What is "the good life"? This is one of the oldest philosophical questions. It has been posed in different ways.How should one live? What does it mean to "live well"?These are really just the same question. But the question isn’t as simple as it sounds. Philosophers specialize in unpacking hidden complexities, and the concept of the good life is one of those that needs quite a bit of unpacking.Everyone wants to live well, and no one wants "the bad life."

The Good Life

<ul><li>One basic way we use the word "good" is to express moral approval.</li><li>When we say someone is living well or that they have lived a good life, we may simply mean that they are a good person.</li><li>Socrates and Plato both gave absolute priority to being a virtuous person over all other supposedly good things such as pleasure, wealth, or power.</li><li>Many religions also conceive of the good life in moral terms as a life lived according to God's laws.</li><li>A person who lives this way-obeying the commandments and performing the proper rituals-is pious.</li></ul>

The Moral Life

The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus declared that what makes life worth living is experiencing pleasure.Today, this hedonistic conception of the good life is dominant in Western culture and is often taken to mean enjoying recreational pleasures such as good food, good wine, skiing, scuba diving, etc.

The Life of Pleasure

According to Aristotle, happiness is something we value not as a means to some other end but for its own sake. It has intrinsic value rather than instrumental value.The good life is one in which a person cultivates and exercises their rational faculties by engaging in scientific inquiry, philosophical discussion, artistic creation, or legislation.

The Fulfilled Life

<ul><li>Recent research shows that people who have children are not necessarily happier than people who don't have children.</li><li>During the child-raising years, and especially when children have turned into teenagers, parents typically have lower levels of happiness and higher levels of stress.</li><li>Even though having children may not make people happier, it does seem to give them the sense that their lives are more meaningful.</li><li>For many people, the well-being of their family, especially their children and grandchildren, is the main source of meaning in life.</li></ul>

The Meaningful Life

<ul><li>A truly good life is one that is both enviable and admirable in all or most of the ways outlined above.</li><li>Sometimes a person can appear to live a fine life and be able to check all the boxes-virtue, prosperity, friendship, respect, meaning, etc., yet eventually be revealed as something other than what we thought they were.</li></ul>

The Finished Life

It's not what you see in the commercials.

Philosophers specialize in unpacking hidden complexities, and the concept of the good life is one of those that needs quite a bit of unpacking.

philosophy

Philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

Do You Know The Meaning of The Good Life?

Religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man.

Try to be pure and unselfish - that is the whole of religion.

I do not believe in a God or religion which cannot wipe the widow's tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan's mouth.

<ul><li>Be moral.</li><li>Be brave.</li><li>Be a heart-whole man.</li><li>Strictly moral, brave unto desperation.</li><li>Don't bother your head with religious theories.</li><li>Cowards only sin, brave men never, no, not even in mind.</li><li>Try to love anybody and everybody. Be a man.</li></ul>

Be brave, be steady, be patient.

Love and charity for the whole human race, that is the test of true religiousness.

Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.

The best guide in life is strength. In religion, as in all other matters, discard everything that weakens you, have nothing to do with it.

<ul><li>Never quarrel about religion.</li><li>All quarrels and disputation concerning religion simply show that spirituality is not present.</li><li>Religious quarrels are always over the husks.</li><li>When purity, when spirituality goes, leaving the soul dry, quarrels begin, and not before.</li></ul>

Never quarrel about religion. 

<ul><li>I look upon religion as the innermost core of education... Mind, I do not mean my own, or anyone else's opinion about religion.</li><li>I think the teacher should take the pupil's starting-point in this, as in other respects, and enable him(her) to develop along his(her) own line of least resistance.</li></ul>

Science is the modern religion.

Religion and culture transform each other. Religion and God cannot be learnt from universities, it can only be experience under great requirements and power. To find your own religiosity is the goal of any education.

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

mindfulness

Mindfulness

problemsolving

Problem Solving

True Religion by Vivekananda

Relationship is the fundamental truth of this world of appearance.

