God is good. Good is God

The word of God is music in the ear of good people and nourishment for their bodies. We often ask the question: why do bad things happen to good people". And God answered, "I am almighty God, the creator of the universe and everything in it. I cause rain to fall on both good and bad people without discrimination. I am an equal opportunity employer. Electing to be either a good or a bad person is a choice for each person to make."

Judge thou not, until you hear my story

A 24-year old boy looking out through a train's window shouted, "Dad! look, the trees are going behind; they are moving very fast."

His Dad simply stared at him with so much joy and smiled

A young couple seating nearby looked at the 24-year old and thought to themselves, he's so grown up but so childish, he must have a mental disorder for his father not to be bothered.

Suddenly the young man exclaimed again; "Dad! look, the clouds are running with us."

The couple could not resist and said to the old man, "why don't you take your son to a good doctor, or may be a psychiatrist?"

The old man smiled and said, "I just did. We are just coming from a doctor but not a psychiatrist. We are coming from the hospital. My son was blind from birth. He just got his sight a few hours ago for the very first time. His behaviour may seem stupid to you, it's more than a miracle to me."
 
Unknown

Loving Forever

“Death may steal the people we love from us; the only way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings may burn, people may die, but real love will never die.” Unknown

God is good. Good is God

The word of God is music in the ear of good people and nourishment for their bodies. We often ask the question: why do bad things happen to good people". And God answered, "I am almighty God, the creator of the universe and everything in it. I cause rain to fall on both good and bad people without discrimination. I am an equal opportunity employer. Electing to be either a good or a bad person is a choice for each person to make."

Life is motion. Keep moving on

Knowing that the world is round, means that it no longer matters whether the path of your journey in life takes you through the North pole or it takes you through the South pole. What matters is, knowing that you will most probably still arrive at the same destination as long as you are in motion.

So, when you think you have travelled long enough and feel you have not yet reached your destination, do not be discouraged thinking that you have been travelling in the wrong direction. Far from it. It only means you may have been travelling in the longer direction.

What does it mean to travel in the longer direction? It means the purpose of the journey is really big. It tells you how important that purpose is. It means more time is required to prepare you for the purpose.  It means you cannot afford to fail to achieve that purpose. It even means that you can measure how big the purpose is by the size of the problems you will need to overcome along the way.

In order words, in your journey in life, it is not how long or how short it takes you to arrive at your destination. It is how well prepared you are in achieving the purpose of the journey once you have arrived at the destination.

Living in spirit

We must learn how to live our lives in spirit. Living in spirit lets us handle each events in our daily lives moment by moment. This is not about religious doctrine, although it helps to explain how and why it works. It is about learning to communicate between the various parts of our two selves: our outer visible self and our inner invisible self.   

Mastering the art of thinking and acting in spirit, will not stop us from doing the things we do, but it will show us new ways of doing them. It will not stop us from singing, but our songs will be different. It will not stop us from dancing, but the music will be different. It will not stop us from eating and drinking, but the food and drink will be different. It will not stop us from making new friends and building new relationships, but our friends and relationships will be different. It will not stop us from sharing our opinions with others, but our opinions will be different. It will not stop us from making more money, but our priorities in what we spend our money on will be different. It will not stop people hurting and abusing us for no just cause, but our abilities to respond positively, forgiving them and getting on with our spiritual lives will increase.

If you think this is an impossible dream, then ask yourself, What makes it I'mpossible? Spend some moments to meditate on this question. Know that whoever made it possible for you to be born can make it possible for you to live your live in spirit on a daily basis, moment by moment and event by event. It starts from your inner awareness of the power of your spirit to overcome any personal problems and maintain your happiness in this troubled world.

STORY TIME: THE SCORPION

An old man saw a scorpion drowning and decided to pull it out from the water. He calmly extended his hand to reach the creature.

When he did, the scorpion stung him. With the effect of the pain, the old man let go the creature and it fell back into the water. The man realising that the scorpion was drowning again, got back and tried to rescue it but then again it stung him. He let go of it again.

A young boy standing by, approached the old man and said, "Excuse me sir, you are going to hurt yourself trying to save the evil-vicious creature, why do you insist? Don't you realise that each time you try to help the scorpion, it stings you?"

The man replied, "The nature of the scorpion is to sting and mine is to help. My nature will not change in helping the scorpion."
So the man thought for a while and used a leaf from a nearby tree and pulled the scorpion out from the water and saved it's life.

MORAL LESSON:
Do not change your nature. If someone hurts you, just take precautions. Some pursue happiness while others create it. Let your conscience be your guide in whatever you do.

You were created perfect

You are not inferior to anybody. Inferiority complex is just your own human feeling about yourself. It is not your reality. Feelings are momentary human phenomenon. Reality is the permanent one. Your reality is that you are more beautiful than you can ever realise. You are a perfect being made out of the image of the most perfect and Supreme Being. Remember the following mantra and recite it to yourself each time a feeling of low self-esteem tries to enter your mind. "I am a perfect being and I thank God for that."

If you did it once, you can do it again

Take a moment to look back in time and space and think of things you've done so far. Think of one thing you're most proud of and reflect on it.  What made it so important to you? How did you do it? How did you feel the moment you knew you've done it? What particular skill was key to the success? What could you do now with the skill? How would you feel if you could just do it? The past created the present. The present creates the future. Real success comes from using what you've got now to get what you want in the future. If you've done something before, certainly, you can do it again...... .....even better.

Problem Solving Skill

Whatever problem you may be going through at any point in life and space, there are three possible ways of thinking that will help you to make your own sense of that problem. This is by way of three possible self affirmative statements: (1) "I am the cause of the problem." - the self blame. (2) "Another person is the cause of the problem." - the blaming of other. 3) "The problem is part of life and living." - the objective reality.  The first lets you blame yourself for causing the problem. The second lets you blame another person for causing the problem. The third lets you see and  understand the natural flow of events leading on to the problem.  Each of these self affirmative statements can impact on your ability to find a solution to the problem.

The Five Laws Of Gold

1. Gold comes gladly and in increasing quantity to any man (woman) who will put by not less than one - tenth of his (her) earnings to create an estate for his (her) family.

2. Gold labours diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.

3. Gold clings to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men (women) wise in its handling.

4. Gold slips away from the man (woman) who invests it in business or purpose with which he (she) is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep.

5.  Gold flees the man (woman) who would force it to impossible earning or who follows the alluring advice of trickster and schemers or who trusts it to his (her) own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.

From the book "The Richest Man In Babylon" by George S. Clason.

TREASURES OF ETERNAL VALUES !

One Sunday morning, a wealthy man sat in his balcony enjoying sunshine and his coffee when a little ant caught his eye which was going from one side to the
other side of the balcony carrying a big leaf several times more than its size. The man watched it for more than an hour. He saw that the ant faced many
impediments during its journey, paused, took a diversion and then continued towards destination.

At one point the tiny creature came across a crack in the floor. It paused for a little while, analyzed and then laid the huge leaf over the crack, walked over the leaf, picked the leaf on the other side then continued its journey.

The man was captivated by the cleverness of the ant, one of God’s tiniest creatures. The incident left the man in awe and forced him to contemplate over the miracle of Creation. It showed the greatness of the Creator. In front of his eyes there was this tiny creature of God, lacking in size yet equipped with a brain
to analyze, contemplate, reason, explore, discover and overcome. Along with all these capabilities, the man also noticed that this tiny creature shared some
human shortcomings.

The man saw about an hour later the creature had reached its destination – a tiny hole in the floor which was entrance to its underground dwelling. And it was
at this point that the ant’s shortcoming that it shared with the man was revealed. How could the ant carry it into the tiny hole the large leaf that it had
managed to carefully bring to the destination? It simply couldn’t!

So the tiny creature, after all the painstaking and hard work and exercising great skills, overcoming all the difficulties along the way, just left behind the
large leaf and went home empty-handed.

The ant had not thought about the end before it began its challenging journey and in the end the large leaf was nothing more than a burden to it. The creature
had no option, but to leave it behind to reach its destination. The man learned a great lesson that day.

Isn’t that the truth about our lives?

We worry about our family, we worry about our job, we worry about how to earn more money, we worry about where we should live – 5 bedroom or 6 bedroom house, what kind of vehicle to buy – a Mercedes or Honda or BMW or a Porsche, what kind of dresses to wear, all sorts of things, only to abandon all these things
when we reach our destination – The Grave.

