Life 03 (Jun 09 - Jul 09)

[winston]

Give the body the attention it deserves, but not more.

Some people advise that you should cultivate disgust towards it; but that is not beneficial. Tend it as an instrument, use it as a boat, a raft.

Disgust is not a desirable attitude towards anything in the Divine's creation. Everything is the Divine's handiwork, an example of His Glory, His Majesty.

- Divine Discourse, Aug 1, 1975.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Stepping out of the stream

There is the thought of human beings as a great stream—everybody wants to go on—and in that stream the thought of you remains.

And when the medium calls upon you, you manifest, out of that stream, because you are still there, still there in your daily life, because you are still pursuing the same thing that every human being is pursuing—security, permanency, “me” and “not-me” , “we” and “they”, this constant concern with yourself goes on in that stream as it is going on now—as a Christian, Buddhist, whatever you please—greedy, envious, ambitious, frightened, pursuing pleasure—that is this human stream in which you are caught.

Unless you step out of it now you will go in that stream—obviously. Can the mind step out of that and face complete impermanency, now?

Talks in Saanen 1974, p 62

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Other People's Opinions

Don't let anyone tell you who you are or aren't.
Don't let anyone tell you how you should live your life.
Don't let anyone tell you what you're worth.

Look within for those answers. Other people's opinions fluctuate and are unreliable, at best. Their opinions have more to do with them than they do with you. They can only judge you from what THEY have lived, not what YOU have lived.

They don't know who you are, they don't know what you've lived and they cannot possibly crawl inside you to see who you really are.

Trust the answers you find within, they will always remain consistent and based on Truth.

Source: followyoursoul.com

[winston]

To die to everything of the past

So we never come into contact with that extraordinary thing called death. Death is to die to everything of the past, to die to your pleasure.

Have you ever tried without argument, without persuasion, without compulsion, without necessity, to die to a pleasure?

You are going to die inevitably. But have you tried to die today, easily, happily, to your pleasure, to your remembrances, to your hates, to your ambitions, to your urgency to gather money?

All that you want of life is money, position, power, and the envy of another. Can you die to them, can you die to the things that you know, easily, without any argument, without any explanation?

Please bear in mind that you are not hearing a few words and ideas, but you are actually coming into contact with a pleasure—your sexual pleasure, for example—and dying to it. That is what you are going to do anyhow. You are going to die—that is, die to everything you know, your body, your mind, the things that you have built up.

The Collected Works vol XV, p 79

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

How To Be Happy by Karl Moore

“Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.” - Helen Keller

Oh, come on. Admit it.

We all do it every single day.

Everybody enjoys wallowing in a little self-pity. It feels great to remind ourselves how terrible the world is. How we've not been given the right opportunities. How people are against us. How life has been a real struggle this past year.

Right?

But here's a true secret to happiness. And it's probably the biggest, easiest and quickest happiness secret you'll stumble across. Ever.

If you want to be happy – just stop feeling sorry for yourself.

Self-pity, you see, is the worst kind of emotion. It eats up everything around, except itself. It leaves itself standing in the middle, feeling sorry for how poorly life has been treating it.

We've all felt like that, right?

Maybe you feel like life has dealt you a bad hand. Perhaps you've lost money, family or health. It could be that you've missed out on so many opportunities that others have been easily granted – and you think that fate really HAS been unfair to you.

And that viewpoint might even be 100% correct.

But STOP feeling sorry for yourself.

It's not going to help the situation. It'll only help you to wallow in a state of apathy, playing the victim. The kind of person that things happen to, but that can't do anything about it. By stopping feeling sorry for yourself, you can actually get on and DO something about it.

Trust me on this one. This is the biggest ever technique for putting a smile onto your face.

If you're wondering how to be happy – the answer is to stop feeling sorry for yourself.

You could close this book right now and you'd already hold the wisdom of ten thousand self-development courses, and double that number of self-help gurus.

And it's so simple. In fact, it's worth repeating (and rewording) one more time:

Stop feeling sorry for yourself – and you will be happy.

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Karl_Moore_1.html

[winston]

"Could I think too little about my desire, for it to manifest?"

Actually, no, because as the contrast launches the desire, and then you do not offer any opposing thought, then you're letting it in, and it will manifest.

Many of our physical friends really believe that they must find a desire and then hold tenaciously to it. And we say, you do not need to do that.

Let the variety of your life keep balance in your life. You just concentrate more on holding yourself in the good-feeling place where you're letting it in.

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Boston, MA on Saturday, October 7th, 2000

Source: abraham-hicks.com

[winston]

To end…while living

You always ask what happens after death. But you have never asked what happens before death, what happens now in your life.

What is your life?—working, office, money, pain, striving, climbing the ladder of success. That is your life. And death puts an end to all that.

So, is it possible, while living, to end—end your attachment, end your belief? To end, the beauty of ending something voluntarily, without motive, without pleasure—can you do it?

In ending there is a new beginning. If you end, there is something, the doors are opened, but you want to be sure before you end that the door will open. So you never end, never end your motive. The understanding of death is to live a life, inwardly ending.

Mind Without Measure, p 30

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

What Inspires YOU to Be a Better You? By Bob Cox, ETR

Michael Masterson has mentioned that the good and decent acts of friends, family, associates, and strangers have inspired him to make it one of his New Year's resolutions - every year - to become a better person.

How about you? What inspires you to be a better person?

I consider myself to be still "under construction." As such, I use goal setting as a way to design my life to match my hopes and ambitions.

When I turned age 50 nearly 10 years ago, I honestly evaluated who I was and who I wanted to be. One of the things I recognized was that whenever I used a "my way or the highway" approach, I inevitably limited my success and slowed down the achievement of my goals.

I consciously began to do what Michael does at the beginning of every year. I set an annual goal of taking action to be a better person. And I invite you to make this one of your goals, too... starting today!

Finding your own faults requires a certain amount of objectivity and candor... and it can be a bit painful emotionally. The second step - figuring out how to overcome those faults - can be tough. And the most difficult part of the process is to take action - to make these changes day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year... until you become the person you envisioned.

Easy? No. But as I can tell you from my personal experience, it is well worth the effort.

[winston]

Cast away the vice of egoism, the evil of greed and the poison of envy.

When you seek joy from something outside you, remember that a joy far greater lies in wait within your own inner consciousness. When you are afraid of someone or something outside you, remind youself that the fear is born, fed and fertilized in your mind, and that you can overcome it by denying it.

Faith in the Divine is the impregnable armour that the aspirant can wear, and people of all lands are aspirants, whether they know it or not. Be steady, do not waver, keep straight on, hold fast to the ideal without despair. Pray until the Divine relents; do not turn away sadly if the Divine does not shower Grace when you expect it.

- Divine Discourse, 1 Oct 1976

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

When Desire and Anger are rising in hot flames from the heart, how can the cool rays of Peace, Truth, Non-violence and Love emanate there from?

This human birth is a rare chance. Use it for spreading joy, not grief.

Of course it is natural for man to resent, to grow angry. You should not allow anger free and furious, scope.

The raging floods have to be restrained by bunds and dams so that the water may reach the sea without scouring the fields on either bank. You must set limits to your own anger and hatred, and honour those limits.

- Divine Discourse, 28 Aug 1976

Source: radiosai.org