Relationship is what makes <a href="https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/12/08/the-songs-of-trees-david-haskell/">a forest a forest</a> and <a href="https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/02/28/undersea-rachel-carson/">an ocean an ocean</a>. To meet the world on its own terms and respect the reality of another as an expression of that world as fundamental and inalienable as your own reality is an art immensely rewarding yet immensely difficult.How to master the orientation of heart, mind, and spirit essential for the art of sincere and honorable relationship is what philosopher Martin Buber explores in his 1923 classic <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743201337/braipick-20">I and Thou</a> — the foundation of Buber’s influential existentialist philosophy of dialogue.

Philosophy of dialogue: Relationship

<a href="https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/01/06/alan-watts-reality/">Life and Reality are not things you can have for yourself unless you accord them to all others</a>.

To the man the world is twofold, in accordance with his twofold attitude. The attitude of man is twofold, in accordance with the twofold nature of the primary words which he speaks. The primary words are not isolated words, but combined words. The one primary word is the combination I–Thou. The other primary word is the combination I–It; wherein, without a change in the primary word, one of the words He and She can replace It. Hence the I of man is also twofold. For the I of the primary word I–Thou is a different I from that of the primary word I–It.

I–It establishes the world of experience and sensation.I–Thou establishes the world of relationship, which asks of each person a participatory intimacy. Thou addresses another not as an object but as a presence.

I - Thou. I - It.

“Real isn’t how you are made… It’s a thing that happens to you.”

To address another as Thou, Buber suggests, requires a certain self-surrender that springs from inhabiting one’s own presence while at the same time stepping outside one’s self. Only then does the other cease to be a means to one’s own ends and becomes real. The primary word I–Thou can be spoken only with the whole being. Concentration and fusion into the whole being can never take place through my agency, nor can it ever take place without me. I become through my relation to the Thou; as I become I, I say Thou.

All real living is meeting

Another perspective to look into relationship:  the fundamental truth of this world of appearance. 

communication

Communication

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

I and Thou: Philosopher Martin Buber on the Art of Relationship and What Makes Us Real to One Another

<ul><li>Go on bravely.</li><li>Do not expect success in a day or a year. </li><li>Always hold on to the highest.</li><li>Be steady.</li><li>Avoid jealousy and selfishness.</li><li>Be obedient and eternally faithful to the cause of truth, humanity, and your country, and you will move the world.</li></ul>

<ul><li>Be not afraid.</li><li>Think not how many times you fail. Never mind.</li><li>Time is infinite.</li><li>Go forward; assert yourself again and again, and light must come.</li></ul>

Manage energy, not time.

Every successful man must have behind him somewhere tremendous integrity, tremendous sincerity, and that is the cause of his signal success in life.

<ul><li>The success of your undertakings depends wholly upon your mutual love.</li><li>There is no good in store so long as malice and jealousy and egotism will prevail... Know that talking ill of others in private is a sin. You must wholly avoid it.</li></ul>

Duty with love is the formula for  success.

Keep on steadily. So far we have done wonderful things. Onward, brave souls, we will gain!

Infinite patience, infinite purity, and infinite perseverance are the secret of success in a good cause.

<ul><li>Take courage and work on.</li><li>Patience and steady work - this is the only way.</li><li>Go on; remember - patience and purity and courage and steady work... So long as you are pure, and true to your principles, you will never fail.</li></ul>

Be patient, be steady, be brave.

Every work has got to pass through hundreds of difficulties before succeeding. Those that persevere will see the light, sooner or later.

Obedience, readiness, and love for the cause - if you have these three, nothing can hold you back.

A great tree is to be taken refuge in, when it has both fruits and shade. If, however, we do not get the fruit, who prevents our enjoyment of the shade? So ought, great attempts to be made, is the moral.

No impatient one can ever succeed.

