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9 Quotes From Buddha That Might Resonate With Your Soul

March 19, 2016 by Joe Martino

The teachings of many of history’s religious and philosophical figures are timeless, but are often mistakenly taken at face value. It’s easy to slap a quote on an image or a t-shirt and pass it around, but it takes deliberate thought to actually internalize the true meaning behind the words, and often these quick philosophical ‘bytes’ are passed over too quickly for this to happen.

It’s easy for us in this day and age to be “spiritual” by identity and pass it off well without ever truly living spiritually — without  recognizing and benefitting from what we can learn from having a spiritual relationship with ourselves and this world. Because of that, it’s common to come across a great deal of logical spiritualists and fake ‘new-agey’ type personalities that don’t truly live the core of what these great teachers have shared.

So I wanted to share my own perspective on the true meaning behind some of these quotes.

“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.”
To be in good health allows us to experience this world to its fullest, the way the body, mind, and soul were meant to experience it. It’s common to view wealth in a monetary sense, but having a state of peace within oneself is a much more powerful and useful tool than simple material wealth. Trusting in oneself and one’s path is an important part of our relationship with the self.

“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.”
We create our own outcomes with many things. There are many interesting strands of research these days showing us how certain long-term emotions and traumas can have a huge impact on disease. Obviously this may not apply to the health of a newborn, but this wisdom is intended, it seems to me, to remind us to look at our long-term thoughts and actions in our lives and consider how they may be affecting our physical well-being.

“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
The moment is all we have. We can learn from our past and project goals onto our “future moment,” but to spend all our time in either is to miss out on what’s happening in front of us. This refers to the times we walk through the park thinking about what’s coming next or what happened before, without seeing or really experiencing the amazing beauty and nature around us in that moment.

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”
You can try to help someone else and you can wait forever for someone to come save you, but until a person decides to make a change themselves and commits to it, there’s little that can be done. Change must be desired before it can be effected. Throw both feet in and go for it. Otherwise you’re always going to spin your tires.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.”
Everyone has their own perception of a situation or what might have been said. This does not mean that perception is universally true; rather, it is simply true for them in their current state. Don’t take other people’s perceptions of certain situations as ultimate truth, and in the same way, don’t take to heart what they think or believe about you. With yourself, understand that you too have your own perceptions, and allow yourself to be open to what others think and feel just as you would hope others would do for you.

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
Like many things which continue to reveal themselves in our world, the truth cannot be hidden forever. It will eventually come out. This is one of the most exciting parts about what I do here with CE. 🙂

“It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one’s own faults. One shows the faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one’s own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice.”
Be humble and be open to seeing your own “faults” in the same way you are open to seeing them in others. It takes true strength, honesty, and love to be open to your own flaws and to tackle the challenge of moving beyond them.

“To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”
Our health is so crucial to living well, and contributes to everything we do in this experience we call life. It’s interesting to view the sheer disconnect in our society between our emotions, spirituality, and overall health. The more disconnected we are, the more unhealthy we are. The greater connection we gain to ourselves and our health, the more in balance all other areas of our lives become.

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”
What you think has a big impact on your overall state of being. This has been proven time and time again and I believe is becoming a pretty mainstream idea these days.


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25  Quotes From Carl Jung

Carl Jung was a psychological genius who expanded on our understanding of the mind, and his writings contain some of the most thought-provoking ideas you’ve read recently. Jung expanded on the ideas of Sigmund Freud and developed his own psychological theories.

Carl Jung also pioneered the thought-provoking concept of the introvert and extrovert personality types, which you can read more about in our articles Are You an Introvert or an Extrovert? and 7 Life Changing Lessons to Learn From Introverts. Jung believed that dreams were a way for us to make up for missing parts of our personality.

Jung was the founder of the idea of a collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is a group-mind that we all share; something we are born with that contains humanity’s shared concepts, called archetypes. Archetypes are things like having parents, finding a mate, having children, and confronting death. Jung was also interested in the way we use myths to tell stories about these archetypes with a shared meaning.

