Religious leaders may disagree about some things, but they all have one thing in common. They all recommend you do one important thing in your life. You might find this recommendation difficult to follow. For a few, it's nearly impossible to live this way. However, when you use this advice, you earn the most wonderful gifts in the world.Not only does this advice make you happy, it lowers your stress and boosts your intelligence. You face difficult situations with less fear. You are much more successful.
What Is Greatness?
"The hardest task one can have is to continue to love his fellows despite all reasons he should not. For the one who can achieve this, there is abundant hope. For those who cannot, there is only sorrow, hatred and despair. And these are not the things of which greatness, or sanity or happiness are made.
"A primary trap is to succumb to invitations to hate. Never use what is done to one as a basis for hatred. Never desire revenge. It requires real strength to love man. And to love him despite all invitations to do otherwise, all provocations and all reasons why one should not.
"Happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To hate alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe.
"To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness." -- L. Ron Hubbard
Excerpted from "What is Greatness?" by L. Ron Hubbard. You can read the full article at http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=y4xcgbcab.0.yhvjlrbab.n55yivn6.54054&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.realhubbard.org.
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Saturday, June 16, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
No Self
I can't anticipate how these words of John Wheeler (http://thenaturalstate.org/) will strike you, but I found them positively enlightening:
"You are not creating thoughts. They happen spontaneously. Then we say, “I am thinking,” “I am deciding,” “I am remembering.” This is totally false. That “I” is not present in those things. It is only assumed afterwards. This assumed “I” is the ego, and it is the cause of our problems. There has never been an ego, except as an assumption."
"You are not creating thoughts. They happen spontaneously. Then we say, “I am thinking,” “I am deciding,” “I am remembering.” This is totally false. That “I” is not present in those things. It is only assumed afterwards. This assumed “I” is the ego, and it is the cause of our problems. There has never been an ego, except as an assumption."
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Angela's Ashes
If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you may have noticed that I am not big on fiction. I guess I am one of those who prefers "just the facts, ma'am." But this lack of appetite for story doesn't keep me from opening up a novel now and then and reading the first page. Which is just what I did the other day with the #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt. On page one we find:
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived it at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."
I'm not really sure why this excerpt delights me as much as it does. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I am half Irish and was raised Catholic, and didn't exactly have the happiest of childhoods. But in any case, I find this eloquent passage so deliciously funny and clever that I am inclined to read the whole novel, but doubt if I will. Who's got time for storytelling? Not me, despite the fact that man has been defined as "the story telling animal." But that's another story....
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived it at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."
I'm not really sure why this excerpt delights me as much as it does. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I am half Irish and was raised Catholic, and didn't exactly have the happiest of childhoods. But in any case, I find this eloquent passage so deliciously funny and clever that I am inclined to read the whole novel, but doubt if I will. Who's got time for storytelling? Not me, despite the fact that man has been defined as "the story telling animal." But that's another story....
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Psychosynthesis
Browsing through the library rather aimlessly awhile back, I chanced upon a short little volume titled, "The Elements of Psychosynthesis," by Will Parfitt. I first heard about Psychosynthesis more than 30 years ago, but have never looked very deeply into it, so I thought maybe it was time I had. Chapter 1 opens with this definition: "Psychosynthesis is a comprehensive approach to self-realization and the development of human potential." Well, that's just fine, I thought: that's exactly what my life is about, or at least aims to be about. Several pages later we find the following notion:
"We can know what we want, and have an idea of where we are going in life, but once we start moving in that direction we find there are all kinds of blocks that stop us. Psychosynthesis says these blocks are our helpers. Through looking at them and dealing with them, we can move more effectively in the direction in which we desire to go. The blocks are the very energy of our being, so the more we deal with the blocks the more we are moving towards our true being, rather than cutting off from ourselves and not allowing our potential to grow and blossom."
So the next time we confront those infernal blocks, perhaps we will remember this and, instead of cursing them, we will celebrate their very existence. Ya think so?
"We can know what we want, and have an idea of where we are going in life, but once we start moving in that direction we find there are all kinds of blocks that stop us. Psychosynthesis says these blocks are our helpers. Through looking at them and dealing with them, we can move more effectively in the direction in which we desire to go. The blocks are the very energy of our being, so the more we deal with the blocks the more we are moving towards our true being, rather than cutting off from ourselves and not allowing our potential to grow and blossom."
So the next time we confront those infernal blocks, perhaps we will remember this and, instead of cursing them, we will celebrate their very existence. Ya think so?
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Where is the Person?
John Wheeler, whose website, http://www.thenaturalstate.org/, I have referenced before, asks a few very pointed questions in the following missive:
"Where is the person? Is it real? Did you ever find it? For example, in any given moment there may be a few thoughts, feelings or sensations appearing. Do any of those constitute a person, a separate self ? They are simply momentary objects appearing and disappearing in present awareness. How could they be a substantial self or independent person? If you set those aside and continue to investigate, you will find that there is nothing else present at all to investigate! All there is, is wide open, clear, obvious presence-awareness itself. And that is not a limited person or entity."
I am reminded of Osho's recommendation that we ask not so much "Who am I?" but "Where am I?" Where indeed is the person we take ourselves to be? Nasargadatta says simply, "You are not a person." And of course Buddha 2,500 years ago denied the reality of a self. The Buddhist tradition also teaches us that "There is suffering, but no one who suffers." Again, no self. Hmmm.
"Where is the person? Is it real? Did you ever find it? For example, in any given moment there may be a few thoughts, feelings or sensations appearing. Do any of those constitute a person, a separate self ? They are simply momentary objects appearing and disappearing in present awareness. How could they be a substantial self or independent person? If you set those aside and continue to investigate, you will find that there is nothing else present at all to investigate! All there is, is wide open, clear, obvious presence-awareness itself. And that is not a limited person or entity."
I am reminded of Osho's recommendation that we ask not so much "Who am I?" but "Where am I?" Where indeed is the person we take ourselves to be? Nasargadatta says simply, "You are not a person." And of course Buddha 2,500 years ago denied the reality of a self. The Buddhist tradition also teaches us that "There is suffering, but no one who suffers." Again, no self. Hmmm.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Look to This Day
Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
-- Kalidasa
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
-- Kalidasa
Monday, April 16, 2007
Awareness
TheNaturalState.org currently has this juicy little tidbit on its homepage:
It is not that "you" can be or become aware. That divides something that can not be divided. You are awareness. You are constantly that. That is the necessary ground from which all arises. What can there be without awareness? Everything arises and sets in awareness and has no independent existence apart from it. That is the substance of which everything is made, including you. It is you. That awareness is pure peace and happiness because in it there is no separation, no isolation, no fear, no past, no future, nothing to obtain and nothing to lose.
It is not that "you" can be or become aware. That divides something that can not be divided. You are awareness. You are constantly that. That is the necessary ground from which all arises. What can there be without awareness? Everything arises and sets in awareness and has no independent existence apart from it. That is the substance of which everything is made, including you. It is you. That awareness is pure peace and happiness because in it there is no separation, no isolation, no fear, no past, no future, nothing to obtain and nothing to lose.
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