventure in forgiveness.
Forgiveness is the healing of wounds, however they may be caused. It does not always lead to healed relationships, but it does lead to healed lives. When you choose to let go of a past wrong and of blame and hatred, you choose to invite love and peace into your life.
It really does not matter whether the person who hurt you deserves to be forgive. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself because when you forgive, you release yourself from a burden of pain and bitterness. When you forgive, you heal your fear, from that comes serenity, and in that lives contentment. Contentment has no fear and is an expression of serenity that most people can sense and relate to. Contentment is mature happiness. It seeks nothing and cannot be reduced by circumstance.
If your life is affected by someone who refuses to forgive, or is not capable of forgiveness, wish them well and then let them go from your life, along with your anger.
~ The Tibetan Art of Serenity (pp. 65-6) by Christopher Hansard
Forgiveness is the healing of wounds, however they may be caused. It does not always lead to healed relationships, but it does lead to healed lives. When you choose to let go of a past wrong and of blame and hatred, you choose to invite love and peace into your life.
It really does not matter whether the person who hurt you deserves to be forgive. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself because when you forgive, you release yourself from a burden of pain and bitterness. When you forgive, you heal your fear, from that comes serenity, and in that lives contentment. Contentment has no fear and is an expression of serenity that most people can sense and relate to. Contentment is mature happiness. It seeks nothing and cannot be reduced by circumstance.
If your life is affected by someone who refuses to forgive, or is not capable of forgiveness, wish them well and then let them go from your life, along with your anger.
~ The Tibetan Art of Serenity (pp. 65-6) by Christopher Hansard
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Knowing your own Heartz
The key to truly being yourself is knowing your own heart and following it. Have you ever experienced a moment or situation when other people did not want you to follow your heart? When you were stopped from expressing what you really felt or from following a course of action you felt strongly drawn to? If so, take time to consider how that made you feel.
Though those who held you back may have had the best of intentions, they stopped you from following your heart and thus from being yourself, and that is often a painful experience. When we are prevented from following our hearts and being ourselves, we shrink, learning to hold back and not to trust our own judgement. When we are encouraged to be ourselves, we grow in wisdom, understanding and joy.
The experience of following your heart is powerful and dynamic and moves you beyond your old boundaries of experience. When you know how to read your own heart, you naturally acquire understanding of the hearts of others, for all hearts are linked and beat the same beat. So to follow your own heart is also to grow in wisdom, compassion and generosity towards others.
Knowing your heart is knowing what makes you who you are. It is knowing your reason for wanting life. One of the ways to know your own heart is to be in nature and to see it, not with your eyes, but with the understanding in your heart. Your heart then becomes your true eye on the world.
It is not always easy in today's world to know or follow your own heart. There are many people who know in their hearts what is right but who hesitate to follow what they know, waiting for others to act first and take the lead. In this way each person waits for the other and the only thing that happens is waiting. So be brave, follow your heart, even when that means standing up to be counted. You will konw yourself best when your heart is inspired by ideals and beliefs that bring you serenity and simplicity. And the more truly you follow your heart and know yourself, the more others will see beauty in you and be drawn to you. Live your life with compassion and love for others, guided by the pure, clear voice of your heart, and your spirit will grow. And as it does, you will move from just being - when you are purely reactive, to becoming - when all life is with you and in you. You will move from going with the flow to becoming part of the flow of life.
~The Tibetan Art of Serenity (pp.42-3) by Christopher Hansard
Though those who held you back may have had the best of intentions, they stopped you from following your heart and thus from being yourself, and that is often a painful experience. When we are prevented from following our hearts and being ourselves, we shrink, learning to hold back and not to trust our own judgement. When we are encouraged to be ourselves, we grow in wisdom, understanding and joy.
The experience of following your heart is powerful and dynamic and moves you beyond your old boundaries of experience. When you know how to read your own heart, you naturally acquire understanding of the hearts of others, for all hearts are linked and beat the same beat. So to follow your own heart is also to grow in wisdom, compassion and generosity towards others.
Knowing your heart is knowing what makes you who you are. It is knowing your reason for wanting life. One of the ways to know your own heart is to be in nature and to see it, not with your eyes, but with the understanding in your heart. Your heart then becomes your true eye on the world.
It is not always easy in today's world to know or follow your own heart. There are many people who know in their hearts what is right but who hesitate to follow what they know, waiting for others to act first and take the lead. In this way each person waits for the other and the only thing that happens is waiting. So be brave, follow your heart, even when that means standing up to be counted. You will konw yourself best when your heart is inspired by ideals and beliefs that bring you serenity and simplicity. And the more truly you follow your heart and know yourself, the more others will see beauty in you and be drawn to you. Live your life with compassion and love for others, guided by the pure, clear voice of your heart, and your spirit will grow. And as it does, you will move from just being - when you are purely reactive, to becoming - when all life is with you and in you. You will move from going with the flow to becoming part of the flow of life.
~The Tibetan Art of Serenity (pp.42-3) by Christopher Hansard
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