Seeds of Intention

“Its better to light a candle than curse at the gathering darkness"

~Anon

"A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song"

~Arabic Proverb

"Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders. "

~Henry David Thoreau

With the strength that we alone can grant ourselves and with the love of one another we are born into, may we recover these seeds of selfless intention;

~Love (mettā, sineha)

~Compassion (karuṇā)

~Gratitude (katannuta)

~Concentration (samādhi)

~Equanimity (upekkhā)

~Mindfulness (Satti)

~Patience (khanti, adhivāsanā)

~Joy (pīti)

~Energy or Effort (vāyāma)

~Un-attachment (nekkhamma) 

~Curiosity (vimhaya, kutūhala)

~Humility (nīcavuttitā, nipaccakāra)

~Quiet Emptiness (śūnyatā)

~Calmness (passaddhi)

Through nurturing these inherent traits the mysterious quality of wisdom may then sprout forth. Only then we can reveal the truth of what we essentially are, and the golden seeds we are born to spread to all beings. In Tao it is called "Te" or your inherent nature and in Buddhism, your "Buddha Nature", in Christianity it is known as “Christ's Heart”. Names matter little, it is enough to know that they lie within and are ever growing upward towards the light.

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightening.
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ectasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and Birth.

-T.S. Eliot - No 2 of The Four Quartets

Mental Vitamins - Part 3

Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

We spend our life fishing only to find out it was not fish we were after.

Henry David Thoreau

Knowledge exists in two forms – lifeless, stored in books, and alive in the consciousness of men.

Albert Einstein, 1949

“My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes most of which have never happened.”

Mark Twain


Do all that you can, with all that you have, in the time that you have, in the place that you are.


Nkosi Johnson - The longest surviving HIV-positive born Child.


All sentient beings developed through natural selection in such a way that pleasant sensations serve as their guide, and especially the pleasure derived from sociability and from loving our families.


Charles Darwin


All joy in this world comes from wanting others to be happy, and all suffering in this world comes from wanting only oneself to be happy.


Shantideva


The education of attention would be an education par excellence


William James (father of American Psychology)

“The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence. But it is easier to define this ideal than to give practical directions for bringing it about.”

William James - The Principles of Psychology 1890

'No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. We need to see the world anew.' 

Albert Einstein


The principal activities of brains are making changes in themselves.


Marvin L. Minsky Phd - Cognitive Scientist

'Insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting the different results' 

 Albert Einstein.

'Some people would rather die than think'. 

Bertrand Russell

'If we always do what we've always done, we will get what we've always got.' 

Adam Urbanski

To arrive at the simplest truth requires years of contemplation.'


Isaac Newton

Complexity creates confusion, simplicity focus.' 

Edward de Bono

'To simplify you have to clarify. Simplification is the new competitive advantage' 

Jack Trout 'Simplicity'

'Our life is frittered away by detail.. simplicity simplicity, simplicity.' 

Henry Thoreau

'Art should simplify.' 

Willa Cather US Novelist

If you can change your mind, you can change the world.' 

Joey Reimer Creativity Guru

'Morpheus: 'I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one who must walk through it' 

The Matrix (Film)

'We will not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.' 

T S Eliot 'Little Gidding'

'Carpenters bend wood fletchers bend arrows; wise men fashion themselves.' 

Buddha

'Do not go where the path may lead; go where there is no path and leave a trail.' 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

'A clever arrangement of bad eggs will never make a good omelet.'


C S Lewis

'Things do not change; we change.' 

Thoreau

'Nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm.' 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

'Men are asleep, they must die before they awake.' 

The Koran

'Custom lies on us heavy as frost'. 

William Wordsworth

'The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you hear what is sounding outside. And only he who listens can speak.' 

Dag Hammarskjold UN

'Be who you are
and say what you feel
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind.' 

Dr Suess

'Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.' 

Anon

'Alice came to a fork in the road. 'Which one will I take?' she asked. 'Where do you want to go?' responded the Cheshire Cat. 'I don't know Alice answered. 'Then', said the cat, 'It doesn't matter.'' 

Alice in Wonderland

'Teachers must be encouraged - I almost said 'freed', to pursue an education that strives for depth of understanding.' 

