Placing all our hope on material development is clearly mistaken; the ultimate source of happiness is within us.

Posted on 9 June 2013 by philosiblog

Placing all our hope on material development is clearly mistaken; the ultimate source of happiness is within us. – Dalai Lama

I'm happy. I haz toyz. But I feel so empty inside.

I’m happy. I haz toyz. But why do I feel so empty inside?

What does that mean?
This is the age old statement, that our happiness is to be found not in the shiny things outside of us, but on the shiny things within us. No, not lost surgical tools, but on those aspects of ourselves which are joyful and luminous.

You have seen them, the people who seem to glow. They walk into the room, and you feel them. You turn and see them, and there is something about them. They are well aligned people. Some are malignant, but most are very happy with the better parts of themselves shining through.

There is a quote from Gandhi which says that happiness is when you are aligned in all aspects of your being. This quote extends that by reminding us that material things won’t bring happiness, despite what the commercials and ads say.

Why is looking within important?  Continue reading →

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There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.

Posted on 8 June 2013 by philosiblog

There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage. – Seneca

He bore unhappiness like a champion.

He bore his unhappiness like a champion.

What does that mean?
This quote is about what the author of the quote thinks is one of the most admirable traits a person can demonstrate. Specifically, he admires those who can bear unhappiness with courage.

I would extend this from unhappiness to include all the things which cause it, such as hardship, bad luck, poor circumstances, and the like. But then I stop and think about what unhappiness means, for the easiest way to bear these things is to not let our happiness be hurt by them.

In that case, the unhappiness is in the eye of the beholder, not in the person undertaking their life and facing challenges with courage. Even then, even if they are happy with their lot, they are still admirable for facing their challenges with courage.

Why is facing the challenges of life with courage important?  Continue reading →

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Gratitude is heaven itself.

Posted on 7 June 2013 by philosiblog

Gratitude is heaven itself. – William Blake

Yeah, stormy weather can be a bummer, but can you be grateful for this spectacular sunset?

Stormy weather can be a bummer, but can you be grateful for this spectacular sunset?

What does that mean?
I have seen this quote also attributed to Laura Huxley (as well as to her husband, author Aldous Huxley), Matt Cutts and others. Of the list of people to whom this quote is attributed, William Blake is the oldest, and I believe therefore likely to have been the first to have used it.

In this quote, with the word not capitalized, heaven isn’t the specific biblical location, but an expression of a place kind of like it. It is being used as a form of superlative, with specific implications.

But what could possibly bring us to this fantastic place? Gratitude. Gratitude doesn’t kill us. Gratitude doesn’t give us wings or harps. But it does give us a sense of well being. It does give us a feeling of great comfort. It does leave us feeling like we’re on top of the world.

In short, gratitude is a wonderful thing to receive from a fellow human being. How does someone’s gratitude make you feel? What are you willing to do to get more of it?

Why is gratitude important?  Continue reading →

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Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.

Posted on 6 June 2013 by philosiblog

Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater. – Epictetus

Practice, practice, practice. After a while, you get good. Eventually, you become proficient.

Practice, practice, practice. After a while, you get good. Eventually, you master the skill.

What does that mean?
This quote is also stated in a slightly older English, but with better punctuation (see 2nd link at bottom of this post): “Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.”

Let’s start in the middle and work our way out of this quote. The “for heaven’s sake” is an attempt to let us know that this is important enough that he is begging us to pay close attention to the advice.

Surrounding that phrase is the premise, “Practice yourself in little things”. In other words, we are being asked to start small. In other words, we should learn to walk before we run.

The quote finishes by saying that we can then go on to greater things. In other words, once we have mastered the fundamentals, we can then move on to the more complicated things. Simple enough?

Why is mastering the fundamentals important?  Continue reading →

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Discussion is an exchange of knowledge, argument is an exchange of ignorance.

Posted on 5 June 2013 by philosiblog

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge, argument is an exchange of ignorance. – Robert Quillen

I'm not sure what he is angry about, but that's not a discussion he's having, is it?

