Showing posts with label quotes from famous people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quotes from famous people. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Unresolved questions

“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Monday, August 24, 2015

Habits free our cognitive capacity

You need to remove from your life the day-to-day problems that absorb most people for meaningful parts of their day. ‘You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,’ he said.'I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.’ He mentioned research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one’s ability to make further decisions. It’s why shopping is so exhausting. 'You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.’
Barack Obama on optimizing decision-making, excerpted from Michael Lewis’s fantastic Vanity Fair profile of the President.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Life's challenges

"Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.”— Bernice Johnson Reagon

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The beauty of art

I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on — and the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I communicate those basic human emotions… The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point!”

From http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/19/mark-rothko-on-art-selden-rodman/

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Inspirational quotes

Friday, November 7, 2014

Thoreau on success and following your dreams

If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies. The faintest assured objection which one healthy man feels will at length prevail over the arguments and customs of mankind. No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal — that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.
Then, in nearing the conclusion:
I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Role models

“Role models are only of limited use. For no-one is as important, potentially powerful and as key in your life and world as you.”
Rasheed Ogunlaru

“Make yourself your role model, because people who do not have qualities depend on the qualities of others to shape their own qualities.”
Michael Bassey Johnson

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Authentic living

“Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.”

“Authentic human interactions become impossible when you lose yourself in a role.” 

Sunday, September 7, 2014

nice quotes on beauty





Beauty is just as much of an illusion as ugliness is.
Self-confidence is more attractive than physical beauty. 

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Quote on insecurity

“It is a sign of great inner insecurity to be hostile to the unfamiliar.” - Anais Nin.

How often do we see someone dressed very differently from us, thinking very different from us or having different hobbies than us. Our instant reaction is despise...hatred...sarcasm...typecasting.. juding...

Where does this all stem from? Why not let people be different, be who they are?
Isn't it our insecurity and close mindedness that lead to such behaviour? Anais Nin summed it in one line.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Outgrowing our limitations

W. H. Auden - “Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity.” 

Courtesy: http://www.gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2014/08/secret-of-adulthood-accept-yourself-and-expect-more-from-yourself/

Monday, August 11, 2014

Quotes for the day

Your personal memories are your treasure. - Dan Millman, The four purposes of life

If we love, we have and feel love. If we’re kind, we have and feel kindness. Contrary 
to what conditioning tells us, we only ever have our own experience—people, 
places, and circumstances truly are irrelevant. Any of it can be icing on the cake, 
but they’re never the cake! 
- Cheri Huber

You may not lack talent; Maybe you lack experience; We form impressions about our talents based on limited exposure or a single incident. -
- Dan Millman, The four purposes of life

What you do matters; But how you do it, matters even more; -
- Dan Millman, The four purposes of life

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Football lessons


 
"If football has taught me anything it is that you can overcome anything if, and only if, you love something enough"

- Lionel Messi

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

osho and Tao on dance -to be one with the universe

Living moment to moment joyously, ecstatically, living moment to moment totally, intensely, passionately…. If one lives passionately, the ego dissolves. If one is total in one’s acts, the ego is BOUND to dissolve. It is like when a dancer goes on and on dancing: a moment comes when only the dance remains and the dancer disappears. That is the moment of enlightenment.

Osho Talks about Dance
Excerpted from: Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy #13
"If you can dance with abandon, you will begin to see yourself and your body as separate from each other. Soon you will cease to be a dancer; instead you will become a watcher, a witness. When your body will be dancing totally, a moment will come when you will suddenly find that you are completely separate from the dance.

"In the past many devices were designed to bring about this separation between a seeker and his body, and singing and dancing was one such device. You can dance in such a way and with such abandon that a moment comes when you break away from dancing and clearly see yourself standing separate from the dance. Although your body will continue to dance, you will be quite separate from it as a spectator watching the dance. It will seem as if the axle has separated itself from the wheel which continues to keep moving – as if the axle has come to know that it is an axle and that which is moving is the wheel, although separate from it.

"Dancing can be seen in the same way as a wheel. If the wheel moves with speed, a moment comes when it is seen distinctly separate from the axle. It is interesting that when the wheel is unmoving you cannot see it as separate from the axle, but when it moves you can clearly see them as two separate entities. You can know by contrast which is moving and which is not.

