Compassion

Being compassionate -The art of Giving

 “I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.”                                                                                                                   Mother Teresa

Did you always think that giving and sacrificing were synonyms, think again. In fact, they are both diametrically opposed terms, while an act of sacrifice emits the ‘negativity’ of ‘lack, the act of ‘giving’ emits the positivity of abundance. 

When you sacrifice, at some point you will feel resentment due to the lack which is consequential to the sacrificing act but when you give, you will only feel the love due to the abundance you receive in return. ‘Being compassionate’ is in coherence with the philosophy of ‘the law of attraction’, the more you shall give, the more you will receive.

Let me reiterate the relationship between ‘compassion’ and ‘the law of attraction’ with a real life story, At one point of time, Mother Teresa found herself running out of ration to provide for the next meal to the children putting up in her charitable home, but right before she was required to cook the next meal, a trader who was leaving Calcutta for good, donated all his grains (he traded in grains) to her, which took care not only of the next meal, but a lot of subsequent meals. This is how real the relationship between ‘compassion’ and ‘the law of attraction’ is. 

Where to begin-Taking the first step

The process is not abrupt, like chiseling a rock, it is gradual. 

Self-compassion-The first step is to extend compassion to your own self. Forgive yourself, release the burden of the past. It is breaking your spine. Remember, you can extend kindness to others only when you are kind to yourself. You can forgive others only if you forgive yourself. Start taking yourself more lightly; remove the cloak of the ego-look beyond yourself, you will find an entire world out there suffering in greater magnitude. When you concentrate on your own suffering, you will only self-aggrandize but when you endeavor to help others, you alleviate your own suffering. This is the wonderful process of compassion. An old Chinese proverb reiterates this-“A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives roses”.

 Step 2- The Next step-

Once you have mastered the art of being compassionate to yourself, you can begin by extending compassion to your friends and strangers.

Real compassion does not reek of attachment. When you engage in an act of generosity, if you have done it with an ulterior motive or with a view to receive accolades, then it would not qualify as an act of compassion, the reason is simple, somewhere in the distant future you will think to yourself-“I wish I had not given away that object, it could have come to good use now”. Therefore, the act is streaked with attachment. Wherever there is attachment, there will be gain and loss. 

 True giving is free of attachment. The act of generosity stems from the wish for another sentient being to benefit, it is free from the desire of receiving any direct benefit for the self.

However, I am not attempting to state that if the intention behind the act of generosity is selfish, then you completely pass off the idea of donating. We all have pretenses- “To beguile the time, look like the time, bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue, look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it” –Shakespeare. Gradually, like an onion, keep exfoliating the layers of pretenses, it is always possible to transform the intention, to downsize the pretenses to the minimal.

 Next time before donating, try to rid yourself of the attachment to that object by visualizing-‘ Since happiness is a state of mind, why should I continue to believe in the fallacy that we derive happiness from external objects, this object that I hold in my hand has given me as much sensory pleasure as possible, since pleasure is transient in nature, the object cannot give me any more pleasure, whereas this person will immensely benefit from the object if it is given to him. It is in the interest of all sentient beings, that this object should be delivered to such person’.

By practicing this visualization, gradually you will become clearer about your intention behind giving. The feeling of attachment will be overcome by the feeling of love. 

Step 3- Extending compassion to enemies

. This step may even perplex you at first but will appeal to you when you see the bigger picture. You may think, why would anyone want to be compassionate towards an enemy?

The answer lies within.  When we have enemies, we live in a constant state of fear and anxiety. The greatest compassion you can show towards an enemy is by forgiving him– “forgive an enemy not because he deserves forgiveness but because you deserve peace”. Forgiveness brings about closure in your life, when you forgive, you close a previous chapter of your life, as a metaphor, consider this- how is it possible to read a subsequent chapter of a book when you are stuck in the previous chapter.

You have to realize that compassion is more of a mental state than a physical state. Therefore, you don’t even need to physically meet that person to forgive him, all you need to do is, forgive him mentally, through mental imagery, by gradually converting negative emotions into neutral emotions and then neutral emotions into positive emotions. You can practice this conversion of thoughts by putting yourself in the other person’s shoes or tracing his attitude to the root of all ills, i.e. ignorance-the inability to see the real purpose of life, but since you have uprooted ignorance, you must forgive.

