We have noted already that the default psychological protection against fear and anxiety is neurotic defense. It is a way of dealing with complexity by withdrawal from contact with the world and so not dealing with it at all. Persons of tomorrow, by contrast, embrace the world. They engage with their existential reality in a spirit of hope, courage, invention and play. Continue reading
|
|
Eppavo Mudintha Karyam: The event was completed long ago. It was all over long ago. Everything has been pre-ordained. Man may like to think that he can determine the course of his life and in a general sense even shape the course of human affairs. It feeds the vanity of man to think that he can shape the future. But man is a mere instrument in the hands of God. It is God alone who controls the past, present and future. Ego-centred man prides in the belief that he has free will when in actuality he is a mere puppet in the hands of an unseen power. One had better accept this fact and surrender oneself to God.
– Yoga Swami
The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of a weak, vacillating mind. Opportunities! Every life is full of them. Every lesson in school or college is an opportunity. Continue reading
In every situation you have ever been in, positive or negative, the one common thread is you. Continue reading
‘Hands in society’ means I am in society. I am born in society and I am a part of it. I grow in society and end in the society. So, no one can say that I don’t have anything to do with society. If anyone says so, it only means there is a lack of understanding. We cannot exist without society. Society is a must for everybody. We are products of society. We are the beneficiaries of society. Therefore, my friends, ‘hands in society’ means or refers to our very base, our very existence, our sustenance, and our maintenance.
The other extreme is ‘head in the forest’. What does this mean? It doesn’t mean that your head is going to be suspended from a tree in the forest, certainly not! The head represents thought and contemplation. The head represents the goal or aim. The head stands for the objective of life. Therefore, while the hands represent action, the head symbolizes the aim, goal and objective of the life. So, ‘head in the forest’ means the aim or objective of life is not society. The purpose of life is not society.
In the statement ‘head in the forest’, the forest symbolises renunciation. The forest stands for detachment and represents penance. The forest means a life in solitude, aloneness. Therefore, ‘head in the forest’ means that your constant thought should be towards solitude. You have to repeatedly ruminate and travel towards detachment. The purpose is renunciation.
– Sathya Sai Baba
We must not create a wall between our worldly and spiritual lives.
People disorganized in their worldly life search for spiritual wisdom in seclusion; whereas, if organized properly, they can have all the means and resources that are of utmost importance for spiritual enlightenment. The purpose of human life is to make the best use of the resources that nature or God has given us.
But there’s more to it.
There are typically two kinds of people. Some are involved in the world and are busy in their self-centered activities. Others renounce their families and do not participate in worldly life at all. There are very few people who use discrimination, work hard for their self-fulfillment, and at the same time, contribute to the welfare of society. People belonging to these two categories have an incomplete world view, and therefore, strive for their limited goals.
In our modern age, where the standard of living has been facilitated by science and technology, we must learn to make the best use of our ample resources. A lifestyle that is suitable for both worldly fulfillment and spiritual enlightenment is the best.
Those who strive to attain personal enlightenment and help others light their lamps are the true leaders of the human race. ….
Today’s society is waiting for selfless, spiritually enlightened, well-balanced leaders to guide them in how to live happily here and hereafter. Such leaders or reformers will not come from outside our society. They have to be born, raised, and trained right in our own society. We are the ones to become our own guides, our own leaders, and we are the ones to enlighten our own lives…..
—Swami Rama from A Call to Humanity
Every generation probably feels like it has gotten the short end of the stick, but critics really love to hate on millennials. They call us the lazy generation, the entitled generation, and the “me me me generation.” Based on the young people I know, these stereotypes couldn’t be farther from the truth. Millennials want to work–and despite being shackled by debt, recession, and the jobs crisis–they aren’t motivated by money. Rather, they’re driven to make the world more compassionate, innovative, and sustainable.
When I interviewed dozens of millennials about their career choices for The Quarter-Life Breakthrough, not once did someone answer that they wanted to “make lots of money,” “have lots of power,” or “retire with a pension in 40 years.”
Read more from Poswolsky in his book The Quarter-Life Breakthrough Continue reading
Success is a state of being.
Setting your perspective on COMMITMENT ensures that regardless of how the results of your endeavors manifest, you will persist and create the future based on all the wisdom gained in your previous efforts. To be a successful leader, it is not important that everything you do succeed, only that you do.
If you are COMMITTED to being successful and relinquish your ATTACHMENT to the outcome, you will achieve success regardless of how the world shows up.
Great leaders do not define success in terms of the external results of their efforts; they know that their COMMITMENT to the effort is what counts most. They let go of their ATTACHMENT to the outcomes even as they pursue them. In so doing, they learn valuable lessons no matter what actually happens, and they use these insights to create their future.
COMMITMENT allows you to define the success of any endeavor in terms of the experience you seek to create for yourself. It allows you to be the way you want to be. It gives you the freedom to take what comes and move on.
When you become ATTACHED to the outcome that others experience, you become vulnerable to their definitions of success and bogged down in their judgments.
The world does not always show up with the results we might want, and if you are ATTACHED to the outcome, you may see in your effort a failure when in fact it contains the seeds of success.
Commit yourself completely to whatever calling you choose to answer. Live full out to achieve it. Take what comes and move on. TRUST THE UNIVERSE and focus on your COMMITMENT in order to succeed every time.
Understanding the distinction between Commitment and Attachment will serve you as much personally as it will in your role as a leader; it makes success possible even when the world delivers what to the outside eye appears as failure.
– Chris McGoff from ‘The Primes’
ONE TUSK 