Lessons

“Lessons in life will be repeated until they are learned” ~ Unknown

It’s never about the outside

“It’s never about the outside, it’s always the inside that paints your real world. If you can find love in the midst of bedlam, you know the truth.” ~ Amrish Shah

 

Nothing to lose, nothing to fear

“When you have nothing left to lose, you have nothing to fear” ~ Amrish Shah

 

Some songs don’t have a voice

“Some songs don’t have a voice;
Some wounds don’t have  scars”
~ Amrish Shah

 

Most beautiful words are never spoken

“The most beautiful words are the ones that are never spoken, they are simply felt” ~ Amrish Shah

 

Most beautiful dance is never performed

The most beautiful dance is never performed, it’s simply experienced” ~ Amrish Shah

 

Falling in love is routine

“Falling in love is routine…
Staying in love is miracle”
~ Amrish Shah

 

Most beautiful poetry is never recited

“The most beautiful poetry is never recited, it’s just heard” ~ Amrish Shah

 

Appreciate the miracle

“We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise if we have waited in the darkness” ~ Unknown

Positive life

“You can’t leave a positive life with a negative mind” ~ Miley Cyrus

Understand ourselves

“To understand life is to understand ourselves, and that is both the beginning and the end of education.”
~ Excerpted from ‘Education and the Significance of Life’ by J. Krishnamurti

Give your whole being

“You only learn when you give your whole being to something. When you give your whole being to mathematics,you learn; but when you are in a state of contradiction, when you do not want to learn but are forced to learn, then it becomes merely a process of accumulation. To learn is like reading a novel with innumerable characters; it requires your full attention, not contradictory attention.”

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, Book of Life, The: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti

We are the world

“We are the world. The world is you and me, the world is not separate from you and me. We have created this world - the world of violence, the world of wars, the world of religious divisions, sex, anxieties, the utter lack of communication with each other, with no sense of compassion, consideration for another. Wherever one goes in any country throughout the world, human beings, that is, you and another, suffer; we are anxious, we are uncertain, we don’t know what is going to happen. Everything has become uncertain. Right through the world as human beings we are in sorrow, fear, anxiety, violence, uncertain of everything, insecure. There is a common relationship between us all. We are the world essentially, basically, fundamentally. The world is you, and you are the world. Realizing that fundamentally, deeply, not romantically, not intellectually but actually, then we see that our problem is a global problem. It is not my problem or your particular problem, it is a human problem.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti  

Ideologies are idiotic

“All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.”

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti  

Seeing is an art

“You cannot reconcile creativeness with technical achievement. You may be perfect in playing the piano, and not be creative. You may be able to handle color, to put paint on canvas most cleverly, and not be a creative painter...having lost the song, we pursue the singer. We learn from the singer the technique of song, but there is no song; and I say the song is essential, the joy of singing is essential. When the joy is there, the technique can be built up from nothing; you will invent your own technique, you won't have to study elocution or style. When you have, you see, and the very seeing of beauty is an art.”

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti  

Understand a child

“To understand a child we have to watch him at play, study him in his different moods; we cannot project upon him our own prejudices, hopes and fears, or mould him to fit the pattern of our desires. If we are constantly judging the child according to our personal likes and dislikes, we are bound to create barriers and hindrances in our relationship with him and in his relationships with the world. Unfortunately, most of us desire to shape the child in a way that is gratifying to our own vanities and idiosyncrasies; we find varying degrees of comfort and satisfaction in exclusive ownership and domination.”

~ Excerpted from ‘Education and the Significance of Life’ by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Analysis

“Analysis does not transform consciousness.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Free of all authority

“To be free of all authority, of your own and that of another, is to die to everything of yesterday, so that your mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigour and passion. It is only in that state that one learns and observes. And for this, a great deal of awareness is required, actual awareness of what is going on inside yourself, without correcting it or telling it what it should or should not be, because the moment you correct it you have established another authority, a censor.”

~ Excerpted from 'Freedom from the Known' by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Process of learning

“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Let love do

“It is love alone that leads to right action. What brings order in the world is to love and let love do what it will.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Be a light

“Be a light unto oneself”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

“Thought is so cunning, so clever, that it distorts everything for its own convenience.”
~ Excerpted from 'Freedom from the Known' by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indication of fear

“The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Follow the wandering

“Follow the wandering, the distraction, find out why the mind has wandered; pursue it, go into it fully. When the distraction is completely understood, then that particular distraction is gone. When another comes, pursue it also. ”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Security leads to decay

“Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Known or unknown

“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Violent

“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Measure of health

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

The builder

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the houses building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he said, “my gift to you.”

What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.

So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now leaving in the house we have built. If we had realised, we would have done it differently.

Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, “Life is a do – it – yourself product.”

A matter of perspective

A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule 'braying' - After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened...and enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put an end to his misery.

Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back... a thought struck him.