We don’t realize in our life’s journey that these are just burdens that we are carrying with utmost care and fear of losing them, only to find that at the
end they are useless and we can’t take them with us! May God give us the ability to gather the deeds that would be useful to us beyond our graves.
~Anonymous

Finding Purpose in Every Event

Bad things will always happen in the world. There will be wars. There will be natural disasters. There will be  diseases. Out of these terrible events,  there will always be stories of ordinary men and women doing extraordinary things. Every bad thing that happens, something good will follow. That is what gives us the knowing that God does not let anything happen to anyone without a purpose. Finding the good purpose in a bad situation is the grace of God. It lets us return to Him with gratitude and thankgiving. No one prays for tragedies to happen. But without some of them there would be no human progress. Another mystery of the universe.

Mistake! What Mistake?

Dry-cleaning, according to some historical records, was invented when a man accidentally spill some paraffin onto a dirty table-cloth. He was said to have noticed that the part of the table-cloth the paraffin had soaked was clean. Certainly the man could not have been the first person to spill paraffin on a table-cloth. But he was certainly the first to notice the good thing that came out of spilling paraffin on a table-cloth. What does this teach you about the way you think of your mistakes, errors or accidents?

Empty Space

The usefulness of a cup is the empty space inside it. The benefit of a house is the space between the walls. Without the empty spaces, there is no house. To most people, this may sound too simple. But to the sages of old, it is everything. Think about it again, what would happen without the empty spaces between the Heaven and the Earth? Empty space is what you need to move in any direction you want.  It is what you need to make progress. You need it to build your new dream home. When you want to bring in any new appliance to your home or office , you first think about where you will put it. You create a new space for it. This is the same with all areas of life. Creating empty spaces in your daily schedule means more time to do things that really matter to you. By regularly reviewing every area of your life means you can identify which area is full and which area is half-empty.  The secret of life is revealed in empty spaces. The is why the sages loved to be in empty spaces. There is silence in empty spaces. There is God in empty spaces. This too is one of the many mysteries of the universe.

Anne Frank Quote

"Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude." ~ Anne Frank

Anger

"Stay away from Anger. It hurts only You.
If you are right, then there is no need to get angry. If you are wrong then you don't have any right to get angry. Patience with family is love. Patience with others is respect. Patience with self is confidence. Patience with GOD is faith. Never think hard about the PAST. It brings tears. Don't think more about the FUTURE. It brings fear. Live this moment with a smile. It brings cheer. Every test in our life makes us bitter or better. Every problem comes to make us or break us. The choice is ours whether we become victims or victorious. Beautiful things are not always good but good things are always beautiful. Do you know why God created gaps between fingers?  So that someone who is special to you comes and fill those gaps by holding your hand forever. Happiness keeps you sweet. But being sweet brings happiness." ~ Unsigned

Influencing others

Influence is a skill. It can come naturally as a gift. It can also be developed over time through learning. The skill can be used to inspire and build people. It can also be used to manipulate and destroy them. What kind of influence are you having on people around you?

Yes! God Exists

"A man went to a barber shop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they chatted.

When on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists." "Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realise that God doesn't exist. If God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. If God existed, why did he let Coronavirus into  the world without a cure but  started killing innocent people. Look I have been out of business because no one comes out to cut their hair for fear of infection." The customer didn't respond. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just outside, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist." "How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!" "No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside." "Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens when people do not come to me." "Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

We all have the power to change someone

You were created with the ability to change someone's life.............for good. Don't waste it. Do something today......no matter how little.....even a smile may just be what the next person to you needs right now to make a small spark in his or her life.....it wouldn't  cost you a dime ...but could mark the start of a change that transforms the person's life.....for ever.

Yes! God Exists.

An atheist was once offered a chance to give a presentation before a large audience to prove that God does not exist.

The stage was set. The speaker was ready. The audience, made up of people from all walks of life, waited anxiously to hear what the world acclaimed atheist had to say. Many had come with open minds to learn something new about the origin of the universe.

The atheist had come to the large conference hall fully prepared with many years of extensive research materials on the doctrine or belief that there is no God.

As he opened his mouth and before he could even complete his first sentence, there was a large explosion outside the hall. It shook the entire building. Then everything went momentarily quiet.  People started to panic. Instinctively, the speaker cried, "Oh God!" He uttered the two-letter phrase in a humbling manner. Everyone in the hall could hear him loud and clear.  

The ensuing confusion brought the presentation to an end. For most people, it was the shortest but most life-changing presentation. Even the atheist himself could not resist but accepted that, "God exists."

Between Civilisation and Enlightenment

Civilisation and enlightenment, in my opinion, are not the same. The first is "Eye Opener." The second is choosing what you want to see when they are open.

Your 60 Seconds Q & A

Q. When were you happiest?  
A. 

Q  What's your greatest fear?
A.  

Q  What's your earliest memory?
A.

Q. Which living person do you most like?
A. 
 
Q  What is the trait you most deplore about yourself?
A.

Q  What is the trait you most deplore in
     others?
A.

Q  What is your most treasured possession?
A.

Q   What would your supper power be?
A. 

Q  If you could bring something extinct into life, what would you choose?
A.

Q  What's the most expensive thing you've bought apart from your home?
A.

Q What's your most treasured possession?
A.

The Battle Of Two Wolves

One evening an old sage told his grandson a story about the battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.

One is 'Evil.' It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is 'Good.' It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old sage simply replied, "The one you feed."

Eagle The Chicken

’Once upon a time a man found an eagle’s egg and placed it under a brooding hen. The eaglet hatched with the chickens and grew to be like them. He clucked and cackled; scratched the earth for worms; flapped his wings and managed to a few feet in the air.

Years passed. The eagle, now grown old, saw a magnificent bird above him in the sky. It glided in graceful majesty against the powerful wind, with scarcely a movement of its golden wings.

Spellbound, the eagle asked, “Who’s that?“

“That’s the king of the birds, the eagle, “said his neighbour. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to earth—we’re chickens.”

So the eagle lived as a chicken for that’s what he thought he was.’

Whether you believe you an 'eagle' or you believe you are a 'chicken', you are probably right. You are what you belief.
A Sufi story

Positive Self Affirmative Adjectives

Which of the following affirmative words do you feel uncertain to use in describing yourself?
For example by saying, "I am..................:"
~ honourable
~ kind-hearted
~ receptive
~ resourceful
~ responsible
~ romantic
~ thoughtful
~ trustworthy
~ self-assured
~ boundless
~ cultured
~ decisive
~ energetic
~ dynamic
~ faithful
~ cooperative
~ happy
~ successful
~ generous

Just reflect on the opposite of each of these words.

WORDS are powerful.........it doesn't matter whether they are positive or negative. We should be careful of the words we use in our daily life....even in ordinary conversation with others.

Human Happiness

Some of the things that generate the greatest feeling of human happiness are the most simple things we do naturally every day. They cost us nothing but add value to the strength of character : smiling more, laughing more,  joking more, playing more and appreciating more.

The Patient Widow

In a certain town in biblical time, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought about him. There was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with a plea for justice, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

The judge refused. The widow persisted. She never felt any rejection. She kept knocking on the door of justice. Finally, and really finally... the judge reneged, changed his mind and said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

The fact that the judge finally favoured the widow for his selfish purpose was irrelevant. What gave justice to the widow was her Patience and Persistence. 

When your determination to achieve anything in any area of your life is greater than any obstacle put in your way, you can count on Patience and Persistence to overcome them.

The Risk Factor Of Loneliness

According to social psychologists, loneliness can affect human physical health caused by stress. Stress is a well known risk factor for attracting heart dis-eases and other conditions.

A 2006 study published in American Sociological Review revealed the following facts:

1. Americans had fewer friends than they had 20 years prior.

2. In 1985, the average American claimed to have three close confidants including spouses and family members.

3. By 2004, the average American had only two close confidants.

4. One in four Americans reported having no one to talk to at all.

5.  Up to 20 percent of Americans are unhappy at any given moment due to social isolation.

If money alone could buy happiness, the happiest people on earth today would be those living in the capitalist societies.

The Persistent Woman

"Good things," they say, "don't come easy." To achieve anything in life, you must learn to persist longer. You must learn to endure insults. You must learn to let go of your ego. 

Think about the biblical Canaanite woman. She ran to Jesus and said, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon." Initially, Jesus did not say a word to her. Jesus ignored the woman. At that point, a person with an ago would have walked away in embarrassment.  

She persisted. She endured the shame. She felt no rejection. She was determined. She kept following Jesus. At one point, even his disciples  asked Jesus to, "Send her away, for she is crying after us."