Initially, even if you are giving with a feeling of attachment, keep giving. You have to realize, that the act of giving, tremendously benefits others’, whether well intentioned or not, whether it is the progeny of selfishness or selflessness.  In the words of― Debbie Macomber-One Simple Act: Discovering the Power of Generosity- “You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” 

The best way of being selfish is to become selfless, because by virtue of the law of attraction, the more you shall give, the more you will receive.

Be Compassionate-It is a means of reinforcing what it means to be human.

Acceptance

Acceptance

Not accepting a situation is like going against the flow of the river, no matter how hard you try, you will have to fight against the current to move ahead. Acceptance, on the other hand, is like flowing with the flow of the river, effortlessly, you will arrive.

 So does acceptance mean that we do nothing about the situation?

Now, most of us have a flawed conception of acceptance. To us, acceptance is a kind of resignation, implying a negative connotation. Nevertheless, we are far from reality. To resign from a situation, would be to lose faith in life, to hang up one’s boots in despair and hopelessness, to be fighting the self from within.

 Contrary to resignation, acceptance implies being at peace with the self in the moment. In the words of the XIV Dalai Lama “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” No, you don’t have to resign from the situation. You make every endeavor to find solutions. But once you accept, you stop trying too hard. You develop a halo of serenity and calmness around yourself. Unperturbed by the situation, you maximize your chances of finding a solution but now the fear of failure of finding a solution doesn’t bother you anymore.

What is Self Acceptance

Accepting who you are, does not mean you become rigid. Acceptance doesn’t entitle you to continue to make mistakes on the pretext of it being your innate nature. There is nothing that is innate, nothing that is static when it comes to being human. Being human is a wonderful process of dynamism, you can change your characteristics at will. If acceptance gives you anything, it gives you greater maneuverability, greater flexibility.

 Acceptance, only means being at peace in the present moment, not making yourself miserable & at the same time fully capable of transcending the problem and improving the self in the future, capable of anything.When you begin to be at peace with yourself in this very moment, you lose all your anxieties because anxiety feeds on your worries about the future. Unshackle yourself- in the words of Shantideva, 8th century Buddhist monk- “If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved, worrying will do you no good.”

 When you resign from a situation you submit to despair and hopelessness. Acceptance, on the other hand, gives you endless possibilities, it gives you hope. In the words of Stephen King-“Remember, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

 Look at death as just another facet of life. It is a certainty, though the time is not certain. Acceptance of death will take you to the next level, in the words of Shakespeare-“Cowards die many a times but the brave die only once”. What this implies is that once you realize the ‘fragility of life’ & you accept it, you will be able to summon your inner courage and submit yourself to a cause greater than yourself.

 Zach Sobriech exemplifies this extraordinary courage. He lost his life to Cancer at the tender age of only 18, four years after being diagnosed with it. Months before passing away, he wrote a beautiful song-‘Clouds’ -Watch from link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDC97j6lfyc which went viral on youtube & helped raise funds for research in cancer. He was able to achieve this feat only because he accepted the situation.

 Now, visualize the alternate situation, had he been thinking,- “why did it have to be me, I am only 18”, he could have not come up with anything as inspiring as this, with a dismissive attitude, he would have felt miserable about himself.

 Misery’ only takes you to the grave, ‘acceptance’ takes you back to the cradle. What this implies is that misery is self-destructive while, on the other hand, acceptance has creative qualities. For instance, consider the dive reflex- all infants in the world without exception, have the same ability to breathe longer naturally than adults when put underwater, then why is it that at a later stage, some of us can swim and the others cannot. It is because even though all of us were born the same. As we grew, some of us continued to believe while the others gave up on themselves.

 Believe again, get inspired & stay inspired. It is a myth to believe that we are born with innate qualities, we all have the ability to develop characteristics as we grow. Accept who you are, drop your apprehensions and judgements, be a child again, re-discover, believe in the ability to change yourself, do what you enjoy. Acceptance gives you the courage to do great things.

 Meditating on death– I will be sharing a blog post -meditating on death very soon. This meditation helps us release anxiety & fear as we come to realize that death, like life is only a moment and there is no point of being stuck in a moment. This may even help you realize the ‘fragility of life’ and help bring balance to your life.

As they say-“When life gives you lemons, you have two choices, make lemonade or put on a sour face”

 

Adversity

Adversity– An opportunity to rise in the face of adversity.

Life is about perspective. Do you see Adversity as disabling or enabling. You may see it as a disability, we see it as a speciability- an opportunity to believe, an opportunity to accomplish.

