We are all made to fly

Once upon a time there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent peregrine falcons from Arabia. They were the most beautiful falcons he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.

Many days later the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.

The king summoned people with knowledge of birds and requested them to do something to make the bird fly. But no one could succeed. The bird refused to move from its perch. Having tried everything else, the king announced a big prize to any person who makes the falcon to fly.

In the morning the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace garden. He said to his personal servant “Bring me the doer of this miracle.”

The man who won the prize was a farmer. He came and stood before the king. The king asked him, “How did you make the falcon fly?”

The farmer said to the king, “It was very easy your majesty. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting”

We are all made to fly – to realize our incredible potential as human beings. But instead of flying high we sit on our branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us. The possibilities are endless. But they remain undiscovered for most of us. We cling to the familiar, the comfortable and the mundane. So, most of our lives are mediocre instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling.

Sometimes God is kind enough to cut the branch we are sitting comfortably, so that we could soar high. By changing nothing, nothing changes. We cannot discover new oceans unless we have the courage to lose sight of the shore. Let us remember this truth whenever our routine and comfortable life shatters by unforeseen circumstances. God may be helping us to soar high in his subtle ways.

- N.Ganeshan

If …

We all dream in our life. But all of us do not have the strength and will power to carry on the dreams till the end. Most of us lose the dreams in face of reality. Some of us remember the dreams with fondness and pain. Many of us forget even about their past existence. But a few of them carry on their dreams till the end of their life. They are the real heroes. Rudyard Kipling calls them real men. In this beautiful poem he explains what makes such a Man. Read the inspirational poem and do not lose sight of your dreams….

- N.Ganeshan

  

                     If …

If you can keep your head when all about you 
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, 
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 
But make allowance for their doubting too, 
If you can wait and not be tired of waiting, 
Or being lied about don’t deal in lies; 
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, 
Yet don’t look too good nor talk too wise; 

If you can dream and not make dreams your master. 
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim, 
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, 
And treat those two imposters just the same, 
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken, 
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, 
And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools; 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings, 
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss, 
And lose and start again at your beginnings, 
And never breathe a word about your loss, 
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew, 
To serve your turn long after they have gone, 
And so hold on when there is nothing in you, 
Except the will which says to them, “Hold on”; 

If you can mix with crowds and keep your virtue, 
Or, walk with kings, nor lose the common touch; 
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, 
If all men count with you, but none too much; 
If you can fill the unforgiving minute 
With 60 seconds’ worth of distance run, 
Then yours is the world and everything that’s in it, 
And what’s more—you’ll be a Man, My son! 

— Rudyard Kipling 

Zen Thoughts On Life

Learning the way of Zen is not difficult. All it needs is an open and alert mind. You don’t have to learn any special rituals or memorize large and difficult texts. The key to Zen is attention in the present moment, so clear your mind and take the Zen path.

Our minds are clever little things, and endlessly justify why we cannot do what we say we are going to do. The last thing our egos want is seeing everything as it is.

If we complain about something it means it is something we don’t like. Things don’t change by themselves just because we don’t like them. When you realize this, you’ll stop complaining. In fact it would be a very liberating experience to not have to complain. You can just experience the world, work on things you really want to change and accept the rest as it is.

We endlessly self-describe, and because we think it, we tend to stop there, believing we are as we think ourselves to be. Therefore, to change is, first, to change your self-description.

We call reality what we experience, but a lot of it is actually interpretation. Being afraid of the dark is not proof the dark ‘is’ scary. But it only says you think it is. Others may love to walk under a starry dark sky.

Perhaps you don’t even have to choose but to just see things as they are, without choosing to love or hate it.

If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else. So have a clear idea.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, but only if you take it. 

If you come to a division in the road, take it. Do not just stand there, stare at the division, and refuse to choose or to move or to decide. At the same time do not travel on the road that’s not getting you where you want to go. Life presents endless divisions in the road. In general, any choice we make can be changed at any time. Pick one that takes you to your goal and start walking. You do not get the time you waste back at the end of your life.

You cause yourself problems by over-thinking and worrying. Simplify things and do everything with awareness. Your problems will disappear automatically.

Watch the sit­uation uncritically as it unfolds before you. Usually your mind will struggle to create a drama to judge. Observe your mind playing games and realize that they are just games. In this clarity, you can choose a way to respond that is appropriate to the current moment and situation, without getting tied up in the games and dramas your mind loves.

In every area where you think you are stuck, you are stuck because you are holding on to something that does not work. Let that go and move on.

Live each and every day with vitality, never failing to take everything that happens as an opportunity to open and expand your inner life, exerting yourself to the fullest in the place you find yourself now.


- N.Ganeshan

Quotes on ‘PEACE’

All of us want peace. We struggle for peace. At times, it becomes the most important thing in our life. We are ready to pay anything to get peace of mind. The following quotes on ‘peace’ are very meaningful. Reading them, you’ll come to know about the  ways and means of peace. Read….