According to Charles Cowgil of muskingum.edu, “Jung wanted to investigate the similarity of symbols that are located in different religious, mythological, and magical systems which occur in many cultures and time periods. To account for these similar symbols occurring across different cultures and time periods he suggested the existence of two layers of the unconscious psyche. The first of the two layers was the personal unconscious. It contains what the individual has acquired in his or her life, but has been forgotten or repressed. The second layer is the collective unconscious which contains the memory traces common to all humankind. These experiences form archetypes.” Carl Jung’s thought provoking ideas are reflected in these 25 quotes.

carl-gustav-jung

25 OF THE MOST THOUGHT PROVOKING CARL JUNG QUOTES

1. There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

2. The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

3. The word ‘happiness’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

4. In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.

5. The healthy man does not torture others – generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.

6. A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.

7. It is a fact that cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our own hearts.

8. Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

9. Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.

10. It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.

11. Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.

12. The collective unconscious consists of the sum of the instincts and their correlates, the archetypes. Just as everybody possesses instincts, so he also possesses a stock of archetypal images.

13. Dreams are the guiding words of the soul. Why should I henceforth not love my dreams and not make their riddling images into objects of my daily consideration?

14. The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.

15. Shrinking away from death is something unhealthy and abnormal which robs the second half of life of its purpose.

16. For a young person, it is almost a sin, or at least a danger, to be too preoccupied with himself; but for the ageing person, it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself

17. Understanding does not cure evil, but it is a definite help, inasmuch as one can cope with a comprehensible darkness.

18. Our heart glows, and secret unrest gnaws at the root of our being. Dealing with the unconscious has become a question of life for us.

19. All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.

20. Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.

21. Everyone knows nowadays that people ‘have complexes’. What is not so well known, though far more important theoretically, is that complexes can have us.

22. Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.

23. Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.

24. Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?

25. If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.


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24 Important Socrates Quotes

Socrates Was One Of The Smartest People Ever Lived. Here Are 24 Out Of His Most Important Quotes That Everyone Needs To Read

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Plato’s dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity.

Through his portrayal in Plato’s dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions is asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. Plato’s Socrates also made important and lasting contributions to the field of epistemology, and the influence of his ideas and approach remains a strong foundation for much western philosophy that followed.

Let us remember his wisdom by reading 24 famous quotes of his:

1) “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

2) “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

3) “There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”

4) “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think”

5) “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

6) “Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.”

socrates-quote

7) “By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”

8) “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”

9) “If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.”

10) “Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”

11) “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”

12) “To find yourself, think for yourself.”

13) “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”

14) “Know thyself.”

15) “Let him who would move the world first move himself.”

16) “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”

17) “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

18) “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”

19) “Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.”

20) “understanding a question is half an answer”

21) “True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us”

22) “He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.”

23) “To be is to do”

24) “The mind is everything; what you think you become”


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10 Confucius Quotes That Can Change Your Life

March 18, 2015 

1. “Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.”

Remember to follow the “Golden Rule!”

2. “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”

Ignorance is the greatest cause of suffering. Enlightenment is our liberation.

3. “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

Another saying I love: 1000 repetitions answers all questions.

4. “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

You really have to open your mind to see the beauty in the world. See the world through clear eyes.

confucius-beauty

5. “The Superior Man is aware of Righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage.”

Another quote is “The object of the superior man is truth.”

6. “Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.”

This is a great one. It’s important to be all in, all there, wherever you are.

7. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.”

We all will fail at some point or another. But true failure is only when we fail to get up.

8. “He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.”

There’s more to being well educated than reading books. Remember to think critically.

9. “He that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.”

And remember, your mind is one of your most important tools.

10. “If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?”

This is one I could benefit from applying more to my own life. My life is good, all things considered. Yet I still feel some anxiety about my life and choices. Maybe that’s normal, but Confucius has a good point. If there’s nothing wrong in your heart, let go of your worry.