No shame in falling, but there is shame in shamming, in falling & not standing up again.

Maybe what has kept us surviving for a long time now was our ability to turn a blind eye, running away from adverse situations & uncertainties, remaining within the ambit of our comfort level. You may have been a believer in “Ignorance is Bliss”.

Be it as that may be, now is the time for change, the time to outgrow your comfort zone. Stop procrastinating, now is always the best time to begin. An old proverb reaffirms this-“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.”

How to deal with adversity-Finding Strength in adversity

In order to achieve greatness sometimes we must square-off with adversity & manoeuvre through its midst. This square-off also gives us the impetus to reach the zenith of ‘inspired thinking’, It is in moments of such discomfort & pain, that you will find something within that will give you the ability to keep moving ahead, this inner strength feeds on your failures & frustrations. In fact, garner this frustration as a fuel, and just when you feel, you’ve had enough, launch yourself on the platform of greatness.

The greater the challenge, the brighter that ray of hope should shine within. That hope has the ability to make you more focused & driven, It can help you transcend your former self, making you limitless.

People with such extraordinary self-belief & hope, don’t circumvent adversity, they don’t even avoid it but rather, they take that storm of adversity & harness it to propel forward, overcoming adversity. These people are alchemists, because when the shit hits the fan, they don’t run, they don’t hide, but instead they summon the courage from within & effortlessly convert that heap of negativity into a learning curve, & learning from it, they outgrow adversity. As they say-“when life gives you lemons, you have two choices, make lemonade or put up a sour face”. Be an Alchemist, make lemonade instead.

You can throw roadblocks at these inspired people, but yet they will persist. They will move ahead. And when they beat Adversity, & trust me, they will, you may say that they grew in life despite adversity, I would say they grew in life because of adversity. As a metaphor, take a ‘Lotus’, even though it is the most beautiful flower out there, it will flourish only in ‘mud’. Isn’t it quite the irony that such beauty is able to sustain only in muck, so be it with life, when you hit a roadblock, give yourself the opportunity to grow from it, come out stronger on the other side, surpassing your former self.

Let the word spread like ‘fire’ that “you’re on fire”. Transcend adversity, but never circumvent it, because if you circumvent adversity, even though you may avoid a situation, yet you haven’t learnt from it, you haven’t outgrown your former self, you are still the same old person.

What purpose can you solve by circumventing a problem. Sure, if you ‘play it safe’ again this time, you can avoid the problem. But ask yourself, what is the point in being ‘comfortably numb’? Do you want to live a life of mediocrity all the time, because ‘mediocrity’ is what you get when you remain ‘comfortably numb’. Take your chances, expand your comfort zone. Make continuous attempts to do things outside your comfort zone until you find the boundaries of your comfort zone have broadened.

Facing adversity, head to head, is the same as getting wet in the rain, once you are all drenched & wet, you’re no more afraid of water, you have transcended that stage, what is left for you now is simply to enjoy the rain. Same is the case with life & adversity.

Unshackle yourself from these chains of society, don’t be mediocre, be out there to discover. Give it a shot & you may hit the bull’s eye, but if you don’t even take a shot, there is no bull for you in the first place.

Imagine if adversity would be used as a perennial source of energy to help us grow. Imagine, if we saw adversity as the very pathway rather than a roadblock.

Triumph over adversity.

Your Path to Happiness-Transcending the viscious circle of Pleasure & Pain

Buddha did not ask human beings to leave their households & go to an abandoned cave to meditate and achieve liberation.  The Buddhist concept of attachment & non-attachment has been misconstrued. In order to give up attachment, you don’t need to shirk responsibilities; you don’t even have to stop enjoying the pleasures of life.

Attachment is more of a mental concept, contrary to the general notion of it being a physical concept. ‘Intention’ forms the spine of a strong spiritual life, doesn’t matter if you follow a particular religion or are an atheist. A thief in the mind is as much a thief as a thief in the body, the only difference is that the thief in the mind is unidentified, for his thoughts are covered by a cloak of inaction, possibly because he lacks the courage to give effect to his thieving intentions, while the thief in the body may be identifiable, for he has performed the deed.

Likewise, attachment stems from the mind. Attachment is a feeling of holding on, not letting go. The feeling of attachment is fraught with other feelings of jealousy, hatred, anxiety, anger and many other negative connotations. Together, they blend perfectly to unsettle your life.

