Just Changing the World

Changing myself / changing the world / because I want to / because I can.

[mindatrisk-blog]

27th January 2015

Where I am living and working at the moment is an ideal situation for further personal growth. I still have a part of me that is adverse to challenges and, what I experience as, difficult people, but for the most part I am up for the challenge and willing to stick out and commit to hard situations as a needed opportunity to learn more about myself and my defects and to grow. It sounds like it will be quite a bit harder in a months time when the main boss returns, but already I can find it quite irritating... but that is within me, and I definitely feel like I need some sort of battle plan and strategy. I have developed a good defence, i.e. I am patient and tolerant, and very rarely will my irritation be seen in my actions. But I need a good attack now. I need to be able to meet the behaviours of others with full frontal love. I don't want to just dodge their blows, but deliver my own so as to soften their hearts and lend them to better ways.  

[mindatrisk-blog]

25th January 2015

I have always tried to be a consistent, steady person on my spiritual path. I am rarely the most compassionate person in the room, the most inspiring, the most loving etc. but then I also don’t have the flip side… I’m not going to get angry, let you down, be hateful etc. The gap between my worst and my best is very small, very narrow. I would much rather be a steady 6/10 all of the time than somedays be 10/10 and other days be 2/10. I want people to know where they stand with me, and that they can trust me. I don’t want to be really, really nice one day then horrible the next. I know people are understanding, but I think that 2/10 day really undermines the 10/10 days, and even if those 10/10 days are sincere and heartfelt, I think experiencing the 2/10 days means other people become suspect and wary. So, I don’t try to be the best or the brightest. I just want to remain centred and balanced and steadily develop myself, including the lowest parts of me. I’ll happily hit a 6.5 tomorrow, but only if I can sink to the lowest of a 5.5. Maybe even narrower.

[mindatrisk-blog]

24th January 2015

My attitude towards work is improving. I've been working in the cafe for 3 weeks now and whilst at first I just wanted to get cleaning jobs out of the way in a hurry, today I took my time and did them well. I can have a lazy attitude, but conversely I feel satisfied when I do a good job. 

I feel like maybe I am coming close to the end of 'no practice'. It has been helpful dropping all my tools - things like being raw vegan, meditation, exercise, and so on, as they had become crutches that I felt I needed in order to function and perform, whereas moving to Brentwood and settling in here without any of them has given me confidence in myself because I haven't used those things.

Now I am looking forward to introducing all those positive tools back into my life without any attachment or dependence upon them and without feeling guilty as and when I don't utilise them.

[oceanandwave-deactivated2018032]

The great Tao flows everywhere. All things are born from it, yet it doesn’t create them. It pours itself into its work, yet it makes no claim. It nourishes infinite worlds, yet it doesn’t hold on to them. Since it is merged with all things and hidden in their hearts, it can be called humble. Since all things vanish into it and it alone endures, it can be called great. It isn’t aware of its greatness; thus it is truly great.

Lao Tzu-‘Tao Te Ching’ (34), translation by S. Mitchell (via oceanandwave)

I love this.  It's rare to read words from one who you truly feel has touched upon the truth, but the truth spills through these words in the manner in which the words describe its nature.  

[shaktilover]

Your light is seen. Your heart is known. Your soul is cherished by more people than you might imagine. If you knew how many others have been touched in wonderful ways by you, you would be astonished. If you knew how many people feel so much for you, you would be shocked. You are far more wonderful than you think you are. Rest with that. Rest easy with that. Breathe again. You are doing fine. More than fine. Better than fine. You’re doing great. So relax. And love yourself today.

Neale Donald Walsch  (via shaktilover)

[stellar-blue-deactivated-deacti]

"Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering."

Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements (via elige)

[thecalminside]

He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.

Buddha (via thecalminside)

[asnofre]

[mindatrisk-blog]

Billingham Beck.