<ul><li>This world is not for cowards.</li><li>Do not try to fly.</li><li>Look not for success or failure.</li><li>Join yourself to the perfectly unselfish will and work on.</li><li>Know that the mind which is born to succeed joins itself to a determined will and perseveres.</li></ul>

<ul><li>Follow the truth wherever it may lead you... Do not be cowardly and hypocritical.</li><li>Perish in the struggle to be holy; a thousand times welcome death.</li><li>Be not disheartened.</li><li>When good nectar is unattainable, it is no reason why we should eat poison.</li></ul>

My idea and all my life with it - and to God for help; to none else! This is the only secret of success.

Be brave, be steady, be patient to be successful.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

Success by Vivekananda

The student did not want to face fear, but it was nonetheless time to do so. He approached, and asked permission to combat Fear, who garnered the student’s respect with its size & might.

The Battle

Fear, in acknowledgement of the student’s respectfulness & humility, answered him outright, “My weapons are that I talk fast & get close to your face. Then you get unnerved, and do whatever I say.”

Fear’s Weapons  

Fear continued: “You can listen to me, you can have respect for me, & you can even be convinced by me— but if you do not do what I say, I have no power.” In that way, the student learned how to overcome Fear.

Defeating Fear 

The Buddhist story of how one student faced & learned to overcome Fear.

LIFE WITHOUT FEAR - a buddhist story about fear is another Dare to do. Motivation story video about how wonderful life can be if we only understand and accept fear as what it is: a factor for growth for human development Please let me know in the comments below what fear is for you and as ylaways: STAAAY BLESSED! Support me : https://paypal.me/daretodomotivation Listen to your heart...be happy...don't give up and always believe! ===================================================================================================================== Hi everybody i write and speak most of the speeches myself, so if you need some material or want to do some sort of collaboration, feel free to contact me : kori.sarian@hotmail.com Speaker: Dare to do.MOTIVATION https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5VP2Yr-U7PHyDKHQQfkH9w?disable_polymer=true ===================================================================================================================== Music Search: Francesco D'Andrea - With some Malice REW - Fig Wasp ====================================================================================================================== *FAIR-USE COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER* Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. 1)This video has no negative impact on the original works (It would actually be positive for them) 2)This video is also for teaching purposes. 3)It is not transformative in nature. 4)I only used bits and pieces of videos to get the point across where necessary. DARE to do. MOTIVATION does not own the rights to these video clips. They have, in accordance with fair use, been repurposed with the intent of educating and inspiring others. However, if any content owners would like their images removed, please contact us by email at KORI.SARIAN@HOTMAIL.COM

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

LIFE WITHOUT FEAR - a buddhist story about fear
is another Dare to do. Motivation story video about how wonderful life can be if we only understand and accept fear as what it is: a factor for growth for human development
Please let me know in the comments below what fear is for you and as ylaways:
STAAAY BLESSED!
Support me : https://paypal.me/daretodomotivation


Listen to your heart...be happy...don't give up and always believe!

=====================================================================================================================
Hi everybody i write and speak most of the speeches myself, so if you need some material or want to do some sort of collaboration, 
feel free to contact me : kori.sarian@hotmail.com

Speaker:

Dare to do.MOTIVATION   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5VP2Yr-U7PHyDKHQQfkH9w?disable_polymer=true

=====================================================================================================================
Music Search:
Francesco D'Andrea - With some Malice
REW - Fig Wasp

======================================================================================================================

 *FAIR-USE COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER*
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism,
 commenting, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
 Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. 
1)This video has no negative impact on the original works (It would actually be positive for them)
2)This video is also for teaching purposes.
3)It is not transformative in nature. 
4)I only used bits and pieces of videos to get the point across where necessary.
DARE to do. MOTIVATION does not own the rights to these video clips.
They have, in accordance with fair use, been repurposed with the intent of educating and inspiring others.
However, if any content owners would like their images removed, please contact us by email at KORI.SARIAN@HOTMAIL.COM

Hi I'm Koriun and i'm a Video Editor/Speaker/Artist from Austria  creating some inspirational  Videos
Dare to do.  
Dare to dream. 
Dare to live.
Support me: https://paypal.me/daretodomotivation?locale.x=de_DE

Dare to do. Motivation

LIFE WITHOUT FEAR - a buddhist story about fear

"Skill is the result of deliberate, consistent practice, and in early-stage practice, quantity and speed trump absolute quality. The faster and more often you practice, the more rapidly you’ll acquire the skill."

