I don't know, I guess because its Thursday

[Xue Sheng]

You've been waiting all week to say that, haven't ya? :bangahead::bangahead::bangahead::bangahead:

Yes, yes I have.

And now for something completely different... ok so it's not completely different... actually it is pretty much the same.... another quote I read that I wanted to post...... but it was the only transition I could come up with on such sort notice

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation... But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things
---Henry David Thoreau

 

[kidswarrior]

Yes, yes I have.

And now for something completely different... ok so it's not completely different... actually it is pretty much the same.... another quote I read that I wanted to post...... but it was the only transition I could come up with on such sort notice

Oh, man, I needed that right now. Thanks.

 

[Xue Sheng]

It is not Thursday… I know… but it is Tuesday… I checked

I read the first quote and it is scary how much that applies to me right now and I have been thinking about it a lot since. I can easily see where it applies to my career but I also believe I am seeing were it applies to my CMA and many other things in my life as well.

We are not made to do one thing. We are made to do one thing at a time. Don’t cling to anyone thing, stretching it beyond its time. If you have fulfilled a purpose, no one can take it away from you. But it won’t last forever. Nothing does. You can relish it, and relive it, but you must be willing to relinquish it. You might not find another one if you can’t let go of the purpose you have. --- Lou Marnoff

Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment --- Thomas Mann

 

[Xue Sheng]

I found this statement interesting so I put it here and I am most certain that it is in fact Monday, not Thursday

We spend so much time experimenting with foods, with different ways to organize our house, and so little time experimenting with all the ways to act as a person

McGowan, K. (2008, April) Second Nature
Psychology Today, 73, Vol. 41, No. 2

 

[Xue Sheng]

I know it was already dead but for me it is time to wrap this thread up... and on a Monday no less

I have been reading a lot of philosophy lately and one book in particular “Plato not Prozac” has lead me to a lot of those readings it also made me read it very slowly, basically read it see something interesting, go read that and then come back to this. I read something the author (Lou Marinoff) wrote that reminded me of something I said several years ago while discussing living in the moment in (believe it or not) a Philosophy in Religion course in college..

“People are to busy remembering the past and thinking of the future and forgetting the now” -- Me (XS)

What I read was not much different just said a bit better

Many people use the present to serve the past or the future. They are busy either ruminating over last week or manipulation tomorrow, they are never in the now. History is past; you can’t alter it. The future is uncertain; you can’t count on it. What you have for sure is the present. Love being alive right now, and you’ll minimize regret when your moment runs out – Lou Marinoff

And lastly

Most of us are at some time or other impelled, even if the impulse is brief, to take a hand in solving the problems of society, and most of us know in our hearts that it is our business to leave the world a little better that we found it” – Cyril Joad

Thanks for indulging me with the whole philosophical post. It was, I feel, necessary for me at this time to go through a lot of this stuff, write it down, think about it and move on.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Well I have not posted here for awhile and what do you know it is actually Thursday.

For some reason this was running through my noggin this morning

Judge not, lest ye be judged yourself.

Which lead me to these

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
Carl Gustav Jung

“You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus”
Mark Twain

“Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

And I just had to throw this in one since it does directly applies to my first marriage

“I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.”
Groucho Marx

 

[Xue Sheng]

Well since this is MT after all and it is Thursday

Inwardly alert, open, calm.
Outwardly upright, extended, filled with spirit.
This is the foundation of stillness.
Add the hard and the soft, the powerful and the relaxed,
Motion and stillness, contraction and extension:
In the instant these converge, there is power.

Wang Xiang Zhai

 

[Xue Sheng]

From Socrates

- Be as you wish to seem.

- I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

- Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel

- He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have

- The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms

- Wisdom begins in wonder.

 

[Drac]

From Drac:

"Quit attacking those trees with your head."

 

[Xue Sheng]

The path doesn’t save all its pleasure for the end. You can enjoy it now. - Thanissaro Bhikkhu

 

[David Weatherly]

Thanks for posting. I just started rereading the Don Juan books since it had been many years.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Well it's Wednesday here but it is Thursday in China so...

Smile, breathe and go slowly. - Thich Nhat Hanh

 

[Xue Sheng]

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
--- Mark Twain

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
--- Dr. Seuss

:asian:

And this one seems to apply a lot as of late

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
--- Mark Twain

 

[Xue Sheng]

Just because at this moment in my life it is how I need to think...or I could also choose not think this way and stagnate.

You only need to get on the path and walk and you will create your own path
-Ch’an Master Sheng-yen

 

[Xue Sheng]

Well it is actually Thursday this time...

"You may think that happiness is possible only in the future, but if you learn to stop running, you will see that there are more than enough conditions for you to be happy right now. The only moment for us to be alive in is the present moment. The past is already gone and the future is not yet here. Only in the present moment can we touch life and be deeply alive." – Thich Nhat Hanh

We need to master our own anger before we can help others do the same. When the flames of anger flare up, we tend to lash out at those who have watered our seeds of anger. It is like finding our house on fire, and instead of putting out the flames, chasing those we think started it. Arguing with others only waters the seeds of anger in us. When anger rises, return to yourself and use the energy of mindfulness to embrace, soothe, and illuminate it. Do not think you will feel better if you can make the other person suffer, too. – Thich Nhat Hanh

 

[kidswarrior]

Well it is actually Thursday this time...

Good stuff XS.

 

[Xue Sheng]

OK so I'm a day early

We often react as if life is attacking us. “I’m not going to be able to stand this,” we fret as life pushes us beyond our snug little ego comfort zone. But we have no evidence of not being able to handle anything life brings us. How do we know that? We’ve handled everything so far.

–Cheri Huber, from When You’re Falling, Dive

 

[Xue Sheng]

Definitely not Thursday

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs

 

[Xue Sheng]

Yes, I am aware it’s not Thursday

All success, great and small, whether in spiritual or temporal affairs, derives from your stock of merit. So never neglect even the slightest positive deed. Just do it. -- Dudjom Rinpoche

 

[Xue Sheng]

I know it is not Thursday but I might not be here on Thursday to post this and I want to post this.

I have had enough of the arguing and silliness currently going on here on MT at the moment and I need a break, I should have stayed out of the study, politics and global warming junk and all posts that have anything to do with the old tired RSMD or MMA vs. TMA threads because it is always the same posts every single time just done by different people or in some cases the same people

I’m fed up and need a break, maybe one night will do it, maybe more, I don’t know. To quote my favorite philosopher “I’ve had all I can stands and I can't stands no more"


But here is what I wanted to post and it just seems so appropriate

Except from "Letters To A Young Poet", from Letter #8 by Rainer Maria Rilke

We have been put into life as into the element we most accord with, and we have, moreover, through thousands of years of adaptation, come to resemble this life so greatly that when we hold still, through a fortunate mimicry we can hardly be differentiated from everything around us. We have no reason to harbor any mistrust against our world, for it is not against us. If it has terrors, they are our terrors; if it has abysses, these abysses belong to us; if there are dangers, we must try to love them. And if only we arrange our life in accordance with the principle which tells us that we must always trust in the difficult, then what now appears to us as the most alien will become our most intimate and trusted experience. How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.