Tag: wisdom

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If you want a different kind of new year, be a new you

Happy New Me 2018 graphic
Image from a Foztee sweatshirt
Sam Soto and I loved Corey Teague’s 2018 New Year message so much we translated it to Spanish. Corey is keeping it real – and we can all benefit by following suit.

Now we have reached the part of the show where everyone begins talking about who they plan to “cut off” and how they plan to be “new” and how everything will just be different. Look out, here comes a reality check: unless you don’t wake up tomorrow, it’ll be Monday. That’s it, Monday. And then, there will be Tuesday, Wednesday, so on and so forth. Nothing out of the ordinary will happen UNLESS you do something unordinary to provoke an unordinary event to occur. Remember, NOTHING FROM NOTHING LEAVES NOTHING. You must be willing to do something in order to get something. That’s how life works. This attitude that life owes you something must die within you before you can begin mentally preparing yourself to receive something. What have you done lately for someone other than yourself? If you have to take longer than 30 seconds to answer then you’re living in a vacuum. It’s time to step out and live in 2018. If not, this new year will begin and end just like every other year. read more

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Possession of Wisdom – from Saint Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukural

Chapter 43: Possession of Wisdom
A chapter from South Indian saint Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukural, ‘Holy Couplets.’

Kural 421
Wisdom is a weapon that can ward off destruction.
It is an inner fortress that no enemy can assail.
Kural 422
Wisdom will harness the mind, diverting it
from wrong and directing it toward right.
Kural 423
Whatever is heard from whomever’s lips,
wisdom will rightly discern its true meaning.
Kural 424
Wisdom speaks well, conveying each meaning clearly,
and listens for the subtlest sense in others’ speech.
Kural 425
The wise befriend the wise and keep that friendship constant,
not opening and closing it like the petaled lotus.
Kural 426
It is wisdom to live in the world
in the way that the world lives.
Kural 427
Those who know, know what will happen next.
Such things are unknown to the unknowing.
Kural 428
It is folly not to fear what ought to be feared.
So the wise dread what should be dreaded.
Kural 429
Fearsome sufferings shall never happen
to knowing ones who guard against future happenings.
Kural 430
Those who possess wisdom possess everything.
Whatever others possess, without wisdom they have nothing. read more

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Thou shall not kill – the spirit of the young

Carl SharifFriend Carl Sharif tells this wonderful story of elder wisdom transmitted to him as a youth that speaks to the meaning of God’s words and how they apply to our lives on multiple levels:

I grew up in the Christian Church and my father (Deacon P. Dawson) was Chairman of the Deacon Board and quite a student of the bible. I will never forget a discussion he had with me when I was a very young boy.

I once asked him about the 10 commandments and he recited them to me. When he got to “Thou shall not kill” I was terrified. I thought of all the ants that I had stepped on, mosquitoes I had swatted and other major act of murder I had committed and was really scared that G_D was going to get me. He sensed my youthful concern and here is what he said to me: read more

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Paulo Coelho. An accessible sage.

My current hero is Paulo Coelho. If you want access to a positive and empowering perspective on life that can be easily adopted by anyone breathing, take a look at his website and learn more about what Paulo does and says. Paulo’s a Brazilian guy possessed of a mountain stream of beautiful wisdom and comments, for example

The moment we set off in search of love, it sets off in search of us.

You ask if love wins over anything. The answer is yes if you don’t try to possess the subject of your love. read more