How did Thanksgiving come about?
Here’s a politically correct version:
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Why is Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday of November?
The first Thanksgiving Day celebration was a three-day feast held during the fall in 1621. It happened between September 21 and November 11. As you may know Pilgrims were joined by the local Wampanoag tribe, including their leader, Chief Massasoit.
Various communities celebrated a day of thanksgiving afterwards as they deemed fit. However, in October of 1777 all 13 colonies celebrated a day of Thanksgiving.
The first national day of Thanksgiving was in 1789. President George Washington proclaimed Thursday, November 26, 1789 to be “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.”
In wasn’t until October 3, 1863, that President Abraham Lincoln called for and issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation. It declared the last Thursday in November was to be a national day of “thanksgiving and praise.”
Afterwards, presidents honored the tradition and annually issued their own Thanksgiving Proclamation until in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not.
Since the day would fall on November 30th that month, retailers strongly complained to President Roosevelt that 24 shopping days before Christmas would be too short for profits that they counted upon.
Since most people did Christmas shopping after Thanksgiving, the extra week of shopping seemed essential for the economy.
So the Thanksgiving Proclamation of August 31, 1939 declared the date of Thanksgiving to be Thursday, November 23, the second-to-last Thursday of the month.
The change caused unforeseen confusion — dates had previously been established for school schedules, football games, special events, entertainment, and family vacations.
During the following year, many governors could not agree with the decision to change the date and refused to follow it. The country became split on which Thanksgiving to observe. The nation went into a bit of a panic and there was great debate.
In 1940, 32 states and the District of Columbia observed the Thanksgiving on November 21. 16 states chose November 28th. The conflict finally came to the Congress. On December 26, 1941, Congress passed into law that Thanksgiving would be henceforth the fourth Thursday of November.
Take a look with me at how to reduce anger… anger that would interfere with enjoying life. I believe we can eliminate much of it. One problem with anger is it builds up. It can hide out and hit you when least convenient… and most dangerous. Sometimes, anger is left over from past lessons in life; from lessons that we’ve not completed. Until we can let that anger go — letting go of that futile regret from the past — dropping it like it is too hot or too heavy along with it’s troubles that you don’t need or want… it is too dangerous to react.
STOP … pause… let this lesson sink in.
We mustn’t fail to realize when we’re making life out as though it is in service to our misery. Who will be accountable for the havoc and harmful attitudes, for the burn-out and self-delusion game of blame and shame, guilt, bitterness and resentment?
Let’s put this into perspective real quick.
For simplicity sake… let it go whenever possible… view the signs and the symptoms of anger as stimulating your foresight that there are some hurdles ahead… challenges and hurdles yet just ahead that you’ll want to overcome with patience and your good character.
Sensation, emotion, feeling, and thoughts are reactions to perception, to belief and to conditioning associated with fear, insecurity, worry, sadness, frustration, etc… any of which may trigger, by way of failing to accept circumstance, situation or conditions, contracted agreements, commitments, and so forth. The pressures of carrying on with anger may generally dim the light of higher awareness.
Accept what is. Find or return to a simple relaxed comfortable presence if possible, as soon as possible. Living in the now is the wisdom way. Peace and serenity is necessary if you want to fully resolve stressing and trying urgency… those trying problems that just can’t wait can usually wait for you to collect yourself together so you can give it your best.
Meantime, in between, mightn’t you consider this: work on unloading some stored up anger… we all have some… try it — it works for anyone that can read and follow directions.
First, its important to acknowledge that we all need to delve into problems like unresolved anger — already knowing that identifying and working on solutions is going to be our best bet. Here’s how to do it:
The solution always will involve making a change; and in the case of unresolved anger that change is going to come about with knowing how the story is infecting us with living in the past — how the past is being perceived — revisiting the anger story.
I always say a prayer first — asking God to unblock me from my frustrations and from my negative emotions (being specific if I can). I next focus on something or someone that I absolutely love like my son or my dog. After I have a feeling of positive energy, I begin to state my problem and work out a comprehensive solution. A solution is unlikely until finding a peaceful presence in self. .
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The remainder of this particular post is helpful mainly for delving into unresolved anger — when able and ready to move on. This isn’t the last word on dealing with anger. I do want to start off to focus on anger that we can purge and that is from whatever can be finished with; getting it out of the way will make room for positive emotions. If you use the techniques from this post, you can probably resolve a lot of resentment problems and thus free up more energy for happier living. I’ll post another time to cover the daily trials of living with toxic spiritually sick persons. That is a bit more involved but this material helps there too.
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Unresolved Anger
Read the question, the answer, and also watch the videos.
source: Ask Deepak (Deepak Chopra) and Deepak Youtube videos
Question: I’m curious about what advice you could share with me about dealing with anger. I recently turned 30, I am single, no babies and live in Arizona.
I live a little life, but I am overcome with huge anger. It started after a devastating break up about 5 years ago. For an entire year after that break up I COMPLETELY shut down. I was not the same person anymore. I became very depressed, suicidal and isolated.
Although I somehow got through that period and I now have a new love, a wonderful love in my life, why am I still so angry?
There are many triggers that set me off; from someone cutting me off while driving to something non-significant like not finding a pen when I need one. I punch the wall, throw a tantrum; scream. I never was this type of person. Never. Not even as a child.
Now as I am getting a little older, I DO NOT want to spend the rest of my days this way. So many others around the world are suffering from starvation, disease, abuse; so many are in far worse circumstances than myself. So what’s my problem?
Why is it so hard for me to deal with my anger? I get plenty of sleep, I exercise, I eat right. Unfortunately, with no health insurance, I cannot speak with a mental health professional.
Answer: You need to address the underlying belief holding your old anger in place. You are holding on to the belief that you were wronged by the break-up, that you were victimized by his unfair behavior and that you did not deserve to be treated that way.
So now even though the ending of that relationship has allowed you to find a loving relationship, you are still held in the old anger because you insist on the story of the old relationship in terms of injustice, instead of seeing it as a positive step toward a lasting love.
It is your self-image as a victim that feels justified in holding on to this anger. Unfortunately, you are only hurting yourself.
Make a long list of all the positive things that have happened to you since the break-up that would not have occurred if you two were still together. List all the ways you have become stronger and have grown inside since then. You certainly deserve all these good things that have happened to you and the ways you have matured.
Perhaps your story that the break-up was a bad thing is not completely true. If it was what needed to happen for both of you to move ahead in your lives, then it’s pointless to blame anyone or hold onto anger and resentment. Admit to yourself that you really don’t know whether the break-up was right and wrong in the context of your whole life. So, maybe you’ll discover that the story of him being the bad guy and you as the good guy who was wrongly victimized isn’t really helping you.
