No two human beings can think or act in exactly the same way. All men or women act the way they do because God within them prompts them that way. Mind your own business and you will keep your peace.

2. Forgive And Forget:

This is the most powerful aid to peace of mind. We often develop ill feelings inside our heart for the person who insults us or harms us. We nurture grievances. This in turn results in loss of sleep, development of stomach ulcers, and high blood pressure. This insult or injury was done once, but nourishing of grievance goes on forever by constantly remembering it. Get over this bad habit. Life is too short to waste in such trifles. Forgive,20Forget, and march on. Love flourishes in giving and forgiving.

3. Do Not Crave For Recognition:

This world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without selfish motives. They may praise you today because you are in power, but no sooner than you are powerless, they will forget your achievement and will start finding faults in you. Why do you wish to kill yourself in striving for their recognition? Their recognition is not worth the aggravation. Do your duties ethically and sincerely.

4. Do Not Be Jealous:

We all have experienced how jealousy can disturb our peace of mind. You know that you work harder than your colleagues in the office, but sometimes they get promotions; you do not. You started a business several years ago, but you are not as successful as your neighbor whose business is only one year old. There are several examples like these in everyday life. Should you be jealous? No.

Remember everybody’s life is shaped by his/her destiny, which has now become his/her reality. If you are destined to be rich, nothing in the world can stop you. If you are not so destined, no one can help you either. Nothing will be gained by blaming others for your misfortune. Jealousy will not get you anywhere; it will only take away your peace of mind.

5. Change Yourself According To The Environment:

If you try to change the environment single-handedly, the chances are you will fail. Instead, change yourself to suit your environment. As you do this, even the environment, which has been unfriendly to you, will mysteriously change and seem congenial and harmonious.

6. Endure What Cannot Be Cured:

This is the best way to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Every day we face numerous inconveniences, ailments, irritations, and accidents that are beyond our control. If we cannot control them or change them, we must learn to put up with these things. We must learn to endure them cheerfully. Believe in yourself and you will gain in terms of patience, inner strength and will power.

7. Do Not Bite Off More Than You Can Chew:

This maxim needs to be remembered constantly. We often tend to take more responsibilities than we are capable of carrying out. This is done to satisfy our ego. Know your limitations. . Why take on additional loads that may create more worries? You cannot gain peace of mind by expanding your external activities. Reduce your material engagements and spend time in prayer, introspection and meditation. This will reduce those thoughts in your mind that make you restless. Uncluttered mind will produce greater peace of mind.

8. Meditate Regularly:

Meditation calms the mind and gets rid of disturbing thoughts. This is the highest state of peace of mind. Try and experience it yourself. If you meditate earnestly for half an hour everyday, your mind will tend to become peaceful during the remaining twenty-three and half-hours. Your mind will not be easily disturbed as it was before.

You would benefit by gradually increasing the period of daily meditation. You may think that this will interfere with your daily work. On the contrary, this will increase your efficiency and you will be able to produce better results in less time.

9. Never Leave The Mind Vacant:

An empty mind is the devil’s workshop. All evil actions start in the vacant mind. Keep your mind occupied in something positive, something worthwhile. Actively follow a hobby. Do something that holds your interest. You must decide what you value more: money or peace of mind. Your hobby, like social work or religious work, may not always earn you more money, but you will have a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Even when you are resting physically, occupy yourself in healthy reading or mental chanting of God’s name.

10. Do Not Procrastinate And Never Regret:

Do not waste time in protracted wondering " Should I or shouldn’t I?" Days, weeks, months, and years may be wasted in that futile mental debating. You can never plan enough because you can never anticipate all future happenings. Value your time and do the things that need to be done.

It does not matter if you fail the first time. You can learn from your mistakes and succeed the next time. Sitting back and worrying will lead to nothing. Learn from your mistakes, but do not brood over the past. DO NOT REGRET. Whatever happened was destined to happen only that way. Why cry over spilt milk?.

We are so engrossed in the letters that we forget the paper. The enlightened sees the paper as the substratum whether the letters appear on it or not.

An exponent of the path of Self-enquiry or Atma-vichara , Ramana Maharshi was convinced that a spiritual seeker could attain Self-realisation by constantly reflecting on the question ‘Who am I?’ and tracing the `i-am-the-body’ thought (ego) to its source through deep meditation.

In deep sleep there are no perceptions. Yet, the ego was present because otherwise, there cannot be the memory of having slept. He asked: “Who slept? You did not say in your sleep that you slept; you say it in your wakeful state. So the ego is the same in wakefulness, dream and sleep. Find out the underlying Reality behind these states. There is no you, nor I, nor he; nor present, nor past, nor future. It is beyond time and space, beyond expression.”

