9 Epiphanies That Shifted My Perspective Forever By David Over the years I’ve learned dozens of little tricks and insights for making life more fulfilling. They’ve added up to a significant improvement in the ease and quality of my day-to-day life. But the major breakthroughs have come from a handful of insights that completely rocked my world and redefined reality forever. The world now seems to be a completely different one than the one I lived in about ten years ago, when I started looking into the mechanics of quality of life. Maybe you’ve had some of the same insights. 1. The first time I heard somebody say that, I didn’t like the sound of it one bit. I see quite clearly now that life is nothing but passing experiences, and my thoughts are just one more category of things I experience. If you can observe your thoughts just like you can observe other objects, who’sdoing the observing? 2. Of course! 3. 4. 5. Yikes. 6. This discovery was a complete 180 from my old understanding of emotions. 7. 8. 9.
Nondualism Nondualism, also called non-duality, "points to the idea that the universe and all its multiplicity are ultimately expressions or appearances of one essential reality." It is a term and concept used to define various strands of religious and spiritual thought. It is found in a variety of Asian religious traditions and modern western spirituality, but with a variety of meanings and uses. The term may refer to: Its origins are situated within the Buddhist tradition with its teaching of sunyata, the absence of inherently existing natures; the two truths doctrine, the nonduality of the absolute and the relative; and the Yogacara notion of "pure consciousness" or "representation-only" (vijñapti-mātra). The term has more commonly become associated with the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Adi Shankara, which took over the Buddhist notions of anutpada and pure consciousness and provided an orthodox hermeneutical basis for heterodox Buddhist phenomology. Definitions[edit] Indian Buddhism[edit] D. 1.
This Moment By Leo Babauta We all suffer, every day: worry, procrastination, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, irritated, angry, frustrated, wishing things were different, comparing ourselves to others, worried we’re missing out, wishing other people would be different, feeling offended, loneliness, fear of failure, not wanting to do something, wishing we had less fat or bigger boobs or bigger muscles, angry at being controlled, wanting to find the perfect someone, wishing our partner was more perfect, stressed about finances, not wanting to think about problems, not knowing how to fix things, uncertain about choices, rushing from one task to the next, not liking our jobs. And yet, these problems are self-created. They’re real, but our tricky minds have created them. The problems are in our heads, created by some ideal/fantasy/expectation of how we wished the world would be, or hope it will be but fear it won’t be. It exists in our heads. It is perfect, as it is. Accept this moment.
The Importance of Asking Questions to Promote Higher-Order Competencies Irving Sigel devoted his life to the importance of asking questions. He believed, correctly, that the brain responds to questions in ways that we now describe as social, emotional, and cognitive development. Questions create the challenges that make us learn. The essence of Irv's perspective is that the way we ask questions fosters students' alternative and more complex representations of stories, events, and circumstances, and their ability to process the world in a wider range of ways, to create varying degrees of distance between themselves and the basis events in front of them, is a distinct advantage to learning. However, Irv found that schools often do not ask the range of questions children need to grow to their potential. Tell: Tell children the story by reading the text or having them read the text. Suggest: This involves providing children with choices about what might happen next or possible opinions they might have. For the story, here are some two-question rule sequences:
11 Practices That Will Make You Instantly More Positive - Alycia Hall - Vancouver Life Coach and Coaching Services - Alycia Hall – Vancouver Life Coach and Coaching Services Feeling positive doesn’t have to be the result of your external circumstances. You can learn to cultivate positivity anytime as long as you’re committed to it. Here are 11 practices that will make you instantly more positive! 1. Practice gratitude Journal nightly about what you were thankful for. 2. Meditation brings you a sense of calm, taps into your intuition and can sooth your mind. 3. Instead of focusing on how things are not working out try shifting your perspective. 4. Nothing good comes from comparing yourself to other people; it’s the quickest path to unhappiness. 5. Regardless of where you live spending time in nature will help calm your mind and open your heart. 6. Take the time out to laugh, be goofy or just smile at a stranger. 7. One of the best ways to feel instantly more positive is to do a random act of kindness. 8. Is there something that you are doing that… well…. you’d like to stop doing? 9. 10. Do you have a dream that you secretly wish for? 11. 13Share
Why Questions Are More Important Than Answers Why Questions Are More Important Than Answers by Terry Heick Clocks and old watches are miracles. If you’ve ever taken one apart and had a look at the intricate gears with their jutting teeth reaching out with just the right math to tick in rhythm with the pulse of the universe, you’ll see that whatever mind conjured the thing and all its parts is mad. Imagine the dogged pursuit of a proper clock-maker, day after day bound up in design and measurement and function and orderly thinking, forcing exactitude on little bits of metal that never asked for it. Get inside the mind of a clock-maker—one who still experiments with matters of design, improving their craft with minor revisions of planning and execution—and suddenly you’re seeing from ground zero how things come to be, first in a humble glow, then a blinding white starlight that bleaches everything. There’s a lesson here. The Irony of Bad Questions Questioning is the art of learning. So what makes a question bad? Assess understanding?