Detachment implies that you become illusive, you start keeping to yourself all the time, under the misconstrued idealism that if you keep yourself away from human interaction, with a feeling that due to the lack of being around people or objects, you will rid yourself of attachment. However, that is not the case, when you begin your human interactions again, slowly, you will relapse to the old state of attachment and aversion, being judgmental. The reason is simple, you did not internalize the experience of letting go.

Non-attachment- This is the ideal state. You realize the cycle of pleasure and pain. Without becoming attached to the good experiences or objects, you savor the moment and at the same time when life throws your share of pain, instead of becoming averse to it, you embrace it and see it as an opportunity to take your spiritual practice to the next level.

While detachment has a negative connotation, for it causes you to become more rigid, non-attachment has none, in fact it makes you more fluid. Non-attachment simply means to be at ‘peace’ in the moment, to let go of the baggage of the past and the anxiety of the future. It is a state of indifference, you enjoy it as long as it lasts and move on once its run its course.

While we are attached, we tend to believe that happiness is without and not within. We seek to justify happiness by attaching too much emphasis on an object or situation, believing that it is the beauty of the object that is giving us happiness. Not realizing that the object is only made up of colors and lines and it is the mind which is deciphering and perceiving its beauty.

In other words, beauty is not an innate quality of the flower but it is rather the perception of the mind that is making it beautiful. Had the flower been inherently beautiful, then everybody would have thought a lily to be beautiful, but if you ask people, you will get mixed reviews, some will like it while others will not.

The flower has a short lifespan once it is uprooted. Now if you think of the flower as inherently beautiful & become attached to it, you will begin to assume that the flower forms the edifice of your happiness and that you will become depressed when the flower begins to wilt. Through this parallel I am sure you will see the futility of attachment.

“Empires are like human beings that begin to die the moment they are born- The crimson throne”-SudhirKakar- If everything is transient, then why be attached?

Theoretically, it may sound easy but internalizing the experience of non-attachment can be difficult. Nevertheless, it can be attained gradually.

This is how a Buddhist story on attachment goes-

Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the road sides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk across because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to her, lifted her in his hands and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.
In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, “Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman?”
The elder monk answered “yes, brother”.
Then the younger monk asks again, ” but then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside?”
The elder monk smiled at him and told him “I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her”

In this story, the younger monk continued to have a fixation or attachment to the elder monk’s action  and was therefore perturbed even though he had not done the forbidden deed himself whereas the elder monk, out of generosity had indulged in a forbidden deed, yet remained unperturbed, for he had moved on, not attaching himself to the act. This is the power of non-attachment, had he continued to think of the forbidden act he performed out of a fit of generosity, he would have felt miserable about his act.

Nothing can be achieved at one go, the process should be gradual, after all what you should be doing is internalizing the experience and not using it as a tool to portray yourself as a superior being, having a one-upmanship over other beings.

Becoming Non-attached-Internalizing the experience –

Since attachment is a mental concept, you can start by visualizing yourself as donating something that you don’t even need anymore, but you are clinging onto that object out of insecurity, in the hope that probably upon some future exigency, it might come in handy. In fact, if you are a believer in the law of attraction, by keeping it for some future exigency, you are summoning trouble for yourself.

To deepen the visualization, deepen the feeling of how the person’s face lit up with happiness when you gave it to him ,remember a moment when you received something you always wanted, feel the joy and blessings you received by extending a helping hand to that person. Isn’t sharing a wonderful feeling.

When the idea of giving starts coming more naturally to you, mentally begin dispensing items that are dear to you, this way your attachment to pleasurable objects will reduce. Realize that you enjoyed that particular item but like life, the moment is ripe for it to move on, for it to give pleasure to some other being.

Once you have reached this stage of internalizing, you may now physically begin donating. By way of actualizing the act of giving, you may begin to have short-lived experiences of non-attachment.

There is no particular timeline for the stages. You will know when to move to the next level. Whether it takes a day, a month, a year or even a decade to move from one stage to another don’t worry, keep moving forward,stay inspired.

Inspire others, not by intellectualizing but by internalizing, not by words but by deeds. As Martin Luther King Jr said- “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”

As they say “Happiness is a state of mind”, for it cannot be attributed to a particular external object. Become non-attached, look within for happiness,for it is not out there but within.