I’m not sure what he is angry about, but that’s not a discussion he’s having, is it? It has the look of an argument that’s just getting started.

What does that mean?
I have always had a soft spot for witticisms, and this is certainly one of my favorites. Sadly, this is also a very true saying, as you have probably experienced yourself. While you can’t always persuade someone with a well reasoned discussion, you will stand a better chance than you will with an argument.

Discussions take time, and tend to have a pace that is much slower than an argument. The listener often takes time to consider what the other person has said before they offer a response, and the responses tend to be questions often seeking knowledge. Even in disagreement, there tend to be certain levels of civility and cordiality, and they tend to be fairly well maintained throughout the discussion.

Arguments tend to have a much more rapid pace than a discussion. Sometimes the people talk over each other, showing how little they value their opponent, or how much they value the sound of their own voice. The responses tend to be attacks, and those that aren’t are usually attempts to change the subject. In short, they are little more than talking while under the influence of emotion.

Which brings us back to the quote. How well do the descriptions I provided in the paragraphs above match your experience of discussions as compared to arguments?

Why is listening important?  Continue reading →

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By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.

Posted on 4 June 2013 by philosiblog

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong. – Charles Wadsworth

A teen, his dad, and dad's dad. What do you think gets discussed when the older two are together? Or the younger two?

A teen, his father, and father’s dad. What do you think gets discussed when the older two are together? Or the younger two? To me, that’s what the this quote is all about.

What does that mean?
I can imagine this being said with a bit of a wry smile. While my parents were fairly old when they had me, and I waited even longer before starting my family, it still rings true. My teenage boy will take the better part of a decade to get completely straightened out. And that’s what the quote is about.

The quote is about the way that people learn and adapt. It’s about how teens and twenty-somethings often believe they know it all, or at least know better about whatever it is you are talking to them about.

And by the time they’re old enough to start to figure out that their old man wasn’t really as dumb as they thought, they’re dealing with their own little know-it-all kids.

It’s kind of humorous, for those who have survived the worst of it. It can be kind of scary for those who haven’t yet reached that point. But it is the cycle of life, the repetition, and the ‘I told you so’ from Grandpa that can help you laugh with it, instead of cry.

Why is listening to your elders important?  Continue reading →

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When you are in Love you can’t fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams.

Posted on 3 June 2013 by philosiblog

When you are in Love you can’t fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams. – Dr. Seuss

Do you feel like this sometimes? Ask yourself why, and try to soften your heart.

Do you feel like this sometimes? Ask yourself why you feel that way, and try to find a way to soften your heart.

What does that mean?
I imagine most of us have been there at some point in our lives. They walk in, and the world simply stops. No one else exists. Not one thing is more important than they are. They are the entire focus of your world.

In my view, that is what this quote is about. Where reality is so great, so wonderful, that even your dreams pale by comparison. That’s a wonderful place to be, and Love is a great thing in which to find yourself. It never seems to last long enough, but the feeling is grand!

This is an emotional state that some pursue, and abandon their partner as soon as the feeling fades. While the quote doesn’t address that point, I believe it is short sighted. All intense emotional states are, by definition it seems, temporary.

Why is staying in love important?  Continue reading →

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If we can cultivate a concern for others, keeping in mind the oneness of humanity, we can build a more compassionate world.

Posted on 2 June 2013 by philosiblog

If we can cultivate a concern for others, keeping in mind the oneness of humanity, we can build a more compassionate world. – Dalai Lama

Most people care for children, it's just how we are wired. Why do you think they show up in so many pictures when people are asking for money?

Most people care for children, it’s just how we are wired. Why do you think they show up in so many pictures when people are asking for money? Well, it works, right?

What does that mean?
This quote is about how we might build a more compassionate world. It starts with the oneness of humanity. We are all one group, one people, one species. While it may be convenient to break us into smaller groups from time to time, we must keep in mind that these divisions are temporary and artificial.

By remembering that we are all one, we can more easily be concerned for one another. This is showing compassion for others, and it is easy to do for those with whom you are close. It can be a little more challenging when they aren’t as close, or are from a different group or division of humanity.

