I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
Life is a great adventure or its nothing.
This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.
Man is an animal which, alone among the animals, refuses to be satisfied by the fulfillment of animal desires.
In light of knowledge attained, the happy achievement seems almost a matter of course, and any intelligent student can grasp it without too much trouble. But the years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alterations of confidence and exhaustion and the final emergence into the light -- only those who have experienced it can understand it.
Misery nourishes your ego -- that's why you see so many miserable people in the world. The basic, central point is the ego.
Without inner peace how can we make real peace?
At the heart of sweetness is the conviction that there is always something positive to be found.
A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.
The cosmos gives me exactly what I need. Whatever comes to me is appropriate and I will learn from it.
Just as the bird has to find the courage to let go of the branch in order to fly, so we also must let go of our branches if we are to know the exhilaration of soaring to the highest potential of our life. The branches we hold to are our inner attachments - our beliefs, ideas and memories. And then there are the outer attachments - people, possessions, positions and privileges are a few. But as long as we hold on to them we will live in fear (of letting go and loss) and we will never be free. And just watch those birds, by letting go of one branch they are able to spend the rest of their life alighting on a million other branches, and they enjoy the view from each. Are you flying and soaring in your life, or are you stuck on one branch, cursing others as they fly past. Go on, try it ...let go!
Find that (awareness) on which all the rest are imposed and you then remain as the pure Self (your inner awareness).
Behind everything is your ego: I, I, I, I. But in seva there is no I, because it has to be done for someone else. It is for the need of the time, or surrounding people, that you do it.
To limit your faith to one set of beliefs or an institutional belief system is to commit intellectual suicide. We shut down the possibility of being enlightened and enriched by others' experiences, which may be derived from their beliefs. We build a barrier between ourselves and our fellow travellers and then feel threatened, even in small and subtle ways, by someone of a different faith. The deepest faith is the intuitive conviction that all is as it should be, despite appearances, and that every human being is intrinsically good, despite appearances. This reminds us to keep our minds open, not take the law into our own hands, and look out for the best in others, regardless of what they say or do. This is faith in life, not faith in a set of learned or inherited beliefs. Have you ever noticed how people don't go to war over their faith in life?
If I make this moment happy, it will increase the chances of the next moment being happy also.
