Mankind has largely become a hall of mirrors, each man reflecting the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others around him. Very little original thought is found in this maze of confusing images. Tiresome clichés and stale opinions jump from mirror to mirror as people parrot one another in a chorus of sameness and history repeats itself, seemingly ad infinitum. But there's hope!
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do …
"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."- Ralph Waldo Emerson The moment you become mesmerized by your circumstances is the moment you become powerless in relation to them. Every person on earth is possessed of a vast internal resource, an inexhaustible source …
Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. Thinking that you are a victim is enough to make you one, regardless of the straw you drew in life. You are not a …
"If you treat an individual...as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe One of the greatest privileges in life is that of teaching, coaching, mentoring or leading others in any setting or of any age. …
"That which often seems to us to be ingratitude, may be merely our own ignorance of the subtle phases of human nature. Sometimes a man's heart is so full of thankfulness that he cannot speak, and in the very intensity of his appreciation, mere words seem to him paltry, petty, and inadequate, and the depth …
"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty." ~ James Madison Seeing the images and videos of the various manifestations of rebellion known as the "Arab Spring" brings me back to the year of my high school graduation, 1989, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. As each piece of …
"One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more." ~ Thomas Jefferson A new acquaintance asked me if I meditated regularly and I replied in the affirmative, with the caveat that I did not "meditate" in the traditional sense of the word. I explained that I thought best during or shortly after engaging in …
"The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis." ~ Dalai Lama We considered in a previous post that you are the master of your fate and the captain of your soul. Humanity, in this sense, is a collection of agents who navigate their lives within a framework of culture, custom …
"The spirit of the age is filled with the disdain for thinking." ~ Albert Schweitzer Learning to think is one of the most underrated and overlooked of the steps that lead to living a purposeful, meaningful and fulfilling life. Far more than developing the ability to ingest, digest and retain information, learning to think involves …
Gregory Hake 