"Let someone dance and let him bring all his energy to it, and soon he will find there is someone inside him who is not dancing, who is utterly steady and still. That is his axle, his center. That which is dancing is his circumference, his body, and he himself is the center. If one can be a witness in this great moment then kirtan has great significance. But if he continues to dance without witnessing it, he will only waste his time and energy.

"Techniques and devices come into being and then they are lost. And they are lost for the simple reason that man as he is tends to forget the essential and hold on to the non-essential, the shadow. The truth is that while the essential remains hidden and invisible like the roots of a tree, the non-essential, the trunk of the tree is visible. The non-essential is like our clothes, and the essential is like our soul. And we are liable to forget that which is subtle and invisible and remember the gross, the visible. It is for this reason when someone comes to me to know if kirtan can be useful, I emphatically deny it and ask him not to indulge in it. I know that now it is a dead tradition, a corpse without soul, as if the axle has disappeared and only the wheel remains." Osho

http://faculty2.ric.edu/rfeldstein/560spring11/1.a.taoteching.pdf

Samskriti

If you are equanimous and exuberant you are equipped to explore all dimensions of life.This is what Samskriti means.- Sadhguru

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Perpetuating the past through repetitive compulsive thinking

“If your mind carries a heavy burden of past, you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.”

 Karma and the Ego

The greater part of most people's thinking is involuntary, automatic, and repetitive. It is no more than a kind of mental static and fulfills no real purpose.

Strictly speaking, you don't choose to think; Thinking happens to you. The statement “I think” implies volition. It implies that you have willfully chosen to think what you think (or that you think in the first place). For most people, this is not yet the case. “I think” is just as false a statement as “I digest” or “I circulate my blood.” Digestion happens, circulation happens, thinking happens.

The voice in the head has a life of its own. Most people are at the mercy of that voice; they are possessed by their thinking and its repetitive, unconscious content. This circular, repetitive, incessant thinking is conditioned by the past, and it keeps you trapped in the past. It is as though you continue to relive the past over and over again. Do you ever wonder why the same problems challenge you throughout your life? Your unconscious mind is re-creating them, but you don't even know it.

The Eastern term for this repetitive cycle is karma. You continually bring to your life experiences that correspond to your thinking. What you reap, you will sow. What you think, you will attract. If the contents of your thoughts are locked in past events, you are destined to repeat them. This is karma. And it goes both ways.

We have heard of good karma and bad karma. Bad karma is the experiences we have that are attracted to us by our mind's obsession with all the bad things that have happened to us. Bad karma not only produces experiences that are undesirable, it is also a life lived in the past, not the present.

Good karma, on the other hand, comes from living in the present moment. When we liberate our mind from thoughts of the past and negative rumination, we are free to engage our mind in original, creative thought. We are free to be spontaneous and fun-loving. We are free to live our life now with a sense of curiosity, discovery and adventure. Far from being trapped in a cycle of negativity, we live a life of freshness, proactivity and healthy self-expression.

If you have been living life in the past, caught in the cycle of bad karma, you can get free of it.

Just in the way that thinking happens to you, bad karma happens to you. It is an involuntary predicament. It is a condition that you do not consciously choose.

The solution is to begin choosing what you want for yourself. Instead of being a victim of your own thinking, be an active, engaged choice maker.


  • Choose to be more present.
  • Choose to be more aware of what thoughts are circulating in your mind.
  • Choose to engage your mind in original, creative thinking.
  • Choose to make your mind an interesting, adventurous place.
  • Choose to make good karma by using your mind for positive and productive thinking.http://www.tolleteachings.com/karma-and-the-ego.html

Is man a biocomputer? Heck, no.

Artificial intelligence can do scientific work, mathematical work, calculation – great calculation and very quick and very efficiently, because it is a machine. But a machine cannot be aware of what it is doing. A computer cannot feel boredom, a computer cannot feel meaninglessness, a computer cannot experience anguish. A computer cannot start an enquiry about truth, it cannot renounce the world and become a sannyasin, it cannot go to the mountains or to the monasteries. It cannot conceive of anything beyond the mechanical – and all that is significant is beyond the mechanical.

--Osho, I am that.

Form identity - Eckhart Tolee

Here are some ways in which people unconsciously try to emphasize their form-identity. If you are alert enough, you may be able to detect some unconscious patterns within yourself: demanding recognition for something you did and getting angry or upset if you don't get it; trying to get attention by taking about your problems, the story of your illnesses, or making a scene; giving your opinion when nobody has asked for it and it makes no difference to the situation; being more concerned with how the other person sees you than with the other person, which is to say, using other people for egoic reflection or as ego enhancers; trying to make an impression on others through possessions, knowledge, good looks, status, physical strength, and so on; bringing about temporary ego inflation through angry reaction against something or someone; taking things personally, feeling offended; making yourself right and others wrong through futile mental or verbal complaining; wanting to be seen, or to appear important.

