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Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony

— Mahatma Gandhi

“One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

One is Negativity. It’s anger, sadness, stress, contempt, disgust, fear, embarrassment, guilt, shame and hate.

The other is Positivity. It’s joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and above all, love.’
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?’

The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed’

“The success of the intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervenor.”

— William O’Brien

“Success is when I add value to myself. Significance is when I add value to others”
— John Maxwell

“To Thine Own Self Be True” – William Shakespeare

The more authentic and honest you are in your interaction with the world, both professionally and personally, the better you will be placed to do the kind of work which will touch others and move their hearts and minds.

— Interpreted by Tom Hiddleston

当一个人极度坦诚，他就已经无坚不摧。—宗萨仁波切

生命只可在目前一刻找到,但我们很少会真心投入此刻。相反地, 我们喜欢追逐 过去或憧憬未来。我们常以为自己就是自己, 而其实我们一直以来都甚少与自己真正接触。我们的心只忙于追逐昨天的回忆和明天的梦想。唯一去与生命重新接触, 就是回到目前这一刻。 只有当你重回这一刻,你才会觉醒过来。而就只有这时, 你才可以找回真我。

Life can be found only in the present moment, but our minds rarely dwell in the present moment. Instead we chase after the past or long for the future. We think we are being ourselves, but in fact we almost never are in real contact with ourselves.

Our minds are too busy chasing after yesterday’s memories or tomorrow’s dreams. The only way to be in touch with life is to return to the present moment. Once you know how to return to the present moment, you will become awakened, and at that moment, you will find your true self.

 — 一行禅师《故道白云》Thích Nhất Hạnh《Old Path White Clouds》 

Decision-makers commonly mistake complex systems for simply complicated ones and look for solutions without realizing that ‘learning to dance’ with a complex system is definitely different from ‘solving’ the problems arising from it. — Roberto Poli

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

— Maya Angelou

“Whenever you have no blueprint to tell you in detail what to do, you must work artfully.”
— Robert D. Austin and Lee Devin, Artful Making, 2003

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you”

—Rumi

“A designer knows perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing more that can be taken away. “

– Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
― Viktor E. Frankl

We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are. – The Talmud

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!” “Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

“Dr. Kristin Neff is a researcher and professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She runs the Self-Compassion Research Lab, where she studies how we develop and practice self-compassion. According to Neff, self-compassion has three elements: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Here are abbreviated definitions for each of these: Self-kindness: Being warm and understanding toward ourselves when we suffer, fail, or feel inadequate, rather than ignoring our pain or flagellating ourselves with self-criticism. Common humanity: Common humanity recognizes that suffering and feelings of personal inadequacy are part of the shared human experience—something we all go through rather than something that happens to “me” alone. Mindfulness: Taking a balanced approach to negative emotions so that feelings are neither suppressed nor exaggerated. We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time. Mindfulness requires that we not “over-identify” with thoughts and feelings, so that we are caught up and swept away by negativity.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

“Taking in the good is not about putting a happy shiny face on everything, nor is it about turning away from the hard things in life. It’s about nourishing well-being, contentment, and peace inside that are refuges you can always come from and return to.”
― Rick Hanson, Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

“YOU HAVE TO BE STRONG ENOUGH TO BE WEAK

Allow yourself to feel whatever you are feeling. Notice any labels you attach to crying or feeling vulnerable. Let go of the labels. Just feel what you are feeling, all the while cultivating moment-to-moment awareness, riding the waves of “up” and “down,” “good” and “bad,” “weak” and “strong,” until you see that they are all inadequate to fully describe your experience. Be with the experience itself. Trust in your deepest strength of all: to be present, to be wakeful.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

“Head Vs Heart:

A crowded mind
Leaves no space
For a peaceful heart”
― Christine Evangelou, Beating Hearts and Butterflies: Poetry of Wounds, Wishes and Wisdom

“Metta is the ability to embrace all parts of ourselves, as well as all parts of the world. Practicing metta illuminates our inner integrity because it relieves us of the need to deny different aspects of ourselves. We can open to everything with the healing force of love. When we feel love, our mind is expansive and open enough to include the entirety of life in full awareness, both its pleasures and its pains, we feel neither betrayed by pain or overcome by it, and thus we can contact that which is undamaged within us regardless of the situation. Metta sees truly that our integrity is inviolate, no matter what our life situation may be.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

FIRE
by Judy Brown
What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.
So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.
When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.
We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way

“It’s not a matter of letting go—you would if you could. Instead of ‘let it go’ we should probably say ‘let it be’.”