Create a new story based on the actual positive events that have happened lately to replace the old story. You don’t have to pretend that everything that happened was for the best, you only need to allow that your ego doesn’t really know what is right or justice in this case.
From there you can recognize that your higher self or cosmic intelligence has still led you forward in life.
Learning to trust this loving force of evolution can be your new story.
When you start to see your life this way, your belief in the old you as a weak victim lashing out at injustice will fade away. You will let go of the anger and start to appreciate the love and beauty around you.
~ Love, Deepak
Program Description
Above, video one is what you need to learn about in order to be able to work on anger. Video two is the solution. No matter how big the challenge, spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra says, a four-step process can help you solve the problem at hand. Learn how the STOP method can help you overcome any obstacle. In summary: Any time you have a problem you are in contracted awareness (habitual anxieties — instinctual — egoism — fearful) and that influences 1) perceptions, 2) expectations, 3) assumptions, 4) beliefs, 5) moods and feelings. Contracted awareness brings about problems.
Any time you have a problem, question and evaluate all of those five areas.
How do you shift away from the anger or hurt and to a healthy level of awareness?
Go to your feelings and remember to STOP!
S T O P. Stop to evaluate, Transform your mood, Observe the sensations in your body and images in your mind and Proceed with kindness and compassion.
As you move into a higher level of awareness, solutions will start to emerge.
Here is a much longer lesson given by Deepak shortly after his new book “Spiritual Solutions” hit the marketplace — if you have time.
Program Description
The most fundamental fact of existence is not the universe nor even space, time or gravity, but that we are aware of the universe, Deepak Chopra, author (Spiritual Solutions, 2012 and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, 1994 and others) and co-author of over 60 books on spirituality and mind-body connections, told a National Press Club luncheon audience April 4, 2012.
___ ___ ___ ___ Letting go of resentments — grudges and painful bitterness felt as a result of a real or imagined wrong — means making self available to a higher expanded awareness of compassion, kindness and peace. Even if not a believer in God, the spiritual essence of these benefits is available.
Thanks for learning with me. There is lots more to discover — so, come back often.
Program Description
If happiness is an inner state, influenced by external conditions but not dependent on them, how can we achieve it? Matthieu Ricard presents factors that generally may increase or decrease well-being, happiness, authenticity, compassion, peace, and joy.
Happiness and joy may stimulate compassion and compassion may stimulate happiness and joy. This is ideal. This may then be noticed to be increasing positive energy, empathy, pro-social behavior, and the change within may serve as the kernel of an evolving moral-ethical framework.
Matthieu Ricard is a scientist turned Buddhist monk and a best selling author, translator, and photographer. He has lived and studied in the Himalayas for more than 35 years.
This recording is from Google Tech Talks in March of 2007
60 minutes Youtube watch?v=L_30JzRGDHI
A wellness approach in learning: act as though we don’t yet know anything more important — eliminate the inner ego voice from learning.
I pray to be released from any responsibility for making judgments and to learn as though this is all new to me. Later, I’ll review the important lesson again. Always when material is important in my life, I review the material many times.
Starting off into a new day, there is something to learn and something to share — what that is comes to me with my morning meditation — I don’t really even think about it until it comes — I remind myself, “This is my wonderful journey of self discovery. Love envelopes me and the gentle waves of peaceful waters and the light shine from my mind into the world around me.” As I face myself in honesty, open to guiding spirit, I turn my life over to God and I ask Him to allow me to do whatever I may to do His will — Thy Will, not mine be done.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama says “in today’s secular world, religion alone is no longer adequate as a basis for ethics… any religion-based answer to the problem of our neglect of inner values can never be universal, and so will be inadequate.” My religion practice is rooted in utmost fondness and enthusiasm in me. I love Jesus and being Christian. I also love all others as best I am able and this is certainly a growing condition in me, prompted by my love of Jesus’s words that make clear that we are to love God with all of our being and also love others as we would be loved. I realize that my world around me is a secular world where my religion is separate from societal norms and therefore that I must involve myself with others in ways that make me attractive; not by promoting my religion. I am to be a channel for love.
I hope that this lesson is helpful for you in your life of spiritual enlightenment — awakening the skill to foster well-being and for freedom, mastery of living in moments of serenity, inner peacefulness, joyfulness, and of course for sharing happiness.
Chopra: “Life is a field of unlimited possibilities.“
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Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals. Success is the ability to fulfill your desires with effortless ease. And yet success, including the creation of wealth, has always been considered to be a process that requires hard work, and it is often considered to be at the expense of others. We need a more spiritual approach to success and to affluence, which is the abundant flow of all good things to you. With the knowledge and practice of spiritual law, we put ourselves in harmony with nature and create with carefulness, joy, and love.
All of creation… everything that exists in the physical world, is the result of the unmanifest transforming itself into the manifest. Everything that we behold comes from the unknown. Our physical body, the physical universe — anything and everything that we can perceive through our senses — is the transformation of the unmanifest, unknown, and invisible into the manifest, known, and visible.
The physical universe is nothing other than the Self curving back within Itself to experience itself as spirit, mind, and physical matter. In other words, all processes of creation are processes through which the Self or divinity expresses Itself. Consciousness in motion expresses itself as the objects of the universe in the eternal dance of life.
The source of all creation is divinity (or the spirit); the process of creation is divinity in motion (or the mind); and the object of creation is the physical universe (which includes the physical body).
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These three components of reality — spirit, mind, and body, or observer, the process of observing, and the observed — are essentially the same thing. They all come from the same place: the field of pure potentiality which is purely unmanifest.
The physical laws of the universe are actually this whole process of divinity in motion, or consciousness in motion. When we understand these laws and apply them in our lives, anything we want can be created, because the same laws that nature uses to create a forest, or a galaxy, or a star, or a human body can also bring about the fulfillment of our deepest desires.
Now let’s look over The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and see how we can apply them in our lives.
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In the beginning there was neither existence nor non-existence.
All this world was unmanifest energy . . .
The One breathed,
without breath, by Its own power.
Jesus — we will not forget
who you are
and what you’ve done for us.
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“Where You Go I Go”
Where You go I go What You say I say What You pray I pray What You pray I pray
[repeat]
Jesus only did what He saw You do He would only say what he heard You speak He would only move when He felt You lead Following Your heart, following Your spirit How could I expect to walk without You When every move that Jesus made was in surrender
I will not begin to live without You For You alone are worthy, You are always good You are always good
Where You go I go What You say I say God What You pray I pray What You pray I pray Though the world sees and soon forgets We will not forget who you are And what you’ve done for us, what you’ve done for us
13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
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This is simple: If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. In other words, repent and believe that Jesus is the Son of God and you are then grated the promise of eternal life.