4 Good Reminders When You’ve Had a Bad Day Email I have learned that life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and that life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to push forward even when times are tough. Sometimes I catch myself staring at the people around me – studying their gestures and expressions. I wonder, “What’s their story? What are they searching for? Today, in our latest video blog, we want to share some of these thoughts with you. Video Blog Post: 4 Good Reminders (video transcript): 1. Having a bad day? Put your hand on your heart. Keep in mind that we’ve all made mistakes. 2. You have to remember that you are incredibly capable of handling great challenges. Truth be told, there are two types of pain in life: pain that hurts you, and pain that grows you. 3. Will the road ahead always be easy? 4. And that’s why the best thing you can do is to keep going. Yes, life is tough, but you are tougher. The floor is yours… Photo by: Chad Cooper
20 History Questions They Refuse To Answer In School Traditional educational systems basically teach us that the history of man only dates back to about 8,000 years ago while religious texts date mankind to approximately 6,000 years ago. It is more than obvious that there a massive push to occlude our true history and origins. While you may not agree with some of the questions, please try to view them with an open mind. Ask yourself (or others) the following questions and feel free to comment at the end of the article! A map drawn on a gazelle skin of an unfrozen Antarctica was found in 1929. 1. The last time Antarctica was not frozen was at least 4,000 BC, so… 2. A tiny figurine made of baked-clay (right) was brought up in amongst the debris churned out by a huge drill bit during the drilling of a well in Nampa Idaho in 1889. 3. 4. According to Darwinism, man evolved from ape. 5. There are approximately 100 pyramids in China which remain hidden under grass and forestry. 6. In Ecuador, one large Jade cup and 12 smaller Jade cups were found.
10 Sentences That Can Change Your Life for The Better The power of a single sentence is tremendous.A single sentence can either make your day or in the same time ruin somebody’s day. It can change your mood. Just a few words put together, yet they make such big impact. #1 “People aren’t against you; they are for themselves.” #2 “Climb mountains not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world.” #3 “You learn more from failure than from success; don’t let it stop you. #4 “The most dangerous risk of all – The risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.” #5 “Go where you’re celebrated, not where you’re tolerated.” #6 “The person that you will spend the most time with in your life is yourself, so you better try to make yourself as interesting as possible.” #7 “If you accept your limitations you go beyond them.” #8 “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. #9 “Everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something.” Your turn now…
Why Atheists Don't Really Exist Confirmation bias is the tendency to ascribe greater significance to information which supports our pre-existing theories and lesser significance to information which contradicts those theories. We often do this subconsciously. For example you get a new car, and suddenly you notice that type of car on the road with a much greater frequency than you had noticed before. But though confirmation bias generally refers to the inclusion or exclusion of data, there are other ways we can shoehorn the obvious to make it fit within our world view. Last month in The Atlantic, Matthew Hutson wrote a fascinating article titled: “The Science of Superstition: No One Is Immune to Magical Thinking.” Of course modern theories about the evolution of plants and animals posit that the capacity of plants to produce oxygen is merely an accident that just so happens to facilitate the breathing of animals. Skeptics call this patternicity, or projecting pattern where there is none. Fr. When C.S.
40 Photo-Illustrated Questions to Refocus Your Mind - StumbleUpon Asking the right questions is the answer… It’s not the answers you get from others that will help you, but the questions you ask of yourself. Here are 40 thought-provoking questions to help you refresh and refocus your thinking: Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below. Also, check out our sister site, Thought Questions, for more photo-illustrated questions like these; and check out The Book of Questions if you’re interested in reading even more inspiring, thought-provoking questions.Title photo by: Helga Weber For all other photo credits please refer to ThoughtQuestions.com Related 40 Questions Everyone is Afraid to Ask Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. April 13, 2012 In "Aspirations" 40 Questions that Will Quiet Your Mind Judge a person by their questions, rather than their answers … because asking the right questions is the answer. August 5, 2015 In "Happiness" 25 Photo-Illustrated Reminders to Help You Find Happiness
Zen Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism[note 1] that developed in China during the Tang dynasty as Chán. From China, Zen spread south to Vietnam, northeast to Korea and east to Japan. Zen emphasizes rigorous meditation-practice, insight into Buddha-nature, and the personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit of others. As such, it deemphasizes mere knowledge of sutras and doctrine and favors direct understanding through zazen and interaction with an accomplished teacher. The teachings of Zen include various sources of Mahāyāna thought, especially Yogācāra, the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras and Huayan, with their emphasis on Buddha-nature, totality, and the Bodhisattva-ideal. The Prajñāpāramitā literature and, to a lesser extent, Madhyamaka have also been influential in the shaping of the "paradoxical language" of the Zen-tradition. Etymology[edit] Zen practice[edit] Dhyana - Zen meditation[edit] Central to Zen is the practice of dhyana or meditation. Lay services[edit]