Good Sayings-50

981.  Dharma, violated, destroys; Dharma, cherished, protects.
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982.  Reject the gain that leads to a loss; Accept the loss that leads to a gain- Vidhura...
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983.  All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
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984.  Religions are not meant for separating men from one another, they are meant to bind them- Gandhiji
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985.  Children have neither past nor future.  They enjoy the present, which very few of us do.-Richard Garfield.
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986.  The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. _ William Blake.
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987.  Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.- Confucius
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988.  Pleasure is attained by fulfilling desire; happiness by overcoming it.
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989.  Speak not except what may benefit others or yourself.  Avoid unimportant conversation.
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990.  I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.- Voltaire
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991.  Amassing wealth often ruins health.
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992.  Correct yourself and the world stands corrected.
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993.  Constant practice often excels even talent.-Cicero.
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994.  Time is Money.
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995.  No man is happy who does not think himself so.
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996.  The humble are pure gold, the proud are brass.
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997.  Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.
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998.  Experience helps us to grow, accomplishment helps us mature.-G.Goodwin
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999. One day is lost if we have not laughed even once.
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1000.  He who can take no great interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.-John Ruskin.
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There Is Good In Everyone...Wisdom

A teacher had great faith in his students and believed that every single student had something special in him.  Hearing about his faith in his students, the principal of the school appointed him to teach a class where a particular boy was giving a lot of trouble and negatively influencing the other boys too.

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As the teacher entered the class on the first day, he found a lot of whispering going.  A paper was being passed from student to student.  When the teacher took the paper, he saw in it a crude drawing of himself.  He asked the students who drew it.  The boy who was known for his misbehavior stood up.  The teacher said to him, "Meet me after school today".  He then continued the class.  In the evening the boy went to him, expecting a severe punishment.  To his surprise, the teacher gave him a book and said to him, "I saw from your drawing that you have a great talent.  Here is a book which teaches you a lot about drawing.  Use it well".

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The boy was so encouraged by this, he began to concentrate on drawing and on studies too to please the teacher.  He grew up to become James Whitcomb Riley, a great American Poet and artist.....

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The teacher could mould a mischievous boy into a great person through his faith that there is good in everyone, and that through his faith that there is good in everyone, and that through patience one can win people over by being nice to them.....

Complacency...Wisdom Editor Speaks

Being satisfied and pleased with oneself is one thing.  Having respect for oneself is another.

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Once you reach your goal, you gain confidence.  You use this confidence to set new goals to achieve.  That is what creative living is all about.  But when should one be proud of one's achievement?  When you develop confidence on your own initiative, there is no shame in being proud of it.  You don't have to brag about it; but you can look at yourself with kind eyes and, with approval, you can accept yourself for what you are and what you can be.  This does not mean complacency, being satisfied with your lot and staying that way.

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Complacency is a variation of conceit, because you like yourself and go on liking yourself for what you have achieved, feeling you need not achieve anymore.  Complacency and humility do not go together, but confidence and humility do.  there is a hidden danger in being complacent.  Soon you become passive and rest on your laurels, whatever they may be.  Then you slowly retire from the realities of life.  Creative living means that you must always keep moving in the stream of things.  You can still enjoy a vacation now and relax in the room of your mind to renew your energies and you courage to tackle life's problems.  Complacency signals that you are resting too long.  All rest and no work makes you dull, uninteresting, lifeless.

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No one can make you complacent without your consent.....

Education For Character...Swamy Vivekananda

The character of any man is but the aggregate of his tendencies, the sum total of the bent of his mind.  As pleasure and pain pas before his soul, they leave upon it different pictures, and the result of these combined impressions is what is called a man's character.  We are what our thoughts have made us.  Each thought is a little hammer blow on the lumps of iron which our bodies are, manufacturing out of it what we want it to be.  Words are secondary.  Thoughts live; they travel far.  And so take care of what you think.

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Good and evil have an equal share in moulding character and in some cases misery is a greater teacher than happiness.  In studying the great characters the world has produced, I daresay, in the vast majority of cases, it would be found that it was misery that taught more than happiness, it was poverty that taught more than wealth, and it was blows that brought out their inner fire more than praise.  Brought up in the lap of luxury, lying on a bed of roses and never shedding a tear, who has become great?  When there comes affection in the heart, when the storm of sorrow blows all round, and it seems as if light will be seen no more, when hope and courage are almost gone, it is then, in the midst of this great spiritual tempest, that the light within gleams.

