“Be bold, Be free, Be Beautiful, Believe, Be love, Be true to you,
as far and wide, remember there is someone thinking of you.”

For some more Motivation to get through this journey we call life, we have you covered. If you just like to check out other motivational videos, feel free. Stick around, you may just leave with a smile. Be you, Be Mindful, Be…

Picture credits to http://torontokirtancommunity.blogspot.com/

from the book Aleph by Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist.

If you are interested in learning more about meditation and calming the mind read more on pranayama and breathing exercises. We also featured a series called the 8 Weeks to Happiness, a mental and meditation approach to happiness.

There’s too many things that I haven’t done yet
Too many sunsets
I haven’t seen
You can’t waste the day wishing it’d slow down.

For some more Motivation to get through this journey we call life, we have you covered. If you just like to check out other motivational videos, feel free. Stick around, you may just leave with a smile. Be you, Be Mindful, Be…

“You ask me, my brother, when will man reach
perfection. Hear my answer:
Man approaches perfection when he
feels that he is an infinite space and a sea
without a shore,
An everlasting fire, an unquenchable
light,
A calm wind or a raging tempest, a thundering
sky or a rainy heaven,
A singing brook or a wailing rivulet, a tree abloom
in Spring, or a naked sapling
in Autumn,
A rising mountain or a descending valley,
A fertile plain or a desert.

When man feels all these, he has already
reached halfway to perfection. To attain his goal
he must then perceive
that he is a child dependent upon his mother,
a father responsible for his family,
A youth lost in love,
An ancient wrestling against his past,
A worshipper in his temple, a criminal in
his prison,
A scholar amidst his parchments,
An ignorant soul stumbling between darkness of his
night and the obscurity of his day,
A nun suffering between the flowers of her faith and
the thistles of her loneliness,
A prostitute caught between the fangs of her
weakness and the claws of her needs,
A poor man trapped between his bitterness and his
submission,
A rich man between his greed and his conscience,
A poet between the mist of his twilight and the rays of his dawn.

Who can experience, see, and understand
these things can reach perfection and
become a shadow of God’s Shadow.”

If you would like to read more on yoga, meditation or browse a few other inspirational quotes, feel free.

If you are interested in reading more mindful post, feel free to look around the site, Be you, Be Mindful, Be…

The Dalai Lama is coming to Chicago to give a public talk on non-violence.  From practicing Buddhists to devout Catholics, the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama settle deep into any religious background. It is more of deep truths as oppose to having religious affiliation.

Here is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s response to the question:

What is the most skillful way of dealing with anger and aggression without either submitting to the aggressor or becoming angry and aggressive oneself?

“If you let anger out and just keep expressing it, it is very difficult for this to be helpful. Since the technique itself promotes more anger, it will not bring about any positive result; it will only increase problems. Still, under certain circumstances it may be necessary to take counteraction to stop another’s wrongdoing, but I beleive that such measures can be enacted without anger.

In fact, without anger, the implementation of countermeasures is much more effective than when your main mind is governed by a strong afflictive emotion, because under such influence you may not take the appropriate action. Anger destroys one of the best qualities of the human brain – judgement, the capacity to think, ‘This is wrong,’ and to investigate what the temporary and long-term consequences of an action will be. It is necessary to calculate such circumstances before taking action; free of anger, the power of judgement is better.

It is clear that if in a competitive society you are sincere and honest, in some circumstances people may take advantage of you. If you let someone do so, he or she will be engaging in an unsuitable action and accumulating bad karma that will harm the person in the future. Thus it is permissible, with an altruistic motivation, to take counter-action in order to help the other person from having to undergo the effects of this wrong action in the future.

For instance, wise parents, without any anger, may sometimes scold or even punish their children. This is permissible, but if you really get angry and whack the child too much, then you yourself will feel regret in the future. However, with a good motivation of seeking to correct a child’s bad behavior, it is possible to make a display, to make a show of an expression appropriate to what the child needs at that moment. Responses should be made in that way.”

Excerpt from the The Meaning of Life from a Buddhist Perspective, His Holiness the Dalai Lama translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins

If you are interested in learning more about meditation and calming the mind read more on pranayama and breathing exercises. We also featured a series called the 8 Weeks to Happiness, a mental and meditation approach to happiness.

Here is an excerpt from his teachings on dealing with anger and hatred.

“So, even though under rare circumstances some kinds of anger can be positive, generally speaking, anger leads to ill feeling and hatred. And, as far as hatred is concerned, it is never positive. It has no benefit at all. It is always totally negative.

We cannot overcome anger and hatred simply by suppressing them. We need to actively cultivate the antidotes to hatred: patience and tolerance… In order for you to be able to successfully cultivate patience and tolerance you need to generate enthusiasm, a strong desire to seek it. The stronger your enthusiasm, the greater your ability to withstand the hardships that you encounter in the process. When you are engaged in the practice of patience and tolerance, in reality, what is happening is you are engaged in a combat with hatred and anger.

Since it is a situation of combat, you seek victory, but you also have to be prepared for the possibility of losing that battle. So while you are engaged in combat, you should not lose sight of the fact that in the process, you will confront many problems. You should have the ability to withstand these hardships. Someone who gains victory over hatred and anger through such an arduous process is a true hero.”

Excerpt from the Art of Happiness, His Holiness the Dalai Lama

If you are interested in learning more about meditation and calming the mind read more on pranayama and breathing exercises. We also featured a series called the 8 Weeks to Happiness, a mental and meditation approach to happiness.