Josh Kaufman starts by highlighting it is likely you have a skill you have always wanted to learn. For instance, maybe it’s competently playing the piano, doing well on the tennis court, or becoming conversational in French. Crucially, it is never too late to learn your chosen skill. One of the most common regrets is wishing one had pursued a skill earlier. Subsequently, humans will often quickly give up before even becoming familiar with the basics because they believe it’s too late.

Use Rapid Skill Acquisition to Learn Within 20 Hours

This is where we can use rapid skill acquisition to kickstart our experience. Through using this technique, you can become competent in various desirable skills by putting in 20 hours of work. These 20 hours will allow you to become acquainted with the basics, but skill mastery will require more than these initial 20 hours of investment.

The first few hours of learning something new are always the hardest, and this is where most people give up. However, if you break your initial 20 hours down into an hour of practice per day, you will rapidly improve. You will then find it considerably easier to continue building your skillset after you’ve completed the first 20 hours. Once you get through the first 20 hours, you’ll have a significant amount of practice under your belt, and further practice won’t be as difficult. Making the most of these initial 20 hours relies on adopting the ten principles of rapid skill acquisition.

<ol><li>Choose a lovable project.</li><li>Focus your energy on one skill at a time.</li><li>Define your target performance level.</li><li>Deconstruct the skill into subskills.</li><li>Obtain critical tools.</li><li>Eliminate barriers to practice.</li><li>Make dedicated time for practice.</li><li>Create fast feedback loops.</li><li>Practice by the clock in short bursts.</li><li>Emphasize quantity and speed.</li></ol>

Ten Principles of Rapid Skill Acquisition

"The trouble comes when we confuse learning with skill acquisition. If you want to acquire a new skill, you must practice it in context. Learning enhances practice, but it doesn’t replace it. If performance matters, learning alone is never enough."

There are probably many skills you’d like to acquire. Still, an essential first step of rapid skill acquisition is choosing to focus on one. Start by making a list of all the skills you’re interested in, and pick the one most exciting to you right now. This excitement will help you stay motivated through your practice.

Learn Your Chosen Skill By Focusing Your Energy

Don’t try to learn multiple new concepts at once because you’ll progress slowly, which is not motivating at all. Did you know you can achieve a magical “flow” state by spending more time focusing?Josh Kaufman explains that you should practice in 20-minute bursts so that you can focus all your energy on your chosen learning task. On top of this, these bursts should be characterized by deliberate and consistent practices. Hence, quantity and speed are more important than the quality of your learning. The faster and more often you practice, the more rapidly you’ll acquire the skill.

<ol><li>Research the skill and related topics.</li><li>Jump in over your head.</li><li>Identify mental models and mental hooks.</li><li>Imagine the opposite of what you want.</li><li>Talk to practitioners to set expectations.</li><li>Eliminate distractions in your environment.</li><li>Use spaced repetition and reinforcement for memorization.</li><li>Create scaffolds and checklists.</li><li>Make and test predictions.</li><li>Honor your biology.</li></ol>

Ten Major Principles of Effective Learning

Deciding how talented you want to become at your chosen skill is the third principle in rapid skill acquisition. This is called your target performance level. It’s important because if you can envision the end goal, it’ll be easier to get there. Decide what level of skill is “good enough” for you. For example, if you’re learning to play an instrument, consider whether you want to play a few songs by heart or you want to jump into a jam session.

Choose Your Skill Level

As well as choosing your skill level, you also have to utilize smaller steps. Break your chosen skills down into bite-sized pieces you can tackle one by one. You don’t attempt to down an entire meal in one bite, and you shouldn’t try to learn a skill in one swing. By dividing up the work ahead of you, progress will be easier, and the steps you need to take to succeed will be more clear-cut.

