EGO.................the sticky thing

Let’s face it, your ego is too attached to your comfort zone. It is so used to the daily patterns, routines, and habits that it doesn’t want anything to change. It’s clingy.

And the attachment feels safe, but it’s also smothering.  No change means no growth—and no growth means slow death.  What the ego doesn’t see is that right outside of the comfort zone , is the learning zone. And time spent in the learning zone leads to growth—and growth means life.

The first step is to spend time understanding the ego and learning how we can remove it from our everyday experiences.  Because ego, distracts us from important learning opportunities—both in success and in failure—(so that it can stay inside of your comfort zone) and keeps us focused solely on ourselves and how we compare to others.  If we want to maximize our potential, however, the focus should not be on you v/s. them, but rather it should be on you v/s. where you were before.

Remember that the ego will do everything it can to convince you to stay comfy and cozy right where you are with the routine and habits you already have—rise above it and let your ego get a little uncomfortable.  The challenges that are brought forth in the learning zone are the facilitators for growth and without them, your life will be smothered from achieving it’s full potential.  Are you ready to give your ego a kick?

DEATH - Is it so frightful??

I’m sure you have challenges, things that you wish you could overcome, or things that you could get over… Stop.  Stop trying to get over it.  Because if we’re trying to get over all of the problems in our lives then our entire lifetimes are just going to be trying to get over problems—that’s all there is going to be.  And that is not a life to be proud of.  Instead, find those challenges in your life and use them!  Use them and turn them into an opportunity.

No matter how spiritually enlightened you are, or how many times you’ve thought about death and think you are okay with it, you will grieve the life you could have lived when you are dying.  You are losing the person you could have become, the things you could have done, the things you could have made with your life—you are losing that.  And there’s no way to get around that.

Death is actually not a scary thing.  The scary thing is living life without a passion and then realizing at the very last moment that it’s over and you haven’t done what you wanted to do—and that you’re not proud of your life.  That is much more terrifying.

NO DEATH NO FEAR

When you look at the surface of the ocean, you can see waves coming up and going down. You can describe these waves in terms of high or low, big or small, more vigorous or less vigorous, more beautiful or less beautiful. You can describe a wave in terms of beginning and end, birth and death. That can be compared to the historical dimension. In the historical dimension, we are concerned with birth and death, more powerful, less powerful, more beautiful, less beautiful, beginning and end and so on. Looking deeply, we can also see that the waves are at the same time water. A wave may like to seek its own true nature. The wave might suffer from fear, from complexes. A wave may say, ‘I am not as big as the other waves,’ ‘I am oppressed,’ ‘I am not as beautiful as the other waves,’ ‘I have been born and I have to die.’ The wave may suffer from these things, these ideas. But if the wave bends down and touches her true nature she will realize that she is water. Then her fear and complexes will disappear. A wave does not have to die in order to become water. She is water right here and now. We also do not have to die in order to enter the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is our very foundation here and now. Our deepest practice is to see and touch the ultimate dimension in ourselves every day, the reality of no birth and no death.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
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LIFE is a balance

Buddha once told one of his disciples - Too much of everything is never enough. You cannot label anyone as good or bad because the virtues and vices are equally embedded in every person. Depending on how the virtues are nurtured and demonstrated, a person is perceived as good or bad.

Of course there is a limit to which one can develop the virtues. Once the limit is crossed, all virtues become bad. Vices are anyways bad, excessive or not. Anything in excess is bad. If we eat too much, we get a stomach ache and other digestive problems. Too much of sleep makes us lazy and too much of money steals our peace. The irony is despite knowing this fact, we want more and more.

Life is a delicate balance of so many combinations—between freedom and responsibility, between living in the moment and planning for future, between indulgence and self-restraint, between love and hate, between wealth and poverty, between full and empty, between attachment and renunciation, and there might be so many more combinations. Only with a good balance, we can lead a healthy and happy life.

Find the elusive balance, trust the process, accept the ups and downs, and use them as an advantage to change the game. After all LIFE is a balance.