I looked back at most of the posts in my archives and I found that I had slowly been piecing together all the various interpretations of this one lesson.
Summary: Finding out that you don’t have to believe your thoughts beliefs and filters – that they are not you. Thoughts and concepts that’s all they are.
A child believes in Santa; he fights with his friends over this imaginary character he cries when we tell him Santa was just daddy in a suit and a beard. That is all the ego is – just a bundle of thoughts and beliefs we’ve given power to because we believe so strongly.
The ego is built on hate and separation. It stems from separation a belief that we are isolated fragments in the world. Love others will all your heart without any hidden motivations and let the separation the ego dissolve.
Summary: We all carry around what psychologists call the inner critic. It shows up as negative thoughts images movies and voices. I’ve covered some of the Buddhist techniques to stopping your mind – the most powerful of which involved loving the source of your negative thoughts ala the emotional mastery series. I’m planning a series on how modern psychology deals with such thoughts. It involves recognising cognitive distortions disputing them and so on. But it can also be summed up in this manner: Self-compassion shuts up the inner critic completely.
Summary: Gratitude and love for the bad things in life is something that many people will think is masochistic. But it isn’t – it’s a part of true forgiveness and a step towards Love.
When life throws something bad at you it is very often meant for your good although that might be admittedly hard to see. An abusive caretaker in your childhood might have served you by developing your mental toughness; you might have used this very quality to forge yourself a successful career as an adult. Finding forgiveness gratitude and love for people and events that have hurt you is a powerful part of healing.
Summary: Finding Love for others has to start with yourself. You can’t give what you don’t have. Once you have found Love for yourself everything else will begin to flow. Start with yourself and you’ll find that you’ve been cultivating Love for everything in the world at the same time for there really is no difference.
How do we love this crazy world? The mystics and teachers have been saying one thing: Life is crazy it goes up and down but it is all okay. That’s their message: That it is all okay there is nothing to run away from.
(PS I had to rename The Flower of Love to the Blossoming of Love because everyone who got here from Google were looking for information on roses.
One of the most misunderstood series; but it taught me a lot about writing. Hammer your point in was what I learnt. Many people just skim through it and they don’t really take the time to digest what the article is about. The feedback from these posts moved me away from a poetic writing style which kind of sucked because I enjoyed writing that way.
I recently broke a barrier - 1000 RSS subscribers. This was a great motivational boost for me especially since I heard most blogs don’t go past 500 and I haven’t properly marketed my blog in months.
Additionally my material and writing style is not standard. All copywriters suggest short and snappy posts with lots of lists and bullet points and catchy titles. Bah Humbug! I did experiment with that at the start but I decided to do my own thing. (I do wonder though if I could have been as big as Zen Habits listed below if I had done the popular thing…)
I’ve met some wonderful people made some really awesome friends and learnt so much along this journey. Thank you to everyone once again!
Keeping with the New Year and Goal Setting / Success theme there are three blogs that spring to mind as extremely worth reading.
First of all would be the famous run by the awesome Leo Babauta. This blog speaks for itself gaining nearly 27,000 RSS subscribers within a year of operation. One of the best productivity blogs ever. His is a good place to start.
Next up would be by Ellesse Chow. As to be expected it involves many great stuff on success – such as a series on inspirational stories motivation vision boards all that goodness.
Lastly would be by Lawrence Cheok. A very handy blog with material on finance relationships and again success and productivity material. A recent post would be.
Hey Albert thanks for the link love! I really like your take on love and compassion. What goes to the outer starts from the inner. If you can’t love yourself you’ll unlikely to have the capacity to love others. It’s all about being human!
As for your question on writing bullet point articles. I think it’s just a matter of format. With your intellect and knowledge. I’m sure even if you decided to switch to that format something wouldn’t change.
Happy New Year a time for new beginnings and for looking at back at the lessons one has learned (or ought to have learned.) As a blogger you have the advantage of having a concrete journal of many of your most serious thoughts and resolves.
I must confess to a Scroogesqe reaction when I hear most people talk about “love,” as for most people it is shallow attachment to the temporal suffering causing not-self. You have pointed this out well in some of your articles.
And as to self-acceptance there is a level where discontent with one’s inner state and outer situation is a spur to the attainment of something better as long as one has the inner urge to improve. But it is no use obsessing on things which cannot be changed. That is where santosha (contentment in all such situations) comes in. But contentment with what should be changed is a mistake.
its great that you love writing as much as you do im very grateful for that! =) the “lengthy” articles style is one of the reasons i have you in my rss-list over other personal development sites although its easier to fly over short “top 7 …… lists” there nearly never is anything new or particularly interesting about them mostly they are just resumes of in depth articles or concepts they are good for pleasure reading i want to understand stuff and learn and your in depth articles are far superior in that sense! so please keep up the quality!
. Reddy your insight on contentment is great very well put-together. And I have no idea what Humbug even means my friend uses it a lot whenever we play argue and I used it just because I thought it was funny. Blessings for everyone! Down here in Australia it’s a mere 13 hours until 2007 disappears!
“Humbug is an archaic term meaning “hoax” or “jest”. While the term was first attested in 1751 in student slang its etymology is unknown. It is known however that it was used as profanity centuries ago in places such as Great Britain. Its present meaning as an exclamation is closer to “nonsense” or “gibberish” while as a noun a humbug refers to a fraud or impostor implying an element of unjustified publicity and spectacle.
“In modern usage the word is probably most associated with Ebenezer Scrooge a character created by Charles Dickens. His famous reference to Christmas. “Bah! Humbug!” declaring Christmas to be a fraud is heard afresh every year around Christmas time when the perennial favorite. A Christmas Carol is played on stage or TV.”
Congrats on breaking the 1K barrier. I think you certainly deserve it. It’s definitely a great start to 2008 huh?
As for the writing style. I have that struggle when I first started and now I have given up thinking about it. I agree with Ellesse your great content delivers and your style shines through in its own ways. If you simply try to copy what works for others then you’ll stop being remarkable. So continue whatever you have been doing.
I found your blogs to be very informative and easy to read and very helpful indeed. I am so grateful to Stephen for recommending your blog.
After a very difficult 2007 I look forward to the year 2008 with a clear mindset and a better understanding about Life and Law of Attraction as well as contnuing a new phase of life journey I am on.
I have been printing your articles from July 2007 and I am reading it during my trips home on the public transport and i know i will enjoy it immensely.
I look forward to more of your postings in the year 2008 and also to learn from all in this community.
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