Utilize Smaller Steps 

As well as defining the specific skill level you want to pursue, Kaufman also suggests you need to identify the tools you need to succeed at your skill level. These tools are the fundamental building blocks of your skill. For example, for Kaufman’s ukulele pursuit, the first tool he required was a working ukulele. Though this is a simple step, it is essential to find what materials and environments you’ll need to succeed in learning a new skill.

Acquire the Tools You Need

When learning a skill, there will always be barriers that interfere with your learning process. Therefore, consider any emotional roadblocks that may stand in your path, like fear or self-doubt, as well as distractions (like a ringing phone). After completing this process, try to eliminate any hindrances.

Limit Distractions

"If you rely on finding time to do something, it will never be done. If you want to find time, you must make time."

In today’s world, people are busier than ever. So, if you want to learn a new skill, you need to make time to practice. This is Kaufman’s seventh principle of rapid skill acquisition. Identify other activities in your life that you aren’t fond of, and work to cut those out to fill that time with practicing your new skill. Your goal is to free up 60-90 minutes a day to dedicate to practicing.

Give Yourself Time to Practice

You must get feedback on your progress. For instance, perhaps you are trying to learn Chinese. You should find a way to get fast feedback on your progress, so you’ll know if you’ve put a step wrong. After receiving this feedback, you can choose to approach your skill acquisition differently.  If you can, you should hire a coach to help guide you and give you feedback through the process. If you’re learning a new language, you can use a voice recorder to listen to yourself speaking. This will make it easier to hear mistakes in your own pronunciation or grammar.

Give Yourself Feedback

The author offers another example from his own life to highlight how he has used feedback. Kaufman received feedback when he was learning how to play the game Go. To do this, he downloaded a software called SmartGo, which gives the player feedback after every move. This software helped him identify his weak spots and made it simpler to progress.

Shortening your working periods helps mitigate the risk of working on difficult or tedious activities for extended periods. This is crucial as prolonged challenging work can be draining and often leads to inefficiency. When you first start learning, the hours of practice seem to drag on longer and longer. People tend to think they’ve actually spent more time working at the beginning of learning something new simply by how arduous learning the task is at the beginning.

Prioritize Quantity and Speed By Practicing in Short Bursts

Avoid this feeling from taking over by using a 20-minute time. The timer will let you know how long you’ve actually been practicing and, since you’ll know how long you’ve been working, you’ll be more motivated during that period. Your goal should be to do three to five of these 20-minute blocks of practice per day. If you do this, you’ll be shocked at how quickly you progress.

It’s better to recognize that you’re likely a beginner, and you shouldn’t expect yourself to be an expert from the start. So, focus on practicing quickly and often. By prioritizing quantity and speed, you’re less likely to get frustrated and subsequently demotivated during the initial stages of practice.

The First 20 Hours is a book about rapid skill acquisition: how to pick up new skills as fast as humanly possible.

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

productivity

Productivity

education

Learning & Education

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less?   Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare?   Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . .   In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well.   Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches:<ul><li>Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better.</li><li>Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first.</li><li>Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice.</li><li>Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve.</li></ul>Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

Josh Kaufman is an independent business teacher, education activist, and author of The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business.Josh's unique, multidisciplinary approach to business education has helped hundreds of thousands of readers around the world master foundational business concepts on their own terms, and his work has been featured in BusinessWeek, Fortune, and Fast Company, as well as by influential websites like Lifehacker, HarvardBusiness.org, Cool Tools, and Seth Godin's Blog.

Josh Kaufman

The First 20 Hours

<ul><li>What is life but growth, i.e. expansion, love?</li><li>Therefore, all love is life, it is the only law of life; all selfishness is death, and this is true here or hereafter.</li><li>It is life to do good, it is death not to do good to others.</li></ul>

Help vs selfishness

<ul><li>Be not afraid, my children.</li><li>Look not up in that attitude of fear towards that infinite starry vault as if it would crush you.</li><li>Wait! In a few hours more, the whole of it will be under your feet.</li><li>Wait, money does not pay, nor name; fame does not pay, nor learning.</li><li>It is love that pays; it is character that cleaves its way through adamantine walls of difficulties.</li></ul>

Love will pave the way.