When Jesus finally spoke, what she heard would have been enough for her to give up, to surrender. Jesus said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

Her response? She refused to give up. She refused to surrender. She persisted. She endured the embarrassment. She persevered.

She came forward and knelt before Jesus and said, "Lord, help me."

Jesus replied with another bombshell. "It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." The persistent and obviously determined woman replied, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

That was the response that changed her life forever.  It was the response of a wisely determined woman. It was the response of a humble woman who knew what she wanted and knew the person who could deliver it. It was the response of a devoted mother with a great attitude and an amazing strength of character.

"O woman" Jesus finally said, "great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire."

Her daughter was healed instantly.

Do you ever feel "put-off" by a person you strongly believe has the solution to your problem? Persistence and perseverance are the key words that can open the heart and mind of the person. It does not matter how many times you have knocked at his or her door. It does not matter how many times he or she has slammed the door on your face. You must keep knocking it.

My prayers were answered.

"I asked for strength,
and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for wisdom,
and God gave me problems to solve.
I asked for prosperity,
and God gave me brawn and brain to work.
I asked for courage,
and God gave me dangers to overcome.
I asked for love,
and God gave me troubled people to help.
I asked for favours,
and God gave me opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted.
I received everything I needed.
My prayers were answered. "

- Author unknown

BEING HAPPY by Pope Francis

"You may have defects, be anxious and sometimes live irritated, but do not forget that your life is the greatest enterprise in the world. Only you can prevent it from going into decadence. There are many that need you, admire you and love you.

I would like to remind you that being happy is not having a sky without storms, or roads without accidents, or work without fatigue, or relationships without disappointments.

Being happy is finding strength in forgiveness, hope in one’s battles, security at the stage of fear, love in disagreements.

Being happy is not only to treasure the smile, but that you also reflect on the sadness.

It is not just commemorating the event, but also learning lessons in failures.
It is not just having joy with the applause, but also having joy in anonymity.

Being happy is to recognize that it is worthwhile to live, despite all the challenges, misunderstandings and times of crises.

Being happy is not inevitable fate, but a victory for those who can travel towards it with your own being.

Being happy is to stop being a victim of problems but become an actor in history itself.

It is not only to cross the deserts outside of ourselves, but still more, to be able to find an oasis in the recesses of our soul. It is to thank God every morning for the miracle of life.

Being happy is not being afraid of one's feelings. It is to know how to talk about ourselves. It is to bear with courage when hearing a “no". It is to have the security to receive criticism, even if it is unfair. It is to kiss the children, pamper the parents, have poetic moments with friends, even if they have hurt us.

Being happy means allowing the free, happy and simple child inside each of us to live; having the maturity to say, “I was wrong"; having the audacity to say, "forgive me". It is to have sensitivity in expressing, “I need you"; to have the ability of saying, "I love you."

So that your life becomes a garden full of opportunities for being happy...
In your spring-time, may you become a lover of joy. In your winter, may you become a friend of wisdom.

And when you go wrong along the way, you start all over again. Thus you will be more passionate about life. And you will find that happiness is not about having a perfect life but about using tears to water tolerance, losses to refine patience, failures to carve serenity, pain to lapidate pleasure, obstacles to open the windows of intelligence.

Never give up .... Never give up on the people you love. Never give up from being happy because life is an incredible show. And you are a special human being!"
- Pope Francis

Three Hairs of A Lion

Segab's mother died when he was eleven years old. His father married another woman. Her name was Bizunesh. Segab did not like Bizunesh. But Bizunesh began to love the boy very much and tried to be a good mother to him. She always made good breakfasts, dinners and suppers. But he did not eat them. She bought him many good clothes. But he did not look at them. She gave him new shoes. But he went to the river and threw them into the river. When she spoke to him, he always ran away.

One day the poor woman said to Segab, "I always wanted to have a son and now I have you, Segab. I love you very much, my dear boy!" But Segab said angrily, "I am not your son. And you are not my mother. My mother is dead. I do not love you. I will never love you."

Bizunesh was very sorry and cried all night. In the morning she decided to go to a wise old man. She told him about Segab who did not love her. The old man said, "I can help you. But first you must bring me three hairs of a lion."

"But how can I do this? The lion will kill me," Bizunesh said. The old man said, "I cannot answer your question. I need three hairs of a lion. Try to get them."

So Bizunesh went out to try to get the hairs. She went far, far away from her house and came to a place where a lion lived. The lion was very big and roared angrily. He was hungry. Bizunesh was afraid of him and ran away quickly. But the next day she came back with some meat for the lion. She put the meat not far from him and ran away.

The lion saw the meat and went to it. He ate it all very quickly.

The next day she again brought some meat for the lion and put it a little nearer. And again the lion ate it all up.

Every day Bizunesh brought some meat for the lion and he soon understood that the woman was his friend. He was not angry and he did not roar. He was happy to see her.

And one day Bizunesh came very near to the lion and gave him the meat from her hand. At the same time she tore three hairs off his back. The lion was not angry. Bizunesh ran to the old man and showed him the hairs.

"What must I do with them now?" she asked. "Nothing," he answered. "But you know how to go near a lion, little by little, step by step. Do the same with Segab, I am sure he will love you." 
Love is very much a state of mind. Unconditional love knows no barrier and overcomes all difficulties. It is the only lesson we have to learn in giving and receiving love.

An African folk tale

Things are not always as they seem

10 ways to put the lie to the old saying, "As you make your bed, so you must lie on it":

1.  Take personal responsibility for your actions.
2.  Identify unproductive habits and change them
3.  Learn from your mistakes
4.  Let go of the past and live in the present reality
5.  Regularly step out of your comfort zone
6.  Learn to sometimes say, "No, thank you"
7.  Identify self-limiting beliefs and change them
8.  Do something different everyday
9.  Learn something new everyday
10. Get yourself a Buddy

The Power of the Present

The Mind is more powerful than the Body. But It's the Mind that wanders between the Past and the Future leaving the Body in the Present.

When the Body is in the Present and the Mind is in the Past, we are living in the past. When the Mind is in the Future and the Body is in the Present, we are living in the Future.

Our Beingness cannot live either in the past or in the future and be productive in the Present.

Creative Self-awareness is letting the Mind and the Body exist in the present.

Give a smile to someone

If you see someone without a smile, give them yours.

Living your destiny on a daily basis

When people talk about destiny, some think in terms of a life that has been pre-determined by a supernatural power. They belief that, as a human being, you have no control over the way you live your life. They belief that your life has been given and that you have no choice in what you do and how you do it. This line of thinking presupposes that you have no freewill, no willpower and therefore no ability to control your destiny.
I belief that destiny is all about your journey in life. It is not the end of your journey but the totality of how you live your life on earth. It is all about the birth and death that are intrinsically part of living your life. It is all about the joys and pains inherent in living your life. It is all about the guilt and the innocent feelings you carry about throughout your entire life. It is all about the ways and manners you live your life moment by moment. It is about how you respond to events that cross your path as the end of one marks the beginning of another.

God does not restrict you from doing whatever you wish to do. He gives you the freewill to act in whatever way that pleases you, with consequences, good or bad. You have the willpower to make your own choices. God does not interfere with the way you prefer to live your life. That is the beauty of God. He allows you to be what you want to be. He gives you the freedom to have whatever you want to have. He does not stop you from doing what you want to do. However, He has an intention for creating you. What is that intention? This is in the way He wants you to live your live. Some might say there are contradictions here. There are no contradictions. Look at it this way. As a father, I love my children and want them to be happy. However, as adults, I cannot dictate to them what they should do to be happy. I want them to be safe whenever they go out. I cannot choose their friends for them. I want them to live healthy lifestyles. However, I cannot control what they eat, what they drink or what enters their body. 
Perhaps God intended that you become an instrument of peace and love in your neighbourhood. However, you can choose to be an instrument of war, hatred and rumour monger. Perhaps He intended you to be a creative force for human good. However, you can choose to become a force for human destruction. Perhaps He intended you to show love and kindness to all your neighbours. However, you can choose to become an agent of persecution and annihilation. Perhaps God intended you to become the source of abundance supply of resources to meet the needs of people around you. However, you can choose to become the conduit pipe through which you siphon all your country’s limited resources into foreign bank accounts and thereby create a scarcity and want mentality among your own people. Perhaps God intended that you become the person that would liberate your people and lead them into that Promised Land. However, you can choose to become the person that leads them to perdition.
People can choose to be used either for the force of good or for evil.  What you choose to do with every area of your life becomes part of your destiny. It is about living according to your values and beliefs. It is about living to your own expectations. It is about living your life with attitudes that are highly sensitive to events around you. It is about living your life always thinking in terms of what you have for life instead of what life has for you.
Living your destiny can mean either living as God intended or as you intended. Aligning God’s intention with yours is an act of ultimate meaning. His intention for your life is everything that is good about humanity and everything that edifies God. Living your destiny is about living by the moments. It is about living for one another. It is about your knowing that whatever passes through you by way of material possessions are not yours to hoard. It is about knowing how to pass them on to bless others. This is how to keep the blessings flowing around. Hoarding breaks the circle. The more you pass them on, the more they flow back to you. That is living your destiny.
 

