Cerebrations

Excerpt From The Purpose-Driven Life

This blog still breathes. But I've decided now to post ONLY excerpts from books and quotes from forwarded e-mails just to keep it going. Of course, our daily journal is still regularly updated and you can head over there if you want to be in the know.

To start the so-called ball rolling, i'm reposting this wonderful excerpt from the bestseller, The Purpose-Driven Life.

...

Don't date because you are desperate.
Don't marry because you are miserable.
Don't have kids because you think your genes are superior.
Don't philander because you think you are irresistible.

Don't associate with people you can't trust.
Don't cheat. Don't lie. Don't pretend.
Don't dictate because you are smarter.
Don't demand because you are stronger.

Don't sleep around because you think you are old enough and know better.
Don't hurt your kids because loving them is harder.
Don't sell yourself, your family, or your ideals. Don't stagnate!

Don't regress.
Don't live in the past. Time can't bring anything or anyone back.
Don't put your life on hold for possibly Mr/Mrs Right. Don't throw your life away on absolutely Mr Wrong because your biological clock is ticking.

Learn a new skill.
Find a new friend.
Start a new career.
Sometimes, there is no race to be won. Only a price to be paid for some of life's more hasty decisions.

To terminate your loneliness, reach out to the homeless.
To feed your nurturing instincts, care for the needy.
To fulfill your parenting fantasies, get a puppy.
Don't bring another life into this world for all the wrong reasons.

To make yourself happy, pursue your passions and be the best of what you can be.
Simplify your life. Take away the clutter. Get rid of destructive elements: abusive friends, nasty habits, and dangerous liaisons.
Don't abandon your responsibilities but don't overdose on duty.

Don't live life recklessly without thought and feeling for your family.
Be true to yourself.
Don't commit when you are not ready.
Don't keep others waiting needlessly.

Go on that trip. Don't postpone it.
Say those words. Don't let the moment pass.
Do what you have to, even at society's scorn.

Write poetry.
Love Deeply.
Walk barefoot.
Dance with wild abandon.
Cry at the movies.

Take care of yourself. Don't wait for someone to take care of you. You light up your life. You drive yourself to your destination. No one completes you - except YOU.

It is true that life does not get easier with age.
It only gets more challenging.
Don't be afraid. Don't lose your capacity to love.
Pursue your passions.

Live your dreams.
Don't lose faith in your God.
Don't grow old. Just grow YOU!

When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Relationships take time and effort, and the best way to spell love is T-I-M-E because the essence of love is not what we think or do or provide for others, but how much we give of ourselves.

Both Eyes, One Eye

An African proverb states, "Before you get married, keep both eyes open, and after you marry, close one eye."

Before you get involved and make a commitment to someone, don't let lust, desperation, immaturity, ignorance, pressure from others or a low self-esteem make you blind to warning signs.  Keep your eyes open, and don't fool yourself that you can change someone or that what you see as faults aren't really that important.

Once you decide to commit to someone, over time their flaws, vulnerabilities, pet peeves, and differences will become more obvious. If you love your mate and want the relationship to grow and evolve, you've got to learn how to close one eye and not every little thing bother you.

You and your mate have many different expectations, emotional needs, values, dreams, weaknesses, and strengths. You are two unique individual children of God who have decided to share a life together.

~ quoted from an email

Seven Habits of Enlightened Souls

(Notes from a talk by Mike George)

1. Be quiet. Shut off. The source of peace is our own consciousness. It's called the soul, or spirit. It's also what we truly are. As spirit, our original quality is peace. And so it is an inner crime to disturb your own peace. Peace is our truest power, emerging in us only the most beautiful and positive thoughts. We only lose connection with the true self and its qualities because we have believed in false images of ourselves for so long (i.e. ego, anger, vices). Our true work is to remember who we truly are and reconnect with that peace as often as we can through the day. Spend some quiet time in between work and activity. Even at work, stay centered in your power. Stay in your peace.

2. Let go. Don't hold on to anything. Everything in our life comes to go. Everything comes and then moves on. If we cannot release, we cannot receive anything new. Change is the most essential law of life. Learn to detach and allow change to happen.

3. Let be. Accept. Be content. Contentment means understanding that whatever I am doing right now is exactly what I am meant to do. Where I am right now is exactly where I am meant to be. Don't waste your time interfering, commenting or living other people's lives for them. Live your own life. You cannot control others but you can influence a situation. This habit makes you more creative and responsive, and stops you from merely reacting.

4. Listen in. Stop seeking other people's approval. Go deep into the self. Listen to your intuition, your inner wisdom, the inner teacher.

5. Wake up. Eighty percent of our life is lived by habit. Write your habits and strike out those that you don't want. Create the image of your new positive habit and visualize yourself expressing it. For example, if you want to develop the habit of patience, imagine yourself waiting patiently at home or in the office. To "wake up" means to consciously choose our behavior and deliberately create our highest and best personality.

6. Know yourself. Happiness is a decision, not a dependency. Do not depend on external things (i.e. other people, material things, (position)for your selse of self-respect and happiness. Youy are happiness. You are a source of happiness. It is not anything outside of you. People search for love, peace and happiness in external, material and transitory things and relations. But we already have inside us the qualities that we seek.What keeps us away from them are false beliefs about the nature of yourself. The great spiritual leaders, from the Buddha to Jesus to Mohammad, all had one message: Know thy true self.

7. Pass on. Give the gifts of your realization to others. Empower and give life and energy to things that are valuable to you. Share them with others. We are like rivers. Our highest purpose is to nourish creation indiscriminately. Our highest purpose in life is to nourish our fellow travellers in the path. Share with others the gift of wisdom.

There are two false beliefs:

1. We can possess something. The truth is, whatever I have is just for me to use and not to own. I am only a trustee of this idea, this house, this body, or this relationship. Fear of losing someone or something is what kills the world today and has made us vulnerable to so many diseases.But I cannot really own anything. A Buddhist truism goes: If you die before you die, then you won't die when you die. It is easy to let go when you are detached from the external, material things. Real death is to die form the illusion that I can possess anything, be it people, relationships or objects. Real death is to die from selfishness.

2. The Beauty myth. The myth of our society says that beauty can be attained by consuming something. It also says that the greatest beauty is physical. We see women's and men's magazines showing "beautiful" bodies, hinting that you can be like this too if you buy this or wear that. The truth is, real beauty is internal. Inner beauty does not fade the way material things wear out with time and age. Beauty is being filled with the inner light of virtues. True beauty is spritual. It comes from one who is filled with that inner light of awareness of one's true worth and value as an individual. One thing that we all have in common is that we are each unique. I am a unique soul. No one in the world can ever be exactly like me. I am precious. I am one in a million.