Once you have detected such a pattern within yourself, I suggest you conduct an experiment. Find out what it feels like and what happens if you let go of that pattern. Just drop it and see what happens. De-emphasizing who you are on the level of form is another way of generating consciousness. Discover the enormous power that flows through you into the world when you stop emphasizing your form identity.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Outer purpose and inner purpose - Eckhart Tolle

So the most important thing to realize is this: Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary…. Inner and outer, however, are so intertwined that it is almost impossible to speak of one without referring to the other.
Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet – because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence. Your outer purpose can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose. It is the basis for true success. Without that alignment, you can still achieve certain things through effort, struggle, determination, and sheer hard work or cunning. But there is no joy in such endeavor, and it invariably ends in some form of suffering.
- See more at: http://tomstine.com/your-inner-purpose-is-to-awaken-eckhart-tolle/#sthash.kOMrQXxf.dpuf

Aligning Inner and Outer Purpose

There is no substitute in life for finding your true purpose. No amount of money, no degree of power, no activity will give you the satisfaction that a life of purpose provides you.

It is important to know that your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Your inner purpose is primary. It concerns Being. Your outer purpose is secondary and it concerns doing.

Your inner purpose cannot be found on the outer level of life. It is not related to what you do but what you are. Your inner purpose, simply stated, is to awaken. This is the primary purpose of every person in the world.

Many people are very concerned with discovering their life's purpose. They are normally referring to their outer purpose. Outer purpose can change over time and is unique for every person. Inner purpose can shed light on your outer purpose. Inner and outer purpose, ultimately, are intertwined and aligned. The more you are connected you are to your inner purpose, the more your outer purpose will come into focus.

Living in alignment with your inner purpose is the basis for fulfilling your outer purpose in the world and doing so successfully. Without this alignment, you will most likely struggle in your attempts to express your outer purpose. Without alignment to your inner purpose, there is less joy in all of the activities in life.

Take time each day to reflect on your inner purpose of awakening. Do this by paying attention to your state of consciousness. Give yourself a daily discipline of practicing presence.
- See more at: http://www.tolleteachings.com/inner-and-outer-purpose.html#purpose

Aligning Inner and Outer Purpose

There is no substitute in life for finding your true purpose. No amount of money, no degree of power, no activity will give you the satisfaction that a life of purpose provides you.

It is important to know that your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Your inner purpose is primary. It concerns Being. Your outer purpose is secondary and it concerns doing.

Your inner purpose cannot be found on the outer level of life. It is not related to what you do but what you are. Your inner purpose, simply stated, is to awaken. This is the primary purpose of every person in the world.

Many people are very concerned with discovering their life's purpose. They are normally referring to their outer purpose. Outer purpose can change over time and is unique for every person. Inner purpose can shed light on your outer purpose. Inner and outer purpose, ultimately, are intertwined and aligned. The more you are connected you are to your inner purpose, the more your outer purpose will come into focus.

Living in alignment with your inner purpose is the basis for fulfilling your outer purpose in the world and doing so successfully. Without this alignment, you will most likely struggle in your attempts to express your outer purpose. Without alignment to your inner purpose, there is less joy in all of the activities in life.

Take time each day to reflect on your inner purpose of awakening. Do this by paying attention to your state of consciousness. Give yourself a daily discipline of practicing presence.
- See more at: http://www.tolleteachings.com/inner-and-outer-purpose.html#purpose
So the most important thing to realize is this: Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary…. Inner and outer, however, are so intertwined that it is almost impossible to speak of one without referring to the other.
Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet – because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence. Your outer purpose can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose. It is the basis for true success. Without that alignment, you can still achieve certain things through effort, struggle, determination, and sheer hard work or cunning. But there is no joy in such endeavor, and it invariably ends in some form of suffering.
- See more at: http://tomstine.com/your-inner-purpose-is-to-awaken-eckhart-tolle/#sthash.kOMrQXxf.dpuf
So the most important thing to realize is this: Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary…. Inner and outer, however, are so intertwined that it is almost impossible to speak of one without referring to the other.
Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet – because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence. Your outer purpose can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose. It is the basis for true success. Without that alignment, you can still achieve certain things through effort, struggle, determination, and sheer hard work or cunning. But there is no joy in such endeavor, and it invariably ends in some form of suffering.
- See more at: http://tomstine.com/your-inner-purpose-is-to-awaken-eckhart-tolle/#sthash.kOMrQXxf.dpuf

Aligning Inner and Outer Purpose

There is no substitute in life for finding your true purpose. No amount of money, no degree of power, no activity will give you the satisfaction that a life of purpose provides you.

