Great Video on Happiness and depression

Inspirational video

Great Story:A Carrot, an Egg & a Cup of Coffee

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way...the brightest
future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

---Unknown Author

A Place in The World - Mary Chapin Carpenter

A Place in The World - Lyrics

What I'm looking for, after all this time
Keeps me moving forward, trying to find it
Since I learned to walk all I've done is run
Ready, on my mark, doesn't everyone
Need a place in the world

Could be right before your very eyes
Just beyond a door that's open wide
Could be far away or in your own backyard
There are those who say, you can look too hard
For your place in the world

Takes some of us a little longer
A few false starts gonna make you stronger
When I'm sure I've finally found it
Gonna wrap these arms all around it

Could be one more mile, or just one step back
In a lovers smile, down a darkened path
Friends will take our side, enemies will curse us
But to be alive is to know your purpose
It's your place in the world
Your place in the world
Your place in the world

Why Walk When You Can Fly Lyrics

Mary Chapin Carpenter : Why Walk When You Can Fly


In this world there's a whole lot of trouble, baby
In this world there's a whole lot of pain
In this world there's a whole lot of trouble
But a whole lot of ground to gain
Why take when you could be giving, why watch as the world goes by
It's a hard enough life to be living, why walk when you can fly

In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow
In this world there's a whole lot of shame
In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow
And a whole lotta ground to gain
When you spend your whole life wishing, wanting and wondering why
It's a long enough life to be living, why walk when you can fly

In this world there's a whole lot of cold
In this world there's a whole lot of blame
In this world you've a soul for a compass
And a heart for a pair of wings
There's a star on the far horizon, rising bright in an azure sky
For the rest of the time that you're given, why walk when you can fly

Albert Einstein

The development of science and of the creative activities
of the spirit in general requires still another kind of freedom, which may
be characterized as inward freedom. It is this freedom of spirit which consists
in the independence of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and
social prejudices as well as from unphilosophical routinizing and habit
in general. This inward freedom is an infrequent gift of nature and a worthy
objective for the individual.


..schools may favour such freedom by encouraging independent thought. Only
if outward and inner freedom are constantly and consciously pursued is there
a possibility of spiritual development and perfection and thus of improving
man's outward and inner life.




~Albert Einstein~

Qoutes from Gary Zukav

"By choosing your thoughts,
and by selecting which emotional currents you will release
and which you will reinforce,
you determine the quality of your Light.
You determine the effects that you will have upon others,
and the nature of the experiences of your life."

~ Gary Zukav - from "Seat Of The Soul" ~


"You cannot find your soul with your mind,
you must use your heart.
You must know what you are feeling.
If you don't know what you are feeling, you will create unconsciously.
If you are unconscious of an aspect of yourself;
if it operates outside your field of awareness,
that aspect has power over you."

~ Gary Zukav ~



"The human emotional system can be broken down into roughly two elements:
fear and love.
Love is of the soul.
Fear is of the personality."

~ Gary Zukav - from "Seat Of The Soul" ~


"Illusion holds power over you
when you are not able to remember that you are a powerful spirit
that has taken on the physical experience for the purpose of learning.
It has power over you when you are compelled by
wants and impulses and values of your personality.
It holds power over you when you fear and hate and sorrow
and fester in anger or strike out in rage.
It has NO power over you when you LOVE,
when compassion opens your heart to others,
when your creativity flows unimpeded joyously into the present moment.
In other words, the illusion had no power over a personality
that is fully aligned with the soul."

~ Gary Zukav ~

Question: What are some of the tools that you can provide us for manifestation?

Theo Answers: "When there is a desire, there is a creation of a thought that is a bridge to that outcome. So when one has a thought or a desire to be manifested, one then creates the thought bridge, meaning those attitudes and perceptions that are positive for that outcome. That places that bridge of thought into the universe for that manifestation to occur. There is a universal energy that is the attraction or creative energy that when one places the thought, or the seed, let us say, as if in one's garden, places a seed, then it creates an environment of gestation that then allows for the growth of that seed to become a flower. So what you are doing with your thought is placing the seed, on the intention, in the fertile soil. The universal energies is the soil in which it is placed ultimately, and the intent and the thought and the positive actions or thoughts is that which is the food to fertilize and feed the seed to bring it to fruition. In turn it is also that which is the attraction, the energy attraction to that positive outcome. Not to negate it with a negative thought, that it could not be so, because that breaks down the bridge to the universal energy that attracts."
Question: Then it is critical to move from the place of questioning our self-worth into a place of self-love, which if I am hearing you correctly, is really at the core of this whole process.