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33 Life Changing Lessons To Learn From Lao Tzu

Jul 16, 2015    Luminita D. Saviuc

“The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things.” ~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Not sure if you know this, but Lao Tzu is the author of my favorite book of all time – Tao Te Ching. I am in love with this book. I read it more than 100 times and I know that I’ll continue to read it a lot more in the future. And you know why? Because every time I read it I discover something new. There is so much power, so much wisdom and so much magic in this book and its words really resonate with me. My soul loves it and I do too 🙂 . Anyway, here are 33 life changing lesson to learn from this wise man named Lao Tzu.

1. The world is won by those who let it go.

“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.” ~ Lao Tzu

“Therefore the Master acts without doing anything and teaches without saying anything. Things arise and she lets them come; things disappear and she lets them go. She has but doesn’t possess, acts but doesn’t expect. When her work is done, she forgets it. That is why it lasts forever.” ~ Lao Tzu

“He who clings to his work will create nothing that endures.” ~ Lao Tzu

2. When you let go of who you are, you become who you might be.

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” ~ Lao Tzu

3. If you want to be given everything, give everything up.

“If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial. If you want to become straight, let yourself be crooked. If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give everything up.” ~ Lao Tzu

4. Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” ~ Lao Tzu

5. If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to.

“If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.” ~ Lao Tzu

6. He who rushes ahead doesn’t go far.

“He who rushes ahead doesn’t go far.” ~ Lao Tzu

7. Trying to shine you dim your own light.

“He who tries to shine dims his own light.” ~ Lao Tzu

8. He who defines himself can’t know who he really is.

“He who defines himself can’t know who he really is.” ~ Lao Tzu

9. He who has power over others can’t empower himself.

“He who has power over others can’t empower himself.” ~ Lao Tzu

10. Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself.

“Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself.” ~ Lao Tzu

11. At the center of your being you have the answer to all life’s questions.

“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.” ~ Lao Tzu

12. The soft overcomes the hard. The slow overcomes the fast.

“The soft overcomes the hard. The slow overcomes the fast.” ~ Lao Tzu

“In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.” ~ Lao Tzu

13. Allow things to flow naturally.

“Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?” ~ Lao Tzu

14. If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to flourish.

“If you want to shrink something, you must first allow it to expand. If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to flourish. If you want to take something, you must first allow it to be given. This is called the subtle perception of the way things are.” ~ Lao Tzu

15. New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.

“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” ~ Lao Tzu

16. Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.

“Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.” ~ Lao Tzu

who you are

17. Humility is power.

“All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. Humility gives it its power.” ~ Lao Tzu

18. The Way of Heaven does one good but never does one harm.

“The sage does not hoard. The more he helps others, the more he benefits himself, The more he gives to others, the more he gets himself. The Way of Heaven does one good but never does one harm. The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.” ~ Lao Tzu

19. The great leader is he who the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’”

“The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’” ~ Lao Tzu

20. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.

“If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.” ~ Lao Tzu

21. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

“If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.” ~ Lao Tzu

“Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” ~ Lao Tzu

22. The further one goes the less one know.

“Without stirring abroad, One can know the whole world; Without looking out of the window one can see the way of heaven. The further one goes the less one knows.” ~ Lao Tzu

23. Silence is a source of great strength.

“Silence is a source of great strength.” ~ Lao Tzu

24. Be like the forces of nature.

“Express yourself completely, then keep quiet. Be like the forces of nature: when it blows, there is only wind; when it rains, there is only rain; when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.” ~ Lao Tzu

25. Non-being is the greatest joy.

“Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.” ~ Lao Tzu

26. By doing nothing you leave nothing undone.

“When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.” ~ Lao Tzu

27. This is the great secret.

“What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher? What is a bad man but a good man’s job? If you don’t understand this, you will get lost, however intelligent you are. It is the great secret.” ~ Lao Tzu

28. The wise man is one who, knows, what he does not know.

“The wise man is one who, knows, what he does not know.” ~ Lao Tzu

29. Loving someone deeply gives you courage.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ~ Lao Tzu

30. Kindness in giving creates love.

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” ~ Lao Tzu

31. If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” ~ Lao Tzu

32. When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.” ~ Lao Tzu

33. Be good to all.

“Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained.” ~ Lao Tzu


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22 of the Most Insightful Quotes from Carl Jung

