Fable of the Porcupine

It was
the coldest
winter ever.

Many animals
died because
of the cold.

The porcupines,
realizing the situation,
decided to group together.

This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one
wounded their closest companions even though they gave off heat to each other.
After a while, they decided to distance themselves one from the other
and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice:
either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.

Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. This way they learned to live
with the little wounds that were caused by the close relationship with their companion,
but the most important part of it, was the heat that came from the others.

This way they were able to survive.

Moral of the story: The best relationship is not the one that brings together
perfect people, but the best is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections
of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

(Sometimes you just have to put up with some pricks!)


Submitted by bobinaz on January 24th, 2011

We, the Potential Geniuses

UK, January 7, 2010:
Is genius innate and inevitable?
Is it genetic?
Should we give up already
if we are not exactly Leonardo DaVinci?  

Take heart.

New science suggests the source
of abilities is much more interesting
and improvisational.
It turns out that everything we are
is a developmental process-
-and this includes what we get from our genes.  

Geneticists once saw genes as robot actors, always uttering the same lines in exactly
the same way, and much of the public is still stuck with this old idea. In recent years,
though, scientists have seen a dramatic upgrade in their understanding of heredity.  
They now know that genes interact with their surroundings, getting turned on and off
all the time. In effect, the same genes have different effects depending on who they
are talking to. Bit by bit, they're gathering a better and better understanding
of how different attitudes, teaching styles and precise types of practice and exercise
push people along very different pathways.  
Does your child have the potential to develop into a world-class athlete,
a virtuoso musician, or a brilliant Nobel-winning scientist?  
It would be folly to suggest that anyone can literally do or become anything.
But the new science tells us that it's equally foolish to think that mediocrity is built into
most of us, or that any of us can know our true limits before we've applied
enormous resources and invested vast amounts of time.  
Our abilities are not set in genetic stone.
They are soft and sculptable, far into adulthood.
 With humility, with hope, and with extraordinary determination,
greatness is something to which any kid - of any age - can aspire


Michael_e


   News from Hinduism Today is copyrighted by Himalayan Academy.
Content may be reproduced, provided proper credit is given to www.hinduismtoday.com.

Love Yourself First

“Being deeply 

loved by 

someone 

gives you strength, 

while loving 

someone 

deeply 

gives you courage.”

~Lao Tzu


Ten years ago I thought I was going to marry my college sweetheart and become
a young bride,which made it all the more devastating when happily ever after didn’t pan out.
When we broke up I felt literally like I lost a limb, complete with phantom sensations of his
hand in mine.
It didn’t take long for a dark guilt to bubble up—a constant festering reminder of all the
mistakes I’d made.
I was highly unstable and insecure back then, and most of my relationships revolved
around holding me up.
In the ruins of that romance, I didn’t know what scared me more: that someone else
might hurt me again or that I might hurt them enough first to deserve it.
I simultaneously felt an aching need to fill in the hole where he’d been, and an
overwhelming sense of nausea at the thought of being with someone else.
For eight years I ping ponged from fling to fling and extreme to extreme—putting myself
out there far too soon or completely hiding my authentic self; expecting mountains to move
or anticipating the worst; choosing the wrong people and refusing to let go,
or choosing the right people and running away.
In each case, I either burdened the guy a body bag full of my fears and insecurities,
or dragged it around myself wondering why dating felt so exhausting.
I learned every lesson the hard way after first proving myself completely insane by
doing the same things and over and over again and expecting different results.
I’m now a little less than two years into a peaceful, loving relationship, and I realize
the journey to this connection had more to do with loving myself than finding him.

No relationship with someone else can ever compensate for secretly believing
you don’t deserve it.

While I by no means know everything, I feel the hard part isn’t knowing what makes
a healthy, happy relationship but actually applying that knowledge consistently.
It’s a lot easier to make a laundry list of lessons than it is to put them into practice,
especially when heightened emotions are involved.

So I’ve done something a little different to explore the different ideas that support
healthy relationships.As I often do, I put a question out to the Tiny Buddha Facebook page:
what’s the key to a happy relationship?
I took a sampling of the nearly 200 responses and grouped them into 7 tips.
For each one, I listed a few simple ways to apply those ideas right now.
If you’re not currently in a romantic relationship, a lot of these can still apply
to the other relationships in your life.

by Lori Deschene

the five eternal yamas

.

Yama

.

Yama can be taken to
have different meanings,
in different contexts.

It may mean "to rein,
curb, or bridle,
discipline or restrain"

In the present context,
it is used to

mean"self-control,
forbearance,

or any great rule or duty".

Yama can also be interpreted
as "attitude" or "behavior".

Certainly a particular attitude can be expressed as discipline, which then influences our behavior.

Patanjali's Yoga Sutra mentions five different Yama i.e. behavior patterns or relationships, 

between the individual and the outside world.

Ahimsa (Harmlessness)
The word 'ahimsa' literally means not to injure or show cruelty to any creature or any person, in any way whatsoever. Ahimsa is, however, more than just lack of violence, as adapted in yoga. It means kindness, friendliness, and thoughtful consideration of other people and things. It has to do with our duties and responsibilities too. It could even mean that we must fight if our life is in danger. Ahimsa implies that in every situation, we should adopt a considerate attitude.