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Using the simile of a lake for the mind, every ripple, every wave that rises in the mind, when it subsides, does not die out entirely, but leaves a mark and future possibility of that mark coming out again...   Every work that we do, every movement of the body, every thought that we think, leaves such an impression on the mind-stuff, and even when such impressions are not obvious on the surface, they are sufficiently strong to work beneath the surface, subconsciously.  What we are every moment is determined by the sum total of these impressions on the mind..  Each man's character is determined by the sum total of these impressions.  If good impressions prevail, the character becomes good, if bad, it becomes bad.  If a man continuously hears bad words, thinks bad thoughts, does bad actions, his mind will be full of bad impressions; and they will influence his thought and work without his being conscious of the fact.  In fact, these bad impressions are always working.  The sum total of these impressions in him will create the strong motive power for doing bad actions.  He will be like a machine in the hands of his impressions.

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Similarly if a man thinks good thoughts and does good work, the sum total of these impressions will be good and they in a similar manner will force him to do good in spire of himself.  When a man has done so much of good work and thought so many good thoughts, there is an irresistible tendency in him to do good.  Even if he wishes to do evil, his mind, as the sum total of his tendencies, will not allow him to do so.  He is completely under the influence of the good tendencies.  When such is the case, a man's good character is said to be established.  If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances.  Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of the great man.  Great occasions rouse even the lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but he alone is really great whose character is great always--the same wherever he be?

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When a large number of these impressions is left on the mind, they coalesce and become a habit.  It is said, 'Habit is second nature.'  It is first nature also and the whole nature of man.  Everything that we are is the result of habit.... That gives us consolation because, if it is only habit, we can make it and unmake it at any time.  The only remedy for bad habits is counter habits.  All the bad habits can be controlled by good habits.  Go on doing good, thinking holy thoughts continuously.  That is the only way to suppress base impressions.  Never say any man is hopeless, because he only represents a character, a bundle of habits, which can be checked by new and better ones.  Character is repeated habits and repeated habits alone can reform character.

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The cause of all apparent evil is in ourselves.  Do not blame any supernatural being.  Neither be hopeless or despondent, nor think that we are in a place from which we can never escape unless someone comes and gives a helping hand.  We are like silkworms.  We make the thread of our own substance and spin the cocoon, and in course of time are imprisoned inside.  The network of karma we have woven around ourselves.  And in our ignorance we feel as if we are bound, and weep and wail for help.  But help does not come from without; it comes from within ourselves.  Cry to all the gods of the universe.  I cried for years and in the end I found that I was helped.  But help came from within.  And I had to undo what I had done by mistake.  I had to cut the net which I had thrown round myself.  I have committed many mistakes in my life.  But mark you, without those mistakes, I should not be what I am today.  I do not mean that you are to go home and willfully commit mistake; do not misunderstand me in that way.  But do not mope because of the mistakes you have committed.

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We commit mistakes because we are weak, and we are weak because we are ignorant.  Who makes us ignorant?  We ourselves.  We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark.  Take the hands away and there is light.  the light exists always for us, the self-effulgent nature of the human soul.  Do you not hear what modern scientific men say?  What is the cause of evolution?  Desire.  The animal wants to do something but does not find the environment favorable, and therefore develops a new body.  Who develops it?  The animal itself: its will.  Continue to exercise your will and it will take you higher.  The will is almighty.  If it is almighty, you may say: why cannot I do everything?  But you are thinking only of your little self.

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Look back on yourself from the state of the amoeba to the human being; who made all that?  Your own will.  Can you deny that it is almighty?  That which has made you come up so high, can make you go higher still.  What you want is character, strengthening of the will.

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If you go home and sit in sack-cloth and ashes, and weep your lives out because you took certain false steps, it will n ot help you, but will weaken you all the more.  If this room is full of darkness for thousands of years and you come in and begin to weep and wail, will the darkness vanish?  Strike a match and light comes in a moment.  What good will it do to you to think all your lives, 'Oh, I have done evil; I have made many mistakes.'?  It requires no ghost to tell us that.  Bring in the light and evil goes in a moment.  Build up your character and manifest your real nature, the Effulgent, the Resplendent, the Even-Pure and call it up in every one you see.......

 

The Only Method Of Education....Swamy Vivekananda...

There is only one method by which to attain knowledge, that which is called concentration.  The very essence of education is concentration of mind.  From the lowest man to the highest yogi, all have to use the same method to attain knowledge.  The chemist who works in his laboratory concentrates all the powers of his mind, brings them into one focus, and throws them on the elements; the elements stand analysed, and thus his knowledge comes.  The astronomer concentrates the powers of his mind and brings them into one focus; and he throws them on to objects through his telescope; and stars and systems roll forward and give up their secrets of him.  So it is in every case: with the professor in his chair, the student with his book, with every man who is working to know.

