November 6 – Who do I wish to be?

2009
Silence and reserve will give anyone a reputation for wisdom.

2008
Whatever I focus my thoughts on increases. This is true for all things, wanted and unwanted. Thinking fearful thoughts increases my fear. Focusing on what I love enhances my experience of love.

Any day we wish; we can discipline ourselves to change it all. Any day we wish; we can open the book that will open our mind to new knowledge. Any day we wish; we can start a new activity. Any day we wish; we can start the process of life change. We can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year.

We can also do nothing. We can pretend rather than perform. And if the idea of having to change ourselves makes us uncomfortable, we can remain as we are. We can choose rest over labor, entertainment over education, delusion over truth, and doubt over confidence. The choices are ours to make. But while we curse the effect, we continue to nourish the cause. As Shakespeare uniquely observed, “The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves.” We created our circumstances by our past choices. We have both the ability and the responsibility to make better choices beginning today. Those who are in search of the good life do not need more answers or more time to think things over to reach better conclusions. They need the truth. They need the whole truth. And they need nothing but the truth.

There are some who wish to perfect themselves and who train themselves in this way: “One single self we shall tame, one single self we shall pacify, one single self we shall lead to final nirvana.” But those with compassion should not train themselves in such a way. On the contrary, they should say this: “My own self I will give over to god, and so all the world may be helped, I will give all beings to god, and I will lead to heaven the whole immeasurable world of beings.”

Impart to us those vitalizing forces
that come, O Earth, from deep within your body,
your central point; purify us wholly.
The Earth is mother; I am son of Earth.
The Rain-giver is my father; may he shower on us
blessings!

Body impermanent like spring mist;
mind insubstantial like empty sky;
thoughts unestablished like breezes in space.
Think about these three points over and over.

~ by kennybeal on November 6, 2009.