Do not let your beliefs limit your potential

You are a product of unlimited possibilities. No one in the entire universe has the ability to put a ceiling on what you can do, be or have unless you give him or her permission. You are responsible for giving permission to let other people into your life. You are also responsible for establishing the boundary of what they can do or not do once you let them in. It is like when you give the key of your house to someone.

I bet you do not just give it anyone. You only give it to someone you trust very well. Even when you let the person into your house, you would not give him or her permission to wander around your house.

I only let people I trust into my house. For example, whenever I hear my doorbell rings, I always make sure I have identified the caller before I open my door.

It is the same with beliefs. Your beliefs are the things you have accepted as fact without any proof. They can come inform of self-talks, or autosuggestions such as saying to yourself, “I am too old to be employed”, “I am too young to be rich”, “I am not beautiful enough”, “I am too scared to speak in public”, etc. It could also come in form of opinions such as saying, “no girls should be trusted”, “money is the root of all evils”, etc.

Your beliefs have the ability to limit your potential in life if not properly challenged.
What beliefs are you permitting into your life? What are they doing in your life? Are they working for or against your ability to become the person you have been destined to be? Think!

The Bus Passenger

The passengers on the bus watched sympathetically as the attractive young woman with the white cane made her way carefully up the steps. She paid the driver and, using her hands to feel the location of the seats, walked down the aisle and found the seat he'd told her was empty. Then she settled in, placed her briefcase on her lap and rested her cane against her leg.

It had been a year since Susan, thirty-four, became blind. Due to a medical misdiagnosis she had been rendered sightless, and she was suddenly thrown into a world of darkness, anger, frustration and self-pity. Once a fiercely independent woman, Susan now felt condemned by this terrible twist of fate to become a powerless, helpless burden on everyone around her. "How could this have happened to me?" she would plead, her heart knotted with anger.

But no matter how much she cried or ranted or prayed, she knew the painful truth her sight was never going to return. A cloud of depression hung over Susan's once optimistic spirit. Just getting through each day was an exercise in frustration and exhaustion. And all she had to cling to was her husband Mark.

Mark was an Air Force officer and he loved Susan with all of his heart. When she first lost her sight, he watched her sink into despair and was determined to help his wife gain the strength and confidence she needed to become independent again. Mark's military background had trained him well to deal with sensitive situations, and yet he knew this was the most difficult battle he would ever face.

Finally, Susan felt ready to return to her job, but how would she get there? She used to take the bus, but was now too frightened to get around the city by herself. Mark volunteered to drive her to work each day, even though they worked at opposite ends of the city.

At first, this comforted Susan and fulfilled Mark's need to protect his sightless wife who was so insecure about performing the slightest task. Soon, however, Mark realised that this arrangement wasn't working - it was hectic, and costly. Susan is going to have to start taking the bus again, he admitted to himself. But just the thought of mentioning it to her made him cringe. She was still so fragile, so angry. How would she react?

Just as Mark predicted, Susan was horrified at the idea of taking the bus again. "I'm blind!" she responded bitterly. "How am I supposed to know where I'm going? I feel like you're abandoning me."

Mark's heart broke to hear these words, but he knew what had to be done. He promised Susan that each morning and evening he would ride the bus with her, for as long as it took, until she got the hang of it. And that is exactly what happened.

For two solid weeks, Mark, in military uniform and all, accompanied Susan to and from work each day. He taught her how to rely on her other senses, specifically her hearing, to determine where she was and how to adapt to her new environment. He helped her befriend the bus drivers who could watch out for her, and save her a seat. He made her laugh, even on those not-so-good days when she would trip exiting the bus, or drop her briefcase.

Each morning they made the journey together, and Mark would take a cab back to his office. Although this routine was even more costly and exhausting than the previous one, Mark knew it was only a matter of time before Susan would be able to ride the bus on her own. He believed in her, in the Susan he used to know before she'd lost her sight, who wasn't afraid of any challenge and who would never, ever quit.

Finally, Susan decided that she was ready to try the trip on her own. Monday morning arrived, and before she left, she threw her arms around Mark, her temporary bus riding companion, her husband, and her best friend.

Her eyes filled with tears of gratitude for his loyalty, his patience, his love. She said good-bye, and for the first time, they went their separate ways. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday... Each day on her own went perfectly, and Susan had never felt better. She was doing it! She was going to work all by herself!

On Friday morning, Susan took the bus to work as usual. As she was paying for her fare to exit the bus, the driver said, "Boy, I sure envy you." Susan wasn't sure if the driver was speaking to her or not. After all, who on earth would ever envy a blind woman who had struggled just to find the courage to live for the past year?

Curious, she asked the driver, "Why do you say that you envy me?" The driver responded, "It must feel so good to be taken care of and protected like you are." Susan had no idea what the driver was talking about, and asked again, "What do you mean?"

The driver answered, "You know, every morning for the past week, a fine looking gentleman in a military uniform has been standing across the corner watching you when you get off the bus. He makes sure you cross the street safely and he watches you until you enter your office building. Then he blows you a kiss, gives you a little salute and walks away. You are one lucky lady."

Tears of happiness poured down Susan's cheeks. For although she couldn't physically see him, she had always felt Mark's presence. She was lucky, so lucky, for he had given her a gift more powerful than sight, a gift she didn't need to see to believe - the gift of love that can bring light where there had been darkness.

God watches over us in just the same way. We may not know He is present. We may not be able to see His face, but He is there, ever present, nonetheless!

Author Unknown

Teaching our children Social Behaviour

Some parents still can't get it. That going to school is not just about learning English, Maths and science and pass exams. It is also to learn social behaviour and obey simple rules.

Hope vs Fear

The value of hope will always be more powerful than the value of fear.

Lazing or Resting?

Laziness may not necessarily be a negative thing afterall if it is a habit of resting before you get tired.

Dalai Lama in Beyond Religion.

"Within the scale of the life of the cosmos, a human life is no more than a tiny blip. Each one of us is a visitor to this planet, a guest, who has only a finite time to stay. What greater folly could there be than to spend this short time lonely, unhappy, and in conflict with our fellow visitors? Far better, surely, to use our short time in pursuing a meaningful life, enriched by a sense of connection with and service towards others.".  Dalai Lama in Beyond Religion.

We shall drink from that river

On a very lighter note and for a good laugh, permit me to share the following from another favourite online chat forum:

Preacher said:
"If I had all the beer in the world,I'd take it and throw it into the river".
And the congregation cried,"Amen!""
And if I had all the wine in the world, I'd take it and throw it in the river".
And the congregation cried, "Amen!""
And if I had all the whiskey and rum in the world, I'd take it all and throw it in the river".
Again the congregation cried," Amen!"
The preacher sat down.
The deacon then stood up & said:
"For our closing hymn, let's turn to page 126 of our hymn books and sing, 'We shall drink from that river".

THE CONGREGATION SCREAMED HALLELUJAH!!

Travelling light

How many times do you find yourself preparing for a journey and packed loads of stuff that you ended up never need to use many of them throughout the journey. This is also true of some of  our bad and self-limiting habits.

We have unwittingly allowed them to be part of our lifestyles. They have become part of our liabilities. Like unwanted stuffs in our travelling luggage, we carry them with us where ever we go.

They weigh us down. They are called our excess luggages. They are excess because they are not part of our nature.

We have cultivated those nuisance habits by inviting them into our lives. We nurture them each time we find excuses to justify living with them.

You are the expert of your own life

You and you alone is the expert of your own life. This makes you your own best teacher. You are your own personal development expert. Make a conscious decision to take charge of every aspect of your own life - your health, your finances, your personal relationships, your social and work life, your spirituality, etc. Start to connect any issue you may have in each area of your life with what your inner mind is telling you. The answer to any question you may have lies inside of you. If you can ask it, you can answer it. Avoid easy believism. Start to believe your own inner advice. This lets you stop thinking there are instant solutions for problems that have taken several years to build up. Love the expert of self inside you and take charge of your destiny, now.