The deep sleep state is devoid of body-consciousness but in the waking state the ‘I-am-the-body’ thought is predominant; hence the external world is perceived. Yet the fact remains that there is no change in the one who slept and the one who is now awake. The difference between waking and deep sleep lies in the emergence of body-consciousness and that no change occurs in pure consciousness that abides in eternity. And since the body is experienced in one state (waking) but not in the other (deep sleep), one can say that it arose at some particular moment and that it has both an origin and an end.

The Self, on the other hand, is the Eternal Consciousness which both pre-exists and survives the body. There is the continuity of the Being, the Eternal Self, in all the three states while the body and the worlds that appear in the waking and dream states are ephemeral.

Both the body and body-consciousness emerge and sink simultaneously. While no limitations are experienced in deep sleep, the waking state is the state of bondage characterised by limitations. Despite being devoid of worldly possessions and body, in deep sleep an individual experiences unalloyed happiness. Maharshi says: “See how carefully people prepare their beds to gain that happiness. Soft cushions and pillows are all meant to induce sound sleep, that is to say, to end wakefulness. And yet all these are of no use in the state of deep sleep itself.” Happiness therefore does not depend upon extraneous factors; it is inherent in man.

The thought ‘The body is I’, according to Ramana Maharshi, is the fundamental error. The body does not say ‘I am’; it is the individual who says `i am the body’. Similarly, the world does not proclaim its existence; it is only the individual who says: ‘This is the world’. Since the world is not cognised in deep sleep, continuity of its existence is broken which, in effect, means that it exists only in relation to the perceiver; it has no independent existence.

The Self despite being eternal and omnipresent is not easily realised because of ignorance that falsely identifies Self with body and mind. Eradication of the false sense of ‘I’ (as `I’) through Self-enquiry is the goal of meditation. Then what remains is the pure ‘I’, the Eternal Self.

It also affirms this identity as the real self because the body is the most tangible proof of existence. We can touch, feel and react with this tangible instrument. The ego is addition of many layers of likes, dislikes, preferences and priorities to this mind-body form. The sense of separateness. Of being one of a kind. Of discreteness.

The more we endeavour to attain salvation, the sense of separateness only gets reinforced. All chemicals such as alcohol and drugs induce a state of disconnect. A fleeting disconnect with the surroundings. This disconnect is pleasurable as it blunts the sensibilities and makes the individual immune to any unpleasantness of daily living. But it also fortifies the sense of separateness. This feeling of disconnect and indifference is momentarily blissful. These chemicals are addictive because they give an illusory, fleeting glimpse of ‘spiritual’ experience similar to the state of realisation.

The so-called chemical disconnection is ‘exclusive’. In the sense that it refurbishes the sense of separateness but isolates the individual. The state of realisation, however, is inclusive. This inclusive disconnection is an all-pervading sense of oneness, in which any connection is superfluous. Connection or disconnection is relevant only in duality or an illusion of duality. Once this illusion of duality vanishes, what remains is unity. An impersonal awareness.

Realisation shifts the identification of the self from the mind-body form to just plain awareness. Like a drop of the ocean. This drop, when separate from the ocean, will become acutely aware of its independent existence. The drop can see the ocean separately and this separateness gives not only itself, but also the vast ocean a separate identity as well.

When the drop merges in the ocean it does not destroy the physicality of the drop. The drop just merges and loses its separateness. It becomes one with the ocean. Till the point of impact, it still maintains its identity, but at the moment of impact, the drop seemingly disappears. That state of merger can thereafter not be perceived, because perception was of the drop. When the drop ceases to exist, who or what is there to perceive?

The disconnect that occurs by inclusion is everlasting, beyond any time-space considerations. Compassion for all life then becomes the effect rather than any imbibed virtue. The sense of unity is not even an experience because experience implies the existence of an experienced. And we all are conditioned to believe that realisation would mean probably seeing some divine light, or hearing some soulful music or a tremendous state of happiness and so on.

The merger automatically dissolves the ego. It also liberates one from all desires and lust for sensory gratification. The body will eventually live out its destiny, but there would be no sense of doer-ship. There would be just a residual observer who transcends even joy and sorrow. The unqualified awareness celebrates a sense of ‘am-ness’ unadulterated by expectations and longing.

The intangibility and dissolution of one’s identity can scarcely be expressed by any means of communication. The final moment of oneness can be experienced only when all layers of misconception are peeled away and the real self is apperceived not as a separate identity but paradoxically the absence of any.