 

Resolutions and Breaking Negative Patterns

It’s that time of the year when people make a lot of resolutions. Yes, you heard me-‘New Year resolutions’. But by the time this blog is posted, many of you would have actually relapsed & broken your resolutions.

 

Ever wondered why it’s so easy to relapse into your old habitual mold of patterns.

When most of us make resolutions, we say- ‘Let the New Year begin & I will quit drinking alcohol’ or in the month of June you will declare-‘From August I’ll start going to the gym’. Now if you look back at all such resolutions you made, you will realize that they could not stand the test of time.

The reason is simple- When it comes to resolutions the thumb rule is that you have to make the resolution from this moment on instead of being dependent on some future date or event. It is for the same reason that when you take a solemn oath, you say-‘From this moment I solemnly resolve not to…’, you don’t say-‘From August I shall resolve not to…’

Most of the resolutions we make are in the spur of the moment or are fanciful ideas which we gather from an inspiring event, thought or story. Due to that thrust of inspiration, we are able to make that resolution. But later when the ecstasy of the inspired idea, thought or story begins to dwindle, we fall into a reverie trying to comprehend-How did I end up making this stupid resolution which is turning out to be so difficult to keep?

It is here that we need to change the frequency of our thoughts. In order to keep resolutions from relapsing, the idea is to keep the self in a state of ‘inspired thinking’. Your resolution is the progeny of a moment of inspiration. If a moment of inspiration permeated so profoundly in your conscious that it drove you to committing yourself to a resolution, imagine what a continuous state of ‘inspired thinking’ can do for you.

In order to keep the resolution alive, you must feed yourself continuously with ‘inspired thoughts’. Believe and visualize, as vividly as possible, how you would feel if you had achieved your target, if you would have fulfilled the resolution.

Remember, humans are fallible; a lot of temptations will seep through that monkey mind of yours, sometimes to the extent of wanting to break the resolution.  Whenever such negative thoughts enter your mind, apply the terminator technique, instead of allowing the weed of negativity to dwell in your mind and as a consequence, your negative thoughts multiplying. Quickly, transform the negative thought into a positive one.

How do you transform a negative thought into a positive thought?

 “Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your  destiny”                          Mahatma Gandhi

In theory, this has the simplest answer-By being mindful and vigilant, but when it comes to practice, it can be an uphill task. Most of the times, when the mind is preoccupied doing its usual business- ‘thinking’, it develops a pattern.

Good for you, if the pattern is positive. But I am afraid, most of us have a tendency to swerve to the wrong side-the negative pattern of thoughts. Unfortunately, even though the human brain is thinking all the time, you will be surprised to know that more than 90 % of your thoughts during the day would be repetitive.

Thoughts externally manifest themselves in the form of feelings. How a person is feeling at any given point of time is a good way to gauge the kind of thought-pattern he is developing-Positive or Negative.

Since 90% of the thoughts are repetitive, if you are thinking negatively, you will develop a negative pattern of thoughts over a period of time. To lead a balanced lifestyle, it is quintessential to break this pattern of remorse. You can do this by being mindful.

If you are looking for a solution to a problem, the first affirmative action you can take is to identify the problem. Similarly, in the case of thoughts to get rid of the negativity, you need to be aware of your thoughts.

Most of the time, one disturbing thought leads to a chain of disturbing thoughts. What you ought to do is, instead of just going through the cycle of negative thoughts, you become mindful or aware of the feeling those negative thoughts give rise to.

So as soon as you realize a thought is making you anxious, angry or depressed (examples of feelings), you just stop and remember 5 things that have happened to you that you are grateful for. This way you break the negative pattern & transform it to a positive pattern every time a negative thought creeps in and you ouster it as soon as you become mindful or aware of its presence.

Gratitude is the finest antidote to overcoming a negative pattern. In whatever circumstances you may find yourself, even if there has been a vicissitudes of fortune, keep in mind that yet there will be something in your life you should be grateful for. When you begin to concentrate on abundance instead of lack, the results you will achieve will be awe-inspiring.

Feel the gratitude as deeply as you can, when you wake up in the morning-be grateful for waking up awake and the abundant opportunities available to you throughout the day.

Before you eat a meal, be grateful, deepen the feeling of gratitude by imagining the combined effort that has gone into making the final product available to you-the bounty of nature, the farmer, the person who has cooked the meal for you –visualize it by tracing it back to the time when it was a small seed to the time it reached your table.