“If you maintain a feeling of compassion, loving kindness, then something automatically opens your inner door. Through that, you can communicate more easily with other people. And that feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness. You’ll find that all human beings are just like you, so you’ll be able to relate to them more easily. That gives you a spirit of friendship. Then there is less need to hide things, and as a result, feelings of fear, self-doubt, and insecurity are automatically dispelled.”

If you are interested in learning more about meditation and calming the mind read more on pranayama and breathing exercises. We also featured a series called the 8 Weeks to Happiness, a mental and meditation approach to happiness.

“I will teach you “everything”.
Listen to it.
What is “everything”?
Eye and material form,
Ear and sound,
Nose and odor,
Tongue and taste,
Body and tangible objects,
Mind and mental objects,
These are called “everything”. A person might say, I will reject this “everything” and proclaim another everything. He may certainly have a theory of his own. But when questioned he would not be able to answer and would moreover be subject to vexation. Why? Because it would not be in the range of experience. Everything outside of the range of experience is speculation. If people believe that countless reincarnations are necessary for enlightenment and spend time in speculation on this; they are wasting time. For those who seek enlightenment in this life, time is precious.” Teachings of Siddhartha Gautama.

If this intrigues you, we recommend you take a look at the 8 Weeks to Happiness - A basic, week by week approach for slowly opening up the doors of change to let in the light of the world.

Chicago also has many yoga studios to help you along your path.

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Week 7, We are heading home now. Hopefully you are still practicing the yoga and meditation exercises we learned in previous weeks as well as growing and understanding what it truly means to be you. Because you have ups and downs, this does not mean that your state of happiness is influx. Nothing will ever remain the same, life is ever-changing, you are ever-changing, everyone around you is changing. This goes for friends, loved ones, and so many other people, places and things we cling to for attachment. In order to experience true happiness, you will have to understand your inner ever-changing  self. The next two weeks will be the homerun on our pursuit to happiness. We will focus on concepts and within those concepts we will have exercises, but it is important you continue to explore meditation, calming and training the mind, in order to effectively contemplate the concepts at hand. Continue to practice the yoga poses attempting to link the breath with your movements. In this comes awareness. Awareness of your body. Awareness and insight into what you truly have control over.

Day 1: Nothing is permanent
Happiness exists in understanding this concept. Take a coffee cup and place it somewhere in your home, car or office. Now, ask five people that you know well if they have ever lost something or someone that has caused them pain or suffering. For every person that has not lost something or someone in the past that caused them pain or grief place a penny in your cup. You will find the results to be astonishing.  Listen to the answers. You will hear people talk about the loss of a dog, a parent, or loved one. The most profound answer I have ever received from a person was that they felt they lost themselves. This exercise is a good way to see that nothing last forever, not even us. Embrace change, embrace growing older, embrace the knowledge and wisdom gained in the process of change. You are not who you were yesterday, see this as a positive; because if you were, then life has passed you by and you have not evolved with everything else around you that is changing.

Day 2: Happiness is real
We have to believe in happiness. We have to believe that it is real, it is attainable and that a process exists. Over the past 7 weeks, we have worked on meditation, yoga, changing our perspective on life and how we see the world. Embrace that change as well. Sometimes the feeling of true happiness is such a drastic change from whom we once were that we do not know how to accept it. Believe it is real. Happiness is inside of you, but you have to believe it and not ignore the reality of the feelings inside of you.

Day 3: Happiness has no rules
There are no rules to happiness. Although we have outlined a path, provided techniques and concepts, there are no rules or regulations to achieving happiness. Only you have the formula, only you know the path. We can provide the pathway, but only you can contemplate, process and truly understand what allows you to see, think and act skillfully with a clear mind. Practice the meditation technique we learned in earlier weeks. Revisit the art and practice of training your mind. When you are in control of your thoughts, you are in control of your happiness. Where your mind goes, your actions are sure to follow. Practice removing thoughts of greed, hatred, and fear.

Day 4: Removing lust for desires
True happiness relates more to the mind and heart and is not dependent on physical pleasure. Be content where you are in your life. Find joy and peace in your current state. Do not give up on your goals, do not stop growing and moving forward in your life; however, do these things without lust being the driver. Contentment is a part of living in the present moment. The past has been lived, the future is not promised, but the present moment is the gift of life. Say this to yourself enough times until you actually understand it, until you recognize it as a true statement of existence.

Day 5: Your intention for Happiness
Ask yourself this question, “Why do I want to be happy?” Take a piece of paper and write down 5 reasons why you want to achieve ultimate happiness. Keeping our intentions in the right place is key to happiness. We may do acts of kindness, we may want to be happy but understanding the motives behind our actions is important to our success on this journey. Set your intentions for happiness, this will help you define your path.

Day 6 & 7: “Weekend”.
These two days we will consider our weekend. Like all weekends, we either rest from our week or catch up on what we missed out on during the week. Take the same approach here. Either revisit a concept from Days 1-5 of this week or from the previous weeks that you enjoyed or didn’t quite grasp totally. Whether it is doing the yoga poses, trying another vegan, vegetarian or healthy restaurant or practicing some of the meditation techniques. Think about the week and continue to practice the principles learned. Continue trying to make them a habit in your life.

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Tag: 8 weeks to happiness