Concentration – be acknowledging
1. accept or admit the existence or truth of [Jesus] as divine
2. recognize the importance or quality of the indwelling of Holy Spirit
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How to acknowledge Christ
Luke 12:8-12 “I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
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Science too demonstrates spirituality
Andrew Newberg
The front part of the brain, which is usually involved in focusing attention and concentration, is more active during meditation. This makes sense since meditation requires a high degree of concentration. We also found that the more activity increased in the frontal lobe, the more activity decreased in the parietal lobe.
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As a result of sin, we imagine God’s anger and judgment. Thus, we fear wrath — the only just punishment for sins committed against an infinite and eternal God is an infinite punishment/death (Romans 6:23 and Revelation 20:11-15).
That is why we need our Savior. Jesus was born on Earth and then died in our place. He descended to Hell. His death was payment for all sins (2 Corinthians 5:21 and Romans 5:8). Upon resurrection we have the proof that His death was sufficient to pay the penalty for all sins.
Suddenly, a new clarity is available in these revelations.
Jesus is Savior (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
God isn’t about punishment.
God is forgiveness and God is by His grace bringing us to think about and to want forgiveness. God is love and God wants us to know only about His divine love. We will forget all that is unreal. We will not recall that we’d thought that God would punish us for hate. Hate isn’t real; never was.
In a moment once, when I looked into my mirror, I saw that hate is an illusion. I saw that upon receiving forgiveness, hate is like a pencil mark that is erased as though it never were because indeed it never really was there. It was fear.
I looked past what I thought was fear and that too faded away into nothingness. Fear too was unreal.
Everything that is eternal flowed through me at that moment. I liked that moment. I practice that moment; because it is real.
I know, there IS a universal moment when there is only eternal joyfulness; that is real; and there, in that moment is every moment that ever will be; eternally real. That moment holds us in space-time until there is no other moment in the the awareness of all that is and ever was to be spiritual.
I pray we will all see this reality that I enjoy sharing about. I pray that God will dwell in us all; every one of us. We will rejoin Him in His reality. All that is illusion will be no more; it never was. This is my strength. This I know. There is all knowledge here in that one eternal moment that is all about us and every-how creating the real us.
Excerpts from
The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success
by Deepak Chopra
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Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals. Success is the ability to fulfill your desires with effortless ease. And yet success, including the creation of wealth, has always been considered to be a process that requires hard work, and it is often considered to be at the expense of others. We need a more spiritual approach to success and to affluence, which is the abundant flow of all good things to you. With the knowledge and practice of spiritual law, we put ourselves in harmony with nature and create with carefulness, joy, and love.
All of creation, everything that exists in the physical world, is the result of the unmanifest transforming itself into the manifest. Everything that we behold comes from the unknown. Our physical body, the physical universe — anything and everything that we can perceive through our senses — is the transformation of the unmanifest, unknown, and invisible into the manifest, known, and visible.
The physical universe is nothing other than the Self curving back within Itself to experience itself as spirit, mind, and physical matter. In other words, all processes of creation are processes through which the Self or divinity expresses Itself. Consciousness in motion expresses itself as the objects of the universe in the eternal dance of life.
The source of all creation is divinity (or the spirit); the process of creation is divinity in motion (or the mind); and the object of creation is the physical universe (which includes the physical body).
These three components of reality — spirit, mind, and body, or observer, the process of observing, and the observed — are essentially the same thing. They all come from the same place: the field of pure potentiality which is purely unmanifest.
The physical laws of the universe are actually this whole process of divinity in motion, or consciousness in motion. When we understand these laws and apply them in our lives, anything we want can be created, because the same laws that nature uses to create a forest, or a galaxy, or a star, or a human body can also bring about the fulfillment of our deepest desires.
Now let’s look over The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and see how we can apply them in our lives.
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In the beginning there was neither existence nor non-existence.
All this world was unmanifest energy . . .
The One breathed, without breath, by Its own power.
Nothing else was there . . .
— Hymn of Creation, The Rig Veda
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Thanks for visiting.
Eric
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If you like this, you’ll love this: I previously published more detailed posts.
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
– Lao Tzu
A poor man visited the temple daily.
Even after several years he found no change in his financial conditions. He was thus frustrated and one day, he complained to God for being unfair to him and not paying any heed to his needs.
He cried that he was not even in a position to buy a pair of sandals for himself.
He blamed God for not answering his prayers and vowed never to visit the temple again.
He left the temple in frustration, determined never to pray again. When he was halfway down the stairs, he saw a disabled man walking towards the temple. This man had lost one leg and was walking with the help of crutches.
The poor man could not control his curiosity and questioned the handicapped man, “Why do you come to the temple to pray when you have lost one leg?”
He was astonished to learn that the man had lost his leg in an accident just outside the temple.
He further questioned the man, “Don’t you feel cheated? Don’t you feel dejected that God has been unjust to you?”
The answer he received to this question transformed his thoughts.
The disabled man replied, “Look down my friend. Can you see the man who has lost both his legs? I am very lucky indeed. I met with an accident but lost only one leg. Parmatma (A Supreme Soul beyond knowledge and ignorance, devoid of all material attributes) has bestowed immense grace upon me due to which I still have the ability to walk and commute. The accident was so horrendous that it was impossible for me to survive. I too could have suffered from the same fate of being totally handicapped forever.”
The poor man who could not afford a pair of sandals was stunned at this response. He wondered to himself, this young man is leading a happy life even though he has lost one leg, and I am crying just for a pair of sandals? He is so grateful to God, as he has the ability to count his blessings. I am abled by all means, yet I am merely cursing my life. My greatest poverty is my disability to count my blessings!
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Comparing yourself
to more fortunate others
is a recipe for unhappiness
Counting on blessings that came to others may easily cause us to forget our own and this invites dejection. On the other hand comparing our situations and problems with those less privileged than us, makes us feel grateful and satisfied with what we have. How much we get, what we get, when we get blessings, how we get blessing is all due to our own process. Every individual binds different karma (the causality of future actions) and thus proceeds accordingly. However, we may as well choose how to percept situations fashioning these as the way we like; we can do so as we choose a reaction in every situation. Thus, while there may be no control in what passed, in a new moment, formation of concepts and stored emotion may be according to choice. No karma has the ability to determine our reaction and our perception if we set our precepts. Hence, we may strive to store even what is at first unpleasant as whenever we can and learn to accept whatever we cannot. Train your mind to avoid unhealthy comparison and unhealthy competition. Let’s be realistic — bad karma isn’t going to remove itself — it requires some action on our part. We have minds and hearts and mentors and all sort of Internet articles and so on — we are privileged and greatly blessed.