There is consensus on the 21 day rule as being a powerful tool to breaking a negative pattern or forming a positive pattern. Patiently follow the positive pattern for 21 days, take charge of your thoughts and transform your life.

Keep in mind, everything that has manifested itself in the body, first manifested itself in the mind. It is quite the metaphor of the 21^st century, when it comes to our lawns, we do not allow the weeds to grow alongside the grass but when it comes to our minds, all we have is rotten weeds & no grass. We fail to nourish our minds.

Nourish the mind with inspiration, become limitless.

“Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has  passed”.                                                                                                                                                                  Cavett Robert 

Inspiron -Keep Inspiring.

Taking Initiative- Take the First Step & Conquer

If two sides of a bridge are thronged by 2 sets of people-One  side representing ‘Success’ & the other side representing ‘Failure’.

What do you think will determine the side you will find yourself on?

The answer is as simple as ‘taking the first step’. All of us are often perplexed when it comes to taking the first step.

We are all too scared to give wings to our thoughts. Most of the time, we live in our own head, concerned more about how the society will judge us if we decided to take inspired affirmative action to fulfill our aspirations.

Everything that has been created by mankind began with one inspired thought backed by nothing but raw brute courage, courage to venture into the unknown. They did not know how they were going to accomplish the task but they were confident that they were going to accomplish it.

Such courage can be developed by inspiring yourself to move out of your comfort-zone again & again until you find the territory of your comfort-zone broadened. Do things you are scared off-it is a powerful antidote to fear.

I would suggest that when you decide to do something-all you should be concerned about is taking the first step. Life is like climbing a ladder, if your focus is on the top step of the ladder while taking your first step, you are bound to fall but instead if you focus on the next step of that ladder, the top of the ladder is not too far.

Similarly, when you decide to undertake an inspired action, just believe in your idea & take that first step. That is the sole hurdle to accomplishment. Once you are beyond the first step, you will transcend the fear of success & failure and you will move into the realm of achieving your goals effortlessly.

You will be surprised when I tell you how I created this website-it will demonstrate to you the importance of taking the first step-

The other day I woke up and thought to myself-‘will it help others if I share these extraordinary stories online’. I was enthralled by the idea of developing  a platform to share inspiring stories but by the afternoon I felt the zest diminishing. I thought-‘its  probably one of those pipe dreams wherein I lack the courage to enforce the idea into an affirmative action.’ So I put-off the idea of creating this platform to share inspiring  stories.

But then after a few days I came across the story of an 18 year old who died of cancer after struggling with it for 4 years. At that moment the ‘fragility of life’ struck me. What inspired me about Zach was the song he wrote which went viral on youtube -‘clouds’…………………

……………….Only this time instead of waiting for the morning to turn into afternoon or the inspiration to be diluted by negative connotations (such as How I was going to create the website, Who would be interested in viewing my website, what was the point of setting up such a website?)Immediately, I just took the first step-not know anything about designing a website. I went onto a website builder & there I was looking at various pre-designed website templates. But instead of using a pre-designed template(which would have been much easier).I thought if the website has to be inspiring-it has to be with a soul of its own and so I started from scratch-with a blank template.

To my amazement, the website design kept coming to me effortlessly. Reason being, i had taken the first step, i had transcended the doubt-fear cycle. But if, instead of taking that first step,I had asked myself-how am I going to design a website? I would have never taken the first step. Reason being, i would have introduced doubt to my vision. Doubt only blurs your ability to transform an inspired thought into an affirmative action.

You know what they say about ‘hitting the hammer when the iron is hot’. That is all you need to do in life. As soon as you get an idea you are inspired about, instead of thinking how, why, where, when-Just take that first step.

In the words of Will Smith-“You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.”

You will be surprised to know that when Will Smith & his brother were teenagers, every day after school, they constructed their Father’s office compound wall & this is how they created it. Every day after school they lay the wall-Brick by Brick, One step at a time.

Which side of the bridge do you want to see yourself on?

In the end it will all narrow down to ‘The first step’- Whether you took it or not.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the   difference”.                                                             –Robert Frost

Inspiron- Inspire yourself with all the inspiring stories to transcend the doubt-fear cycle. ‘Take the first step’ to transform an inspired idea into an affirmative action, ‘take the first step’ to transform your life.

BeingBuddha@Inspiron

BeingBuddha@Inspiron

If Being Buddha is the River, Inspiron is the Source.