With the passage of time, when the pain of living has caught up with us and when the spectre of death claims more and more of the people whom we have known, loved and lived with, we begin to hope for a life that promises us an eternity of living. This hope is not the shallow kind but springs from within and is the kind of hope that endures.

Sometimes, we work for small goals, which though they may be good in themselves, do not work for our final good. Hope that endures teaches us to be patient under trials and to work towards reaching our mark in life. Sometimes, the end may not seem at all encouraging. Many we knew appeared unprepared for the end and the flame of hope seemed to have been extinguished in this earthly life.

Does this mean that we cannot hope that they have died and made their peace with God? Far from that, we learn to believe that helped on by prayers and bolstered by the prayers of others, those who were not up to the struggle in life, have at last found their home and peace in God.

True hope does not mean that we leave everything to God. We have to play our part. We learn not to pin our hopes on what can never supply our needs. We steer away from company and people who crush our confidence that could leave us in a limbo of faithlessness.

The Gospels talk about the house that was built on sand and fell down when the rains and storms set in and the house built on rock that survived the winds and the rains. The house built on sand is a symbol of all those who put their faith in the wrong place and in the wrong people. The house built on rock is a symbol of those who have true hope and place their ultimate trust in God rather than in human beings.

We all wear many hats in life. We feel fear, anxiety, resentment, greed, faithlessness and pessimism. Sometimes we feel hope, contentment and love. We can pass down these feelings to others and either perpetuate the influence of the negative in our lives and those of others or pass down feelings of hope, peace and joy and create an environment of trust for others to follow.

Many demands are made on our time and resources. Speed is the prerequisite for many tasks and jobs that we are required to do. We hope for results that are predicated on deadlines. We work like lightening, sometimes at the cost of excellence. We have to learn patience because patience creates results that endure.

We are now more than ever conscious that we live in one world, sharing common goals, hopes and anxieties. With the instant media, we are brought into relationship with each other and there is a bonding of all across continents as people belonging to one human race.

While there is much disappointment, there is also much to be happy about. We reach a stage in our lives when we begin to pin our hopes on God and not on social approval or disapproval. The God of Hope never lets us down. To those who have been His faithful servants, he promises an eternity of hope resting in Him, in whom we move and have our being.

Every sunrise, sunset, the changing of seasons, the tides of the sea and the history of Mother Earth are all lessons in hope. In them we see God’s faithful love for us, His people. Keep on hoping then, through every circumstance, doubt and calamity.

How to free yourself from the grip of storms? This is the only basic problem in this universe. The first thing is to become aware of it and stop regretting it. Like waves come and go, storms in your life too will subside. No one storm can be there for ever. One storm comes and subsides, another comes and subsides and it goes on. As the storm subsides, you experience that inner cool, soft, delicate aspect of yourself. In that space of calm, all the anxiety, fear, feverishness lose their grip on you and you become yourself again. Love dawns.

When you stop resisting the storms of life and start accepting them with open arms, they will subside on their own. That is the purpose of all spiritual practices or sadhana and meditation. When you realise that somebody really cares for you, you feel at rest and all fears and insecurities drop off.

You keep running away from small things – your feelings, sensations, desires ^ and this leads to more feverishness. Realise that like the ocean cannot be there without the waves, storms are inevitable in your life. Every storm touches you somewhere and makes you grow stronger. A storm pulls you out of your likes and dislikes and purifies you. So accept all that comes with both arms open. This is crucifixion. If you say you cannot take them, you are resisting and that leads to more storms in your life.

You are much bigger than all the waves and commotions. They all rise within you and they can in no way destroy you. So, let them be. Even when the storms come, you are still the same ocean, as deep as ever.

This realisation is the culmination of knowledge. When this knowledge dawns, you rise above events; you grow out of them. Everybody in the world goes through crisis, insecurities, confusions. It’s like drowning in the ocean of life. But the person with the life jacket can survive even the worse turmoil. So keep your life jacket of knowledge handy. Being immortal means looking at your infinite nature. That is why the saying, “Die before your death.”

Just observe yourself in a bigger perspective. In the ocean of your life, many waves are rising and dissolving. All the waves that you see are your own forms. It’s like watching wrestling on television and imagining that both wrestlers are you. In life, you act in many forms, sometimes completely opposite. Every name and form that is given in this ocean is part of the consciousness.

Do not be in a hurry to get rid of the storms, be with them. Looking for perfection creates imperfection inside you. If you are peaceful, everything around you becomes peaceful. You are the centre of this universe. Wherever you go, you carry your own mind, and wherever you go, you will create your own storms. It may appear to be calm and quiet for sometime but the storm will surface sooner or later. Unless you realise this, nothing will hold. There is no other permanent solution. Don’t resist the storms, instead see them as an amazing play of your personality.

