Quote of the Week

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like:
‘If you live each day as if it was your last,
someday you’ll most
certainly be right.’
It made an impression on me, and since
then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every
morning and asked myself:
‘If today were the last day of my
life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’
And whenever the answer has been ‘No’
for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

:: Steve Jobs 1955-2011 ::

Quote of the Week

“Developing a sense of good cheer in the face of adversity, you can specifically use adversity as the support for refuge and true spiritual development. I am discussing how you relate to your suffering, how you relate to your adversity, as it affects you in life and on the path.

Now, as you know, whenever you are suffering by way of the body, speech, and mind, be it physical illness or a mental affliction, this is a very big deal to you. Usually it appears as something major. Even if it’s minor, you make it into some great distress. If you lose a little money or if someone speaks nastily to you, it invokes a strong reaction. This is called “appearances arising as the enemy.” When your habituation to adversity reaches such a point that you actually fall prey to appearances arising as the enemy, it means that you no longer have patience for suffering.

…If you can’t bear the minor aspects of adversity in this, the best rebirth in cyclic existence, the precious human rebirth, what will you do when you’re reborn in the three lower realms? Samsara is so vast, so deep and limitless, and the number of sentient beings within samsara are equal to that. All of them want to be free; all of them desire liberation. You should consider then how unnecessary or pointless it is to think that your small problems in this fortunate life are so great, when in fact they really are not.

Any rebirth in this ocean of cyclic existence will by nature bring this type of discontent or suffering. Since you’ve been in this cycle of rebirths from beginningless time until now and you are still not free, it points out the fact that help is needed. Refuge is necessary. Adversity then becomes the support for training in refuge, which demonstrates that adversity is used to your advantage.”

~ Gyatrul Rinpoche, Meditation, Transformation, and Dream Yoga

Quote of the Week

“But believe you me, it only takes a few years to spend what your fathers and your forefathers have earned.”

~ Dr Lee Siew Choh (1917 – 2002)

Dr. Lee Siew Choh (simplified Chinese: 李绍祖; pinyin: Lǐ Shàozǔ; 1917 – 18 July 2002) was a politician and medical doctor from Singapore. Initially a member of the People’s Action Party (PAP), he became a leader of the breakaway Barisan Sosialis in 1961. After the Barisan Sosialis merged with the Workers’ Party in 1988, Lee stood as a Workers’ Party candidate in the 1988 general election and became Singapore’s first Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP), serving in this role until 1991.

Quote of the Week

“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you will miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see—in the long run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.”

~ Viktor Frankl

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

– Jelaluddin Rumi (Sufi poet, 1207-1273)