Blog Link: Six Questions

I have been catching up on my emails and this particular article caught my attention.

It was a quick refresher on lessons you learned and motivating.

1. Do you have the capacity to be completely honest with yourself?

2. Acceptance of people, places and things as they are, not as you would have them, opens deeper understanding of how the world works

3. Script and build better character traits based on service to others instead of self enrichment.

and 3 more..

Read the full article here

Book Extract: Happier than God

Happier than God

Recently finished reading this book. Following are my notes as reference to self. You may find this useful

• Bring an end to Separation Theology: We are not separate from God
• Stay in touch with who you are:
• Give others every experience you seek: Give people back to themselves
• Be clear that nothing you see is real:
• Decide that you are not your ’story’: Your story is all the data that you have collected about what has happened to you in your life, and the reality that you have manufactured about the kind of person you and other people are and how you all got to be that way. You will have to drop your story.
• Have only preferences: You can always tell whether you are addicted to something, as opposed to merely preferring something, by looking to see if the absence of it causes you to abandon your happiness. The idea in life is to change your addictions into preferences.
• See the perfection: See everything for what it is: the perfect event perfectly timed to provide you with the perfect opportunity to express in the perfect way that which is Perfection Itself.
• Bypass the drama: Remember that nothing has any meaning save the meaning you give it.
• Understand sadness: Your sadness does not have to make you unhappy.
• Stop arguing with life: So much of the lack of happiness that we feel in our lives emerges from our judgments. We tend to judge everything. The people around us, the circumstances they present, the events of the moment, and, of course ourselves.
• Drop all expectations: Forget about much you think things “should” be. There is no such thing as “should” in the universe. Trust that God knows what God is doing. Know that life is always conspiring in your favor. Understand that expectation is just your idea about something, and that this idea does not and cannot take into account the complex interweaving of life journeys undertaken by all of us, sequentially and simultaneously.
• Have compassion for yourself: Don’t make yourself “wrong” for any negative experience with which you may now be confronted (even if you feel “deserve” it, or that you “brought it on yourself” – in fact, especially if you feel that way), but have compassion for yourself, and know that God has gifted you with the power inside of you to change yourself, your motives, your behaviors, your exterior conditions, and you life itself, in the instant after this.
• Speak your truth as soon as you know it: Do not hide your personal truth, your authentic feelings, you’re here-and-now experience from anyone – least of all from your dearest loved ones or your beloved other.
• Watch the energies, catch the vibe: Pay attention to life’s energies. At all times, you are receiving them and you are sending them. Try to absorb everything that is happening in your space. Then, see if there is a match. And slip out of the space if there is a mismatch.
• Smile:
• Sing:
• Know what to do when things are really bad: Things just are what they are. Bless all the people and events that are disappointing you, that are besetting you, that are assailing you like so many arrows from afar. Accept and receive the energy, because only then you can heal it. Don’t resist. What you resist persists.

Making a difference, really?

Something to be remember: from Higher Awareness newsletter

Many of us feel deeply that we want to make a difference — we want our lives to mean something in the bigger scheme of life. While this is a noble motive, we might want to explore what lies at its root.

Does the drive to make a difference arise from ego’s need to feel worthy? If my ego is not convinced that I matter, I may want visible proof that I do by making some kind of impact on life.

Soul doesn’t need proof that it’s worthy. Soul thrives in being awake and connected. Perhaps if we let go of the pressure we feel from our ego’s need to be recognized, we will be more open and able to simply live soulfully. And by doing that, we WILL make a difference!

Quote on Authenticity

A week after I posted my resolution to be Authentic, I received following tip from Andrew Cohen. My first instinct on reading this is to share this on my blog and I am not at peace till I do that. Now that I have done it, I feel authentic.

Fighting for Authenticity

Authenticity means freedom from pretense. The ego is a veil of pretense, a mask over the self. It’s an appearance, an image that is false and inauthentic. Authenticity is the expression of an integrated self—in whom the appearance and the reality, the motive and the action have become one seamless movement. But the capacity for authenticity is something we have to cultivate and something we have to fight for. The degree to which we are identified with ego and narcissism is the degree to which we will find authenticity emotionally unbearable. Many of us are so used to being inauthentic that it doesn’t trouble us at all. We have become numb, out of touch with our own souls. It takes guts and courage to become emotionally committed to authenticity to such an extent that if we found ourselves swerving into pretense, we would experience extreme discomfort. As our own deepest intention to evolve displaces the ego as the fundamental locus of identity, we will begin to feel a natural preference for authenticity, an attraction toward transparency and integrity. When that evolutionary impulse—which I call the Authentic Self—becomes the strongest part of who we are, the unselfconscious expression of our humanity will finally be free from pretense, free from the ego’s need to protect a false image.