Howard Gardner

'I was born exited' 

Mark Twain

'The first problem for all of us, men and woman, is not to learn, but to unlearn.' 

Gloria Steinem US Feminist

'To change your reality you have to change your inner thoughts.'

David Bohm Physicist

'Don't just do something, stand there.' 

Zen saying

'Come to the edge', he said.
They said, 'We are afraid'
'Come to the edge', he said
They came
He pushed them... and they flew. 

Guillaume Apollinaire Poet

'After the final no there comes a yes and on that yes the future of the world depends'

Wallace Stevens

'If we don't encourage others to find their own meaning, their own voice, we will never be able to sustain our own. Freedom comes from following you own voice not following another's' 

Peter Block

'Everything depends on the quality of the experience which is had.' 

John Dewey

'Treat people as if they were what they might be, and you will help them become capable of being.' 

Goethe

'Nature is one. It is not divided into physics, chemistry, quantum mechanics.' 


Albert Szent-Gyorgi 

'You have to stand outside the box to see how the box can be re-designed.' 


Charles Handy

I don't give a damn for any man who can spell a word only one way.' 

Mark Twain

'In order for the brain to comprehend the heart must first listen.' 

David Perkins, 'Smart Schools.'

'I will act as if what I do will make a difference.' 

William James

'Wherever you are be there.' 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

'We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.' 

Anais Nin - Author & Poet

'Destiny is not a matter of chance it is a matter of choice.' 

Anon

'Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. You simply 'must do' things.' 

Ray Bradbury

'Imagination is more important than knowledge.' 

Albert Einstein

'It is not the biggest, the brightest or the best that will survive, but those who adapt the quickest.' 

Charles Darwin

'According to Vedanta, there are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don't bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous.'

Deepack Chopra

Mental Vitamins - Part 2

""I hate quotes, tell me what you know"

 - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

 - John Lennon

"If people knew what they would be capable of then they would be incapable of failure"

- Mark Twain

"All knowledge is contingent upon thresholds of perception."

- Gregory Bateson

"Be ambitious enough to be patient

Be patient enough to be good"

- Michael Grinder

"What a man takes in by contemplation, that he pours out in love."

 - Meister Eckhart

"Assume the worst and Expect the best"

- George Faddoul

"Of heaven and hell I have no opinion, for I have friends in both you see."

 - Mark Twain

"Perfection is for the Gods, us mere mortals will settle for excellence"

- Carl Jung

"Loose your mind and come to your senses"

- Unknown

"Time is not a line, but a series of now-points."

 - Taisen Deshimaru

"Neurons that fire together, wire together"

- Rick Hanson

"Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which Nature herself is animated."

 - August Rodin

"Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way"

- Aristotle

"If you want a quality you have to pretend that you have it already"

- William James

"Gratitude is the aristocrat of the Emotions"

- Mark Twain

"Believe that your life is worth living and your beliefs will help create the fact"

- William James

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”

 - Carl Jung

"There are alot of people that think that they can change the world but they cant change themselves"

"Whatever It Takes = WIT"

"There is no one 'out there'"

"There is no failure only feedback"

“Wherever you are, be there.”

“There are no unresourceful people only unresourceful states”

- George Faddoul

"For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

Bible, Proverbs 23:7

"Seek tranquility and you will loose it

Know that it grows within you"

-  Master Po - “Kung Fu Series”

"Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

"The Map is not the Territory"

- Alfred Korzybski /Semanticist

“The young man that has not cried is a savage,

The old man that has not laughed is a fool”

- George Santayanna

“The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering.”

 - Carl Jung

“When grief is fresh, grieve then amusement will take care of the rest over time”

- Samuel Johnston

"Don't surrender your loneliness 

So quickly. 

Let it cut more deeply. 

Let it ferment and season you 

As few human 

Or even divine ingredients can."

Hafez, poet (1315-1390)

“The art of being wise is the art of being able to overlook”

- William James

"Life's not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."

 - Vivian Green

“When the dog bites, and the bee stings remember, these are a few of my favorite things”

- The sound of Music

"For sixty years I have been forgetful every minute, but not for a second has this flowing toward me stopped or slowed."

 - Jelaluddin Rumi

"Release is peace"

- Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha)

"Truth needs no defending"

 - Unknown

"In my defencelessness my safety lies"

 - Unknown