It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back...HE SHOULD SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP! This he did, blow after blow. "Shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed the old mule fought "panic" and just kept right on SHAKING IT OFF AND STEPPING UP!

You're right! It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, STEPPED TRIUMPHANTLY OVER THE WALL OF THAT WELL! What seemed like it would bury him, actually blessed him...all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

THAT'S LIFE! If we face our problems and respond to them positively, and refuse to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity...

Horse

This story happened in the days of Lao Tzu in China, and Lao Tzu loved it very much:

There was an old man in a village, very poor, but even kings were jealous of him because he had a beautiful white horse . . .

Kings offered fabulous prices for the horse, but the man would say, "This horse is not a horse to me, he is a person. And how can you sell a person, a friend?"

The man was poor, but he never sold the horse. One morning, he found that the horse was not in the stable. The whole village gathered and they said, "You foolish old man! We knew that someday the horse would be stolen. It would have been better to sell it. What a misfortune! "

The old man said, "Don't go so far as to say that. Simply say that the horse is not in the stable. This is the fact; everything else is a judgment. Whether it is a misfortune or a blessing I don't know, because this is just a fragment. Who knows what is going to follow it?"

People laughed at the old man. They had always known that he was a little crazy. But after fifteen days, suddenly one night the horse returned. He had not been stolen; he had escaped into the wild. And not only that, he brought a dozen wild horses with him.

Again the people gathered and they said, "Old man, you were right. This was not a misfortune, it has indeed proved to be a blessing." The old man said, "Again you are going too far. Just say that the horse is back . . . who knows whether it is a blessing or not? It is only a fragment. You read a single word in a sentence-how can you judge the whole book?" This time the people could not say much, but inside they knew that he was wrong. Twelve beautiful horses had come.

The old man had an only son who started to train the wild horses. Just a week later he fell from a horse and his legs were broken. The people gathered again and again they judged. They said, "Again you proved right! It was a misfortune. Your only son has lost the use of his legs, and in your old age he was your only support. Now you are poorer than ever."

The old man said, "You are obsessed with judgment. Don't go that far. Say only that my son has broken his legs. Nobody knows whether this is a misfortune or a blessing. Life comes in fragments and more is never given to you."

It happened that after a few weeks the country went to war, and all the young men of the town were forcibly taken for the military.  Only the old man's son was left, because he was crippled.

The whole town was crying and weeping, because it was a losing fight and they knew most of the young people would never come back. They came to the old man and they said, "You were right, old man-this has proved a blessing. Maybe your son is crippled, but he is still with you. Our sons are gone forever." The old man said again, "You go on and on judging. Nobody knows! Only say this that your sons have been forced to enter into the army and my son has not been forced. But only God, the total, knows whether it is a blessing or a misfortune."

 'Judge ye not'-otherwise you will never become one with the total. With fragments you will be obsessed, with small things you will jump to conclusions. Once you judge you have stopped growing.  Judgment means a stale state of mind. And mind always wants judgment, because to be in process is always hazardous and uncomfortable. In fact, the journey never ends. One path ends, another begins: one door closes another opens. You reach a peak; a higher peak is always there. God is an endless journey. Only those who are so courageous that they don't bother about the goal but are content with the journey, content just to live the moment and grow into it, only those are able to walk with the total.

How right!

Pig & Cow

A rich man asked his minister," Why is it that everybody calls me stingy when everyone knows that when I die I'm leaving everything I have to this church?"

The minister said:" Let me tell you the story of the pig & the cow. The pig was unpopular & the cow was beloved. This puzzled the pig. The pig said to the cow, 'People speak warmly of your gentle nature & your soulful eyes. They think you are generous because each day you give them milk & cream. But what about me? I give them every thing I have. I give bacon & ham. I provide bristles for brushes. They even pickle my feet. Yet no one likes me. Why is that?'

The minister continued:" Do you know what the cow answered? She said,' Perhaps it's because I give while I'm still living.'"

We have a choice today to be a pig or a cow.
 

Brick for help

Several years ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too fast in his sleek, black, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months old. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.

As his car passed, no child darted out, but a brick sailed out and WHUMP! It smashed into the Jag's shiny black side door! SCREECH! Brakes slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown.

Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against a parked car. He shouted at the kid, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing?" Building up a head of steam, he went on. "That's my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of money. Why did you throw it?"

 "Please, mister, please ... I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do!" pleaded the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop!" Tears were dripping down the boy's chin as he pointed around the parked car.

"It's my brother, mister," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive,  "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK.  He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE - a long and slow walk. Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone who needs him has to throw a brick at him to get his attention. 

You are valuable

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.

 "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty.  “Now who still wants it?". Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.

DON'T LET ANYONE EVER TELL YOU THAT YOU CANNOT DO IT OR YOU ARE NOT WORTH IT. JUST BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AS YOU ARE THE MOST PRECIOUS PERSON AND YOU CAN DO IT. YOU ARE VALUABLE

Sharing

Listen

One word

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace. ~ Buddha

Don't believe

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” ~ Buddha

Compassion

Along with love, compassion is the face of altruism. It is a feeling from deep in the heart that you cannot bear others’ suffering without acting to relieve it. As compassion grows stronger, so does your willingness to commit yourself to the welfare of all beings, even if you have to do it alone. You will be unbiased in your service to all beings, no matter how they respond to you.