Peace

Peace is the nature of God, the creator of the universe. War is the nature of mankind, the destroyer of God's creation. Let mankind return to the nature of God and allow sons to bury their fathers.

Learning from mistakes

Real failure is not trying for fear of mistake. It is also not learning from mistake.

Never Lose Your Heart

You can lose your job. You can lose your home. You can lose your saving. You can lose your car. You can lose your health. In fact,  you can lose just about anything and everything in life. But you must refuse to lose your heart. There lies the greatest test of human courage.

Post-truth Politics

"Post-truth politics (also called post-factual politics) is a political culture in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy, and by the repeated assertion of talking points to which factual rebuttals are ignored." Wikipedia

Fear of Hell vs Hope of Heaven

Let not your good deeds be driven by fear of Hell or hope of Heaven, but by force of goodness.

Goal

Setting personal goals and aligning them with the meaning and purpose of our lives can increase our capacity to overcome any obstacle that may come in our way towards achieving them.

The Human Mind

Human mind, the Source of all our thoughts, is wonderful and powerful. If we can control our minds, we can control our thoughts. If we can control our thoughts, we can control our actions.

Thoughts generate ideas, positive or negative. Thoughts can construct things. They can also destroy things. A constructive thought (aka creative thinking) can help to generate a new and fresh way of looking at a problem. A destructive thought can kill a new idea and can give birth to new a problem. That is why we often hear  people talk of, "constructive thinking" or "destructive thinking." The choice is ours, whether we make our thinking constructive or destructive. Both have consequences and carry responsibility.

Even the most optimistic person is not immune to negative thought. We cannot therefore stop a negative thought from coming into our minds. But we can use the mind to control the  frequency of our negative thoughts. We can also use the mind to manage the way we respond to events around us.

Make Peace

As long as it is within your power to make peace with your perceived enemy, do so at the earliest possible time. It is in your own interest to do so.  It does not make you weaker. It makes you stronger. It makes you feel happier, more respected and enables you to live a healthier lifestyle. That is what qualifies you to claim the titles, a "Peacemaker" and a "Child of God."

Happiness

Happiness is an emotive feeling which you experience when you are in a state of well-being. It is the feeling that overwhelms you when you know life is good and you can't help but smile to yourself and say, "thank you Lord." It is the opposite of sadness. It is a feeling of joy and contentment. It does not mean you have everything you want. It means you have just enough to be grateful for.

Hope

Hope is another important family of positive emotions. We need it to train us to be optimistic, trusting, resilient and to maintain our focus in times of adversity and hardship. It helps us to persist and keep working toward our goals even in difficult times.  It encourages us to cope with setbacks. It is our student companion as we make our journeys through life. And finally, to quote Barack Obama, "it is that stubborn thing inside us that insists we can, despite all the evidence to the contrary." One without hope is dead. In the words if Tony Benn, a British socialist politician, "Hop

Getting rid of old habits

"The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it." Dee Hock in How To Create A Mind by Ray Kurzweil

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Moneycracy

MONEYCRACY is a government of the people by the people for the people driven by lust for money, where everybody is looking to get money without service, leaving knowledge, culture, kindness, etc. on the side, and nothing is more important than money.

The secret of happiness

Want to know the secret of happiness?  It's putting your heart, mind and soul in even the smallest act.

21 UNPRODCTIVE HABITS YOU MUST STAY AWAY FROM

1. Doing things without a clear purpose
2. Saying malicious things to others
3. Carrying scandalous rumours about others
4. Living beyond our means
5. Striving to know other people's secrets and then revealing them to others
6. Conniving with others to carry out evil deeds
7. Interfering in other people's marriages
8. Taking advantages of other people's weaknesses
9. Saying nice things about people in their presence and saying the opposite in their absence when they are not there to defend themselves.
10. Disrespecting elderly and vulnerable people
11. Writing or saying things to embarrass or ridicule other people
12. Having self-centred mindset
13. Making ourselves feeling more important in the presence of others
14. Casting spell on other people.
15. Using black magic to achieve our purposes
16. Holding grudges against other people and having no capacity to forgive
17. Neglecting our parents
18. Rejoicing over other people's misfortune
19. Finding faults in whatever other people are doing
20. Becoming unreasonable in our expectations of and requests from other people
21. Showing no appreciation for what we already have.

No one can devalue you

No one can devalue your worth without your permission. You are who you are irrespective of what people think or say about you.

Happy people don't compete with anyone else but themselves.

One of the biggest sources of unhappiness in life is striving to be better than someone else. Happy people don't compete with anyone  else but themselves. They learn from others and keep working everyday towards getting better and better in what they do.

Happy people don't have the best of everything.

A recent study by a top UK University social scientists has found that happy people are much more productive than unhappy people. Happy people don't have the best of everything. They make the best of everything they have to get the next thing they want.

What doesn't kill makes you stronger."

Life's meant to be enjoyed, not endured. Enjoy your life one day at a time. Make the most of what life offers you today. Tomorrow may never come. As the saying goes, "What doesn't kill makes you stronger."

Ability in Tolerance

Tolerance is the ability to maintain your relationship with others even when you do not share some of their opinions and practices.  In the words of HH the Dalai Lama, "In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher." It is also possible, through wisdom, to use tolerance as a means of educating your  enemy on how to be tolerant. After all, as Lao Tzu would say,  "What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?"

Wasted Prayer

Never pray for your enemies to die. It is a fruitless prayer. When you pray, first ask God to help you do things that keep pleasing Him every day. Then ask God to please spare the lives of your enemies so that they can live long enough in good health to witness your success.

Uncle Tom's Cabin.

"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone." Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe, author,  Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Fear as Political weapon

People who rely on fear to attain and maintain political power will forever live in fear. There is no love in fear.....only hatred.

Lao Tzu's Take On Accountability

A great nation is like a great man.
When he makes a mistake, he realises it.
Having realised it, he admits it.
Having admitted it, he corrects it.
He considers those who point out his faults
As his most benevolent teachers.
He thinks of his enemy
As the shadow that he himself casts.

Water vs Rock

When you keep thinking that people are too soft on others, wait to hear what Lao Tzu has got to say about them: 

"Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong."

Disempowering the People

During the Soviet dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. He was a brutal dictator with mind of his own. On one fateful day, Stalin came to Politburo meeting with a live chicken. Standing in front of audience, He started to pluck the feathers of the live chicken off one by one.

The chicken trembled in pain, blood tricking out of its pores. It gave out grievous cries, but Stalin being a cruel dictator continued without remorse plucking the feathers out until the chicken was completely Unclad.

After which, he threw the chicken on the ground. The Unclad chicken was staggering in pain. Stalin goes into his pocket and from his pockets, he took out some chicken food and started to throw it at the poor & helpless creature.

The poor chicken in pain started eating and Stalin started walking towards his seat. As he walked away, he kept dropping some feeds on the floor & the chicken followed him and sat feeding from his feet.

Joseph Stalin then turned to members of his political party leadership. He said, "This chicken represents the people".

"You must disempower them, brutalise them, beat them up, starve them and then leave them".

"If you do this, go into your pocket & give them peanuts when they are in that helpless and desperate situation, they will blindly follow you for the rest of their life, worshiping you".

"They will think you are a hero forever. They will forget that, you're responsible for their sorrowful situation in the first place."

Breath taking, isn't it ?

Now! Take a look at all the people some Nigerians are busy defending on social media.

Take a look at those they call their heroes. They are the same people who plunged Nigeria into the situation she is. They are the same people who are responsible for their predicament.

#Could this be the Nigerian citizens situation presently?# In ma noble Opinion, i think it is.
Copied.

Faith is everything

According to Vedic mythology, a brahmana (religious scholar) once asked Narada Muni, "Oh, you are going to meet the Lord? Will you please ask Him when I'm going to get my salvation?" "All right," Narada agreed "I shall ask Him."

As Narada proceeded, he met a cobbler who was sitting under a banyan tree mending shoes, and the cobbler similarly asked Narada, "Oh, you are going to see God? Will you please enquire of Him when my salvation will come?"

When Narada Muni went to the Vaikuntha (God's planet), he fulfilled their requests and asked Narayana (God) about the salvation of the brahmana and that of the cobbler.  Narayana replied, "After leaving this body, the cobbler shall come here to Me."

"What about the brahmana?" Narada asked. Then Narayana replied, "He will have to remain there for a number of births. I do not know when he is coming."

Narada Muni was astonished, and he finally said, "I can't understand the mystery of this."

