Author: Posts

Constantly apply cheerfulness, if for no other reason than just to feel good about yourself.  Have a sense of gratitude for everything, even difficult emotions, because of their potential to wake you up.

Without movement there would be nothing created in this universe.  Creativity is spontaneous movement that generates life and not misery for others.  We need creativity, the ability to solve problems, to think of unusual strategies or compose poetry, music and painting.

Approach it and there is no beginning, follow it and there is no end.  You cannot know it, but you can be it, at ease in your life.  Just realize where you came from: this is the essence of wisdom.  Look and it is right before your eyes.

We must understand the demands of the times to find the necessary offset for its deficiencies and damages.  Fixing your eyes more closely on your responsibilities may appear petty to the outside world, but if you are conscientious in your actions and simple in your expenditures, you will be successful.

Quote: If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things. Albert Einstein

If we approach life as an experiment, then we are willing to try this way and that way.  Either way we have nothing to lose.  When things don’t work, no big deal, just try something else. Just go forward with curiosity wondering where the experiment will lead.

We all need a loadstone, some center from which to operate.  For some it is home, for others it is merely to withdraw into our own hearts. To return to our natural state, our unsullied, pure inner person, we need guidance and self-cultivation.

Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking about yourself.  See the world as yourself, treat the world as yourself, love the world as yourself, have faith in the way things are. Then you can care for all things.

Goodness should be an attribute of character rather than an accidental or isolated occurrence.  Likewise teaching others, everything depends on consistency, for it is through repetition the pupil can make the material his own. 

Quote: Make your public and private life the same.

No matter where you are on your life’s path, either just beginning self-cultivation or practicing for years: as you practice you will become more awake and aware, you realize you are stepping further into groundlessness and the beginning of entering into you-know-not-what.

Use the cycles of life to establish a measure for your life and then arrange your plans to the units you have chosen.  This way you will always be able to track your own progress.  Remember, in all cycles after the zenith, there must be a decline.

Observe the world, trust your inner vision, allow things to come and go keep your heart as open as the sky.  Reflect whatever appears without judgement.  Whatever happens is all right, just treat yourself with compassion and kindness.

It is important not to get intoxicated by success.  Do not skip any stages in your progress, go slowly step by step, as though hesitant.  It is important to remain mindful, conscientious and consistent.  This frees one of blind impulses.  Only such calm steady progress, overleaping nothing, leads you to your goals.

Quote: Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength. Saint Francis de Sale

When we see suffering in our life, we can be curious, notice and be mindful of our reactions to that.  The reactions are usually habitual.  Instead, we could see the next impulse coming up and how we spin off from there, without judgement or intention.   Just spin off.

No matter how much progress in our self-cultivation we achieve in one day, we must continue the next.  Progress is often so subtle that we may feel the effort is futile, but we must keep doing it every day with the same enthusiasm.

We make a clay pot, but it is the inner empty space we use.  We build a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable.  We work with being, but nonbeing is what we use.  Nonbeing and being create each other.

If you achieve something significant and you focus on such real undertakings, you may experience envy and disfavor.  The more you limit yourself to actual achievements, the less harm the envious people can inflict on you.

Quote: Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

Life keeps coming just like waves on the ocean, they just keep coming.  Some knock you down, but just keep getting back up and keep walking.  After a while you notice the waves appear to be getting smaller; the key is to keep getting back up.

When you feel that events take on a perfect momentum and when you feel this energy in your life, go with this flow as long as it lasts.  Don’t interfere or try to change it and don’t stop, just ride it for all its worth.

Keep your mind from wandering.  When it does, gently bring it back.  You will find by practicing this often, it will begin to wander less.  Deal with most vital matters by letting events take their course, step back from your mind and understand things by letting go.

If you want to press forward and it is not in harmony with the times, do not expose yourself to rebuff.  But you may be able, to a limited extent, act as a restraining and subduing influence.  The proper course is to retreat with others of like mind. 

Quote: It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.

How do you want to feel tomorrow, next week, next year?  It is up to you how you use your life.  It doesn’t mean you are the best at cheering up or your habitual tendencies don’t get the better of you.  Keep reminding yourself that it is your life to live and every action you do has a result.