02 Jul 2015    By : Justin Gammill

Quotes from Carl Jung

For the last 20 years or so, I have actively studied psychology. Not because I do it for a living, or have any aspirations to – but because the brain fascinates me. Psychology transcends gender, race, age, and culture. One name that always comes up in my casual conversations about psychology is Carl Jung, and it surprises me how few people know who he is. Sure, everyone knows Freud, Skinner, Maslow, and even Pavlov – but in my opinion, Jung has taught me more about why I feel the way I do, especially towards other people. If you’ve never heard of Jung, I highly recommend checking out his work on the unconscious mind, and his theories about social interactions. Here are some of the most insightful quotes from a man that gave so much of his mind to modern psychology.

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”
“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.”
“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.”
“The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.”

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“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
“As a child I felt myself to be alone, and I am still, because I know things and must hint at things which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know.”
“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.”
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.”
“Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.”
“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”
“There’s no coming to consciousness without pain.”
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
“In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.”
“Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not. ”
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”
“Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event.”
“Where wisdom reigns, there is no conflict between thinking and feeling.”


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Gandhi’s Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World

by HENRIK EDBERG

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.”

“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”

Mahatma Gandhi needs no long introduction. Everyone knows about the man who lead the Indian people to independence from British rule in 1947.

Some of my favourite tips from Mahatma Gandhi.

1. Change yourself.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”

If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.

And the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.

And so in this new situation you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with that negative stuff. And if you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.

2. You are in control.

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. There may be a “normal” or a common way to react to different things. But that’s mostly just all it is.

You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions to pretty much everything. You don’t have to freak out, overreact of even react in a negative way. Perhaps not every time or instantly. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction just goes off. Or an old thought habit kicks in.

And as you realize that no-one outside of yourself can actually control how you feel you can start to incorporate this thinking into your daily life and develop it as a thought habit. A habit that you can grow stronger and stronger over time. Doing this makes life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.

3. Forgive and let it go.

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

Fighting evil with evil won’t help anyone. And as said in the previous tip, you always choose how to react to something. When you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.

You realize that forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service. And spending your time in some negative memory won’t help you after you have learned the lessons you can learn from that experience. You’ll probably just cause yourself more suffering and paralyze yourself from taking action in this present moment.

If you don’t forgive then you let the past and another person to control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds. And then you can focus totally on, for instance, the next point.

4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard and difficult. There can be much inner resistance.

And so you may resort to preaching, as Gandhi says. Or reading and studying endlessly. And feeling like you are moving forward. But getting little or no practical results in real life.

So, to really get where you want to go and to really understand yourself and your world you need to practice. Books can mostly just bring you knowledge. You have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.

You can check out a few effective tips to overcome this problem in How to Take More Action: 9 Powerful Tips. Or you can move on to the next point for more on the best tip for taking more action that I have found so far.

5. Take care of this moment.

“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”

The best way that I have found to overcome the inner resistance that often stops us from taking action is to stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting.

Why? Well, when you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment that you can’t control anyway. And the resistance to action that comes from you imagining negative future consequences – or reflecting on past failures – of your actions loses its power. And so it becomes easier to both take action and to keep your focus on this moment and perform better.

Have a look at 8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment for tips on how quickly step into the now. And remember that reconnecting with and staying in the now is a mental habit – a sort of muscle – that you grow. Over time it becomes more powerful and makes it easier to slip into the present moment.

mahatma_gandhi_quote

6. Everyone is human.

“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

When you start to make myths out of people – even though they may have produced extraordinary results – you run the risk of becoming disconnected from them. You can start to feel like you could never achieve similar things that they did because they are so very different. So it’s important to keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are.

And I think it’s important to remember that we are all human and prone to make mistakes. Holding people to unreasonable standards will only create more unnecessary conflicts in your world and negativity within you.

It’s also important to remember this to avoid falling into the pretty useless habit of beating yourself up over mistakes that you have made. And instead be able to see with clarity where you went wrong and what you can learn from your mistake. And then try again.

