What Makes Actions Good or Bad?
“Achar with knowledge, observance full of the spirit of the thing itself, is sattwic and preserves the thing itself; achar without knowledge, looking to the letter of custom and observance, disregarding the spirit, is tamasic and destroys the thing itself.” — Sri Aurobindo The Lindy Effect states that the longer a non-perishable item has been […]
A Beginner’s Mind Is a Wise Mind
“You have stopped thinking when you assert that it is there.” — J. Krishnamurti Hinduism encourages the practice of Ishta devata — a deity preferred by an individual. I can pray to a deity and you can pray to another one. For us, no single deity possesses all traits; each has unique ones. Shiva is […]
Turn Your Coal Into a Diamond
“Only when we suspend judgment and know the man and the motive before we criticize, that we shall be able to repose trust where trust is due. We must stiffen our character and educate ourselves up to a higher standard.” — Sri Aurobindo In his mother’s womb, Ashtavakra heard the chanting of the Vedas and […]
There Is No Textbook on Life
“You cling to your own limitations and these little worldly ideas may be your highest ideal. . . But there are others who have seen the truth and cannot rest in these limitations, who have done with these things and want to get beyond . . . Why do you want to bind them down […]
How to Build Perspective
“Where there is a want there cannot be discernment. You crave happiness; you look for means to get it. Someone offers you the means. Now your mind-heart is so blinded by the intense desire for blindness that it is incapable of discernment. Though you may think you’re analyzing and examining the means offered to you, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Don’t Make Bad Problems Worse
“If I have a difficulty, I don’t want to seek a solution. . . I know there are innumerable solutions, but I want to find out what the cause of that problem is, and when I have really understood [it], I do not create any other problems. If I really understand one problem completely, wholly, […]
Understand Fully How Things Work
“There are three elements necessary to correct reasoning, first, the correctness of facts or conclusions that I start from, secondly, the completeness as well as accuracy of the data I start from, thirdly, the elimination of other possible or impossible conclusions from the same facts.” — Sri Aurobindo In our minds, we see ourselves as […]