Honour the wise and not the fool, is a way to grow

I realised that how dangerous it is to honour and admire foolish people, as it means you are accepting and approving their foolish ways. That is why most people are lost nowadays, they honour and make idol of corrupted people like celebrities and of such. Even though some people admire their power, wealth, beautiful, fame and of such, but once they are corrupted then they are corrupted and rotten, not worthy of honouring. They will stunt your inner growth.

But it is smart to honour the wise, if you honour the wise you are accepting and approving their wise ways and hence attaining some wholesomeness from it. Honouring the wise if the path of inner growth and wisdom.

Holistic approach: medicine, dietry and... psychology!

It is narrow minded to just think only about medicine and dietry as a form of healing. As time goes by and science progress, they realised that wisdom of the ancient times had truth behind it. They realised that our emotions, thoughts and behaviour has impact on our health and wellbeing.

For example, they realised that being "prolong" stress increase the release of corticol in blood that causes many negative side effects like impaired cognitive performance, blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia, bone density, higher blood pressure, lowered immunity, increased fat deposited body, heart attacks, strokes higher levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) [ref: http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/cortisol.htm]

So remember, to be healthy is more than just medicine and food, it's internal well being.

Acting kind is not being kind hearted

Acting kind is not being kind hearted
Acting kind is different from having a kind heart.

Principles-precepts-morality before empty mind?

A lot of people jump into an assumption that in order to find that higher spiritual state, the mind just have to automatically let go of affliction and attain that spiritual "empty mind" state, neglecting the idea that to get to that point their are some preliminary practices. Although it is true to some extend, how free-ing the mind from false thoughts is ultimately the goal, there must be realistic and practice procedures to get there. There must be a foundation before progressing into that higher spiritual state of "letting go". If it not realistic and practical to force yourself to let go of false thoughts etc... I doubt that enlightenment can be reached by just thinking about letting go of thought, but rather there it's more experiences and insight through proper spiritual practice that clenses the psyche and consciousness.

So again, it is important to set the foundation before progressing onwards, just like how we have to crawl before we can stand, stand before we can walk, walk before we can run. In this case, it's important to begin from holding on to principles, principles are like morality, precepts, and the act of keeping the action pure from corruption will keep the mind from being corrupted. If one do not keep their precepts and morality, it is easy to feel guilty as the mind is subconscious connected to each other and how you treat others reflects back into you subconscious. If the your actions and speak are pure, the mind will not be disturbed and can rest in peace. Once the mind can rest in peace without any guilts, only then can one let go of that afflictions and be mindful int their spiritual practice.

Again, some people may debate that just let go of guilt, but it is impossible to let go of guilt if one do not become remorse, repent and reform. The negative actions has a strong impact on the mind. Just like how taking alcohol will impair your thoughts, immorality will impair your mind and spiritual growth. So it is rather like how we have to work our way from earth to space in order to fly freely, our principles-precepts-morality will set the foundation before we can spiritually advance, if not it is not possible and things will collapse and become very ugly.

I am not telling you to become paranoid in everything one do, as to some extend it is not healthy to constantly think and be paranoid but just to recognize that negative actions has negative effect on the mind that stunts inner growth. Therefore, being more aware of our actions, take responsibility and to become a good human before we can think of becoming a saint or sage.

Being open minded yet critical

Bwing open minded enough to listen yet critical enough to decide whether to accept, reject or leave a question mark.

Being open minded doesn't means opening yourself and accepting or passively accepting what is given, otherwise that would be pure stupidity.

You can be open minded enough to listen to others, yet it is up to you to agree or disagree using your own mind and reasoning.

A lot of people have difficulties in exchanging views because of reactive emotional issues such as angry and tension because of difference or fear of intimidation. But one may find it useful to start learning how to discuss without using unpleasant emotional response and just take it as a mere exchange of views to discuss about.

Time to put theory into practice and live!

Sometimes I feel that we spend too much time thinking and planning excessively and un-necessarily that it becomes almost fixed into a bad habit or mind frame and we lose the habit of being pro-active and making it happen! It's not healthy to just be a theoretical textbook type of person. So this quote is rather nice:

"Do not just wish upon a star, reach for one!"


Mark: I've given it a lot of thought, and I've decided to be spontaneous.