7. Persist.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away. And your inner resistance and self-sabotaging tendencies that want to hold you back and keep you like you have always been will grow weaker.

Find what you really like to do. Then you’ll find the inner motivation to keep going, going and going. You can also find a lot of useful tips on how keep your motivation up in How to Get Out of a Motivational Slump and 25 Simple Ways to Motivate Yourself.

One reason Gandhi was so successful with his method of non-violence was because he and his followers were so persistent. They just didn’t give up.

Success or victory will seldom come as quickly as you would have liked it to. I think one of the reasons people don’t get what they want is simply because they give up too soon. The time they think an achievement will require isn’t the same amount of time it usually takes to achieve that goal. This faulty belief partly comes from the world we live in. A world full of magic pill solutions where advertising continually promises us that we can lose a lot of weight or earn a ton of money in just 30 days. You can read more about this in One Big Mistake a Whole Lot of People Make.

Finally, one useful tip to keep your persistence going is to listen to Gandhi’s third quote in this article and keep a sense of humor. It can lighten things up at the toughest of times.

8. See the good in people and help them.

“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”

“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”

“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

There is pretty much always something good in people. And things that may not be so good. But you can choose what things to focus on. And if you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive.

And when you see the good in people it becomes easier to motivate yourself to be of service to them. By being of service to other people, by giving them value you not only make their lives better. Over time you tend to get what you give. And the people you help may feel more inclined to help other people. And so you, together, create an upward spiral of positive change that grows and becomes stronger.

By strengthening your social skills you can become a more influential person and make this upward spiral even stronger. A few articles that may provide you with useful advice in that department are Do You Make These 10 Mistakes in a Conversation? and Dale Carnegie’s Top 10 Tips for Improving Your Social Skills. Or you can just move on to the next tip.

9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

I think that one of the best tips for improving your social skills is to behave in a congruent manner and communicate in an authentic way. People seem to really like authentic communication. And there is much inner enjoyment to be found when your thoughts, words and actions are aligned. You feel powerful and good about yourself.

When words and thoughts are aligned then that shows through in your communication. Because now you have your voice tonality and body language – some say they are over 90 percent of communication – in alignment with your words.

With these channels in alignment people tend to really listen to what you’re saying. You are communicating without incongruency, mixed messages or perhaps a sort of phoniness.

Also, if your actions aren’t in alignment with what you’re communicating then you start to hurt your own belief in what you can do. And other people’s belief in you too.

10. Continue to grow and evolve.

”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”

You can pretty much always improve your skills, habits or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.

Sure, you may look inconsistent or like you don’t know what you are doing from time to time. You may have trouble to act congruently or to communicate authentically. But if you don’t then you will, as Gandhi says, drive yourself into a false position. A place where you try to uphold or cling to your old views to appear consistent while you realise within that something is wrong. It’s not a fun place to be. To choose to grow and evolve is a happier and more useful path to take.


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Gandhi’s Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World

by HENRIK EDBERG

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.”

“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”

Mahatma Gandhi needs no long introduction. Everyone knows about the man who lead the Indian people to independence from British rule in 1947.

So let’s just move on to some of my favourite tips from Mahatma Gandhi.

1. Change yourself.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”

If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.

And the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.

And so in this new situation you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with that negative stuff. And if you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.

2. You are in control.

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. There may be a “normal” or a common way to react to different things. But that’s mostly just all it is.

You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions to pretty much everything. You don’t have to freak out, overreact of even react in a negative way. Perhaps not every time or instantly. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction just goes off. Or an old thought habit kicks in.

And as you realize that no-one outside of yourself can actually control how you feel you can start to incorporate this thinking into your daily life and develop it as a thought habit. A habit that you can grow stronger and stronger over time. Doing this makes life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.

3. Forgive and let it go.

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

Fighting evil with evil won’t help anyone. And as said in the previous tip, you always choose how to react to something. When you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.

You realize that forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service. And spending your time in some negative memory won’t help you after you have learned the lessons you can learn from that experience. You’ll probably just cause yourself more suffering and paralyze yourself from taking action in this present moment.