This actually arises in countless situations. For instance here is a humorous example:
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We are to learn to go with the flow. I have a perfect peaceful morning routine. One day my morning was disrupted. I felt some anger, frustration; Later, I felt disappointed because I didn’t get to do my morning routine. I was feeling stressed from changes to what I do usually. This was a disturbance that could ruin my day, keeping me frustrated for the rest of my the day. I became an observer of my thoughts; I became my self-examiner. I talked to myself. I changed my precept on this situation.
Breathe. When I feel myself getting angry or frustrated, I take a few deep breaths. This is an important step that allows me to get calm. Even to practice this by itself was years ago a great help for me.
Get a fresh perspective. This always helps me. I get upset over something happening and then I begin deep breaths, and take a step back. I focus away from the problem, until whatever happened doesn’t seem so important. Upon the upset of this day, I thought “Tomorrow or a week from now or a year from now, this disruption won’t matter a single bit. No one will care, not even me. So why remain upset about this? Just let it go, and soon it won’t be a big deal.”
Laugh.It helps me to see things as funny, rather than frustrating. I realize that its funny to act as though I am in control. Its hilarious. So, I bring myself to see the absurdity of acting as though I am being wronged. I can usually have things my way because I am accepting and peaceful and realistic. However, I cannot keep everything going my way just because I want to deserve this. I am a very small part in a vastly supermassive universe. I must change myself when things are beyond my control. Its either enjoy the ability to make choices about how I feel and think about some necessary changes or be upset. So, I laugh at myself.
Be reminded that this is perfection. The world is perfectly beautiful, as it is. Life is not static. There is a flow of change — things are never staying the same — perfection in our universe is moving from one moment to another moment — always — getting complex and more diverse and more beautiful. There is beauty in everything around me. So, I remember to see my life as perfect, just as it is — right now, in the flow. Recall, I already conditioned myself with the earlier relaxation breathing, thinking and laughing.
Accept what is beyond control and change what is not. It was my upset. I have the ability to do something to change my upsets. I cannot change the fact of what already happened. So, that day, I did what was best for me. I changed how I was thinking.
I go to a happy peaceful memory place in my head and then I get peaceful again and when I am calm and relaxed its much better for me and I can solve my problem without the ruin of my day. Sometimes, as with that day’s household problem, it involves getting an expert. Sometimes problems take days or weeks to get squared away. Some problems are longer lasting or even permanent or life threatening. Nonetheless, its my choice as to how I’ll either adapt or increase my suffering.
I’m working on reducing the suffering for me and for others — and for you.
Discover your divinity, find your unique talent, serve humanity with it, and begin to experience your life as a miraculous expression of divinity — not just occasionally, but all the time. You are to know true joy and the true meaning of success — the ecstasy and exultation of your own spirit.
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Everyone has a purpose in life
….
a unique gift
or special talent
to give to others.
And when we blend this unique talent
with service to others,
we experience the ecstasy
and exultation of our own spirit,
which is
the ultimate goal
of all goals.
When you work
you are a flute
through whose heart
the whispering of the hours
turns to music.
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth
with threads drawn
from your heart,
even as if
your beloved were to wear that cloth
….
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
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This is the seventh Deepak Chopra law for success from his book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.
If you’d like,
open the series
from its beginning point
or continue along from here.
Each skill builds on the previous skill.
If you want to make maximum use of the Law of Purpose, then you will make several commitments. The first commitment is: I am going to seek my higher self, which is beyond my ego, through spiritual practice.
The second commitment is: I am going to discover my unique talents, and finding my unique talents, I am going to enjoy myself, because the process of enjoyment occurs when I go into timeless awareness. That’s when I am in a state of bliss.
The third commitment is: I am going to ask myself how I am best suited to serve humanity.
According to this law, you have a unique talent and a unique way of expressing your specific talent. There is something that you can do better than most anyone else in the world — and for every unique talent and unique expression of that talent, there are also unique needs. When these needs are matched with the creative expression of your talent, that is the spark that makes you right to fulfill your purpose.
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I will put the Law of Purpose (Dharma) into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:
(1) Today I will pay attention to the spirit within me that animates both my body and my mind. I will awaken myself to this deep stillness within my heart. I will carry the consciousness of timeless, eternal Being in the midst of time-bound experience.
(2) I will make a list of my unique talents. Then I will list all the things that I love to do while expressing my unique talents. When 1 express my unique talents and use them in the service of humanity, I lose track of time and create abundance in my life as well as in the lives of others.
(3) I will ask myself daily, “How can I serve?” and “How can I help?” The answers to these questions will allow me to help and serve my fellow human beings with love.
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Summary of the 7 Laws The universal mind choreographs everything that is happening in billions of galaxies with elegant precision and unfaltering intelligence. Its intelligence is ultimate and supreme, and it permeates every fiber of existence. Everything that is alive is an expression of this intelligence.
Every cell has its birth in the Law of Pure Potentiality. DNA is a perfect example of pure potentiality; in fact, it is the material expression of pure potentiality. The same DNA existing in every cell expresses itself in different ways in order to fulfill the unique requirements of that particular cell. Each cell also operates through the Law of Giving. A cell is alive and healthy when it is in a state of balance and equilibrium. This state of equilibrium is one of fulfillment and harmony, but it is maintained by a constant give and take. Each cell gives to and supports every other cell, and in turn is nourished by every other cell. The cell is always in a state of dynamic flow and the flow is never interrupted. In fact, the flow is the very essence of the life of the cell. And only by maintaining this flow of giving is the cell able to receive and thus continue its vibrant existence.
The Law of Cause and Effect is exquisitely executed by every cell, because built into its intelligence is the most appropriate and precisely correct response to every situation as it occurs. The Law of Least Effort is also exquisitely executed by every cell in the body: it does its job with quiet efficiency in the state of restful alertness.
Through the Law of Intention and Desire, every intention of every cell harnesses the infinite organizing power of nature’s intelligence. Even a simple intention such as metabolizing a molecule of sugar immediately sets off a symphony of events in the body where precise amounts of hormones have to be secreted at precise moments to convert this molecule of sugar into pure creative energy.
Of course, every cell expresses the Law of Detachment. It is detached from the outcome of its intentions. It doesn’t stumble or falter because its behavior is a function of life-centered, present-moment awareness.
Each cell also expresses the Law of Dharma. Each cell must discover its own source, the higher self; it must serve its fellow beings, and express its unique talents. Heart cells, stomach cells, and immune cells all have their source in the higher self, the field of pure potentiality. And because they are directly linked to this cosmic computer, they can express their unique talents with effortless ease and timeless awareness. Only by expressing their unique talents can they maintain both their own integrity and the integrity of the whole body.
