15 Saturday Oct 2016
Posted in quotations
It is swing- swirl-spiral time. It’s ripple-sway-flutter time and flow-gush-gyrate time, and jive-jiggle-juggle time. I trust you will not indulge in fruitless yearning for unswerving progress and rock-solid evidence. If your path is not twisty and tricky, it’s probably the wrong path. If your heart is not teased and tickled into shedding its dependable formulas, it might be an overly hard heart. Be an improvisational curiosity- seeker. Be a principled player of unpredictable games.
Rob Breznsy
15 Sunday Jun 2014
Posted in quotations, Reflection
Tags
awareness, community, connection, empathy, Mindfulness, Poverty of spirit, presence, relationship, The Buddha
A poor man asked the Buddha,
“Why am I so poor?”
The Buddha said, “You donot learn to give.”
So the poor man said, “If I’m not having anything?”
Buddha said: “You have a few things:
The Face, which can give a smile;
The Mouth, you can praise or comfort others;
The Heart, it can open up to others;
The Eyes, who can look the other with the eyes of goodness;
The Body, which can be used to help others.”
So, actually we are not poor at all.
Poverty of spirit is the real poverty.
Happy Possibility,
Tahereh Barati
29 Thursday Aug 2013
Posted in Articles, quotations, Reflection
Tags
Compassion, Freedom, joy, kindness, love, reflection, relationships, spirituality, Understanding
We all want Love in our life. We all have strong desire to experiencing loving relationships. We all want to reassure ourselves that we are being loved by someone special. But what is Love? How can it be possible? Can it be constructed?
Loving ourselves, loving each other, our neighbors, and our enemy are essential part of philosophical political and psychological debates in human history. It is said, most fights/ conflicts are linked to the absent of Love in human relationships.
Thick Nhat Hanh shares his views and wisdom on ways of bringing Love more present in our daily life. In his book, True Love (1997), he says: according to Buddhism, there are four elements of true Love. I am going to share with you what he consider as essence elements of Love. They are the following:
a) The first element of true love is Maitri, which can be translated as Loving- kindness or Benevolence. Loving- Kindness is not only the desire to make someone happy, it is the ability to bring joy to the person you love. To have this ability, you must practice ‘deep looking’ directed towards the person you love. If you don’t understand this person, you can’t love properly. Understanding is the essence of love. How to understand the person? We must have time; we must practice looking deeply into this person. We must be attentive. We must observe and look deeply.
b) The second element of true love is Karuna, Compassion, this is not only the desire to ease the pain of another person but the ability to do so.
c) The third element of true love is Mudita, Joy. If there is no joy in love, it is not true love. If you are suffering all the time, if you cry all the time, if you make the person you love cry, this is not really love. It is even the opposite.
d) The forth element is Upeksha, Equanimity or Freedom. In true love, you attain freedom. When you love, you bring freedom to the person you love. You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free; not only outside but also inside.
I would like to invite you to reflect on your love according to these elements and see if your love has these elements and if not, what could you do differently. Please share your thoughts and ideas!
Happy Possibilities,
Tahereh Barati, M.A, RMFT
02 Friday Nov 2012
Posted in quotations, Reflection
“Life is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.” – Paulo Coelho
‘Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil’. – Marcus Aurelius
“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is a beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is a sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure , dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is life, fight for it”. – Mother Teresa
Happy Possibilities!
17 Wednesday Oct 2012
Posted in quotations, Reflection
Found Written on The Wall in Mother Teresa’s Home for Children in Calcutta:
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self -centred.
Forgive them anyway
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be Kind anyway
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Be honest and sincere anyway
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Do good anyway
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway
In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway
Happy Possibilities!
14 Sunday Oct 2012
Posted in quotations, Reflection
Tags
around the world, connections, environment, explorer, journey, life, movement, origins, patterns
03 Tuesday Jan 2012
Posted in quotations, Reflection
I wanted to share a story with you for the beginning of the new year…
“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. When I couldn’t change my town, then as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now as an old man I realized the only thing I can change is myself. Suddenly I realized that if I long ago had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. And their impact could have changed the nation. And I could indeed have changed the world.” ~ Unknown Monk (1100CE)
Let’s change ourselves, our views and attitudes towards others. Let’s be more kind to our weaknesses and be more appreciative of our strengths. Let’s learn how to connect with one another in a way that doesn’t produce harm; let’s satisfy our needs and wants in a way that doesn’t intrude/violate others’ presence; let’s have more awareness; let’s be at peace with self and others…
One of the most empowering tools we have in life is our own example.
If you would like to get to know yourself more , become more aware of your inner resources and have more impact on your relationships, contact me for further conversations. Looking forward to hearing from you,
Happy Possibilities!
27 Sunday Nov 2011
Posted in quotations
People have many different reactions to Change. They are the following:
What about you? How do you react to Change?
Here is the best- articulated statement about people’s reactions to Change:
“When the wind changes directions, there are those who build walls and there are those who build windmills.” -Chinese saying
26 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in quotations
“There are three kinds of men: Ones that learn by reading, a few who learn by observation, and the rest of them who have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.” -Will Rogers
25 Friday Nov 2011
Posted in quotations
“We learn something every day, and lots of times it’s that what we learned the day before was wrong.” -Bill Vaughan
Just imagine how open and flexible we need to be to constantly learn, unlearn and relearn what we are learning every day… An ability to view life as fluid and constantly changing…
Happy thinking!
website: www.taherehbarati.com
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