Happiness

"Happiness arises as a result of different causes and conditions. If you harm someone out of anger, you may feel some superficial satisfaction, but deep down you know it was wrong. Your confidence will be undermined. However, if you have an altruistic attitude, you’ll feel comfortable and confident in the presence of others." ~ Dalai Lama

Wisdom

Holy words

“However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?” ~ Buddha

Donation

Gain from meditation

Meditate & love

Love

Peace work

Soul has no status

Simply yourself

"When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you." ~ Lao Tzu

Realize oneness

Pull into your peace

Inner peace

Accept absolute truth

You can't escape reality. Learn to accept absolute truth. ~ A.C. Bhaktivedanta

What we think we become

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.

Raise standard of giving

Change

Closer to death

Every breath we take, we are one breath closer to death. ~ Radhanath Swami

Act

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?

Live wisely

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

See the miracle

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

Death - A beginning

"For a devotee death is not the end but just the beginning. Beginning of entrance into a realm of eternity." ~ Radhanath Swami

Satisfied

Sometimes river flows very strong, sometimes it flows very small, but it makes no difference to the ocean because it is satisfied in itself with its own quantity of water. Similarly, when our heart is cleansed with spirituality, we find pleasure and ecstasy with our own selves that is so sweet, so wonderful and so satisfying, that the so-called pleasures of this world no longer have any values, no appeal at all. ~ Radhanath Swami

Different roads

Prayer

"Everyone prays to You from fear of the Fire;
And if You do not put them in the Fire,
This is their reward.
Or they pray to You for the Garden,
Full of fruits and flowers.
And that is their prize.
But I do not pray to You like this,
For I am not afraid of the Fire,
And I do not ask You for the Garden.
But all I want is the Essence of Your Love,
And to return to be One with You,
And to become Your Face."~ Rabia al `Adawiyya.

Find your way home

“If light is in your Heart
You will find your way Home.”
~ Rumi

When the ego is gone

“When the ego is gone, the whole individuality arises in its crystal purity – transparent, intelligent, radiant, happy, alive – vibrating with an unknown rhythm. That unknown rhythm is God. It is a song heard in the deepest core of your being, a dance of the formless, but one can hear the footsteps.” ~ Osho

Living the truth

Merit lieth in service & virtue

"May each morn be better than its eve and each morrow richer than its yesterday. Man's merit lieth in service and virtue and not in the pageantry of wealth and riches." --Bahá'u'lláh

Healing diseases

"There are two ways of healing diseases, the material way and the spiritual way. The first is the remedies of the physician; the second prayers and turning one’s self to God. Both must be practiced and followed. The diseases that happen to ...be caused by physical accident are cured by medical aid; others, which are due to spiritual causes, will disappear by spiritual means. For instance: For a disease due to grieving, fear, nervous impressions, the spiritual remedies will take more effect than the physical. Therefore, these tow kinds of remedies must be followed; neither is an obstacle to the other. You must take care of the physical remedies. These also came from the bounty and mercy of God who revealed and made evident the science of medicine, so that His servants may also be benefited by this mode of healing. In the same way take care of the spiritual healing, because it giveth wonderful results." ~ Abdu'l-Bahá

Love comes as a grace

"Love is not to be learned from men; it is one of nature’s gifts and comes as a grace."

Heaven within

Love cures

I started a joke

Translation in progress. Please wait...

I started a joke which started the whole world crying
But I didn't see that the joke was on me oh no
I started to cry which started the whole world laughing
Oh If I'd only seen that the joke was on me

I looked at the skies running my hands over my eyes
And I fell out of bed hurting my head from things that I said
'Till I finally died which started the whole world living
Oh If I'd only seen that the joke was on me

I looked at the skies running my hands over my eyes
And I fell out of bed hurting my head from things that I said
'Till I finally died which started the whole world living
Oh If I'd only seen that the joke was on me

Oh no that the joke was on me

 

~ 'I started a joke' by Bee Gees

Blind to see

Tell me why are we, so blind to see
That the one's we hurt, are you and me~ 'Gangsta's Paradise' by Coolio

Paint misery or bliss

Your own choice

So easy to help

It's so easy to help!
It's just human.
~ Vaibhav

In the end

"After the game, the King and the pawn go into the same box."
~ Italian proverb

Innoncnce and intelligence

Listening is learning

Inclusive

Unnatural life

Lighting others

Turn the lights on

Teachers

Search for God

“I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God.” ~ Rumi

You are the Truth

Beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing

Ability to make sacred

The middle way

Consciously watching

Spiritualism

 

Become one with existence

Existence

Oneness

Blessings to evolve