What does not kill you, only makes you stronger!

self mastery

Do not accept what you hear by report, do not accept tradition, do not accept a statement because it is found in our books, nor because it is in accord with your belief, nor because it is the saying of your teacher. Be lamps unto yourselves. Those who, either now or after I am dead, shall rely upon themselves only and not look for assistance to anyone besides themselves, it is they who shall reach the topmost height.

BUDDHA

self mastery

Knowing others is wisdom;
Knowing the self in enlightenment.
Mastering others requires force;
Mastering the self needs strength

LAO TZU

The fault is in the blamer

Spirit sees nothing to criticize

------RUMI

One day you will look back and laugh at yourself.

You’ll say, “ I can’t believe I was so asleep!

How did I ever forget the truth?

How ridiculous to believe that sadness and sickness

Are anything other than bad dreams.”

---RUMI

Whoever is loved is beautiful, but the opposite is not true, that whoever is beautiful is loved. Real beauty is part of loved-ness, and that loved-ness is primary. If a being is loved, he or she has beauty, because a part cannot be separate from the whole. Many girls were more beautiful than Laila, but Majnun did not love them. "Let us bring some of these to meet you," they used to say to Majnun, and he would reply, "It's not the form of Laila that I love. Laila is not the form. You're looking at the cup, whereas I think only of the wine I drink from that cup. If you gave me a chalice studded with gemstones, but filled with vinegar or something other than wine, what use would that be? An old broken dipper-gourd with Laila-wine in it is better than a hundred precious goblets full of other liquid."

Passion is present when a man can distinguish between the wine and the container. Two men see a loaf of bread. One hasn't eaten anything for ten days. The other has eaten five times a day, every day. He sees the shape of the loaf. The other man with his urgent need sees inside into the taste, and into the nourishment the bread could give. Be that hungry, to see within all beings the Friend.

Creatures are cups. The sciences and the arts and all branches of knowledge are inscriptions around the outside of the cups. When a cup shatters, the writing can no longer be read. The wine's the thing! The wine that's held in the mold of these physical cups. Drink the wine and know what lasts and what to love. The man who truly asks must be sure of two things: One, that he's mistaken in what he's doing or thinking now. And two, that there is a wisdom he doesn't know yet. Asking is half of knowing.

Everyone turns toward someone. Look for one scarred by the King's polo stick.

A man or a woman is said to be absorbed when the water has total control of him, and he no control of the water. A swimmer moves around willfully. An absorbed being has no will but the water's going. Any word or act is not really personal, but the way the water has of speaking or doing. As when you hear a voice coming out of a wall, and you know that it's not the wall talking, but someone inside, or perhaps someone outside echoing off the wall. Saints are like that. They've achieved the condition of a wall, or a door.



-----RUMI

The self-confidence of the warrior is not the self-confidence of the average man. The average man seeks certainty in the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness. The average man is hooked to his fellow men, while the warrior is hooked only to infinity.

The basic difference between an ordinary

man and a warrior is that a warrior

takes everything as a challenge, while an

ordinary man takes everything as a

blessing or a curse.

Whenever a warrior decides to do

something, he must go all the way, but

he must take responsibility for what he

does. No matter what he does, he must

know first why he is doing it, and then he

must proceed with his actions without

having doubts or remorse about them

The flaw with words is that they always make us feel

enlightened, but when we turn around to face the world they always

fail us and we end up facing the world as we always have, without

enlightenment. For this reason, a warrior seeks to act rather than

to talk, and to this effect, he gets a new description of the

world where talking is not that important, and

where new acts have new reflections.

Warriors have an ulterior purpose for their acts

which has nothing to do with personal gain.

The average man acts only if there is a chance for profit. Warriors act not for profit, but for the spirit.


don Juan
----TALES OF POWER