Andrew Cohen

Resolution: Be Authentic

I was reading about new year resolutions by co-founder of DailyOM.

This prompted to think about what single resolution I can make that can be guidance for me and the word that came to my mind was ‘Authentic’.

I did some searches on this topic.  My objective will be to have harmony between my thoughts and actions. If I let Authenticity drive my life, goals during this year, what difference will it make? I feel it will help me be at peace with myself and everyone around me.

I hope to use this and share more of my experiences of being Authentic on my blog.

Honesty

During recent trip to India I have encountered some experiences of extortion. I am sure we can all relate numerous stories of such bad experiences and spread negative thoughts. Instead I would like to share a story of Honesty which we encounter rarely.

While staying in Rajahmundry. I had to visit a few places in the city. Instead of taking multiple autos, I had an arrangement with auto driver to be with me for a couple of hours and charge me accordingly.  We almost toured half of the city to complete various errands and after reaching our final destination, I asked the driver to state his price. He said, whatever I give will be OK. I was generous and extended an amount so that he will not complain about it. Instead, he returned half of the money I was paying to him and said that, he deserves only that.  It was rare to note such an honest person and didn’t know what to say. But I am sure I will remember this for quite sometime and write about it too.

Have you had any such experiences in your life? Or have you been able to act in a selfless manner and provide a life time experience for someone else?

Related Link: Goodness lives forever

Dharma and Living without rules

I have been having some thoughts about Dharma. Dharma is living the right way. I was reading book by Dr. Wayne Dyer ‘ Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao’ and following in an extract from one of the chapters that reflected similar ideas:

Picture yourself in a world where rules and laws don’t exist, where everyone lives peacefully and harmoniously. There’s no anarchy, thievery, hatred, or war; people simply live, work, love, and play without needing to be governed. Can you imagine a planet where the need for codes of conduct and edicts to govern the populace are simply unnecessary? This is the sort of idealistic mental meandering that led Lao-tzu to create this 18th verse of the Tao Te Ching, in which he’s clearly stating that you don’t need rules to be kind and just.

Laws or rules are seen by many as solely responsible for effectiveness kindness, justice and love – but you can choose to live form your heart, viewing these virtues as individual responsibilities that you adhere to without a statute or convention telling you to.

Rules are created to impose penalties to control or govern people who haven’t learned their individual responsibility as a part of the wholeness of the group.

Falsity among the people creates a need for rules, and rulers are needed to restore order.

Don’t act virtuous; be virtue

Be spontaneously generous to others because your inner calling demands it, not because others in their code making have determined that this is how you should behave.

Everyone is God Speaking. Why not be polite and Listen to Him?

Related Article

Dharma – Worry and Fear

Dharma

Rama Rajya,  The Reign of Righteousness

Quotes

“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.” — Chuang-tzu

“To write spiritually is to engage in a search for authentic language. You’ll find your truth by writing your way to it.”– Patrice Vecchione

“The positive thing about writing is that you connect with yourself in the deepest way, and that’s heaven. You get a chance to know who you are, to know what you think. You begin to have a relationship with your mind.”– Natalie Goldberg

 

Platinum Rule

I could not get this out of my mind after reading about Platinum Rule.

And I have used the Golden Rule in one of my first articles Quality at Work and now I think I will have to revise this article.

Hope you will have your own reflections on this.

Second Chance

Are there times in your life when you think if you had a second chance, you will do things differently? Many of our decisions in life are taken under certain limitations or constraints like time and money.

What will you do if you had a chance and no constraints?

I was noticing one of my neighbors who was rebuilding his house. Since this is his second chance, he was trying to get everything the way he wants. He was particular about the color of everything in new house. He was not in a hurry to complete it by a particular time. This made me reflect on this aspect of how we may make some compromises and regret that we have not done it right.

It may happen regarding many things like your career, your education, your relationships, your house, your projects at work etc. where made some compromises. You may feel trapped and think about things you will fix when you get a second chance. Make a list so that you can really implement them when you get a second chance.

Now comes the hard part:

Can you get it right the first time ignoring the constraints? Can you influence factors that are effecting your ability to get it right first time?