- N.Ganeshan

Quotes on ‘Peace’

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.
Buddha

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
Abraham Lincoln

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.
Mohandas Gandhi

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
Mother Teresa

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given.
Mother Teresa

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.
Dalai Lama

Peace is its own reward.
Mohandas Gandhi

A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser.
William Shakespeare

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
Benjamin Franklin

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
Buddha

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.
Albert Einstein

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.
Dalai Lama

When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.
Muhammad Ali

Peace is not absence of conflict; it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
Ronald Reagan

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.
John F. Kennedy

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.
John Lennon

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.
Eleanor Roosevelt

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix

Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.
Buddha

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.
Marianne Williamson

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.
Benjamin Franklin

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
Nelson Mandela

Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.
John Wooden

A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than any physical force in the universe.
Wayne Dyer

Peace begins with a smile.
Mother Teresa

If you die you’re completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on. I’m not afraid of dying. Total peace after death, becoming someone else is the best hope I’ve got.
Kurt Cobain

One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
Lao Tzu

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
Helen Keller

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
Buddha

Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.
Napoleon Hill

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man.
Charlie Chaplin

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow’s viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences.
Harry S. Truman

We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.
Thomas Merton

Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.
Victor Hugo

Peace has its victories no less than war, but it doesn’t have as many monuments to unveil.
Kin Hubbard

The happiness and peace attained by those satisfied by the nectar of spiritual tranquillity is not attained by greedy persons restlessly moving here and there.
Chanakya

We receive His peace when we ask Him for it. We keep His peace by extending it to others. Those are the keys and there are no others.
Marianne Williamson

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.
Virginia Woolf

When you’ve seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there. 
George Harrison 

There was a time in my life when I thought I had everything - millions of dollars, mansions, cars, nice clothes, beautiful women, and every other materialistic thing you can imagine. Now I struggle for peace. 
Richard Pryor 

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.
Buddha

Fill you mind with the meaningless stimuli of a world preoccupied with meaningless things, and it will not be easy to feel peace in your heart.
Marianne Williamson

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.
Mohandas Gandhi

A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.
Thomas Merton

There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer.
John Wooden

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.
Benjamin Franklin

Rise Above Criticism

There is a saying ‘If you want to avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing and be nothing’. As long as we live we cannot avoid criticism. Every day we are sure to encounter some sort of criticism. It is how we take criticism that matters. It is very important to be able to differentiate between useless and useful criticism. The feedback which needs attention is the one which is clear and logical. Baseless feedback is vague and it makes no sense,


Criticism is basically someone’s personal point of view. Everyone looks at ‘reality’ through a filter based on what they’ve learned. Whether we agree with that person’s criticism or not, we should understand that the person is only providing his opinion. When people first receive feedback, they have a tendency to deny it. Please avoid immediate defensiveness - arguing, denying and justifying. There may be a grain of truth in it. Usually we tend to shift the meaning behind what the other person is trying to convey. Then we proceed to attribute some intentions to the criticism.


When you are criticized by someone, before you get angry at them, take the time to reflect on what was said. Maybe there is something that you can learn from that criticism. It may be intended to help you to improve yourself.

Give the person who is criticizing you a chance to state their case. Hear the person out. No one is perfect and one of the ways we sometimes learn is by making a mistake. See if what the person tells you makes any sense. Moreover learn to take it as a criticism of your actions, not your person. If you do that, you can detach yourself from the criticism emotionally and see what should be done.

It is true that there are some people out there who take pleasure in bringing people down. Sometimes people may criticize you for no reason at all. They may constantly criticize you, but they seldom or never give positive feedbacks. If you realize that the criticism is merely a personal attack, try not to argue. Nothing ever gets solved with arguments. If someone is truly making a personal attack on you, most likely their mind is already made up and if you try to argue you will just be adding fuel to the fire. When all has been said, thank the person for sharing their thoughts whether you agree with their assessment or not. By being calm and collected you can show your maturity. If you learn to deal with criticism in matured manner and use it for correction and improvement, you’ll rise above criticism. And it will bother you no longer.

As a rule of this world, you cannot please everyone and you cannot make everyone like your work. Every opinion is valid, nobody’s right and it’s okay for people to disagree with you. Not everyone can see things from your point of view, so disagreements are supposed to be a part of your life. Remember, people are criticizing your actions, not your personality – so do not take it personally. Keep you attitude positive and respond calmly.

Since criticism will always be a part of whatever you do, learn to handle it and learn to handle it exceptionally well. Getting emotional on every comment is going to take you nowhere. Always accept healthy criticism and consider it a way to improve and grow. After all, you can learn a lot from people’s point of view.


There is a purpose of everything in this world. Let criticism serve its purpose by handling it well and by acting on someone else’s opinion. You cannot ignore people’s opinion when you are working for them. Criticism will help you in identifying your weak points and strong points. Remember, you are not always right and someone else can have better suggestions. Practice makes a man perfect, so work on suggestions and improve yourself.