At the elementary stages of study, you can use writing, art and even poetry as tools for self-discovery.  Once you can articulate your experiences, then you understand what satisfies and neutralizes our rational mind.

Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.  If you seek people’s approval you become bound to them. If you want others approval, share what you have with them and you will be immersed in their blessings. Do your work and step back.  Let it be.  This is the path to serenity. 

Knowledge that is vitalizing comes from discussing and practicing applications with friends about the truths of life.  This way learning becomes many sided and takes on a cheerful lightness, rather than self-taught which is more one sided.

Quote: Learning without close association with others is like learning to swim without water.

When you wake up in the morning and get a moment of sadness and longing, or just that something is wrong, use this moment as an opportunity to relax and touch the limitless space of your human heart.  Next time the opportunity arises experiment with this.

All that we experience is subjective.  Our minds know the world by constructing conclusions from the data received by our senses.  With this conscious process we create the world and ourselves.  Only when we stop this process will we be able to see the truth.

The highest good comes from those who nourish their community with a benevolent heart, this is a natural thing to do.  Be simple, generous, don’t try to control, don’t compete, be content with just being who you are.  This way everybody will respect you.

When good begins to prevail, this gives an incentive to those of ability to join this upward trend.  Don’t be carried away with it, but adhere to what is right. Be aware that everything is transitory, because descent must follow every rise.  This is a universal law.

Quote: Your actions and words should match.

Acknowledge your thoughts, let them go. By coming back to the freshness of the present moment, you are sowing seeds of wakefulness in your unconscious. This will help you let go of your habitual ways of doing things, then you can proceed and do something fresh.

When faced with a sad situation or events, it is best not to languish in them.  We can change things by some action, by adjusting our attitudes and taking the initiative.  Sadness is transitory like everything else.

Detachment from things results in clarity; clarity expresses itself as love.  Your heart becomes a mirror that reflects all faces without judgement and exactly as they are.  This clarity will help you understand the universe as a harmonious oneness. 

Once we have accomplished something, it is tempting to relax and forget about troubling over the details at the finish. These are times when everything appears to be balanced, complete and in harmony.  This is the time to recognize the moments that bode change to an unbalanced state. 

Quote: You must set your intention every day for what you want and need.

Impermanence can teach you a lot about how to cheer up.  It’s okay if the thoughts of impermanence scare you, this can make you start asking questions. Maybe you are afraid of the most exciting things you have yet to learn.  Impermanence is a great reminder.

The secret is not to overindulge too much, overindulgence is a waste of your resources.  Also, suppression can hurt the body, even at a very basic level.  Find the proper balance and you will live a healthy and full life.

Your spirit is always with you and you can use it in any way you want; it is inexhaustible.  If you attempt to fix a picture of spirit in your mind you will lose it, why not be content with simply experiencing it?

By contemplating the forms that exist in nature, we come to understand the times and its changing demands.  Through contemplation of the forms existing in society it becomes possible to shape the world.  Contemplation is clarity within, quiet without and desire is silenced; thus the world as ideas become manifest.

Quote: One thing I know for sure is that I know nothing.  Socrates

Let your mind and your heart be big enough to hang out in the space where we’re not entirely certain who is right and who is wrong.  Practice meeting people with no agenda.  Just see, hear and feel them as they really are, not trying to make them right or wrong.  True communication can only happen in that open space. 

The source of all power is within you.  Although external circumstances may occasionally hamper you, true movement comes from within yourself.  This power source is latent within you, but you can learn to tap into it.  Finding this power is great joy, deciding how to direct it is a great responsibility.

Settle your mind like the universe settles the stars in the night sky. Connecting your mind to this subtle origin, it will become calm and then it naturally expands and your mind becomes as vast and immeasurable as the night sky.

When you have learned in your heart what fear means, you will be safeguarded against fear produced by outside influences.  This learning produces an inner strength and composure that all fears glance off harmlessly.

Quote: Natural laws do not bend to anybody’s favor.