Satya (Truthfulness)
Satya means "to speak the truth". However, it is not desirable to speak the truth on all occasions, for it could harm someone unnecessarily. We have to consider what we say, how we say it, and in what way it could affect others. If speaking the truth has negative consequences for another person, then it is better to say nothing. Satya should never come into conflict with our efforts to behave with ahimsa. The Mahabharata, the great Indian epic, says: "Speak the truth which is pleasant. Do not speak unpleasant truths. Do not lie, even if the lies are pleasing to the ear. That is the eternal law, the dharma." Please note that this yama does not mean speaking a lie. Keeping quiet and saying lies are two different things.

Asteya (Non-stealing)
Asteya is the third Yama in yoga. Though the word per se means "to steal", this behavioral pattern means exactly the opposite i.e. to take nothing that does not belong to you. It also means that if you are in a situation where someone entrusts you with something or confides in you, you should not take advantage of him or her. You are to refrain from taking that which is not yours by right of consciousness and karma.

Brahmacharya (Sense-control)
Brahmacharya is a movement toward the essential truth. It is used mostly in the sense of abstinence, particularly in relation to sexual activity. Brahmacharya suggests that we should form relationships that foster our understanding of the highest truths. If sensual pleasures are part of those relationships, we must take care that we keep our direction and do not get lost. We need to avoid relationships that make us deviate from finding the eternal truth. On the path of serious, constant search for truth, there are certain ways of controlling the perceptual senses and sexual desires. Brahmacharya does not necessarily imply celibacy. Rather, it means responsible behavior with respect to our goal of moving toward the truth.

Aparigraha (Neutralizing the desire to acquire and hoard wealth)
The last yama in yoga is known as aparigraha, a word that means something like "hands off" or "not seizing opportunity." Aparigraha means to take only what is necessary and not to take advantage of a situation or act greedily. We should only take what we have earned. If we take more, we are exploiting someone else. In addition, unearned rewards can bring with them obligations that might cause problems later on.

Yoga Sutra
The Yoga Sutra describes what happens when the five behaviors outlined above become a part of a person's daily life. For instance, if we become kind and considerate, our presence will create pleasant and friendly feelings in people around us. If we remain true to the idea of satya, everything we say will be truthful and we will become reliable. The Yoga Sutra also states that a person who is firmly anchored in asteya will receive all the jewels of this world. Such a person may not be interested in material wealth, but he or she will have access to the finest things in life.

The more we recognize and search for the meaning of the essential truth, the less we will be distracted by other things. Certainly, it requires great strength to take this path. The Yoga Sutra teaches that the more faith we have, the more energy we have. At the same time, we also have more strength to pursue our goals. So the more we seek the truth in the sense of brahmacharya, the more vitality we will have to do so.

Parigraha is the increasing orientation toward material things. If we reduce parigraha and develop aparigraha, we are orienting ourselves more inwardly. The less time we spend on our material possessions, the more we have to spend on investigating all that we call yoga. We will learn to enjoy what we have rather than constantly seeking things we don't have and never getting satisfied in life. It is a scientific fact that the more money and material possessions we have, the more stressful we become.

Source:

http://yoga.iloveindia.com/

Advice

"I always pass on good advice, 
it is the only thing to do with it,
It is never of any use to oneself."
Oscar Wilde


It is a pleasure to give advice, 
humiliating to need it, 
normal to ignore it.


Want to make the life of a writer difficult, 

ask them to write an advice column,

using only the things they themselves do.

One thought that crossed my mind was to

fill the page with the quotes of others.

"Advice is what we ask for when we already
know the answer but wish we didn't."
Erica Jong

Then there was a quick thought to change the topic from Advice to Opinion.

To find the difference , a quick check of Miriam-Webster came up with this definition 
of opinion: "a formal expression of judgment or Advice by an expert".

Being an expert is much to daunting.

"Men give advice; God gives guidance."   ~ Leonard Ravenhill

Then I remembered the advice of a wise person, the answer to my dilemma,

when all else fails, let go and let God.

Best advice: Pray.

After you have prayed, make sure you take the time

and/or make sure you are listening when God answers your prayer.

It seems that we often do with God's will as we do to the advice or others, 
we ignore it.

"I don't want to give any advice to a 19-year-old,
because I want a 19-year-old to make mistakes and learn from them.
Make mistakes, make mistakes, make mistakes.
Just make sure they're your mistakes."    ~ Fiona Apple

Do not blame the advice of others for the mistakes you make.

Advice is the guidance of your Higher Power,

coming through the mouth of another person.

Sometimes God's messages or the messengers are positive,

and unfortunately, sometimes they are negative.

If you chose to do the next best thing in the service of

mankind and your Higher Power, advice is not needed.

"If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z,
X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."    ~ Albert Einstein

Hold your beliefs dearly, but allow them to change as your life changes.

Share your beliefs, but give advice begrudgingly and only when asked.

As you believe, so shall you receive.

Happiness is helping someone help themselves.


Michael_e




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