Changing Your Mind Is a Sign of Strength
“Individuality. . . is nothing but the result of ignorance, maintaining itself through many layers of memories, tendencies, and wants. These limitations inevitably cause sorrow and confusion.” — J. Krishnamurti Individuality, as it is today, is: “I know the truth,” “I deserve more,” and “I want others to agree with me.” My choices, my opinions, […]
Don’t Get Distracted From Your Goal
“If you can invariably take the position of a giver, in which everything given by you is a free offering to the world, without any thought of return, then will your work bring you no attachment. Attachment comes only when we expect a return.” — Swami Vivekananda During the Mahabharata war, the Kauravas brutally killed […]
Love Is the Highest Ideal
“The third is a still higher test… When one has thrown off all shopkeeping and cast off all fear, one then begins to realize that love is always the highest ideal.” — Swami Vivekananda What does ideal love want? The answer is nothing. The ideal love doesn’t care about heaven, about anything in this world, […]
Love Conquers Fear
“The second test is that love knows no fear… Does the lamb love the lion? The mouse, the cat? The slave, the master?… With love never comes the idea of fear.” — Swami Vivekananda Swamiji gives the example of a young mother. If a dog barks at her on the street, she flees into the […]
True Love Sets You Free
“The first test of love is that it knows no bargaining. So long as you see a man love another only to get something from him, you know that it is not love; it is shopkeeping.” — Swami Vivekananda People get upset when they can’t find “true love.” What they really mean is, “I can’t […]
For the Love of Your Craft
“By knowing how to work, one can obtain the greatest results. You must remember that all work is simply to bring out the power of the mind which is already there, to wake up the soul. The power is inside every man, so is knowing; the different works are like blows to bring them out, […]
To Become Smarter, Try To Be Consistently Not Stupid
“Each one has the capacity, the power, to be either sane, balanced, or otherwise. To discover whether one is balanced, one must start negatively, not with assertions, dogmas, or beliefs. If one can think profoundly, then one will become aware of the extraordinary beauty of intelligent completeness.” — J. Krishnamurti Have you met a know-it-all? […]
What Is Reality?
“. . . [T]he true reality is that which is hidden; otherwise, there would be no need of the prophet, the philosopher, the poet and the artist.” — Śrī Aurobindo While investigating the kidnapping of a racehorse named Silver Blaze, Inspector Lestrade asks Sherlock Holmes if there is something they should pay attention to. “The […]
Getting Out of the Whirlpool of Life
“A man must be active in order to pass through activity into perfect calmness.” — Swāmi Vivekānanda The Hindu scriptures describe two ways to attain peace: “Neti, Neti” (not this, not this), and “Iti, iti” (this, this). Neti is difficult; most people cannot control their minds to stop thinking about something they renounce. For instance, […]
How You Treat People Says A Lot About You
“We should always try to see the duty of others through their own eyes, and never judge the customs of other people by our own standards.” — Swami Vivekananda The visitor who bellows at the security guard who asks for his details. The woman who constantly haggles with vegetable vendors. The man who shouts at […]