Those who are men and yet have no feeling in the heart for man, well, are such to be counted as men at all?

<ul><li>Duty is seldom sweet.</li><li>It is only when love greases its wheels that it runs smoothly; it is a continuous friction otherwise.</li><li>How else could parents do their duties to their children, husbands to their wives, and vice versa?</li><li>Do we not meet with cases of friction every day in our lives? Duty is sweet only through love.</li></ul>

Duty is sweet only through love.

<ul><li>Love never fails, my son; today or tomorrow or ages after, truth will conquer.</li><li>Love shall win the victory... Believe in the omnipotent power of love.</li><li>Who cares for these tinsel puffs of name?... Have you love? -- you are omnipotent.</li><li>Are you perfectly unselfish? If so, you are irresistible.</li></ul>

Love yourself to love your work.

<ul><li>A cannon-ball flying through the air goes a long distance and falls.</li><li>Another is cut short in its flight by striking against a wall, and the impact generates intense heat.</li><li>All outgoing energy following a selfish motive is frittered away; it will not cause power to return to you; but if restrained, it will result in development of power. This self-control will tend to produce a mighty will.</li></ul>

Passion with self-control will harness great will to do work.

<ul><li>Selfishness is the chief sin, thinking of ourselves first.</li><li>He who thinks, 'I will eat first, I will have more money than others, and I will possess everything'... is the selfish man.</li><li>The unselfish man says, 'I will be last... if by doing so I can help my brothers.'</li><li>This unselfishness is the test of religion. He who has more of his unselfishness is more spiritual.</li></ul>

If your needs are met, help others, selfishness is bad philosophy.

The degree of unselfishness marks the degree of success everywhere.

<ul><li>Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practise it.</li><li>It is more paying from the point of view of health also.</li><li>Love, truth and unselfishness are not merely moral figures of speech, but they form our highest ideal, because in them lies such a manifestation of power.</li></ul>

Unselfishness helps you more than selfishness.

Life is ever expanding, contraction is death.The self-seeking man who is looking after his personal comforts and leading a lazy life- there is no room for him even in hell.

<ul><li>He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva;</li><li>and if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary.</li><li>He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Shiva in him, without thinking of his caste, or creed, or race, or anything,</li><li>with him Shiva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples.</li></ul>

I See God in People who need help of my strength.

Do you love your fellow men? Where should you go to seek for God - are not all the poor, the miserable, the weak, Gods? Why not worship them first?

Do not pity the dead, Harry, pity the living. And above all, those who live without love. - Albus Dumbledore

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

Love and Unselfishness by Vivekananda

The last emperor of India’s Mauryan Dynasty, Ashoka became a patron of Buddhism after witnessing the suffering caused by his military conquest of Kalinga. Following this, he renounced violence in favor of “conquest by Dharma.”

Ashoka The Great Buddhist 

Ashoka adopted the Buddhist virtues of honesty, compassion, humility, & non-violence. As a ruler with perhaps the power to outcast minority religions, Ashoka nonetheless exercised & encouraged tolerance & respect for all spiritual alignments.

New Principles 

Ashoka appointed “Dharma Ministers,” public servants—especially attentive to gender & religious minorities—who also reported the state of the general citizenship to Ashoka frequently. Under his rule, the government constructed hospitals, veterinary hospitals, wells, & other public-serving structures.

Dharma Government 

The Emperor had stupas & monasteries built, along with pillars inscribed with his interpretations of just spirituality & philosophy. He sent his own children as preaching missionaries to Sri Lanka, & made personal efforts to settle disputes within the Sangha (or Buddhist community).

Patronage Projects 

Ashoka the Great was the ideal Chakravartin ruler, who used Buddhism as a template for just & benevolent governance. 