The internal dialogue of every cell in the human body is, “How can I help?” The heart cells want to help the immune cells, the immune cells want to help the stomach and lung cells, and the brain cells are listening to and helping every other cell. Every cell in the human body has only one function: to help every other cell.
By looking at the behavior of the cells of our own body, we can observe the most extraordinary and efficient expression of The Seven Spiritual Laws. This is the genius of nature’s intelligence.
In the series, I used descriptions and text from Chopra almost exclusively — because his work works as he wrote it. I just want to add this:
This is the language of God. If you begin with this and prayers and meditation to build a positive inner serene peaceful outlook then you are on your way to a deep understanding of the profound mysteries in life. The miracles — the seemingly supernatural occurrences — are natural — not really so unusual; not at all. If your science or if your education tells you otherwise, let it go — it may be flawed. You don’t need it if it isn’t bringing you inner peace, happiness, joy, and freedom to be who you are intended to be. The realization that you can be, do, and have the genuine you is extraordinary and exhilarating. Listen to your heart and when it tells you to get more positive, do that. You are meant to know your maker. This series is only about love. Do it that way.
Now… my favorite thing – some upbeat music and singing:
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Oh we are mirrors in the sun and we brightly shine
We are singing and dancing in perfect time
There is nothing in the world that we can do
To stop the light of love come shining through
And the fire of a newborn moment is shining round you
Kiele aloha
Hey, a perfect stranger, a feeling of you,
Kiele aloha
Hey, come be with me for we are, we are, we are
Perfect mirrors in the sun and we brightly shine
We are singing and dancing in perfect time
There is nothing in the world that we can do
To stop the light of love come shining through
And the fire of a golden light is shining round you
Kiele aloha
Hey, the wind is cold, and I long to hold you
Kiele aloha
Hey, come be with me for we are, we are, we are
We are perfect mirrors in the sun and we brightly shine
We are singing and dancing in perfect time
There is nothing in the world that we can do
To stop the light of love come shining through
And the streets are filled with bells, and the sky was falling Kiele aloha
There are so many things I long to tell you, can you here me calling
Kiele aloha
Hey, come be with me for we are, we are, we are
We are perfect mirrors in the sun and we brightly shine
We are singing and dancing in perfect time
There is nothing in the world that we can do
To stop the light of love come shining through
We are mirrors in the sun and we brightly shine
We are singing and dancing in perfect time
There is nothing in the world that we can do
To stop the light of love come shining through
We are mirrors in the sun and we brightly shine
We are singing and dancing in perfect time
There is nothing in the world that we can do
To stop the light of love come shining through
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Thanks for visiting. I hope this post will help us all be loving of ourselves and others.
The name of my blog, “Life as a Garden” is about living our life the way we care for a garden. Strong healthy gardens start with the soil. Good soil will produce strong healthy plants. We carefully plant, water and weed day in and day out. We make sure there is enough sun, and get rid of the pests. We watch over this garden doing whatever needs to be done to produce good crops. But when it pertains to our own life we are sometimes careless gardeners. We need to treat our life as if it were a garden. And just like a garden, it’s a daily ritual.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could go through a day, or even a whole week without feeling fear, guilt, regret and longing? It would be great not having one or all of these feelings bubble up to the top and flow over…
One of the best prayers is for God’s blessings and peace to be upon those whom we love and care for. I think it wise even to pray for enemies. God’s blessings come upon us in one way or another. For me, I just think it best to pray for His will and get out of the way if necessary.
Taking action to be a blessing for others in need is a loving act.
How can your talents and gifts bless others?
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I worked during December 2013 to post content for self-improvement. In January 2014, I’ll be posting topics related to how we can improve the world. I hope you’ll come back often — there is more to be discovered.
They prayed whenever they could find 15 minutes. “Preacher Man”, as we called him, would read from the Bible with his tiny round glasses. It was the only book he had ever read. A dozen or so others would listen, silently praying while stroking rosaries, sitting on bare mattresses, crammed into a half-painted dorm room.
I was the outsider, a 16-year-old working on a summer custodial crew for a local college, saving money to pay for my escape from my hometown. The other employees, close to three dozen, were working to feed themselves, to feed their kids, to pay child support, to pay for the basics of life. I was the only white, everyone else was African-American.
Preacher Man tried to get me to join the prayer meetings, asking me almost daily. I declined, preferring to spend those small work breaks with some of the other guys on the crew. We would use the time to snatch a quick drink or maybe smoke a joint.
Preacher Man would question me, “What do you believe in?” I would decline to engage, out of politeness. He pressed me. Finally I broke, “I am an atheist. I don’t believe in a God. I don’t think the world is only 5,000 years old, I don’t think Cain and Abel married their sisters!”
Preacher Man’s eyes narrowed. He pointed at me, “You are an APE-IEST. An APE-IEST. You going to lead a life of sin and end in hell.”
Three years later I did escape my town, eventually receiving a PhD in physics, and then working on Wall Street for 20 years. A life devoted to rational thought, a life devoted to numbers and clever arguments.
During that time I counted myself an atheist and nodded in agreement as a wave of atheistic fervor swept out of the scientific community and into the media, led by Richard Dawkins.
I saw some of myself in him: quick with arguments, uneasy with emotions, comfortable with logic, able to look at any ideology or any thought process and expose the inconsistencies. We all picked on the Bible, a tome cobbled together over hundreds of years that provides so many inconsistencies. It is the skinny 85lb (35.6kg) weakling for anyone looking to flex their scientific muscles.
I eventually left my Wall Street job and started working with and photographing homeless addicts in the South Bronx. When I first walked into the Bronx I assumed I would find the same cynicism I had towards faith. If anyone seemed the perfect candidate for atheism it was the addicts who see daily how unfair, unjust, and evil the world can be.
None of them are. Rather they are some of the strongest believers I have met, steeped in a combination of Bible, superstition, and folklore.
The first addict I met was Takeesha. She was standing near the high wall of the Corpus Christi Monastery. We talked for close to an hour before I took her picture. When we finished, I asked her how she wanted to be described. She said without any pause, “As who I am. A prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God.”
Takeesha was raped by a relative when she was 11. Her mother, herself a prostitute, put Takeesha out on the streets at 13, where she has been for the last 30 years. She told me “It’s sad when it’s your mother, who you trust, and she was out there with me, but you know what kept me through all that? God. Whenever I got into the car, God got into the car with me.”
Sonya and Eric, heroin addicts who are homeless, have a picture of the Last Supper that moves with them. It has hung in an abandoned building, it has hung in a sewage-filled basement, and now it leans against the pole in the small space under the interstate where they live.
Sarah, 15 years on the streets, wears a cross around her neck. Always.
Michael, 30 years on the streets, carries a rosary in his pocket. Always.