It is important to know that your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Your inner purpose is primary. It concerns Being. Your outer purpose is secondary and it concerns doing.

Your inner purpose cannot be found on the outer level of life. It is not related to what you do but what you are. Your inner purpose, simply stated, is to awaken. This is the primary purpose of every person in the world.

Many people are very concerned with discovering their life's purpose. They are normally referring to their outer purpose. Outer purpose can change over time and is unique for every person. Inner purpose can shed light on your outer purpose. Inner and outer purpose, ultimately, are intertwined and aligned. The more you are connected you are to your inner purpose, the more your outer purpose will come into focus.

Living in alignment with your inner purpose is the basis for fulfilling your outer purpose in the world and doing so successfully. Without this alignment, you will most likely struggle in your attempts to express your outer purpose. Without alignment to your inner purpose, there is less joy in all of the activities in life.

Take time each day to reflect on your inner purpose of awakening. Do this by paying attention to your state of consciousness. Give yourself a daily discipline of practicing presence.
- See more at: http://www.tolleteachings.com/inner-and-outer-purpose.html#purpose


http://www.tolleteachings.com/inner-and-outer-purpose.html#purpose
http://tomstine.com/your-inner-purpose-is-to-awaken-eckhart-tolle/
http://julliengordon.com/inner-purpose-vs-outer-purpose
http://www.tolleteachings.com/secret-to-authenticity.html

Aligning Inner and Outer Purpose

There is no substitute in life for finding your true purpose. No amount of money, no degree of power, no activity will give you the satisfaction that a life of purpose provides you.

It is important to know that your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Your inner purpose is primary. It concerns Being. Your outer purpose is secondary and it concerns doing.

Your inner purpose cannot be found on the outer level of life. It is not related to what you do but what you are. Your inner purpose, simply stated, is to awaken. This is the primary purpose of every person in the world.

Many people are very concerned with discovering their life's purpose. They are normally referring to their outer purpose. Outer purpose can change over time and is unique for every person. Inner purpose can shed light on your outer purpose. Inner and outer purpose, ultimately, are intertwined and aligned. The more you are connected you are to your inner purpose, the more your outer purpose will come into focus.

Living in alignment with your inner purpose is the basis for fulfilling your outer purpose in the world and doing so successfully. Without this alignment, you will most likely struggle in your attempts to express your outer purpose. Without alignment to your inner purpose, there is less joy in all of the activities in life.

Take time each day to reflect on your inner purpose of awakening. Do this by paying attention to your state of consciousness. Give yourself a daily discipline of practicing presence.
- See more at: http://www.tolleteachings.com/inner-and-outer-purpose.html#purpose

“Does it matter whether we achieve our outer purpose, whether we succeed or fail in the world? It will matter to you as long as you haven't realized your inner purpose. After that, the outer purpose is just a game that you may continue to play simply because you enjoy it. It is also possible to fail completely in your outer purpose and at the same time totally succeed in your inner purpose. Or the other way around, which is actually more common: outer riches and inner poverty, or to "gain the world and lose your soul," as Jesus puts it. Ultimately, of course, every outer purpose is doomed to "fail" sooner or later, simply because it is subject to the law of impermanence of all things. The sooner you realize that your outer purpose cannot give you lasting fulfillment, the better. When you have seen the limitations of your outer purpose, you give up your unrealistic expectation that it should make you happy, and you make it subservient to your inner purpose.”
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

When your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them - while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease.”   

“If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without.”  


“Whenever you become anxious or stressed, outer purpose has taken over, and you lost sight
of your inner purpose. You have forgotten that your state of consciousness is
primary, all else secondary.”

Pitfalls of depending on others to know your worth

It’s all too easy to hang our merit and worth and realness on the opinions of others — opinions often mired in their own insecurities and vulnerabilities, which at the most malignant extreme manifest as people’s tendency to make themselves feel big by making others feel small, make themselves feel real by making others feel unreal.