art-of-living

To be happy: the simple pursue pleasure, the common pursue riches, the uncommon pursue knowledge, and the exceptional pursue wisdom.

Be happy when you work, thankful when you earn, cautious when you spend, shrewd when you save, and charitable when you give.

The less you want, the happier you are; the happier you are, the less you want.

Dear past, I survived you. Dear present, I__ ready for you. Dear future, I__ coming for you.

If you can stay positive in bad situations, you are strong; if you can stay positive in hopeless situations, you are mighty; if you can stay positive in impossible situations, you are great.

Be merry, because it confuses your enemies; happy, because it annoys them; cheerful, because it angers them; and joyful, because it kills them.

A shrewd enemy will teach you more than a foolish friend.

If you live in the desert, view the sun not as your enemy, but as your friend. If you live in the wilderness, view nature not as your adversary, but as your companion.

At ten, you are foolish. At twenty, you are naive. At thirty, you are alert. At forty, you are experienced. At fifty, you are wise.

One who is not afraid to die lives, and one who is afraid to live dies.

You are no greater than the friends you keep, the books you read, the heroes you admire, and the obstacles you overcome.

We__e made it private, contained it in family, when its audacity is in its potential to cross tribal lines. We__e fetishized it as romance, when its true measure is a quality of sustained, practical care. We__e lived it as a feeling, when it is a way of being. It is the elemental experience we all desire and seek, most of our days, to give and receive. The sliver of love__ potential that the Greeks separated out as eros is where we load so much of our desire, center so much of our imagination about delight and despair, define so much of our sense of completion. There is the love the Greeks called filia__he love of friendship. There is the love they called agape__ove as embodied compassion, expressions of kindness that might be given to a neighbor or a stranger. The Metta of the root Buddhist Pali tongue, __ovingkindness,_ carries the nuance of benevolent, active interest in others known and unknown, and its cultivation begins with compassion towards oneself.

Embrace all. Help some. Trust few. Harm none.

If you are too busy to love, you are too busy to live; if you are too busy to live, you are too busy to love.

Regard those who respect you.Esteem those who honor you.Cherish those who love you.Reward those who adore you.

We are among the first peoples in human history who do not broadly inherit religious identity as a given, a matter of kin and tribe, like hair color and hometown. But the very fluidity of this__he possibility of choice that arises, the ability to craft and discern one__ own spiritual bearings__s not leading to the decline of spiritual life but its revival. It is changing us, collectively. It is even renewing religion, and our cultural encounter with religion, in counterintuitive ways. I meet scientists who speak of a religiosity without spirituality__ reverence for the place of ritual in human life, and the value of human community, without a need for something supernaturally transcendent. There is something called the New Humanism, which is in dialogue about moral imagination and ethical passions across boundaries of belief and nonbelief. But I apprehend_ with a knowledge that is as much visceral as cognitive_ that God is love. That somehow the possibility of care that can transform us_ love muscular and resilient_ is an echo of a reality behind reality, embedded in the creative force that gives us life.

Try to put well into practice what you already know. In so doing, you will, in good time, discover the hidden things you now inquire about.

If you have learnt enjoying life without purpose, like a flowing river, you have learnt the art of living.