In any crack house, in the darkest buildings empty of all other furnishings, a worn Bible can be found laying flat amongst needles, caps, lighters, and crack pipes.
Takeesha and the other homeless addicts are brutalized by a system driven by a predatory economic rationalism (a term used recently by J. M. Coetzee in his essay: On Nelson Mandela). They are viewed by the public and seen by almost everyone else as losers.
Just “junkie prostitutes” who live in abandoned buildings. They have their faith because what they believe in doesn’t judge them.
Who am I to tell them that what they believe is irrational? Who am I to tell them the one thing that gives them hope and allows them to find some beauty in an awful world is inconsistent? I cannot tell them that there is nothing beyond this physical life. It would be cruel and pointless.
In these last three years, out from behind my computers, I have been reminded that life is not rational and that everyone makes mistakes. Or, in Biblical terms, we are all sinners.
We are all sinners. On the streets the addicts, with their daily battles and proximity to death, have come to understand this viscerally. Many successful people don’t. Their sense of entitlement and emotional distance has numbed their understanding of our fallibility.
Soon I saw my atheism for what it is: an intellectual belief most accessible to those who have done well.
I look back at my 16-year-old self and see Preacher Man and his listeners differently.
I look at the fragile women praying and see a mother working a minimum wage custodial job, trying to raise three children alone. Her children’s father off drunk somewhere.
I look at the teenager fingering a small cross and see a young woman, abused by a father addicted to whatever, trying to find some moments of peace.
I see Preacher Man himself, living in a beat up shack without electricity, desperate to stay clean, desperate to make sense of a world that has given him little.
They found hope where they could.
I want to go back to that 16-year-old self and tell him to shut up with the “see how clever I am attitude.” I want to tell him to appreciate how easy he had it, with a path out. A path to riches.
I also see Richard Dawkins differently. I see him as a grown up version of that 16-year-old kid, proud of being smart, unable to understand why anyone would believe or think differently from himself. I see a person so removed from humanity and so removed from the ambiguity of life that he finds himself judging those who think differently.
I see someone doing what he claims to hate in others. Preaching from a selfish vantage point.
So, there is a lesson here in this. Chris Arnade notes: “I see someone doing what he claims to hate in others. Preaching from a selfish vantage point.” Really — contrasting views is a good thing. Intolerance is wrong (or sinful – sin: missing the point).
Let’s not forget that suffering is real. Let’s not forget that what people believe is real to them and they have reasons for holding their beliefs.
As for Richard Dawkins, I see him as making a living debating science verses religion. Its odd to me that he’d do this. However, he seems to be enjoying himself and not at anyone’s great expense really. He’s actually been instrumental for many Christians to take up learning about biology, evolution and so on. It seems basically healthy, I think. Dawkins is the Satan of science in some minds. He’s just a bit militant it seems to others. I just marvel at how he tempers his superior brashness lately. That was a fault I held onto for a long while.
Maybe Chris Arnade is a bit resentful. Still, he’s moved me with his story. There’s Chris the Wall Street guy turned photographer of the homeless. He’s seeing things differently. He’s working on seeing himself through the world of the lost people.
I eat a slice of humble pie still sometimes. I think we’re best off practicing humility, honesty, working on being open to learn, and being willing to change.
Life’s too complex to have it all right. Yet, loving myself, no matter what, is essential.
I think we all need to see the world through the lens of our loving selves. When I love myself and see myself in others, I’m growing.
One of my most profound life lessons was to practice seeing that we are mirrors for each other.
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Thanks for visiting. I hope this post will help us all be loving of ourselves and others.
Deepak Chopra observes in his book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, that desperate striving isn’t necessary or even desirable. To the contrary, this law says that in order to acquire anything in the physical universe, you have to relinquish your attachment to it.
This doesn’t mean that you must give up the intention to create your desire.
You give up your attachment to the result.
This is a very powerful thing to do.
The moment you relinquish your attachment to the result, combining one-pointed intention with detachment at the same time, you will have that which you desire. Anything you want can be acquired through detachment, because detachment is based on the unquestioning belief in the power of your true Self. Attachment comes from poverty consciousness, because attachment is always to symbols.
From his book, “The 7 Laws of Spiritual Success“ — Chopra lays out another of seven laws of spiritual success — The Law of Detachment — one each day is recommended.
If you’d like, open the series from its beginning point or continue along here, the sixth day in the series. Each skill builds on the previous skill.
Detachment is synonymous with wealth consciousness, because with detachment there is freedom to create. True wealth consciousness is the ability to have anything you want, anytime you want, and with least effort.
In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty . . . in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning. And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe.
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Put the Law of Detachment into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:
1. Today I will commit myself to detachment. I will allow myself and those around me the freedom to be as they are. I will not rigidly impose my idea of how things should be. I will not force solutions on problems, thereby creating new problems. I will participate in everything with detached involvement.
2. Today I will factor in uncertainty as an essential ingredient of my experience. In my willingness to accept uncertainty, solutions will spontaneously emerge out of the problem, out of the confusion, disorder, and chaos. The more uncertain things seem to be, the more secure I will feel, because uncertainty is my path to freedom. Through the wisdom of uncertainty, I will find my security.
3. I will step into the field of all possibilities and anticipate the excitement that can occur when I remain open to an infinity of choices. When I step into the field of all possibilities, I will experience all the fun, adventure, magic, and mystery of life.
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December is self-improvement month at this blog — let’s all get in touch with our best true selves and make this our month to end the year at our best. I’ll feature lots of content to improve the inner and outer us. Check back frequently.
or whatever is the new you of your making today.
Make the best things – you.
I’m always looking for something too – so, I’m ready for anything about the year in review… 2013 Or to Google anything else. The only better source for information is on high. I thank God for you and for my healthy loving personality. It’s a great combo.
Now you are ready… Review 2013 and plan to make a customized you. Here’s to you:
. YAY everybody – I’ll be seeing you in 2014!
Happy healthy, peaceful, safe, prosperous, lovely New Year.
I recall Alan Watts saying that “you cannot go to the place where you are now.” Every memory is a recalling. Even recalling just a few hours ago is a reconstruction of then – eternal life – eternal now – no-conception; non-conceived. It so easy its impossible. I love Eastern dialogs on being non-being. I rebloged a post a bit ago: https://hunt4truth.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/meditate-until-you-see-yourself-in-a-speck-of-dust-in-a-distant-galaxy/ too – it gave a me a belly laugh. It was such a delight to find it. My resolution for the New Year is to let go and be. Perhaps next year I will advance to be non-being. ~ Eric
There are many breathing meditations, and one popular version involves breathing out our disturbing thoughts, distractions, problems etc. in the form of thick smoke and breathing into our heart happiness and blessings in the form of light.*
I find it can be very useful to target this breathing meditation against specific delusions or problems that I’m having, and to breathe in their opponent positive state of mind. It works for any delusion, eg, love vs hatred, renunciation vs attachment, rejoicing vs jealousy. I’ll explain one way I do below, here based on reducing our miserliness and increasing our generosity, its opposite … the meditation is guided below.