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The more the power of concentration, the greater the knowledge that is acquired.  Even the lowest shoe-black, if he gives more concentration, will black shoes better.  The cook with concentration will cook a meal all the better.  In making money, or in worshiping God, or in doing anything, the stronger the power of concentration, the better will that thing be done.  This is the one call, the one knowck, which opens the gates of Nature, and lets out floods of light.
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Ninety per cent of thought-force  is wasted by the ordinary human being and therefore he is constantly committing blunders.  The trained man or mind never makes a mistake.  The main difference between men and the animals is the difference in their powers of concentration.  An animal has very little  powers of concentration.  Those who have trained animals find much difficulty in the fact that the animal is constantly forgetting what is told him.  He cannot concentrate his mind upon anything for a long times.  Herein is the difference between man and the animals.  The difference in their power of concentration also constitutes the difference between man and man.  Compare the lowest with the highest man.  The difference is in the degree of concentration.
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All success in any line of work is the result of this.  High achievements in arts, music, etc., are the result of concentration.  When the mind is concentrated and turned back on itself, all within us will be our servants, not our masters.  The Greeks applied their concentration to the external world and the result was perfection in art, literature etc.  The Hindu concentrated on the internal world, upon the unseen realms in the self and developed the science of yoga.  The world is ready to give up its secrets if we only know how to knock, how to give the necessary blow.  The strength and force of the blow come through concentration.
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The power of concentration is the only key to the treasure-house of knowledge.  In the present state of our body we are much distracted, and the mind is frittering away its energies upon a hundred things.  As soon as I try to call on my thoughts and concentrate my mind upon any one object of knowledge, thousands of undesired impulses rush into the brain, thousands of thoughts rush into the mind and disturb it.  How to check it and bring the mind under control is the whole subject of study in Rajayoga.  The practice of meditation leads to mental concentration.
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To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not the collection of facts.  If I had to do my education once again, I would not study facts at all.  I would develop the power of concentration and detachment and then with a perfect instrument, collect facts at will.
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Power comes to him who observes unbroken Brahmacharya for a period of twelve years.  Complete continence gives great intellectual and spiritual power.  Controlled desire leads to the highest results.  Transform the sexual energy into spiritual energy.  The stronger this force, the more can be done with it.  Only a powerful current of water can do hydraulic mining.  It is owing to want of continence that everything is on the brink of ruin in our country.  By observance of strict Brahmacharya all learning can be mastered in a very short time; one acquires an unfailing memory of what one hears or knows but once.  The chaste brain has tremendous energy and gigantic will power.  Without chastity there can be no spiritual strength.  Continence gives wonderful control over mankind.  The spiritual leader of men have been very continent and this is what gave them power.
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Every boy should be trained to practice absolute Brahmacharya and then, and then alone faith and Shradda will come.  Chastity in thought, word and deed always and in all conditions is what is called Brahmacharya(Continence).  Unchaste imagination is as bad as unchaste action.  The Brahmacharin(Who are practicing continence) must be pure in thought, word and deed.

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The idea of true Shraddha must be brought back once more to us.  The faith in our own selves must be reawakened and then only all the problems which face our country will gradually be solved by ourselves.  What we want is this Shradda.  What makes the difference between man and man is the difference in the Shraddha and nothing else.  What makes one man great and another weak and low is this Shraddha.  My master used to say: he who thinks himself weak will become weak; and that is true.  This Shraddha must enter into you.  Whatever of material power you see manifested by the western races, is the outcome of this Shraddha, because they believe in their muscles; and if you believe in the spirit how much more will it work!

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I beg you to understand this one fact, no good comes out of the man who day and night thinks he is nobody.  If a man day and night thinks that he is miserable, low and nothing, nothing he becomes.  If you say 'I am, I am', so shall you be.  That is the great fact you ought to remember.  We are children of the Almighty, we are sparks of the infinite, divine fire.  How can we be nothings?  We are everything, ready to do everything; we can do everything.  This faith in themselves was in the heart of our ancestors; this faith in themselves was the motive power that pushed them forward in the march of civilization.  If there has been degeneration, if there has been defect, you will find that degeneration to have started on the day our people lost this faith in themselves.

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To preach the doctrine of Shraddha or genuine faith is the mission of my life.  Let me repeat to your that this faith is one of the most potent factors of humanity.  First have faith in yourselves.  Know that though one may be a little bubble and another may be a mountain-high wave, yet behind both the bubble and the wave there is the infinite ocean.  The infinite ocean is the background of me as well as you.  Mine also is that infinite ocean of life, of power, of spirituality as well as yours.  Therefore, my brethren, teach this life-saving, great, ennobling, grand doctrine to your children even from their very birth.