Ashoka, also spelled Aśoka,  (died 238? bce,  India), last major emperor of the Mauryan dynasty of India. His vigorous patronage of Buddhism during his reign (c. 265–238 bce; also given as c. 273–232 bce) furthered the expansion of that religion throughout India. Following his successful but bloody conquest of the Kalinga country on the east coast, Ashoka renounced armed conquest and adopted a policy that he called “conquest by dharma” (i.e., by principles of right life). In order to gain wide publicity for his teachings and his work, Ashoka made them known by means of oral announcements and by engravings

Ashoka | Biography, History, Religion, India, & Buddhism

Om Mani Padme Hum. This is perhaps the most common mantra, said to embody compassion & the core of Buddhism— to skillfully alleviate all suffering. The Lotus is often a symbol of enlightenment, as the flower blossoms only amidst the mud.

Jewel Of The Lotus

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha. The Green Tara is thought of as a motherly figure who will come to her child’s aid in any instance of distress. This mantra, like others, entails deliverance from suffering in favor of compassion.

Green Tara 

Om Muni Muni Mahamuni Shakyamuniye Svaha. The Buddha figure we most often think of is Shakyamuni Buddha, once Siddhartha Gautama. This mantra is a means of praising & remembering the historical Buddha’s wisdom & teachings.

Homage To The Historical Buddha 

Om Ami Dewa Hrih. Amitabha was so devoted to helping others achieve peace, he also hoped that reciting his name 108 times would grant rebirth in a Pure Land.

Amitabha Buddha 

A handful of Buddhist mantras for peace, protection, & spiritual discipline.  

4 Powerful Buddhist Mantras

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors, and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BCE to 180 CE. He was born in 121 AD Rome, Italy

Who is Marcus Aurelius?

Of the doctrines central to the Stoic worldview, perhaps the most important is the unwavering conviction that world is organised in a rational and coherent way. More specifically it is controlled and directed by an all-prevading force that the Stoics designated by the term logos. The term (from which English "logic" and the suffix "-logy" derive) has a semantic range so broad as to be almost untranslatable. In simple words, Stoicism is from the outset a deterministic system that appears to leave no room for human free-will or moral responsibility.

What is a Stoicism? 

If the dog refuses to run along with the wagon he will be dragged by it, yet the choice remains his: to run or be dragged. In the same way, humans are responsible for their choices and actions, even though these have been anticipated by the logos and form of its plan. Every action is governed by the logos ( Active reason prevading and animating the whole Universe)

An example to understand Stoicism properly.

This is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the Meditations in Koine Greek as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement.This book is literally Marcus himself journaling his principles.

Meditations

As a man, everyone should be known about the logos and Stoicism 

Nearly two thousand years after it was written, Meditations remains profoundly relevant for anyone seeking to lead a meaningful life. Few ancient works have been as influential as the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and emperor of Rome (A.D. 161–180). A series of spiritual exercises filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behavior, it remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus’s insights and advice—on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others—have made the Meditations required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style. For anyone who struggles to reconcile the demands of leadership with a concern for personal integrity and spiritual well-being, the Meditations remains as relevant now as it was two thousand years ago. In Gregory Hays’s new translation—the first in thirty-five years—Marcus’s thoughts speak with a new immediacy. In fresh and unencumbered English, Hays vividly conveys the spareness and compression of the original Greek text. Never before have Marcus’s insights been so directly and powerfully presented. With an Introduction that outlines Marcus’s life and career, the essentials of Stoic doctrine, the style and construction of the Meditations, and the work’s ongoing influence, this edition makes it possible to fully rediscover the thoughts of one of the most enlightened and intelligent leaders of any era.

books

Books

Meditations (Medieval Greek: Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν, romanized: Ta eis he'auton, lit. 'things to one's self') is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the Meditations in Koine Greek as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. It is possible that large portions of the work were written at Sirmium, where he spent much time planning military campaigns from 170 to 180. Some of it was written while he was positioned at Aquincum on campaign in Pannonia, because internal notes tell us that the first book was written when he was campaigning against the Quadi on the river Granova (modern-day Hron) and the second book was written at Carnuntum.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known, noncontemporaneously, as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calmness and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD.

Marcus Aurelius

Find 100+ Philosophy Ideas, Insights & Facts - Curated from popular Videos, Podcasts, Books & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!