Philosophy of Life

Philosophy of Life    A boat is docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village. A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their fish and asked how long it took to catch them.  "Not very long." they answered in unison. "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" The fishermen explained that their small catches were sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.  "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"  "We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children, and take siestas with our wives.  In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs.  We have a full life." The tourist interrupted,  "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."  "And after that?" "With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant.  You can then leave this little village and move to  Mexico City , Los Angeles , or even  New York City !  [  From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."  "How long would that take?"   "Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years." replied the tourist.   "And after that?"   "Afterwards?  Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the tourist, laughing.  "When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"     "Millions?  Really?  And after that?" asked the fishermen.  "After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, Catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."   "With all due respect sir, but that's exactly what we are doing now.  So what's the point wasting twenty-five years?" asked the Mexicans.  And the moral of this story is:  Know where you're going in life, you may already be there!  Many times in life, money is not everything.  “Live your life before life becomes lifeless”

The Ripple

 

A man was sitting by a lake. He was throwing small pebbles into it from time to time. A young boy happened to cross by. He was intrigued to see that after every few minutes or so, the man would toss a pebble into the lake.
The boy went up to the man & said, "Good pastime, this stone throwing, he?" "Hmmm," said the man. He seemed to be deep in thought & obviously did not wish to be disturbed.

Sometime later, the man said softly, "Look at the water, it is absolutely still."

The boy said, "Yeah, it is."
The man tossed a pebble into the water & continued, "Only till I toss a pebble into it now do you see the ripples?"
"Yeah," said the boy, "they spread further & further."

"And soon, the water is still again," offered the man.

The boy said, "Sure, it becomes quiet, after a while."

The man continued, "What if we want to stop the ripples? The root cause of the ripples is the stone. Lets take the stone out. Go ahead & look for it." The boy put his hand into the water & tried to take the stone out.
But he only succeeded in making more ripples. He was able to take the stone out, but the number of ripples that were made in the process were a lot more than before.

The wise man said, "It is not possible to stop the movement of the water once a pebble has been thrown into it. But if we can stop ourselves from throwing the pebble in the first place, the ripples can be avoided altogether! So too, it is with our minds. If a thought enters into it, it creates ripples. The only way to save the mind from getting disturbed is to block & ban the entry of every superfluous thought that could be a potential cause for disturbance. If a disturbance has entered into the mind, it will take its own time to die down. Too many conflicting thoughts just cause more & more disturbances. Once the disturbance has been caused it takes time to ebb out. Even trying to forcibly remove the thought may further increase the turmoil in the mind. Time surely is a great healer, but prevention is always better than cure."

Before you allow a thought or a piece of information to enter your mind, put it through the triple filter test of authenticity, goodness & value.

Gods Plan

There is a famous story about a Taoist farmer that goes like this:

This farmer had only one horse & one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to console him over his terrible loss. The farmer said, “What makes you think it is so terrible?”

A month later, the horse came home–this time bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer’s good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, “What makes you think this is good fortune?”

The farmer’s son was thrown from one of the wild horses & broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. Such bad luck! The farmer said, “What makes you think it is bad?”

A war came, and every able-bodied man was conscripted & sent into battle. Only the farmer’s son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbors congratulated the farmer. “What makes you think this is good?” said the farmer.

The story reveals that instead of being swayed back & forth by the various appearances of so called good & bad fortune in this life, we can become more balanced & realize that everything is relative and we don’t ever really know what is good fortune & what is bad fortune.

The only good fortune is to allow God’s plans for us to unfold, and become an instrument for His will, and the only bad fortune is in not doing that.

SOAR BEYOND YOUR FEARS !!!

Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons from Arabia. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.

Months passed and one day the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.

The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. He presented the task to the member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace window that the bird had still not moved from its perch. Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, "May be I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem." So he cried out to his court, "Go and get a farmer."

In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, "Bring me the doer of this miracle."

The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, "How did you make the falcon fly?"

With his head bowed, the farmer said to the king, " It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting."

-- From the Book "Why walk when you can fly"

The emotional trigger than begins an argument may have little to do with your present situation, but has dug up a wound.