(Excerpted from a commentary on the Ashtavakra Gita.)

We look at ourselves only in the realm of the mind, or at the level of the body and never look at the deeper layers…. If you don’t look at the deeper layers of yourself, you find yourself empty and shallow and experience a sense of loneliness. When you experience a sense of loneliness, you find that your life is utterly boring.

However, if you are meditative with reference to your self, you will see that your body, mind and intellect are the periphery of your personality. In the deeper layers of yourself, there is the pure Saakshi Chaitanya.

When you understand the deeper layers of yourself, you will become content and blissful. In that state you experience not loneliness, but aloneness. And the moment you start experiencing aloneness you will find that the quality of your life becomes very different. Therefore, with reference to your own self, learn to be more meditative. What does it mean, to be meditative?

If you are not meditative, you will find your life to be in bondage, in shackles; the more you are meditative with reference to your self, the more will be the freedom of your life, the more liberated your life will be. Therefore, being non-meditative to one’s self leads to bandhana or bondage, whereas meditativeness with reference to one’s self leads to a state of nirvana or kaivalya or moksha . Therefore, it is a great responsibility on us, whether we are in grihasthashram or sanyasashram , to learn to be more meditative with reference to our self.

A king was looking for a suitable candidate for the post of prime minister. After several tests, three people were short-listed. The next day was the final test. There was a rumour that the king had a magic lock, created by a clever craftsman, which can be opened only with great skill and knowledge. And whoever unlocked it, would be the prime minister.

Hearing the rumour, two of the selected candidates acquired a lot of books on locks. They spent the whole night going through the mathematical equations relating to locks. The third person was very relaxed. The other two commented to each other that this fellow was a fool. Instead of making the best use of the time he is relaxing! The next morning, all three were taken to the palace. And the rumour turned out to be true. The king said whoever unlocks the lock created by a master craftsman will be prime minister.

These two people felt very happy thinking that it was good that they had referred to many books and then they went and looked at the lock. Once again they returned to the books and started referring to them to find out a solution to the problem, whereas the third person, looking relaxed, went there and looked at the lock and pulled it, and to his surprise, it opened. In fact, it was not locked at all. The other two were still busy referring to the books.

In the meantime, the king announced that the third person had been selected as prime minister. The other two asked him, “You never referred to any book on locks, how did you unlock it?” And the king said, “The very first thing that a prime minister should do is that he should know whether the problem really exists or not, before trying to solve it.”

If you do not know whether the problem exists or not and if you try to solve it, the whole effort becomes futile. Here the problem was that the lock was not fastened. And these two persons assumed it was locked and with that assumption they tried to solve the problem. Therefore, they found that they had wasted their time.

We feel we are in bondage. We have to really start looking within. We’ll find that our fears are imaginary; we imagine that we are bound.

Discourse: Swami Sukhabodhananda

Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you. 

Copyright © 2009 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.

2. Try to work for someone who’ll challenge your powers. You’ll learn more in a year than 4 years of college.

3. Successful bosses have good communication skills. They learn from people, including their employees.

4. Work in such a way that makes your boss look good. It’s not flattery.

5. On downsizing, the first to go are those with few friends. Bosses prefer competent people whom they respect.

6. Dress for the job you want, not the one you have. Let your dress reflect professionalism.

7. Workout to get in good physical shape. Unless exceptionally skilled, the unhealthy are at a comparative disadvantage.

8. Personal integrity is crucial. Tell nothing but the truth. Bosses can forgive mistakes but if you lie, you’re gone.

9. Be on time. Try to arrive few minutes early. It saves you from stress. You’ll be much relaxed & work better

10. Strive your best to keep a deadline. If you cannot meet it, then apologize & ask for an extension

11. Don’t take things personally. If some people are unhappy with you, it’s their problem. But always strive to give your best.

12. If you must correct someone, don’t get personal about it. Do it never in front of others.

13. Spend some time alone everyday. What’s the mission of my life? What do I want to be? And how to go about it.

14. As you move along Plan A of your career, maintain a Plan B as well — an alternative course to rely

15. Always remember that the secret of success is passion. Always think big. Spread love & joy. You’ll have blissful years ahead

In his anger, Dad took the child’s hand & hit it many times, not realizing he was using a wrench. At the hospital, his child has already lost his all fingers & child asked “Dad when will my fingers grow back?” Dad was so hurt.

He went back to car and kicked it a lot of times.

Sitting back he looked at the scratches, child wrote “I LOVE YOU DAD”.