"That you will see," Narayana said. "When they ask you what I am doing in My abode, tell them that I am threading the eye of a needle with an elephant."

When Narada returned to earth and approached the brahmana, the brahmana said, "Oh, you have seen the Lord? What was He doing?"

"He was threading an elephant through the eye of a needle," Narada answered.
"I don't believe that nonsense," the brahmana replied. Narada could immediately understand that the man had no faith and that he was simply a reader of books.

Narada then left and went on to the cobbler, who asked him, "Oh, you have seen the Lord? Tell me, what was he doing?"

"He was threading an elephant through the eye of a needle," Narada replied.

The cobbler began to weep, "Oh, my Lord is so wonderful! He can do anything!"

"Do you really believe that the Lord can push an elephant through the hole of a needle?" Narada asked.

"Why not?" The cobbler said. "Of course I believe it."

"How is that?"

"You can see that I am sitting under the banyan tree," the cobbler answered, "and you can see that so many fruits are falling daily, and in each seed there is a big banyan tree like this one. If within a small seed there can be a big tree like this, is it difficult to accept that the Lord is pushing an elephant through the eye of a needle?"

Story extracted  from "The King of Knowledge" by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Stability

Stability is your inner strength to withstand adversity. It is your ability to stand firm and remain hopeful even when the situation appears to be hopeless. Remember, as the time of storm provides the palm tree the opportunity to showcase their strength and stability, so is the time of your crisis designed to demonstrate the strength of your character and stability.

Health benefit of forgiveness

Forgiveness is an act or a process. It is therefore a skill, a learnable skill. The best way that I have found to learn the skill is knowing that  non-forgiveness is a stressor. A stressor is defined as "a chemical or biological agent that causes stress to an organism." Non-forgiveness is like a self-inflicted injury. No one else suffers the physical and emotional pain but the non-forgiver. It is said that, "Happiness is the greatest gift of purification achieved through act of forgiveness."

Ubuntu

"In our country, we speak of something called 'UBUNTU.' When I want to praise you, the highest praise I can give you is to say, you have 'ubuntu,' this person has what it takes to be a human being. This is a person who recognises that he exists only because others exist; a person is a person through other persons. When we say you have 'ubuntu', we mean you are gentle, you are hospitable, you want to share, and you care about the welfare of others. This is because my humanity is caught up in your humanity. So when I dehumanise others, whether I like it or not, inexorably, I dehumanise myself. For we can only be human, we can only be free, together. To forgive is actually the best form of self-interest.".

Archbishop Desmond Tutu in "The Power of Forgiveness by HH Dalai Lama

Why Worry

Why Worry
"There are two things to worry about. Either you are well or you are sick.
If you are well, then there is nothing to worry about.
But if you are sick,
There are two things to worry about. Either you will get well or you will die..
If you get well, there is nothing to worry about.
If you die, there are two things to worry about.
Either you will go to heaven or hell.
If you go to heaven there is nothing to worry about.
But if you go to hell, you'll be so damn busy shaking hands with friends you won't have time to worry!". An Irish philosophy

Happy People

Happy people are more productive than those who are unhappy. According to a recent survey by one of UK's leading universities, "happy people are 12 times more productive at work."  Regular smiles and laughs with colleagues or even with self, is a great way to maintain personal happiness and reduce stress at work.
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Characteristics of Happy People

In 2002, two pioneers of Positive Psychology, Ed Diener and Martin Seligman, conducted a study at the University of Illinois on the 10% of students with the highest scores recorded on a survey of personal happiness. They found that the most salient characteristics shared by students who were very happy and showed the fewest signs of depression were "their strong ties to friends and family and commitment to spending time with them." ("The New Science of Happiness," Claudia Wallis, Time Magazine, Jan. 09, 2005).

Ordered Steps

When we allow God, the Source of all things, to guide and shape the way we think and act on a daily basis, our steps will be ordered. At that level of thinking and acting, even each missed step becomes our greatest teacher and a mistake is no longer a problem but an opportunity to learn a new skill.

Learn to empty your cup

A great Japanese master received a university professor who came to enquire about wisdom. The master served him tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself saying: "the cup is overflowing, no more water will go in!" "Like this cup," the master said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you wisdom unless you first empty your cup?"

To gain a deeper understanding of the power  of the Source of all things and the wonderment of the universe, you must first learn to empty your cup. We must first suspend our intellects.

Forgive your enemy

Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.” Oscar Wilde

One of the biggest obstacles to progress in life is the inability to forgive those who hurt us. Without forgiveness, progress is virtually impossible. It comes with the spirit of ‘heaviness.’ Some people call it the spirit of ‘depression.’  I call it the spirit of ‘stagnation’ because it lets us get stuck in the past. The negative effect of non-forgiveness tilts more heavily toward the person that is not forgiving than the person who needs to be forgiven. That is the mystery of non-forgiveness.  When you have forgiven someone, it means you have thrown the ball back inside his or her court.

It takes the courage of a great man or woman to say ‘I’m sorry’ even when you know you are right.  Saying ‘I am sorry’ is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength.  Saying ‘I forgive you’ is the nearest thing to say ‘I love you.’  This is God speaking in you and you in Him. 

Mark you, forgiveness is not necessarily the same as forgetting. Forgiveness is the first step to forgetting. Being hurt is like creating an open wound which takes time to heal.  But the process of healing a wound starts from the moment the injury was inflicted. That is the same as forgiveness.  It starts from a strong will to forgive the moment you feel hurt by the action or inaction of another person.

Once you have developed the courage to forgive and you begin to put it into practice, it becomes a habit.  You will begin to notice the positive changes in the way you think not only about yourself but also about others.

The positive thoughts will align you with the universal positive energy. This positive universal energy attracts new ideas into your mind. You will begin to feel good with yourself. Your mind will begin to be at peace with itself. You will begin to go out to the right places. You begin to attract the right people into your life. This is part of mysteries of the universe.

If you doubt what I am saying to you, I want you try the following exercise with one person with whom you have had a long period of altercation and begin to notice what happens after a few days.

Now let's get started:

I want you to sit in a quiet place and image one person with whom you've had some kind of long-standing conflict sitting there right in front of you.

Now I want you to say out loud and clear, directly to him or her, "I forgive you. I surround you with love and light, and I do the same for myself."

"Practice," they say, "makes perfect."

Dis-ability

Nothing can ever take away your joy and happiness from you without your permission......not even any form of dis-ability.

Life is everything that comes your way

"Life is a song - sing it. Life is a game - play it. Life is a challenge - meet it. Life is a dream - realize it. Life is a sacrifice - offer it. Life is love - enjoy it."  ~ A 'Sai Baba' quote.

Love is creative. Hatred is destructive

When we respond to an act of hatred with an act of love and kindness, we are living at a higher level of creative self-awareness and spiritual enlightenment. Love is creative. Hatred is destructive.

UBUNTU

A very nice story from South Africa ...

The motivation behind the Ubuntu culture in South Africa ...

An Anthropologist proposed a game to the South African tribal children ...

He placed a basket of sweets near a tree.

And made the children stand 100 metres away from the tree.

Then he announced that, whoever becomes the first person to reach where the sweets are, would get all the sweets in the basket.

When he said: *on your mark, get set, ready go.......!*

*Do you know what these children did?*

They all held each other's hands and ran together towards the tree. They then shared the sweets equally among themselves, ate the sweets and enjoyed themselves very well.

When the Anthropologist asked them why they did so?,
 
They *all* answered *"Ubuntu"*.

Which means:-

*How can one be happy when the others are sad?*

Ubuntu in their language means: -

*"I am because we are"*

This is a *strong message* for all generations. Let all of us always have this attitude and spread happiness wherever we go.

Let's have an *Ubuntu* Life ...

                   _*for*_

*I AM BECAUSE WE ARE*

No One Can Hurt You Without Your Consent

No One Can Hurt You Without Your Consent

It's not what people do or say to us that matters. We have no control over them. It's how we respond that matters. Learning to insert a pause between stimulus and response is one of many ways to start learning emotional intelligence skill. Hard as this may be, it is what many of us need to build a happy and long-lasting relationship that can withstand the test of time, at home, work or social life. As succinctly expressed by Viktor Emil Frankl, a Holocaust survivor: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

What's your problem?

You know you always get up and keep going each time you fall. So, what's your problem?

The Chopsticks

A woman who had worked hard all her life doing good for others was granted one wish: "Before I die let me visit both hell and heaven." Her wish was granted.