[thebigelectron]

Attachment destroys courage. The giver is always ready to give. The taker is absent. Freedom means letting go. People just do not care to let go everything. They do not know that the finite is the price of the infinite, as death is the price of immortality. Spiritual maturity lies in the readiness to let go everything. The giving up is the first step. But the real giving up is in realizing that there is nothing to give up, for nothing is your own. It is like deep sleep — you do not give up your bed when you fall sleep — you just forget it.

Nisargadatta Maharaj (via thebigelectron)

[purplebuddhaproject]

There is a mysterious force inside that animates you. It is covered up by thoughts and the mind’s ideas about who and what you are. But all true spiritual teachings point away from a fascination with the little “me” and toward a fascination with that mystery under the thoughts. This is the fertile ground for awakening. Once the mystery wakes up to itself it realizes that this is what it truly is and has always been, but it can not be described.

Adyashanti (via purplebuddhaproject)

[thecalminside]

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?

Lao Tzu (via thecalminside)

Thanks... I can, I really can!  And I will!

[brutereason]

Feminism is not about who opens the jar. It is not about who pays for the date. It is not about who moves the couch. It is not about who kills the bugs. It is not about who cooks the dinner. It’s not even about who stays home with the kids, as long as the decision was made together, after thinking carefully about your situation and coming to an agreement that makes sense for your particular marriage and family. It is about making sure that nobody ever has to do anything by “default” because of their gender. The stronger person should move the couch. The person who enjoys cooking more, has more time for it, and/or is better at it should do the cooking. Sometimes the stronger person is male, sometimes not. Sometimes the person who is best suited for cooking is female, sometimes not. You should do what works. But it is also about letting people know that it is okay to change. If you’re a woman who wants to become stronger, that’s great. If you’re a man who wants to learn how to cook, that’s also great. You might start out with a relationship where the guy opens all the jars and the girl cooks all the meals, but you might find that you want to try something else. So try it.

4 ignorant delusions people have about feminism (via quantumstarlight)

I don't think about feminism much, or any prejudice, to be honest.  It's too weird that these issues even exist, and I can't be bothered to address them.  It's good that people do, but I really wish it wasn't necessary, and I really hope humanity quickly grows up and gets over it all.  Anyway, I think this is a wonderful explanation of equality.

[mindatrisk-blog]

It's all good

I have to drop my limiting thoughts and beliefs about myself.  If I am to make a significant difference to the world then it will not be through tinkering in local services trying to get people wardrobes.  Everything else that I wish to do - including the magazine, which I think can be meaningful - needs to be produced from an elevated position where it already has an appeal and an audience.  At the moment, creating something like a magazine and getting it published and popular would be very difficult.  I know what I need to do and what I will do, and i'm not even sure why I really have to think much through.  I have a glittering diamond on the horizon that deserves all my attention, but here I am scrambling around trying to polish stones for people who don't really seem to care.  Oh well, whatever, never mind.  

[quotes-shape-us]

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (via cosmofilius)

[thewellnessresolution-deactivat]

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

Socrates  (via elige)

[kushandwizdom]

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

Leo Tolstoy (via kushandwizdom)

When we change ourselves we change the world, that is true, but when we make efforts also to change the world - to help the addict, to feed the homeless, to protest the politic, and so on, then this inspires within us a need to grow into this new role - to be fit to help the addict, to be able to feed the homeless, to be effective in protesting the politic.  Changing the world and changing ourselves go hand in hand, one informs and inspires the other, there is no true separation, no distinction, when we do one, we do the other.

[thecalminside]

Are the great spiritual teachings really advocating that we fight evil because we are on the side of light, the side of peace? Are they telling us to fight against that other ‘undesirable’ side, the bad and the black. That is a big question. If there is wisdom in the sacred teachings, there should not be any war. As long as a person is involved with warfare, trying to defend or attack, then his action is not sacred; it is mundane, dualistic, a battlefield situation.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (via thecalminside)