FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Karmas, Samskaras and Vasanas

 

Karmas are said to be our thoughts and actions. With the time, our karmas turn into samskaras, aka habits. Those habits will also turn into vasanas, aka personal qualities.

Now … if we nurture positivity, kindness and honesty, our actions and thoughts will be positive and good. Our samskaras or habits will be full of love and kindness. And subsequently our personal qualities will change for the better.

With that being said, let us not focus on the end result. As for everything: Let us enjoy the journey. If we want to change a bad habit or a “fault”, let us try to change our daily actions, words or thoughts. Step by step, we will manage to “shade off” or erase our bad habit.

 

An example, you ask?

If we want to stop gossiping or judging a book by its cover, we shall be more aware of how we treat and consider people. We can work on stopping ourselves (or apologising) everytime we tend to be too judgemental or mean. Little by little, we will become more aware of our behaviour.

Then, this “positive” mindset will turn into a habit. We will be listening to people and feeling their struggles or pain, instead of judging them or being malicious.

Our “newly-acquired” quality will then be understanding and broad-mindedness, instead of contempt or rigidity.

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: LETTING GO

” Letting go doesn’t mean you stop caring. It means you stop trying to force others to…”

– Mandy Hale

INSPIRED BY…

“Willpower should be understood to be the strength of mind which makes it capable of meeting success or failure with equanimity. It is not synonymous with certain success. Why should one’s attempts always be attended by success? Success breeds arrogance and man’s spiritual progress is thus arrested. Failure, on the other hand, is beneficial, inasmuch as it opens his eyes to his limitations and prepares him to surrender himself. Self-surrender is synonymous with eternal happiness. Therefore, one should try to gain equipoise of mind under all circumstances. That is willpower.”

Ramana Maharshi

INSPIRED BY…

“There is some great gift in an ending, something you have needed for you to learn life’s biggest lesson: impermanence.
The only thing that lasts forever is the wisdom you gain from living.”

INSPIRED BY…

Alan Watts:

“As it is, we are merely bolting our lives—gulping down undigested experiences as fast as we can stuff them in—because awareness of our own existence is so superficial and so narrow that nothing seems to us more boring than simple being.  If I ask you what you did, saw, heard, smelled, touched and tasted yesterday, I am likely to get nothing more than the thin, sketchy outline of the few things that you noticed, and of those only what you thought worth remembering. Is it surprising that an existence so experienced seems so empty and bare that its hunger for an infinite future is insatiable? But suppose you could answer, “It would take me forever to tell you, and I am much too interested in what’s happening now.” How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such a fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself as anything less than a god? And, when you consider that this incalculably subtle organism is inseparable from the still more marvelous patterns of its environment—from the minutest electrical designs to the whole company of the galaxies—how is it conceivable that this incarnation of all eternity can be bored with being?”

Inspired by…

Kathryn Budig (Interviewed by Yoshi Aono for Mantra Mag):

 

“You’re not getting out of this life alive, so you might as well make every moment count! Stop fearing and start loving. It’s really the answer to all your problems.”