If you don’t forgive then you let the past and another person to control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds. And then you can focus totally on, for instance, the next point.

4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard and difficult. There can be much inner resistance.

And so you may resort to preaching, as Gandhi says. Or reading and studying endlessly. And feeling like you are moving forward. But getting little or no practical results in real life.

So, to really get where you want to go and to really understand yourself and your world you need to practice. Books can mostly just bring you knowledge. You have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.

5. Take care of this moment.

“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”

The best way that I have found to overcome the inner resistance that often stops us from taking action is to stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting.

Why? Well, when you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment that you can’t control anyway. And the resistance to action that comes from you imagining negative future consequences – or reflecting on past failures – of your actions loses its power. And so it becomes easier to both take action and to keep your focus on this moment and perform better.

And remember that reconnecting with and staying in the now is a mental habit – a sort of muscle – that you grow. Over time it becomes more powerful and makes it easier to slip into the present moment.

Humans

6. Everyone is human.

“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

When you start to make myths out of people – even though they may have produced extraordinary results – you run the risk of becoming disconnected from them. You can start to feel like you could never achieve similar things that they did because they are so very different. So it’s important to keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are.

And I think it’s important to remember that we are all human and prone to make mistakes. Holding people to unreasonable standards will only create more unnecessary conflicts in your world and negativity within you.

It’s also important to remember this to avoid falling into the pretty useless habit of beating yourself up over mistakes that you have made. And instead be able to see with clarity where you went wrong and what you can learn from your mistake. And then try again.

7. Persist.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away. And your inner resistance and self-sabotaging tendencies that want to hold you back and keep you like you have always been will grow weaker.

Find what you really like to do. Then you’ll find the inner motivation to keep going, going and going.

One reason Gandhi was so successful with his method of non-violence was because he and his followers were so persistent. They just didn’t give up.

Success or victory will seldom come as quickly as you would have liked it to. I think one of the reasons people don’t get what they want is simply because they give up too soon. The time they think an achievement will require isn’t the same amount of time it usually takes to achieve that goal. This faulty belief partly comes from the world we live in. A world full of magic pill solutions where advertising continually promises us that we can lose a lot of weight or earn a ton of money in just 30 days.

Finally, one useful tip to keep your persistence going is to listen to Gandhi’s third quote in this article and keep a sense of humor. It can lighten things up at the toughest of times.

8. See the good in people and help them.

“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”

“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”

“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

There is pretty much always something good in people. And things that may not be so good. But you can choose what things to focus on. And if you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive.

And when you see the good in people it becomes easier to motivate yourself to be of service to them. By being of service to other people, by giving them value you not only make their lives better. Over time you tend to get what you give. And the people you help may feel more inclined to help other people. And so you, together, create an upward spiral of positive change that grows and becomes stronger.

9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

I think that one of the best tips for improving your social skills is to behave in a congruent manner and communicate in an authentic way. People seem to really like authentic communication. And there is much inner enjoyment to be found when your thoughts, words and actions are aligned. You feel powerful and good about yourself.

When words and thoughts are aligned then that shows through in your communication. Because now you have your voice tonality and body language – some say they are over 90 percent of communication – in alignment with your words.

With these channels in alignment people tend to really listen to what you’re saying. You are communicating without incongruency, mixed messages or perhaps a sort of phoniness.

Also, if your actions aren’t in alignment with what you’re communicating then you start to hurt your own belief in what you can do. And other people’s belief in you too.

10. Continue to grow and evolve.

”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”

You can pretty much always improve your skills, habits or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.

Sure, you may look inconsistent or like you don’t know what you are doing from time to time. You may have trouble to act congruently or to communicate authentically. But if you don’t then you will, as Gandhi says, drive yourself into a false position. A place where you try to uphold or cling to your old views to appear consistent while you realise within that something is wrong. It’s not a fun place to be. To choose to grow and evolve is a happier and more useful path to take.


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10 Powerful Insights from Eckhart Tolle

 23 Mar 2015          By : Tanaaz Chubb     

Reading Eckhart Tolle’s book “A New Earth” was simply a life changing moment for me and since then I have followed and resonated with his teachings.