When we find ourselves in an argument, we may feel like we are losing control of emotions that have taken on lives of their own. When we can become aware that this is happening, taking a deep breath can help us step back from the situation. Once we can separate ourselves from the heat of the moment, we may find that the emotional trigger that began the argument has little to do with the present situation, but may have brought up feelings related to something else entirely. Looking honestly at what caused our reaction allows us to consciously respond more appropriately to the situation and make the best choices.

We can make an agreement with our partners and those closest to us that asking questions can help all of us discover the source of the argument. The shared awareness can result in finding simple solutions to something physical, like low blood sugar or even a hormonal surge. Maybe we are taking ourselves too seriously, and we can just laugh and watch the tension dissolve. We could also discover that perhaps we are addicted to the excitement that drama brings and the chemicals that our body creates when we are angry. But there may be a deeper issue that requires discussion, understanding, and patience. The more we allow ourselves to step back and examine our reasons for arguing, the easier it becomes to allow real feelings to surface and guide us toward solutions that improve our lives.

When we can be clear about our feelings and intentions and communicate them clearly, we have a far better chance of getting what we want than if we lose control or allow our subconscious minds to manipulate the situation. We might take our frustrations out on the people closest to us because we feel safe and comfortable with them, but misplaced anger can cause more harm than good. Arguing for what we truly believe can empower us and help us to direct our passions toward greater life experiences. Truly knowing our reasons for arguing enables us to grow emotionally in ways that will affect our whole being.

These Bridesmaids Live to Destroy Your Happiness  by G. Finley

Key Lesson: All acts of impatience serve to secretly deflect the one critical revelation that as long as we meet life with any unseen demand, we can't help but be painfully remanded into the hands of one of these two self-punishing states: anger or frustration. They are the bridesmaids of any desire thwarted.

Free Yourself of Undetected Pressure

Commanding the pressures of this life begins with understanding that the stress we feel is first an inside job. In & of itself, there is no such thing as a "pressurized" moment. Try to see the truth of this.

The present moment flows along freely. Nothing can possibly restrict what is ever refreshing itself in the ever-new Now. This finding reveals that any pressure we come to feel in any given moment is the unhappy effect of some hidden agent within us acting on the ordinarily free-flowing content of each of these moments. In no time at all, the quiet & naturally unrestricted stream of events around us becomes a jet engine within us, rocketing us out of peace.

It is our own narrow mind, with its narrow view of life that pressurizes our events and their moments. This small mind, which can't be separated from the narrow world it perceives, tends to see life's events not as they are, but as what they are not according to its own unconscious demands.

In other words, the punishing pressure we feel in this life is not because of what life is but because of what we perceive life isn't -- a judgment that could neither be reached nor sustained were it not for there being within us an unseen "board of governors" that had already concluded what "best" serves us and what won't. But see the contradiction in this discovery and you will free yourself of the pressure created in its undetected presence.

Whenever you "serve" this painful pressure within you, to somehow release yourself from it by doing the dance it prescribes, it is not your interests you serve, but the hidden interests of some small self -- the one that has been "telling" you all along what your real pleasures are by punishing you when they seem out of reach!

The next time some pressure starts to build within you, learn to use it to shake yourself awake. Rouse yourself to the pure fact that whatever stress you are starting to feel doesn't really belong to you. Stand back from yourself long enough to see that pressurized thoughts and feelings can only arise from a narrow view of life that belongs to a narrow self -- a false self that you had momentarily and mistakenly taken as your own. Then just quietly drop this formerly unconscious conclusion. This same moment of letting go releases you from this restricted sense of self and the narrow life it creates.

God Does Not Have To Prove himself To Us, We Have To Prove Ourselves To God.
If You Ask For Proof, You Will Not Get It. But If You Don’t Ask For It.
And You Have Faith, Then You Will Get Proof.
God Does Not Punish You, Your Own Subconscious Mind Does. 
You Can Fool Fellow Men, You Can Fool Yourself,But You Can Never Fool God Almighty.
A Simple, Honest, Kind, Selfless Deed Is More Important Than Hours Of Prayers Without.

Concentration, And Giving Thousands In Charity To Fool People And Our God Almighty.