Moral Of The Story: Anger And Love Has No Limits!

1) Being in the right place at the right time. (You could well be already there!)
2) Have a vision of where the industry/business you’re working in is going!
3) Taking Massive and Immediate Action! (It is time to act!)

“The future belongs to those who believe in the quality of their dreams.” Was it Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, the famous German poet and philosopher who said those wise words?

Here are 15 steps to fulfilling your wildest dreams…

1. KNOW YOURSELF

Know and accept your weaknesses and faults (we all have them), but even more so your strengths, abilities and gifts. Build on your strengths and try to minimize or improve on your weaknesses. An honest, objective analysis of yourself is the first step in preparing you for success and realizing your dreams. Celebrate you for just being you, a unique creation.

Aim for mental clarity about what you most want out of life. Think about it and write it down. If it’s happiness, what do you mean by happiness: a sense of belonging, recognition, independence, love, money or security? If you don’t know where you are and where you want to go with your life, how will you ever get there? Aim at nothing and you’re sure to hit it.

2. GET PASSIONATE

Don’t apologize for getting passionate. What excites you the most? If you are not enthusiastic and excited about what you’re doing, your path in life, you’ll never get others to share your dream. Once you find your passion, you will have found your POWER, MEANING and PURPOSE in life.

3. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH POSITIVE PASSION

Always be aware. Negative people will poison your dream faster than anything else. Motto: “If you can’t be positive, shut up!” Try and stay positive…even in the face of negativity.

4. ACCEPT FROM THE START THAT YOU WON’T PLEASE EVERYONE

You’re going to be misunderstood, misquoted, hurt some feelings, perhaps even lose some friends (for the time being). Motto: “What other people think of me is none of my business!” Repeat this statement to yourself, especially when you doubt or feel discouraged.

5. ALWAYS BE YOURSELF

To thine own self be true. (Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, act I.3.) This is supremely important, no matter what the world may think of you. The masses are conditioned to mediocrity and other people’s success can make them not feel inferior for their own insignificant little lives. Accept yourself. Learn from others–but don’t be intimidated by them, or pretend to be someone you’re not; because…”We
are most effective when we’re being ourselves.”

6. DON’T BE SCARED OF MAKING MISTAKES

The only real mistake is one from which you learn nothing. Motto: “Far better to try something and fail, than try nothing and succeed!”

7. ACCEPT THAT IT WILL NEVER BE EASY

Realizing your dream may be the hardest, most uphill thing you’ll ever do. A truth …”You can’t coast uphill.” The key ingredient in success is never giving up. Keep on keeping on with your quest. It has been said that ”success is 99% made up of failures”.

8. STAY HUMBLE (no matter how successful you may be)

Don’t ever think you’ve made it and arrived–there’s always a lot ahead, more to do, higher mountains to climb. Motto: “The greatest way to do our thing has yet to be discovered!”

9. DON’T UNDERESTIMATE YOURSELF

There is incredible power in yourself (in the form of the unique human mind), but far more so in the forces of the Universe. Make them work for you by living your life in harmony with these natural forces. Like positive energy attracts like.

Enough “spiritual” thoughts! Back to the “real world” and you. Avoid developing an inferiority complex (Who am I, a ‘nothing’?”). Don’t be filled with feelings of self-pity (”nobody likes me”), or think “I can’t do it.” These thoughts will steal your dream.

10. HAVE FUN

Nothing is ever as bad as it seems–don’t get too solemn, or serious or too downcast when things go wrong (as they surely will from time to time). Take a leaf from Thomas Edison’s book: “I never did a day’s work in my entire life: it was all FUN!” Laugh at life’s funny moments…and there are plenty of them. “The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.” – J.M. Barrie

11. DEVELOP ‘THE WILL TO LIVE’

There will be plenty of times when you’ll face the death of your dream. When failures, disappointments, and criticisms come you need the will and faith to keep going. Remember: We learn far more from our failures than our successes, because failures show us what doesn’t work. So, failure is just one step closer to ultimate success. Often the difference between failure and success is trying
just one more time, picking yourself up off the canvas after being knocked down time and again.

12. DEVELOP ‘THE WILL TO HELP AND SERVE OTHERS’

Success on its own (i.e., for its own sake) will pollute and corrupt you–it’s a dead end street unless you have meaning in your life. The years of struggle breed fortitude and character. The gold may be an inch away from the seam, where your fellow miners have given up. You need to succeed for a reason, a purpose, a cause that’s bigger than you! and IF (a very big if) you’ve fulfilled all the above requirements…

By the time you finish reading this you will realise its just 12 steps and not 15………