She was whisked off to a great banqueting hall. The tables were piled high with delicious food and drink. Around the tables sat miserable, starving people as wretched as could be. "Why are they like this?" she asked the angel who accompanied her. "Look at their arms," the angel replied. She looked and saw that attached to the people's arms were long chopsticks secured above their elbows. Unable to bend their elbows, the people aimed the chopsticks at the food, missed every time and sat hungry, frustrated and miserable. "Indeed this is hell! Take me away from here!"

She was then whisked off to heaven. Again she found herself in a great banqueting hall with tables piled high. Around the tables sat people laughing, contented, joyful. "No chopsticks I suppose," she said. "Oh yes there are. Look - just as in hell they are long and attached above their elbows, but look... here people have learnt to feed one another".

From the Teaching Stories

We all have a role

In the universe, everyone and everything has a role. The only way you can play your own role is..........just be yourself.

Enigma

To be an enigma is simply to be living your authentic self one day at a time without needing to be anyone else. That's what makes your life a puzzle......to others.....and even to yourself.

Never Give Up Praying

The Sage Who Never Gave Up

There was once a renowned sage. He used to pray fervently in front of his Lord each day. One day, while he was praying, one of his followers came and sat beside him. As the two sat silently together, the sage received a message from God, which was overheard by the follower. However, the follower, out of respect for the sage, kept quiet.

The next day, the pious man was once again busy praying. The same follower was by his side when he received another message. Once again, out of respect, the follower did not ask the sage any question.

On the third day, the same thing happened. But, this time the follower decided to speak out and asked, "God has constantly been telling you that your prayer is not accepted, so why do you keep praying?" The sage, with a feeling of surprise in his face, responded and said, "You have only heard this rejection for three days and are suggesting that I give up praying, whereas I have heard this rejection for thirty years and I have not given-up or become discouraged. Anyway, who are you to interfere? It is simply my job to pray and it is for God to accept prayers as He pleases."

We should never be discouraged if our prayers are not being answered as quickly as we want. God will never let our seeds go to waste as long as we keep working hard to make them grow.

Extracted and adapted from A sufi Story

We are a living miracle

We are a living miracle. If you don't believe,  pause for a few minutes and reflect on the trillions of cells that make up your body each working in perfect harmony with the others to produce a unique Being that is you. I understand that the latest scientific calculations put the number at over 37.2 trillion....and they are still counting. If your Beingness is not a miracle, what else could it be? Thank you God.

Tolerance

Tolerance is the ability to maintain your relationship with others even when you do not share some of their opinions and practices.  In the words of HH the Dalai Lama, "In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher." It is also possible, through wisdom, to use tolerance as a means of educating your  enemy on how to be tolerant. After all, as Lao Tzu would say,  "What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?"

The lesson in being hurt

For every hurtful action people throw at us, be it physical or emotional, we receive two things: first, the Pain and second, the Lesson. Most often, we only receive the pain but leave the lesson. Most often, the lesson is powerful and more positively impactful than the pain. We have no control over what people do to us but we have the power to control how we respond. This is another great lesson in Stoicism.

Never Lose you heart

You can lose your job. You can lose your home. You can lose your saving. You can lose your car. You can lose your health. In fact,  you can lose just about anything and everything in life. But you must refuse to lose your heart. There lies the greatest test of human courage.

Fear Factor

Let not your good deeds be driven by fear of Hell or hope of Heaven, but by force of goodness.

What defines us

Your title does not define you. Your job does not define you. Your position does not define you. What defines you is how you treat other people. 

Tears and Sweat are Water

When you have a very severe physical pain, water comes out of your body. They call it sweat. When the pain is emotional, water comes out of your eyes. They call it tears. In the words of Jesse Jackson, "Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy. Sweat will get you change.". As the saying goes, "A dream does not become a reality through magic. It takes sweat, determination and hardwork. Real action to make a desired change in any area of life starts the moment you stop shedding tears for the past and get ready to sweat for what you want the future to be in that area.

God uses Good and Bad people for his purpose

Sometimes, God uses a bad person to accomplish a good purpose. For example, when young biblical Joseph was sold by his brothers, it was for an evil purpose. What they did not know was that God was using them to shape the future of a nation.

Lesson: Let our prayers be for both the bad and the good people in our lives.

The Secret of Happiness

"A shopkeeper sent his son to learn about the secret of happiness from the wisest sage in the world.

The boy wandered through the desert for forty days, and finally came upon a beautiful castle, high on top of a mountain. It was there that the wise man lived.

Rather than finding a saintly man, the boy, on entering the main room of the castle, saw a hive of activity. Tradesmen and women were coming in and going out. People stood in small groups conversing in the corner. A small orchestra was playing soft music. There was a table covered with platters of the most delicious food in that part of the world.

The wise man was chatting with everyone, and the boy had to wait for two hours before it was his turn to see the wise man. When they finally met, the wise man listened attentively to the boy’s explanation of why he had come. The wise man told him that it was not the right time to explain the secret of happiness.

He suggested that the boy first look around his palace and return in two hours. “Meanwhile I want to ask you to do something,” said the wise man, handing the boy a teaspoon that held two drops of oil. "As you wander around, carry this spoon with you and make sure you do not spill the oil."

The boy began ascending and descending the many flight of stairs in the palace. He kept his eyes fixed on the spoon. After two hours, he returned to the room where the wise man was. “Well,” asked the wise man, “did you see the Persian tapestries that are hanging in my dining hall? Did you see the garden that took the master gardener ten years to create? Did you notice the beautiful parchment in my library?”

The boy was embarrassed. He confessed that he had observed nothing. His only concern had been not to spill the oil that the wise man had entrusted to him.

“Then go back and observe the marvels of my world,” said the wise man.

Relieved, the boy picked up the spoon and returned to his exploration of the palace. This time, he observed all of the works of art on the ceilings and the walls. He saw the gardens, the mountains all around him, the beauty of the flowers, and the taste with which everything had been selected. When he returned to the wise man, he related in detail everything he had seen.

“But where are the drops of oil I entrusted to you?” asked the wise man. Looking down at the spoon he held, the boy saw that the oil was gone.

"The secret of happiness," the wise man explained, "is in seeing all the marvels of the world around you while still remaining focused on the things that are most important to you in life."

Extracted from the novel on ”The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho.

What makes happy people stand out in the crowd

The happiest people, that I have known, are those who do not take themselves too seriously.  When things are not going their way, they change their mind and look for other ways forward. They have the inner knowing that, as the Yoruba saying goes, "One road does not lead to a market place." Instead of spening endless time thinking about a problem, they go on straight to think about its solution.  They are quick to accept their mistakes and never blame anyone else. They take their responsibility very seriously and are not afraid of making mistakes. They just laugh at errors and take quick corrective measures.

What differentiates such people from the rest of us is their ability to find a reason to be smiling when others are crying. It is their capacity to find a reason to be silent when others are talking.  They see an opportunity when everyone else sees only problems. They do not keep malice against anyone. When they are criticised, they do not take it personally. They accept criticism with equanimity.  At team meetings, they are great listeners. You can spot them in the way they nod their heads when someone is speaking even when they do not share that person’s point of view. They will never comment directly on any issue they disagree with; but only offer their own opinion instead. When they find themselves holding the minority opinions, they do not seek to impose their own opinions on others. They have no ego whatsoever. They are great team worker. They do not attract publicity to themselves. They do not seek people to praise them. They do not seek other people’s approval to do what they want to do for themselves and for others.

Happy people are known to be highly receptive to new ideas no matter how stupid the idea may initially appear to be. They ask open-ended questions to clarify any aspect of a new idea that appeared blurred to them at first. They are non-judgemental and detest labelling people. Their open-mindedness gives them the ability to seek other people’s point of view. This  helps them to build close rapport with everyone.  They know who they are. They have strongly held values that sustain them in all circumstances. They know what they belief. They believe in who they are and in what they do. They are not afraid of letting others know what they belief in even though they will never impose their belief on others. They respect other people but do not necessarily expect others to respect them back.

They love living creatively. Because they know that the nature of the Creator is to keep creating and recreating; they are never short of creating and recreating something new. They see and appreciate the beauty of creation. That is why such people love creative art. That is where they express their creative genius. They find expression in the art. This reflects in everything they do. They see the food on their dining table from the point of view of the Source of all the various ingredients that make up the dish. Through their power of imagination, they are able to express thanksgiving to the person that had put all the various ingredients together and bring them to the dining table. Most importantly, they are able to express thanksgiving to the Source that made it possible to produce all the ingredients.