- N.GANESHAN

The Art of Mind Picturing

Learn Mind’s Secrets – 6

The Art of Mind Picturing

We have seen that we all possess more power and greater possibilities than we realize, and visualizing is the quick way to realize these powers. The same power that brought universe into existence will bring our individual thought or mental picture into physical form. In working out our mental picture, Universe transfers its creative energy to our mind and works in the same unfailing manner.

Everything in the whole world has its beginning in mind and comes into existence in exactly the same manner. All are projected thoughts, solidified. The power that brought us into existence did so for the purpose of expressing its limitless supply through us.  And there was no power on earth which could cut us off from our source except ourselves.

Now you can understand what Jesus meant when he said, “Ask and ye shall receive.”  Your every requirement would be met. Surely the Father must supply the child. Before you can entertain the idea of making a mental picture of your desire as being at all practical, you must have some idea of your being. Remember that your being, your individuality, is God particularizing Himself. As long as you are not thinking and acting against God’s laws you can not fail.

All you have to do is to make such a mental picture of your heart’s desire, and hold it cheerfully in place with your will, always conscious that the same Infinite Power which brought the universe into existence brought you into form for the purpose of enjoying Itself in and through you.

Whether your desire is for excellence in a field, or a possession, large or small, begin at the beginning. If you want a house, begin by seeing yourself in the kind of house you desire. Go through it with all minute details as help you to feel the reality of your picture. Go over your picture again and again, until you feel the reality of it.

Mind is an art gallery of many pictures, but only the most prominent are selected for models in thought creation. Only those pictures that are sufficiently distinct to be seen by consciousness without special effort are brought before the creative energies as patterns.  So when you are visualizing the mental pictures there should not be any stressful or abnormal effort to hold your thought-forms in place. That will defeat your purpose and suggest the consciousness about an adverse force to be fought against, and this creates conditions adverse to your picture. By holding your picture in a cheerful frame of mind, you shut out all thoughts that would disperse or dissipate the spiritual nucleus of your picture. Because the law is Creative in its action, your pictured desire is certain of accomplishment.

The most important thing to remember in visualizing is that you are making a mental picture for the purpose of determining the quality you are giving to the cosmic mind rather than to arrange the specific circumstances for its manifestation. That is the work of Creative Power itself. It will build its own forms of expression quite naturally, if you will allow it, and save you a great deal of needless anxiety. What you really want is expansion in a certain direction, whether of health, wealth or what not, and so long as you get it—as you surely will, if you confidently hold to your

picture—what does it matter whether it reaches by some channel which you thought you could count upon, or through some other of whose existence you had no idea. You are concentrating energy of a particular kind for a particular purpose. Keep this in mind and let specific details take care of themselves.

And another important truth to remember is it takes some time to actualize our mind pictures. So the process of mind picturing which we desire to carry out must be continued for a sufficient length of time to give the creative processes the opportunity to make our desired things into realities. Meanwhile we must not change ideas or plans at too frequent intervals for such changes will neutralize what has been gained thus far and here is the place where a great many people fail. The average person who wishes to change his life for the better does not hold on to his ideals long enough; that is, he does not give them a fair chance to work themselves out and bring the expected results.

We can never exhaust the mind powers. So we can form mental pictures of as many ideals as we like. But at first it is best to choose only a few. Keep the selected few pictures constantly before your mind. Train yourself to actually live for those pictures. And you will find all things in your life changing daily to become more and more like those pictures. In the course of time you will realize in actual life the exact likeness of those pictures; that is, what you have constantly pictured upon your mind you will realize in actual life. Then you can form new and more beautiful pictures to be realized in like manner as you build for a still greater future.

(To be continued …)

- N.Ganeshan

QUOTES ON “SUCCESS”

Here are some wise quotes on “SUCCESS” that make us think and force us to review our priorities and living style. Read and think ….

N.Ganeshan

SUCCESS

v     If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.

v     Anna Quindlen 

v     Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other. 
Erma Bombeck 

v     Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

v     Henry David Thoreau

v     One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes. 
Benjamin Disraeli  

v     Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.

v     Henry Kissinger 

v     Failure is success if we learn from it. 
Malcolm Forbes 

v     I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the  time.

v     Herbert Bayard Swope 

v     If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder   brother and hope your guardian genius.

v     Joseph Addison 

v     If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it. 
W. C. Fields

v     There's no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn't tell you about it?

v     Kin Hubbard 

v     Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

v     Sir Winston Churchill 

v     There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way. 
Christopher Morley 

v     Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

v     Thomas A. Edison 

v     You always pass failure on the way to success.

v     Mickey Rooney 

v     In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. 
Bill Cosby 

v     Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.

v     Abraham Lincoln 

v     To follow, without halt, one aim: There's the secret of success.

v     Anna Pavlova 

v     What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose. 
Margaret Thatcher 

v     Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.

v     David McCullough 

v     Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you're not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.

v     David Rockefeller 

v     Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.

v     Dr. David M. Burns

v     We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.

v     Dwight D. Eisenhower 

v     To freely bloom - that is my definition of success.

v     Gerry Spence, 

v     Men are born to succeed, not fail.

v     Henry David Thoreau