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Swami Vivekananda on the power of thought

Swami Vivekananda

Whatever you think, that you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be. If you think yourselves strong, strong you will be.

It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds.

Every thought that we think, every deed that we do, after a certain time becomes fine, goes into seed form, so to speak, and lives in the fine body in a potential form, and after a time it emerges again and bears its results. These results condition the life of man. Thus he moulds his own life. Man is not bound by any other laws excepting those which he makes for himself.

— Swami Vivekananda (born on 12 January)

Read quotes from the works of Swami Vivekananda for more such inspiring thoughts.

Believe…

16-07-10 The Best Way To Make It Through

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

— William James

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In the silence of the heart God speaks

A new era

In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.

— Mother Teresa

Pay attention to the gap — the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent space between words in a conversation, between the notes of a piano or flute, the gap between the in-breath and out-breath.

When you pay attention to those gaps, awareness of “something” becomes — just awareness. The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and replaces identification with form.

— Eckhart Tolle

Through the journey of life, we often encounter negative thoughts, thoughts of fear, thoughts of worry, of anxiety. We need to understand that these thoughts are just thoughts, they are impermanent, unreal. A thought comes, and then goes, another thought comes and then goes, and so on. The real problem is when we identify ourselves with these thoughts and give them an unwanted sense of reality. When we give it to them, they multiply and make a bid to rule over us.

Just as clouds come and go in the sky, thoughts come and go in the space of mind. You are not the thoughts, you are the pure awareness in which thoughts come and go, pure awareness that is ever present, ever calm like the sky. Even when we find ourselves so enveloped by the world of thoughts, we can pay attention to the little gap between two thoughts and get a glimpse of the pure awareness. Even a little glimpse, and the identification with thoughts begins to cease. To the extent we become aware of our true nature as space like awareness, the thoughts disperse themselves quickly, and we find these thoughts are just little things that have absolutely no effect on us. There is peace, bliss, serenity.

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Be a child, be happy

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

— Jesus

“One cannot be spiritual as long as one has shame, hatred, or fear. … Great men have the nature of a child. They are always a child before God; so they are free from pride. All their strength is of God and not their own. It belongs to Him and comes from Him.”

— Ramakrishna

Be a child, free yourself from pride, free yourself from guilt. Free yourself from concepts and opinions you have about yourself. All past, even upto the last second, is gone, good or bad, it’s never going to come back. All those things people said or thought about you, opinions people had about you, good or bad, all is gone. The present moment is the only real time, the universe renews itself every moment. When you free your mind from the past, you give birth to yourself each moment, you join the flow of life, you are alive!

Be a child, be happy :)

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On giving, and how to give…

There are those who give little of the much which they have — and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;

They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

— Khalil Gibran (born on 6 January)

Photo by Nige Harris