— Jon Kabat-Zinn, MD

We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.

–Thich Nhat Hanh

“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.”

–Thich Nhat Hanh in <Being Peace>

暂时逃离无处不在的计划、分析和评判沉浸在当下，感受宁静。就像指挥家托斯卡尼尼说: 我现在正在做的事就是我一生中最重要的事不管是指挥一个交响乐团或是在剥一个橘子。

“When only one man dreams, it is only a dream. But if many men dream together, this is the beginning of a new reality.”

-F. Hundertwasser

Singer 在他的“臣服实验”（Surrender Experiment）一书中，用自己四十年的心灵探索之旅告诉我们：“最好放下自己想要的，让自己服务于创造整个宇宙完美的生命力量。这份力量里蕴藏着智慧和规律，用它来引导自己的生活，并全身心地接纳和体验生活正在向我们展现的一切。

你静，我便长守，决不打扰你的安宁；你热，我便沸腾，决不消弥你的热情；你冷，我便凝固，决不漠视你的寒冷。上善若水，从善如流，如水人生，随缘从众。- 佚名

We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are. – The Talmud

How do you decide your work?

Is it for the Greater Good?
Does it come from a Place of Heart?
Are you working with people who have deep character?
Are you working with people who are committed to action?

-Diana Arsenian

 

你的父母在做一些事情，因为他们是这样被教导出来的。他们也是由父母抚养长大的；他们不是直接从天上派来的。所以，倒推责任有什么意义呢？这无助于解决任何问题。它只会帮助你从罪恶感中解脱出来。这是精神分析中好的部分，有益的部分，它解除你了的愧疚感；而有害的部分是，它不会让你觉得有责任。

我教你承担责任。我所说的责任是什么？你不是要对你的父母负责，你不是要对任何神负责，也不是对任何传教士负责——你要对自己的内在本质负责。

责任就是自由！责任感是一种“我必须把生命的缰绳掌握在自己手中。已经够了！我的父母，无论他们能做什么，他们都做了：好的和坏的，他们同时都做了。现在的我，已经成为一个成熟的人。我应该把一切都掌握在自己的手中，开始以它在我内在出现的方式来生活。我应该把我所有的能量都投入到现在的生活中去。”你会立即感到一股强大的力量向你袭来。

愧疚让你感觉软弱。责任让你感觉坚强。责任再次给你一颗心、信心、信任。

～ 老人家们

 

如果手把食物放进嘴里，
嘴巴应该感谢手吗？
不，它们不是二，而是一。
如果你看到并热爱他人的本质，
那是因为你发现了你自己存在的本质。
这是最纯粹的慈悲。
不是从一个人到另一个人，
而是从一到一。

～ 老人家们

 

在宇宙法则中：给予，就是一切美好的因缘。

不论你伤害谁，就长远来看，你都是伤害到你自己，或许你现在并没有觉知，但它一定会绕回来。凡你对别人所做的，就是对自己做，这是宇宙最伟大的教诲。

不管你对别人做了什么，那个真正接收的人，并不是别人，而是你自己；同理，当你给予他人，当你为别人付出，那个真正获利的也不是别人，而是你自己。

你给别人的，其实是给自己。

 

你接纳你自己，
这使你有能力接纳他人。

因为有人接受了他们，
他们第一次学到了接纳之美——
感觉多么平静——
他们开始接纳别人。

如果整个人类到了一个点，
每个人都如是接纳自己，
几乎百分之九十的痛苦会简单地消失。

～ 老人家们