Here are 10 valuable and powerful insights taken from his teachings:

1.) Happiness: Seeking happiness is futile. If you seek happiness you will never find it. Happiness is created in the present moment by finding the joy in everything you do.

2.) Unhappiness: Situations don’t bring unhappiness, your thoughts about the situation do. Be aware of your thinking and aim to bring facts so situations rather than emotional “stories”. One example Tolle gives is this- “I am ruined”- this is an emotional story whereas, “I have 50 cents left in my bank account” is fact. Sticking to the facts will help bring you clarity to move forward.

3.) The Ego: The main voice in our head is the voice of the ego. You are not this voice, you are simply observing what this voice says. By observing this voice, instead of reacting with it, you create awareness and through this awareness you can free yourself from the limiting talk of the ego.

4.) Present: The present moment is the only moment that is real. The past is already gone and the future is not yet here, so the only way you can live with truth is to live in the present. Living in the present moment and focusing your attention to the here and the now is the first step to achieving higher consciousness.

ECKHART-TOLLE

 

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have.”

5.) I Am: Who are you? You are not your physical body but rather you are the essence that runs through it. While your body is your temple, identifying yourself with the physical can lead to suffering. Appreciate your body, but understand that you are so much more than it.

6.) Doing Good: Being a good person has nothing to do with “trying” to be good, being a good person starts with finding the goodness that is already present inside of you and then allowing it to emerge.

7.) Peace: If peace is what you really want, then you will always choose peace. If you would rather sit and suffer in the validation of the ego, you will go after the drama. Instead of trying to change your life in order to achieve peace, consider realizing instead who you are on the deepest level.

8.) Stress: The main cause of stress and anxiety is wanting things to be different than they currently are. When you bring acceptance to all situations, despite your expectations, you instantly remove the need for stress and worry.

“Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there.’

9.) Love: Looking outside yourself for fulfilment is the work of the ego. Instead, bring your awareness to the treasures that you have within and know that to love another, is to recognize yourself in the other.

10.) Life: Whatever events life brings, know that they are here with the ultimate purpose of helping you to raise and expand your consciousness.

 


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11 Life Changing Lessons to Learn from Einstein

When most people think of Einstein, they think of the theory of relativity and “the world’s most famous equation,” E=MC². However, we can learn a lot more from Einstein than just scientific formulas and theories.  Albert Einstein also offered renowned knowledge in how to become your best self and enjoy life to the fullest.

Even if you have no interest in science, you can still apply these valuable lessons to your life today.

11 Life Changing Lessons to Learn from Einstein

1. Value Your Imagination

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” -Einstein
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” -Einstein
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” -Einstein
“Imagination is the highest form of research.” –Einstein

2. Never Stop Being Curious

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” ? Einstein
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” -Einstein
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” -Einstein

3. Be Willing to Learn New Things

“Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.” – Einstein
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” -Einstein
“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” -Einstein

4. Realize that Growth Comes Out of Failure

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
“The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas.” – Albert Einstein
“You never fail until you stop trying.” -Albert Einstein
Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them. – Albert Einstein
“Only the one who does not question is safe from making a mistake.” —Albert Einstein

reality

5. Dare to be Different and Take Initiative

“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.” – Albert Einstein
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it. – Albert Einstein
“I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.” – Albert Einstein

6. Live in the Moment and Realize that Beauty Exists Everywhere

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein
“I never worry about the future. It comes soon enough.” —Albert Einstein
“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” – Albert Einstein
“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein
“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.” Albert Einstein

7. Live Selflessly and Value Others

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
“Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.”
“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.”
“We know from daily life that we exist for other people first of all, for whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends.”
“Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them—these are the best guides for man.” – Albert Einstein

8. Your Thoughts Create Your Reality

“I admit that thoughts influence the body.”
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

9. Unleash Your Greatness

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein

10. Be Kind to All Living Beings On Earth

“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.” – Albert Einstein

11. Trust Your Inner Voice

“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
“Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.”
“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.” – Albert Einstein