The quote hopes we can work on our concern for others while keeping in mind that we are all the same. In this way, we can become one people, and care about what happens to everyone else. Yeah, it’s idealistic, but we have to be trying to do something, why not dream big? Even if we don’t get there, we will have gone somewhere, and moved us all in the correct direction, and I believe that is a good thing.

Why is concern for others important?  Continue reading →

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One crime has to be concealed by another.

Posted on 1 June 2013 by philosiblog

One crime has to be concealed by another. – Seneca

What are you willing to do to conceal your wrong-doing? How many crimes are you willing to commit to hid the first one?

What are you willing to do to conceal your wrong-doing? How many crimes are you willing to commit to hid the first one? It will keep going until you are caught or until you die. Is that any way to live a life?

What does that mean?
This is a quote about actions and their consequences. When you do something wrong, it doesn’t just go away. It doesn’t disappear or otherwise hide, unless you do other things, and those are also wrong. The chain of wrong-doing to conceal the initial crime will continue until you are eventually caught.

The other alternative is to do nothing, and hope that the initial crime goes unnoticed for a sufficiently long time as to be forgotten or considered irrelevant by the passage of time. And the waiting is the hardest part, or so I am told.

The quote is informing us, in a round-about manner, that it is best not to start down that path, as it only ends when you die (of old age or…) or when you are caught. By then, you will have added more than a few extra crimes, solely for the purpose of hiding the initial crime. That’s not very bright thing to do, is it?

Why is not starting down the path of crime important?  Continue reading →

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Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love, first in moral excellence, and first in generosity.

Posted on 31 May 2013 by philosiblog

Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love, first in moral excellence, and first in generosity. – Martin Luther King Jr.

What can you do to serve others, to be first in love, moral excellence or generosity? This person is sorting relief supplies. Everyone can help, and everyone can be first rate!

What can you do to serve others, to be first in love, moral excellence or generosity? This person is sorting relief supplies. Everyone can help, and everyone can be first rate!

What does that mean?
This is another Twitter friendly version of a quote. A more complete version of it is: “We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. … And the great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct. It is a good instinct if you don’t distort it and pervert it. Don’t give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity.” – Sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on February 2, 1968

This quote is about using our natural nature for the benefit of ourselves and of others. The quote says this instinct is both natural and important, and urges us not to give it up. It also warns us not to let it become distorted or perverted, as can easily happen to the self-centered.

Instead, the quote, a paraphrase of a biblical passage, we are urged to love one another, to be the best example of what people can become, and to be as generous as possible to others. We are urged to become the best at these things, so that we may become great in service, not in ego.

Why is service to others important?  Continue reading →

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Control your thoughts; they may break into words at anytime.

Posted on 30 May 2013 by philosiblog

Control your thoughts; they may break into words at anytime. – Anonymous

"What did you just say?" Oops, was that your outside voice?

“What did you just say?” Oops, was that your outside voice?

What does that mean?
This quote is about the things people say. It implies that sometimes that filter between our mind and our mouth doesn’t work as well as one might hope. It can be funny when someone else does it, but usually somewhere between mortifying and career limiting when we do it, right?

We tend to think a lot of things. We usually keep most of those thoughts to ourselves. This quote asks us to consider what might happen if even a few of those comments escaped our mind and ended up coming out of our mouths. Some of the comments wouldn’t be too bad, but others, well…

The quote, in whole, is a caution about what we think and what we say. The vaguerities of life takes enough of our well-intentioned words and twists them. There is no need to make things even more difficult on ourselves by blurting out something which we probably shouldn’t even have been thinking, right?

Why is minding what we think important?  Continue reading →

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Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.

Posted on 29 May 2013 by philosiblog

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought. – Albert Szent-Györgyi (also attributed to Jonathan Swift)

Many hundreds of years ago, this phenomonon was used to make microscopes, which allowed us to see more. But who thought of using a raindrop to see tiny things? Someone who saw it and thought differently.

Many hundreds of years ago, this phenomenon was used to make microscopes, which allowed us to see more. But who thought of using a raindrop to see tiny things? Someone who saw it and thought what no one else had thought, right?