First I remind myself that delusions are just thoughts, they have no arms or legs as Shantideva points out, so only harm me insofar as I insist on thinking them, following them, buying into them.
“We have more than five senses, and not everything meets the eye.“
~ Roman Krznaric
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PDF: How Should We Live?
by Roman Krznaric
Publisher: Bluebridge
(December 1, 2013)
Book Description
Twelve universal topics including work, love, and family; time, creativity, and empathy are explored in this book by illuminating the past and revealing the wisdom that people have been missing. Looking to history for inspiration can be surprisingly powerful. In How Should We Live?, cultural thinker Roman Krznaric shares ideas and stories from history each of which sheds invaluable light on decisions made every day. There is much to be learned from the ancient Greeks about the different varieties of love, for example, from the Renaissance about living with passion and facing the realities of death, from various indigenous cultures on bringing up our children, and from Japanese pilgrims on the art of travel. History is usually read for pleasure or for insight into current affairs, but this book is practical history showing that history can teach the art of living, using the past to think about day-to-day life. note: A survey is required to get the free PDF book. .
Probably the greatest investment that I’ve personally made in myself is to work on and develop, deeply, empathy skills. Here is an outstanding video and article that I think you’ll enjoy
The Six Habits of Highly Empathic People
We can cultivate empathy throughout our lives,
says Roman Krznaric — and use it as a radical
force for social transformation.
If you think you’re hearing the word “empathy” everywhere, you’re right. It’s now on the lips of scientists and business leaders, education experts and political activists. But there is a vital question that few people ask: How can I expand my own empathic potential? Empathy is not just a way to extend the boundaries of your moral universe. According to new research, it’s a habit we can cultivate to improve the quality of our own lives.
But what is empathy? It’s the ability to step into the shoes of another person, aiming to understand their feelings and perspectives, and to use that understanding to guide our actions. That makes it different from kindness or pity. And don’t confuse it with the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” As George Bernard Shaw pointed out, “Do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you — they might have different tastes.” Empathy is about discovering those tastes.
The big buzz about empathy stems from a revolutionary shift in the science of how we understand human nature. The old view that we are essentially self-interested creatures is being nudged firmly to one side by evidence that we are also homo empathicus, wired for empathy, social cooperation, and mutual aid.
Over the last decade, neuroscientists have identified a 10-section “empathy circuit” in our brains which, if damaged, can curtail our ability to understand what other people are feeling. Evolutionary biologists like Frans de Waal have shown that we are social animals who have naturally evolved to care for each other, just like our primate cousins. And psychologists have revealed that we are primed for empathy by strong attachment relationships in the first two years of life.
But empathy doesn’t stop developing in childhood. We can nurture its growth throughout our lives — and we can use it as a radical force for social transformation. Research in sociology, psychology, history — and my own studies of empathic personalities over the past 10 years — reveals how we can make empathy an attitude and a part of our daily lives, and thus improve the lives of everyone around us. Here are the Six Habits of Highly Empathic People!
Habit 1: Cultivate curiosity about strangers Highly empathic people (HEPs) have an insatiable curiosity about strangers. They will talk to the person sitting next to them on the bus, having retained that natural inquisitiveness we all had as children, but which society is so good at beating out of us. They find other people more interesting than themselves but are not out to interrogate them, respecting the advice of the oral historian Studs Terkel: “Don’t be an examiner, be the interested inquirer.”
Curiosity expands our empathy when we talk to people outside our usual social circle, encountering lives and worldviews very different from our own. Curiosity is good for us too: Happiness guru Martin Seligman identifies it as a key character strength that can enhance life satisfaction. And it is a useful cure for the chronic loneliness afflicting around one in three Americans.
Cultivating curiosity requires more than having a brief chat about the weather. Crucially, it tries to understand the world inside the head of the other person. We are confronted by strangers every day, like the heavily tattooed woman who delivers your mail or the new employee who always eats his lunch alone. Set yourself the challenge of having a conversation with one stranger every week. All it requires is courage.
Habit 2: Challenge prejudices and discover commonalities We all have assumptions about others and use collective labels — e.g., “Muslim fundamentalist,” “welfare mom” — that prevent us from appreciating their individuality. HEPs challenge their own preconceptions and prejudices by searching for what they share with people rather than what divides them. An episode from the history of US race relations illustrates how this can happen.
Claiborne Paul Ellis was born into a poor white family in Durham, North Carolina, in 1927. Finding it hard to make ends meet working in a garage and believing African Americans were the cause of all his troubles, he followed his father’s footsteps and joined the Ku Klux Klan, eventually rising to the top position of Exalted Cyclops of his local KKK branch.
In 1971 he was invited — as a prominent local citizen — to a 10-day community meeting to tackle racial tensions in schools, and was chosen to head a steering committee with Ann Atwater, a black activist he despised. But working with her exploded his prejudices about African Americans. He saw that she shared the same problems of poverty as his own. “I was beginning to look at a black person, shake hands with him, and see him as a human being,” he recalled of his experience on the committee. “It was almost like being born again.” On the final night of the meeting, he stood in front of a thousand people and tore up his Klan membership card.
Ellis later became a labor organizer for a union whose membership was 70 percent African American. He and Ann remained friends for the rest of their lives. There may be no better example of the power of empathy to overcome hatred and change our minds.
Habit 3: Try another person’s life So you think ice climbing and hang-gliding are extreme sports? Then you need to try experiential empathy, the most challenging — and potentially rewarding — of them all. HEPs expand their empathy by gaining direct experience of other people’s lives, putting into practice the Native American proverb, “Walk a mile in another man’s moccasins before you criticize him.”
George Orwell is an inspiring model. After several years as a colonial police officer in British Burma in the 1920s, Orwell returned to Britain determined to discover what life was like for those living on the social margins. “I wanted to submerge myself, to get right down among the oppressed,” he wrote. So he dressed up as a tramp with shabby shoes and coat, and lived on the streets of East London with beggars and vagabonds. The result, recorded in his book Down and Out in Paris and London, was a radical change in his beliefs, priorities, and relationships. He not only realized that homeless people are not “drunken scoundrels” — Orwell developed new friendships, shifted his views on inequality, and gathered some superb literary material. It was the greatest travel experience of his life. He realized that empathy doesn’t just make you good — it’s good for you, too.