The Biggest Problem Today Is That Human Beings Are Always Looking for a Scientific Explanation or Proof of God’s Existence. 

The Subconscious Mind Is Infinite. 

But Science Is Born Out Of Human Intelligence, Which Is Limited. 

The Intellect That Humans Possess Is Incapable Of Understanding God.

GOD DOES NOT HAVE TO PROVE HIMSELF TO US. WE HAVE TO PROVE OURSELVES TO GOD
 

That Is Why We Are On EARTH…!!!

Beyond Reacting - Remembering to Pause

Remembering to pause & take a breath before we react can shift the energy of the outcome.
We have all had the experience of reacting in a way that was less than ideal upon hearing bad news, or being unfairly criticized, or being told something we did not want to hear. This makes sense because when our emotions are triggered, they tend to take center stage, inhibiting our ability to pause before we speak. We may feel compelled to release the tension by expressing ourselves in some way, whether it’s yelling back at the person yelling at us, or rushing to deliver words of comfort to a friend in trouble. However, there is much to be said for teaching ourselves to remember to pause & take a deep breath before we respond to the shocks & insults that can come our way in life.

For one thing, our initial response is not always what’s best for us, or for the other people involved. Reacting to childish rage with childish rage will only escalate the negativity in a situation, further ensnaring us in an undesirable dynamic. Similarly, when we react defensively, or simply thoughtlessly, we often end up feeling regret over our words or actions. In the end, we save ourselves a lot of pain when we take a deep breath & really tune in to ourselves & the other person, before we respond. This doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t say anything, although in some cases, that may be the best option.

Some situations require a fairly immediate response, but even just a moment of grounding ourselves before we do so can help enormously. The next time you find yourself wanting to react, try to pause & in that pause, take a deep breath. Feel your feet on the floor, the air on your skin & listen for a response to arise within you, rather than just going with the first thing that pops into your head. You may find that in that moment, there is the potential to move beyond reaction & into the more subtle & creative realm of response, where something new can happen.

Create a Supportive Life Story -  Empowered Storytelling

We all have a story to tell, but sometimes we get stuck in that story & become our story.
 
We all have our own life story. It is filled with relationships & events that help shape who we are & what we believe to be true about the world. Depending on our perspective & willingness to grow, our experiences can become fodder for negativity & patterns of playing the victim, or they can fuel a life of empowerment & continued self-development. It is the story we tell ourselves about what happens that makes all the difference.

Take a moment to look at the life story you create for yourself on an ongoing basis. If you generally feel peaceful about the past & trust in your ability to handle whatever comes your way, then you are framing circumstances in a manner that serves you well. On the other hand, if you retain a lot of guilt or resentment & often feel weighed down by life, you may want to start telling yourself a new version of past & present events. No matter who the characters are in your story or what they have done, you are the only one who can give their actions the meaning they will have for you. You are the only one who can define what role you will play in your own life. By taking responsibility for your story, you are able to learn & grow, forgive & find compassion, & most importantly, move on into a brighter future.

From now on, you can choose a life story that supports you. Let it be proof of your own resilience & creativity. Be kind with the roles you give yourself & generous with how many chances you get to learn what you need to know. When you remember that you are the author of your own story, you are free to create a masterpiece.

A Carpenter, returning home with his month’s wages, was stopped by an armed robber on a deserted street.

“Take my money,” said the carpenter, “but do me a favour: “Shoot a bullet through my hat otherwise my wife won’t believe I was robbed.”

The robber obliged. He threw the hat into the air and put a bullet through it.
“Let’s make it look as if I ran into a gang of robbers, “otherwise my wife will call me a coward! Please shoot a number of holes through my coat.”
So the robber shot a number of holes through the carpenter’s coat. “And now…” continued the carpenter....
“Sorry,” interrupted the robber. “No more holes. I’m out of bullets.”
“That’s all I wanted to know. He caught the thief and bashed him black and blue. “Now hand me back my money and some more for the hat and coat that you’ve ruined or I’ll beat you again!”The robber threw down the money and ran.

Moral:   It's never too late to use our brains to get out of a difficult situation!!