They are naturally kind-hearted to people. They are not pretentious. To such people, what you see is what you get. Their appearances brighten to the environment. Whenever they go, they bring peace along with them. They are extremely good at making peace between people. They will however never take credit for anything they achieve but are quick at giving the credit to other people.

They detest hearsay. When a colleague gives them a negative report about another colleague, they never act on such information.  When a report is capable of causing serious disaffection among colleagues, they are quick at seeking the approval of the person making the report to bring the issues to the attention of all the parties involved. This avoids rumour mongering.

Happy people have no scarcity mentality. They live in abundance. That does not necessarily mean in terms of physical material acquisitions. Even at that, they know that as their Source does not lack anything, they too do not lack anything. They are aware that there is constant flow of supplies from the creative Source, which they know will continue to flow in their direction. They know that in all situations they will be looked after. Because they have aligned their will with the will of the Source of abundance, they live their lives abundantly. They hardly ever complain of anything. Hence, people think they are rich financially and flow to them for help. Because they allow whatever flows into their lives to flow out to other lives, there is an uninterrupted flow into their lives. Because they look after the welfare of other people, the forces of nature also look after their own welfare. These are people with the wisdom for living. Their lives are happiness. They enjoy living their lives and they intend for others to enjoy theirs also.

What does it take to be a happy person? How much does it cost to smile to the person next to you? How much does it cost to say thank you to the supermarket cashier who has just served you with a smile. What does it cost you to say “I love you” to your partner? How much does it cost to say, “I am sorry, darling?" even when you know you are right. This is not a sign of capitulation but a sign of your desire to be happy and to share your happiness to the person you love. This is probably all it takes to bring your life to balance. Remember, the happiest people in the world are those who do not take themselves too seriously. This is what makes such people stand out in the crowd. Would you join them?

There is no fear in love

According to a Greek mythology, a dispute once arose between Athina, the goddess of wisdom and Poseidon, the ruler of the seas, over the patronage of the city of Athens. All the Olympian gods, the Cecrops - the founder of Greek civilization, and the citizens of Athens acted as the judges.

Poseidon was the first to stand on the witness box. He struck the rock of the Acropolis with his trident and a spring of salt water gushed out. As Athens was close to the sea, it made very little or no impression in the minds of the judges. Then he conjured a beautiful horse to emerge. Again, the judges were not amused.

Next was Athina on the witness box. She presented before the judges, an olive tree - a symbol of peace, happiness and prosperity.

All the judges unanimously awarded the case in her favour.

Whilst Poseidon defended his case against Athina using the power of fear, Athina presented hers using the power of love, peace and hope.

What does this story teach us about leadership and followership in today’s word?

What can we learn from these two great characters?

Hatred

Hatred is like a poison which you drink with the hope that it will kill your enemy.

A true Friend

True friend is known when adversity strikes.

Never Lose Your Vision

A blind person asked God, "Can there be anything worse than losing your sight? " God replied, "Yes, losing your vision!"

Dance Regularly

Dance regularly, even if it's to the rythm of your own heart. It's a physical expression of inner peace.

Smile is Contagious

No one can take your smile away from you without your consent. Finding something that makes you smile all the time is the greatest life-prolonging medication. That thing does not have to be a big thing. It does not have to cost you a penny. It does not have to come from another person. It could be something you already have. It could be the thought of a  friend, a loving member of your family, your adorable partner, your happy children, the nature of your job or career, your educational achievement, your ever forgiving spirit, your faith in God, your healthy disposition, your financial stability, your diligence in whatever you do , and just about anything. There is so much to be grateful for.  The more you can find those little joyful things that keep bringing smiles to your face, the more you are attracting happy feelings into your life and in the lives of those around you. Your smiles are contagious. It feels so good to spread them around.

The Power of Selfless Doing

When your life is driven by a strong desire to be happy and consistently wishing the same for the people in your life, you will keep lacking nothing, I mean absolutely nothing, to keep you feeling happy, irrespective of the prevailing economic downturn. The Source of your Being will keep meeting your needs.

Unkillable Power of Vision

When Antonio Gaudi, the Spanish architect extraordinaire, who designed Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona, was asked if he could complete the project he started in his lifetime, he said;

"There is no reason to regret that I cannot finish the church. I will grow old but others will come after me. What must always be conserved is the spirit of the work, but its life has to depend on the generations it is handed down to and with whom it lives and is incarnated."

Insist on being yourself

Insist on being what you want to be and not what others want you to be.

Ignorance is worst disability

The worst disability is ignorance. In the words of Emiliano Zapata, one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution, "Ignorance and obscurantism have never produced anything other than flocks of slaves for tyranny." When you get wisdom and  undersanding, no one can enslave you without your permission.

Endless Possibilities with God

Each time I reflect on God, the creator of all things, I see endless possibilities.

The Power of Love

Your greatest defence against your enemies, real or imagined, is love. Nothing  destabilises them more than responding to their evil thoughts and actions against you with consistent acts of kindness and compassion.

A Christmas Message

Christmas is around the corner. It is a day when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is the day many people feel the presence of Christ,  a personification of love, kindness, care, compassion, forgiveness, peace, joy, happiness, etc, in their lives. It is one of the days friends, families and loved ones come together to eat, drink and merry expressing love and kindness to one another through the exchange of presents. It is a day many people, young and old, look forward to with great excitements when they feel they are truly loved. For these reasons alone, how I wished the spirit of Christmas is celebrated every day and every moment of the year. Merry Christmas.

Self Awareness

It is an act of great self-torture to keep worrying about what others are thinking about you.

What does luck look like?

If Luck were human, what would be her/his characteristics:
~ ever waiting for something to turn up;
~ lay in bed and wishes the postman
  would bring him/her the news of a legacy;
~ Whines, complains;
~ Relies on chance;
What else?
Luck is great, but most of life is hard work. It is a question of preparation meeting opportunity.

Good Luck

Good luck means setting goals and keep working hard towards achieving them.

The quality of your Question

What does 2018 have in store for me? What do I have in store for 2018? The two questions produce different types of energy.

Give a smile to someone

If you see someone without a smile, give them yours.

What's in a name

"A name is a means by which one is made known to others." The Bible contains over 70 names by which God is known to the people of Isreal. The Guru Granth Sahib, the principal Sikh scripture, has over 900. By whatever name any one choses to describe God, God is God.

Making Peace with others

Going the extra mile to make peace with others does not necessarily mean you are a wimp. Rather, it is the sign of your great strength. It is the symbol of your enlightenment and inner awareness. You acquire this virtue each time you relate with other human beings at a higher and more powerful universal wave-length. So, don't let others take this awesome virtue away from you, no matter the circumstance.

Never put others down

Never put others down. People with great strength of character never put anyone down. They lift them up.

Walking

Walking is human's oldest means of transport. It's in walking that truly great thoughts are conceived. It's also a good exercise.

Resilience

Resilience is a powerful human resource. It's the tool we all need to recover quickly from serious  setbacks. We deploy its flexibility to bounce back to position after a sudden fall. A wife or a husband uses its power to develop the courage to say, "I'm sorry", even when they know they are right.  It's what enables an employee to just "get on the bike" in search of new opportunities after a job loss. It's what lets you see the endless possibilities in time of adversity. It's a habit and It's learnable. Cultivate it.

Integrity

Integrity is the courage to defend that which  you believe in even when it makes you unpopular.

Rejected At Job Interview?

A rejection at any job interview is a signal directing you towards the understanding and awareness of  your true purpose in life.

A Dose of Positive Attitude

A Dose of Positive Attitude

-- Author Unknown

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood... or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim... or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining... or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Michael said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what Michael said. Soon thereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied. "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon to be born daughter," Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live... or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Michael continued... "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read "He's a dead man. I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. "Yes, I replied." The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, "Gravity." Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

"Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything. Matthew 6:34 states: Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

After all, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Enjoy each day, each breath and mostly... each and every friend.

And remember to start each day with an "attitude of gratitude!"

Artificial Intelligence

Scientists are now claiming that by 2030 there will be an artificially intelligent machine that will be indistinguishable from a human being. This will include the capacity for self-reproduction. I belief God did not set any limit to human intelligence. He needs more human brains to create and build a better world where all His people can live in harmony with good health and lasting happiness. To embark on creating a human machine that is capable of self-reproduction is perhaps not a wise way to use human intelligence. Is this the start of a new evolutionary journey? My view.

Great Leaders

Great leaders don't respond to hard questions with negative attitude. Only weak leaders do. When weak leaders are bereft of ideas to answer simple questions, they become  aggressive and abusive. It's a tactic to distract attention from the main issue in order to hide their ignorance.