self
666788883655229440
If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.
188173374427
The Rules for being Human
01. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s the only thing you are sure to keep for the rest of this life.
02. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called “Life On Planet Earth”. Every person or incident is the Universal Teacher.
03. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation. “Failures” are as much a part of the process as “successes”.
04. A lesson is repeated until learned. It is presented to you in various forms until you learn then you can go on to the next lesson.
05. If you don’t learn easy lessons, they get harder. External problems are a precise reflection of your internal state. When you learn inner obstructions, your outside world changes. Pain is how the universe gets your attention.
06. You will know you’ve learned a lesson when your actions change. Wisdom is practice. A little of something is better
than a lot of nothing.
07. “There” is no better than “here.” When your “there” becomes a “here” you will simply obtain another “there” that again looks better than “here.”
08. Others are only a mirror of you. You cannot love or hate something about another unless it reflects something you love or hate
about yourself.
09. Your life is up to you. Life provides the canvas; you do the painting. Take charge of your life-or someone else will.
010. You always get what you want. Your subconscious rightfully determines what energies, experiences and people you attract therefore, the only foolproof way to know what you want, is to see what you have. There are no victims, only students.
011. There is no right or wrong, but there are consequences. Moralizing doesn’t help. Judgments only hold the patterns in place. Just do your best.
012. Your answers lie inside you. Children need guidance from others; as we mature; we trust our hearts, where the Laws of Spirit are written. You know more than you have heard read or been told. All you need to do is to look, listen and trust.
013. You will forget all this.
014. You can remember any time you wish.
From the Los Angeles Resources Newspaper, March 1994
159324777212
Passion Versus Obsession
Because passionate people are driven to create as a way to grow and achieve their potential, they are constantly seeking out others who share their passion in a quest for collaboration, friction and inspiration. Because they have a strong sense of self, passionate people are well-equipped to form relationships. They present themselves in ways that invite trust – they have little time for pretense and they are willing to express vulnerability and need in order to receive the help they need in achieving their own potential. Because they are passionate, they are willing to share their own knowledge and experience when they encounter someone sharing their passion. They are also intensely curious, seeking to understand the other passionate people they encounter in order to better see where and how they can collaborate to get better faster.
In contrast, obsessive people hide behind their objects of obsession. The objects are what are important, not others or even themselves. As a result, obsessive people are hard to get to know and trust – they share little of themselves and they exhibit minimal interest or curiosity regarding the needs or feelings of others. One of the hallmarks of obsessive people is that they tend to talk endlessly and often repetitively about the same thing, rarely inviting commentary or reaction from others, and ultimately pushing others away with their obsessive rants.
155239324342
The sun and moon had always shone; the rivers had always flowed and
the bees had hummed, but in previous times all this had been nothing to
Siddhartha but a fleeting and illusive veil before his eyes, regarded
with distrust, condemned to be disregarded and ostracized from the
thoughts, because it was not reality, because reality lay on the other
side of the visible. But now his thoughts lingered on this side; he saw
and recognized the visible and he sought his place in this world. He did
not seek reality; his goal was not on any other side. The world was
beautiful when looked at in this way—without any seeking, so simple, so
childlike. The moon and the stars were beautiful, the brook, the shore,
the forest and the rock, the goat and the golden beetle, the flower and
the butterfly were beautiful. It was beautiful and pleasant to go
through the world like that, so childlike, so awakened, so concerned
with the immediate, without any distrust. …
All this had always been and he had never seen it; he was never
present. Now he was present and belonged to it. Through his eyes he saw
light and shadows; through his mind he was aware of moon and stars.
—Siddhartha (novel) pp. 45-46 by Hermann Hesse
155238451267
The teaching which you have heard, however, is not my opinion, and
its goal is not to explain the world to those who are thirsty for
knowledge. Its goal is quite different; its goal is salvation from
suffering. That is what Gotama teaches, nothing else.
I have never seen a man look and smile, sit and walk like that, he
thought. I, also, would like to look and smile, sit and walk like that,
so free, so worthy, so restrained, so candid, so childlike and
mysterious. A man only looks and walks like that when he has conquered
his self. I also will conquer my self.
—Siddhartha (novel) p. 35 by Hermann Hesse
154454224492
Develop Your Heart | Ajahn Brahm | 2 Dec 2016