LIFE MUDRAS

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 realizi...

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 ...

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 ...

Leaning towards happiness is our very nature. But does that mean you won’t experience sorrow. In fact, sorrow is an important part of your life's journey and also a catalyst for everlasting happiness. As a matter of fact only when you experience sorrow you will appreciate and value happiness. When you live life sorrow is bound to occur. The more you live, the more you will love, and the more deeply you live and love, the greater will be the rewards, but also you will have a fair share of sorrows. As these sorrows come they will eventually go too. An example you lose a good friend it is remarkably intense at that time, the memories will fade over the years and translate into a learning experience, one day you might even laugh about it. On the other hand if you have lost your child, it will remain a part of you for as long as you are alive. The pain cannot be reasoned in any way nor can it be masked. However, does the sorrow mean you are not allowed to feel happiness? In fact if you...

People become victims of their circumstances and life challenges all the time.  When life gets tough or depressing, most will adopt a negative perspective and think to themselves about how unfair life is: how they should have been born into better circumstances with more money; or how they should have been given better opportunities; or how things should have happened differently.  Well, the truth of the matter is that life is going to happen anyways – sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.  The one thing that you will always have 100% control over is your response to these events.  When you adopt a positive attitude and always look for the good in any given circumstance – how could you not move forward…... Remember - in order to best handle the challenges that you are facing in your life, you will need to be updated to your latest version.  What does that mean?  It means, if you never spend time on yourself growing mentally, physically, and ...

How a mix of acceptance, humility, and strength powers the transformation.  They also aren’t aware of how common this is in history, how many figures took seemingly terrible situations – a prison sentence, an exile, a bear market or depression, military conscription, even being sent to a concentration camp – and through their attitude and approach, turned those circumstances into fuel for their unique greatness. Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that became the national anthem of the United States while trapped on a ship during a prisoner exchange in the War of 1812.  Viktor Frank - l refined his psychologies of meaning and suffering during his ordeal in three Nazi concentration camps. Not that these opportunities always come in such serious situations.  The author Ian Fleming was on bed rest and, per doctors’ orders, forbidden from using a typewriter.  They were worried he’d exert himself by writing another Bond novel.  So he created Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by h...

If a rose smells better than cabbage, It doesn't mean the rose can make a better stew. Don't try to compare yourself to others.  You also have your own strength, look for it and build on it.  All animals that exist, were in Noah's ark. A snail is one of those animals. If God could wait long enough for snails to enter Noah's ark; His door of grace won't close till you reach your expected position in life. Never look down on yourself, keep looking up.  Remember that Broken crayons still color.   "YOU are PRECIOUS".