What does that mean?
This is an interesting quote, as it is from a Nobel-laureate. The quote is about the process of discovery, and his very simple definition of the term.

Discovery starts out by seeing things. Not special things. Not unique things. Ordinary things. Plain old ordinary things. The same things everyone else has seen. Over and over. Day after day. Week after week. Year after year. Generation after generation.

How many people in the history of the planet saw an apple fall from a tree? Yet it wasn’t until Sir Isaac Newton saw it that the world had one of the greatest discoveries ever made by humankind.

Which brings us to the conclusion of the quote. Newton saw the same thing, but he thought what no one else had previously thought. When he thought about objects attracting each other, he was in uncharted territory, and a great discovery was made.

Why is thinking in a different manner important?  Continue reading →

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The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life – mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical.

Posted on 28 May 2013 by philosiblog

The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life – mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical. – Julius Erving

The Great Dr J, one of the all time greats. He knew success on and off the hardwood.

The one and only Dr J, one of the greatest. He knew success on and off the hardwood. Believe what he says, he’s lived it and achieved it.

What does that mean?
This quote is from one of greats of Basketball. And he understood that success isn’t just in your chosen field of endeavor. He probably knew many other great players who were unhappy with their lives, despite being great players in their own right.

He realized that by growing in all aspects of his life, he could be even more successful, even in his chosen field. Keeping his mind sharp helped him analyze plays as they unfolded on the court. Keeping his emotions well balanced kept him from having his emotions compromise his play at crucial times in the game.

For the rest of us, by combining all the different aspects of our lives and growing in all of them, we become well rounded individuals. And that means we have great ability to react to any opportunity. No matter what aspects of our lives the opportunity requires, we would be ready for it. Are you ready?

Why is being well rounded important?  Continue reading →

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I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.

Posted on 27 May 2013 by philosiblog

I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them. – Baruch Spinoza

"Your lunch, it looks like a video game!" (two, actually) Why would someone do that? Who would want to eat Kirby or Yoshi? I don't understand.

“Your lunch, it looks like a video game!” (two different games, actually) Why would someone do that? Who would want to eat Kirby or Yoshi? I don’t understand.

What does that mean?
I like this quote, and have tried to live by it even before I heard it, at least as I understand it. To me, this quote is asking us not to judge. That’s what laughing (not the funny ha-ha laughter) at someone is. Weeping at human actions is also a judgement. So is hatred of them or their actions.

In judging, we are taking our values and imposing them on the actions of another. How well will that work if they have differing values? To me, that is the folly of judging others by our standards. What they do may make sense intellectually as well as morally to them, within their values.

This quote ends by urging us to work to understand their actions and, I would presume, their motivations and values. That doesn’t mean we have to accept them, but if we understand them, we can better work with them, or if necessary, fight against them.

Why is understanding important?  Continue reading →

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Most of our problems are related to the mind, so we have to work to reduce our destructive emotions.

Posted on 26 May 2013 by philosiblog

Most of our problems are related to the mind, so we have to work to reduce our destructive emotions. – Dalai Lama

x

There is something captivating about a fire, the colors, and the warmth. But there is something dangerous and potentially destructive as well. How do we adapt as we grow? How do we treat fire? How do we treat anger? How do we treat hate?

What does that mean?
This quote attempts to take aim at the most easily understood difficulty humans have, the mind. Unfortunately, it isn’t always the easiest thing to understand, much less fix. However, it is the root cause of so many of our failings that it must be addressed at some point.

Humans, for all of our engineering and logic, are still emotional creatures at heart. These emotions are often our reaction to something that has happened which we don’t like. Because of what we think, we place a value on that which has happened, and we call it good or bad, and act accordingly.

We use our minds to determine how we should react, and that is a big part of why we have the emotional reactions we have. I’m not talking using our minds logically, but how we have conditioned our minds to respond to situations.

That conditioning can be changed, and in the case of our destructive emotions, must be changed. And to me, that is what this quote is all about.

Why is adapting important?  Continue reading →

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