We can each conduct our own experiments. If you are religiously observant, try a “God Swap,” attending the services of faiths different from your own, including a meeting of Humanists. Or if you’re an atheist, try attending different churches! Spend your next vacation living and volunteering in a village in a developing country. Take the path favored by philosopher John Dewey, who said, “All genuine education comes about through experience.”
Habit 4: Listen hard—and open up There are two traits required for being an empathic conversationalist.
One is to master the art of radical listening. “What is essential,” says Marshall Rosenberg, psychologist and founder of Non-Violent Communication (NVC), “is our ability to be present to what’s really going on within — to the unique feelings and needs a person is experiencing in that very moment.” HEPs listen hard to others and do all they can to grasp their emotional state and needs, whether it is a friend who has just been diagnosed with cancer or a spouse who is upset at them for working late yet again.
But listening is never enough. The second trait is to make ourselves vulnerable. Removing our masks and revealing our feelings to someone is vital for creating a strong empathic bond. Empathy is a two-way street that, at its best, is built upon mutual understanding — an exchange of our most important beliefs and experiences.
Organizations such as the Israeli-Palestinian Parents Circle put it all into practice by bringing together bereaved families from both sides of the conflict to meet, listen, and talk. Sharing stories about how their loved ones died enables families to realize that they share the same pain and the same blood, despite being on opposite sides of a political fence, and has helped to create one of the world’s most powerful grassroots peace-building movements.
Habit 5: Inspire mass action and social change We typically assume empathy happens at the level of individuals, but HEPs understand that empathy can also be a mass phenomenon that brings about fundamental social change.
Just think of the movements against slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries on both sides of the Atlantic. As journalist Adam Hochschild reminds us, “The abolitionists placed their hope not in sacred texts but human empathy,” doing all they could to get people to understand the very real suffering on the plantations and slave ships. Equally, the international trade union movement grew out of empathy between industrial workers united by their shared exploitation. The overwhelming public response to the Asian tsunami of 2004 emerged from a sense of empathic concern for the victims, whose plight was dramatically beamed into our homes on shaky video footage.
Empathy will most likely flower on a collective scale if its seeds are planted in our children. That’s why HEPs support efforts such as Canada’s pioneering Roots of Empathy, the world’s most effective empathy teaching program, which has benefited over half a million school kids. Its unique curriculum centers on an infant, whose development children observe over time in order to learn emotional intelligence — and its results include significant declines in playground bullying and higher levels of academic achievement.
Beyond education, the big challenge is figuring out how social networking technology can harness the power of empathy to create mass political action. Twitter may have gotten people onto the streets for Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring, but can it convince us to care deeply about the suffering of distant strangers, whether they are drought-stricken farmers in Africa or future generations who will bear the brunt of our carbon-junkie lifestyles? This will only happen if social networks learn to spread not just information, but empathic connection.
Habit 6: Develop an ambitious imagination A final trait of HEPs is that they do far more than empathize with the usual suspects. We tend to believe empathy should be reserved for those living on the social margins or who are suffering. This is necessary, but it is hardly enough.
We also need to empathize with people whose beliefs we don’t share or who may be “enemies” in some way. If you are a campaigner on global warming, for instance, it may be worth trying to step into the shoes of oil company executives—understanding their thinking and motivations — if you want to devise effective strategies to shift them towards developing renewable energy. A little of this “instrumental empathy” (sometimes known as “impact anthropology”) can go a long way.
Empathizing with adversaries is also a route to social tolerance. That was Gandhi’s thinking during the conflicts between Muslims and Hindus leading up to Indian independence in 1947, when he declared, “I am a Muslim! And a Hindu, and a Christian and a Jew.”
Organizations, too, should be ambitious with their empathic thinking. Bill Drayton, the renowned “father of social entrepreneurship,” believes that in an era of rapid technological change, mastering empathy is the key business survival skill because it underpins successful teamwork and leadership. His influential Ashoka Foundation has launched the Start Empathy initiative, which is taking its ideas to business leaders, politicians and educators worldwide.
The 20th century was the Age of Introspection, when self-help and therapy culture encouraged us to believe that the best way to understand who we are and how to live was to look inside ourselves. But it left us gazing at our own navels. The 21st century should become the Age of Empathy, when we discover ourselves not simply through self-reflection, but by becoming interested in the lives of others. We need empathy to create a new kind of revolution. Not an old-fashioned revolution built on new laws, institutions, or policies, but a radical revolution in human relationships.
I worked during December 2013 to post content for self-improvement. In January 2014, I’ll begin posting on how we can improve the world. I hope you’ll come back often — there is more to be discovered.
And no matter if it was successful, pleasant, meaningful, bad or wasted, it is gone.
Now that you look back maybe you find many things that you would have done differently, many more that you wanted to have done, and many others you regret doing.
But let’s face it, what’s done is done and you can’t change it. There are, however, a few things you can do now (yes, now, in the very end of the year) that can make you look at things from another perspective. That will help you make piece with your past, which will soon be in 2013, and welcome the next year.
1. Accept 2013 with all its ups and downs.
Everything that happened was meant to, and even when you failed and made the wrong choice, you were moving forward by knowing what not to do next time and by…
President George Washington proclaimed Thursday, November 26, 1789 to be “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” 
Eric
Eric
Eric
He blamed God for not answering his prayers and vowed never to visit the temple again.
This doesn’t mean that you must give up the intention to create your desire.
I recall Alan Watts saying that “you cannot go to the place where you are now.” Every memory is a recalling. Even recalling just a few hours ago is a reconstruction of then – eternal life – eternal now – no-conception; non-conceived. It so easy its impossible. I love Eastern dialogs on being non-being. I rebloged a post a bit ago: 
But what is empathy? It’s the ability to step into the 
Highly empathic people (HEPs) have an insatiable curiosity about strangers. They will talk to the person sitting next to them on the bus, having retained that natural inquisitiveness we all had as children, but which society is so good at beating out of us. They find other people more interesting than themselves but are not out to interrogate them, respecting the advice of the oral historian Studs Terkel: “Don’t be an 
We all have assumptions about others and use collective labels — e.g., “Muslim fundamentalist,” “welfare mom” — that prevent us from appreciating their individuality. HEPs challenge their own preconceptions and prejudices by searching for what they share with people rather than what divides them. An episode from the history of US race relations illustrates how this can happen.
So you think ice climbing and hang-gliding are extreme sports? Then you need to try experiential empathy, the most challenging — and potentially rewarding — of them all. HEPs expand their empathy by gaining direct experience of other people’s lives, putting into practice the Native American proverb, “Walk a mile in another man’s moccasins before you criticize him.”
There are two traits required for being an empathic conversationalist.
the Hunt for Truth 