Theo Answers: "Knowing that one is worthy of all that they desire. But then one must be judicious in their desires for surely they will manifest. Be certain it is what you want. So then one becomes discerning of those desires, gains clarity within the self of what one truly wishes. In that certainty and awareness of self and thought process then one lives the life to its highest good, do they not? Then one wastes not their energy on the unimportant but on that which would be the joyfulness and bliss that they seek and desire."
Sheila Gillette
Source: Soul Truth: A Remarkable Dialogue with Twelve Archangels

Read more: http://www.gaia.com/quotes/topics/law+of+attraction#ixzz0QRPpYTLa

Qoutes from The Dalai Lama

As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery.
We have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace.
The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as
anger and attachment, fear and suspicion,
while love and compassion, a sense of universal responsibility
are the sources of peace and happiness.


Dalai Lama



The whole purpose of religion
is to facilitate love and compassion, patience,
tolerance, humility, forgiveness.


Dalai Lama


Whether one believes in a religion or not,
and whether one believes in rebirth or not,
there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion.


Dalai Lama


Practice for the New Millennium by the Dalai Lama
The Practice:


1. Spend 5 minutes at the beginning of each day remembering
we all want the same things (to be happy and be loved)
and we are all connected to one another.

2. Spend 5 minutes breathing in, cherishing yourself; and, breathing out
cherishing others. If you think about people you have difficulty cherishing,
extend your cherishing to them anyway.

3. During the day extend that attitude to everyone you meet.
Practice cherishing the "simplest" person (clerks, attendants, etc)
or people you dislike.

4. Continue this practice no matter what happens or what anyone does to you.

These thoughts are very simple, inspiring and helpful.
The practice of cherishing can be taken very deeply if done wordlessly,
allowing yourself to feel the love and appreciation that
already exists in your heart.

Be a lamp unto Yourself

Be a lamp unto Yourself


As the Buddha was dying,
Ananda asked
who would be their teacher after death.
He replied to his disciple -

"Be lamps unto yourselves.
Be refuges unto yourselves.
Take yourself no external refuge.
Hold fast to the truth as a lamp.
Hold fast to the truth as a refuge.
Look not for a refuge in anyone besides yourselves.
And those, Ananda, who either now or after I am dead,
Shall be a lamp unto themselves,
Shall betake themselves as no external refuge,
But holding fast to the truth as their lamp,
Holding fast to the truth as their refuge,
Shall not look for refuge to anyone else besides themselves,
It is they who shall reach to the very topmost height;
But they must be anxious to learn."


Quoted in Joseph Goldstein, The Experience of Insight

Video:Qoutes from~ A Course in Miracles ~

The wisdom of Buddism

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

The First Noble Truth
Unsatisfactoriness and suffering exist and are universally experienced.


The Second Noble Truth
Desire and attachment are the causes of unsatisfactoriness and suffering.


The Third Noble Truth
There is an end to unsatisfactoriness and suffering.


The Fourth Noble Truth
The end can be attained by journeying on the Noble Eightfold Path.


NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH

1. Right View/Understanding
(Understanding the Four Noble Truths) - See things as they truly are without delusions or distortions for all things change. Develop wisdom by knowing how things work, knowing oneself and others.

2. Right Thinking
Decide to set a life on the correct path. Wholehearted resolution and dedication to overcoming the dislocation of self-centered craving through the development of loving kindness, empathy and compassion.


3. Right Speech
Abstinence from lies and deceptions, backbiting, idle babble and abusive speech. Cultivate honesty and truthfulness; practice speech that is kind and benevolent. Let your words reflect your desire to help, not harm others.


4.Right Conduct
(Following the Five Precepts) - Practice self-less conduct that reflects the highest statement of the life you want to live. Express conduct that is peaceful, honest and pure showing compassion for all beings.

5. Right Livelihood
Earn a living that does not harm living things. Avoidance of work that causes suffering to others or that makes a decent, virtuous life impossible. Do not engage in any occupation that opposes or distracts one from the path. Love and serve our world through your work.

6. Right Effort
Seek to make the balance between the exertion of following the spiritual path and a moderate life that is not over-zealous. Work to develop more wholesome mind states, while gently striving to go deeper and live more fully.


7. Right Mindfulness
Become intensely aware of all the states in body, feeling, and mind. Through constant vigilance in thought, speech and action seek to rid the mind of self-centered thoughts that separate and replace them with those that bind all beings together. Be aware of your thoughts, emotions, body and world as they exist in the present moment. Your thoughts create your reality.

8. Right Concentration
Deep meditation to lead to a higher state of consciousness (enlightenment). Through the application of meditation and mental discipline seek to extinguish the last flame of grasping consciousness and develop an emptiness that has room to embrace and love all things.


THE FIVE PRECEPTS

The Five Precepts are basic ethical guidelines for the followers of Buddhism. They are undertaken voluntarily, rather than as commandments from a god.

Essentially, these precepts promote harmony and reduce suffering between ourselves
and others. The underpinning moral code has two qualities: compassion (karuna)
and loving kindness (metta), which are used as the guiding principles in life.


1. I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.

2. I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not given.

3. I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.

4. I undertake the precept to refrain from incorrect speech.

5. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicatants.