Spiritual InquirySpiritual InquiryRead articles about spiritual inquiry and personal development. Also lets you rate articles and then personally recommends new articles using these ratings. Provides links to quotes, Zen stories, and excerpts from popular spiritual books.
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We have no reason for pride
2008-01-10 00:00:00 Many people are proud of their achievements, allowing their egos to be inflated by their perceived brilliance. However, upon closer inspection, there are really no achievements that we can truly claim credit for. Our success is undoubtedly dependent upon many people - our teachers, our colleagues, our parents, and our friends. For any achievement, a ... More About: Reason , Pride
Practise patience!
2008-01-10 00:00:00 There are so many opportunities to practise patience in life: in a queue, while a web page loads, while we wait for our colleague to finish speaking. Most of us treat these moments as a hassle, a bother, a time to live through while we wait for something more interesting. We regret that queues exist, ... More About: Patience
Don’t seek sympathy!
2008-01-08 00:00:00 Few things make us more vulnerable to pain than seeking sympathy. The problem with seeking sympathy is that we end up focusing on - and often exaggerating - our misfortune. Because pain is such a subjective experience, the more we focus on it, the greater it becomes. This is the opposite of what we want. The ... More About: Seek , Path
Look for your own shortcomings
2008-01-08 00:00:00 When someone irritates us, we usually focus on changing the situation. If our spouse annoys us, we explain to them what they are doing wrong, and ask them to stop. If someone’s whistling distracts us in the library, we move to a different spot. In both these examples, the aim is to remove the source ...
Now is the time!
2008-01-08 00:00:00 Most people are familiar with the concept of happiness deferral. This is the belief that we will only be happy once some future condition is met. For example, we will be happy once we have achieved financial independence, or once we have a loving spouse, or a career that we cherish. The well-known trap of ... More About: Time , The Time
Can our happiness set-point be raised?
2007-12-17 00:00:00 Psychology studies tell us that we each have a baseline level of happiness. Certain events take us above this baseline, others take us below, but no matter how glorious or traumatic the event, we return to our baseline within months. Thus, each person is said to have a happiness set-point, which is thought to remain ... More About: Happiness , Point
Surrender to uncertainty!
2007-12-16 00:00:00 The world is uncertain: We cannot control our lives. We cannot control the world, we cannot control other people, we only have limited control over ourselves. Many of us feel uncomfortable about this. We want security in our lives. We like to plan our futures and be reassured that everything will be OK. Uncertainty is ... More About: Surrender , Cert
Why does forgiveness matter?
2007-12-13 00:00:00 What motivates forgiveness? Often we view it as some kind of concession. We think we are being generous by granting it. However, in truth, we are the prime beneficiaries of forgiveness. When we forgive, we let go. When we forgive, we stop clinging to the pain. Continuing to be angry only makes things worse for ... More About: Matter , Forgiveness
Can we be open-minded in organized religion?
2007-12-13 00:00:00 If we honestly seek the truth, we must be open to any conclusion. This is true of any field, and religion is no exception. Some might argue that if everyone agrees on something then it is probably true. This would mean that blind faith is acceptable. Whether this argument is valid or not, it does ... More About: Religion , Open , Organ
Dealing with loneliness
2007-12-11 00:00:00 Loneliness is a condition that affects most of us at some point in our lives. Some of us feel it daily, some of us sporadically, and some of us just in those difficult times. Regardless of how often it occurs, it does not have to be this way. There is no underlying aspect of human ... More About: Loneliness
Non-attachment: the true path to enjoyment
2007-12-11 00:00:00 Non-attachment is a doctrine emphasized by many spiritual traditions. It centres around the idea of impermanence - that everything in this world is transitory, and thus we should cling to nothing. On first hearing, this advice may be misunderstood. We may conjure up images of the ultimate killjoy - someone who is passionless, uncaring, indifferent; ... More About: True , Enjoyment , Attachment , Atta , Path
Be glad that it’s your fault!
2007-12-11 00:00:00 When unhappiness strikes, we often lash out. We blame other people, we blame outside events, we do whatever we can to convince ourselves that it is not our fault. In a fight with our partner, we come up with all the things that he or she did wrong, and why we were justified to behave ... More About: Fault , Glad
Be frank and honest about your religious beliefs!
2007-12-04 00:00:00 When it comes to religion, we must be frank and clear about what we believe. Religions often lump many different teachings together and expect their members to subscribe to all of these beliefs. We do not have to go along with this. We can be Christians, for example, without subscribing to every word in the ... More About: Beliefs , Honest , Frank , Religious
Why physical and mental pain is priceless
2007-12-04 00:00:00 What is the purpose of pain? We spend our lives trying to avoid it, and yet we would be so much worse off without it. It is easy to see why physical pain is important. The sharp unpleasantness of this sensation is precisely what makes us remove our hand from a hot stove so quickly, ... More About: Mental , Physical , Pain , Priceless
Why we should not obsess over perfection
2007-12-01 00:00:00 An obsession with perfection can destroy our lives. It leaves us unable to accept our own mistakes, unable to accept other people’s mistakes, and unable to accept those unfortunate events that happen in life. Richard Carlson discusses “making peace with imperfection” in Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. This is extremely useful advice to prevent us ... More About: Perfection
Learning to understand people
2007-12-01 00:00:00 I think that understanding others is really not so difficult. The problem is that most of us do not really try. In fact, often we deliberately try not to understand. When we fight with someone, we want to believe that we are in the right, and the easiest way to do this is by ... More About: People , Learning , Understand , Earning
What can I learn?
2007-11-29 00:00:00 Every situation is an opportunity to learn, and difficult situations are usually the best. Remembering this fact improves our attitude in the face of adversity. Most of us are in the habit of viewing situations and events in terms of how they affect us. If we perceive that they are negative, focusing on how bad ... More About: Learn
Why unbelievers will not go to hell
2007-11-29 00:00:00 The British philosopher Bertrand Russell was once asked his response if, upon dying, God were to ask why he had not believed. Russell’s answer: “Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!” He raises an interesting question: why are we obliged to believe if we do not think that the evidence supports it? The emphasis on belief ... More About: Hell
Do emotions come from within or without?
2007-11-29 00:00:00 When emotions arise within us, we naturally look for a cause. More often than not, we look for this cause externally. We assume that we feel sad because our friend is upset, or angry because a driver cut us off. We create some story that explains our emotion, linking a sequence of events to ... More About: Emotions
Religions of the future
2007-11-21 00:00:00 Religion provides much value to society. It offers a community for discussion, friendship, sharing and love. It also offers helpful teachings that benefit both ourselves and society in everyday life. However, the central tenet of a religion such as Christianity is the belief in God, in Jesus Christ, in the Resurrection. What if somebody wants ... More About: Future , The Future , Religions
Look inwards for happiness!
2007-11-20 00:00:00 The biggest mistake in our search for happiness is to look to the world to fulfill our needs. Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within. Everyone has heard this before, and yet we continue to ignore it. It is sad, because the more we look outside for the causes of happiness, the ...
Why atheism or theism is not a choice
2007-11-09 00:00:00 Religions, particularly the theistic ones, place huge emphasis on belief. Those who believe will be saved; those who do not will be doomed. The natural implication of this is the idea that we can control our beliefs. A so-called good person believes, and a so-called bad person does not. However, in my opinion, we cannot ... More About: Atheism , Choice , Theism
Don’t be afraid of loneliness
2007-10-25 00:00:00 It seems instinctive that loneliness arises because we do not spend enough time with others. However, the real cause of loneliness is often that we don’t spend time with ourselves. This isn’t so much a question of how much time we spend alone, but a question of how we view this time. If we are ... More About: Loneliness , Raid
Accept emotions, including depression
2007-10-25 00:00:00 Emotions arise in all of us from time to time, and it is inevitable that some of these will be negative. Although it is difficult to stop an occasional feeling of sadness, anger, jealousy, or depression, we can do a lot to stop these feelings from magnifying. A key characteristic of emotion is that a ... More About: Depression , Emotions , Accept
Enjoyment
2007-10-25 00:00:00 For what fraction of our lives are we enjoying ourselves? Start watching yourself during the day, monitoring your state of mind, and seeing how often you are enjoying yourself. You may find that the answer is depressingly low. There are two main causes that stop us from enjoying ourselves. The first is when we are actively ... More About: Enjoyment
Feel better right now
2007-10-25 00:00:00 The time to feel better is not later, it is now. Perhaps you have fought with your partner. Perhaps you are stuck in an airport. Whatever your reason for misery, you must not wait, you must fix it right now. The reason is this: your misery does not depend on your outer circumstances, it depends ... More About: Feel , Right Now
Downsides of desire
2007-10-25 00:00:00 Western psychology often leaves untreated the downsides of desire. In truth, desire is an extremely dangerous emotion that can drive one to despair. The problem with desire is that it is rooted in unreality. We believe that the object of our desire will bring us happiness, and because this belief is wrong, we waste our ...
Happiness and hope
2007-10-25 00:00:00 When we are unhappy, most of us have some reason to blame it on. We are unhappy because our job is stressful, or because we are short of money, or have no partner. In reality, the causes of unhappiness lie within our own mind. However, unaware of this fact, we try to improve our external ... More About: Happiness , Hope
Look inwards first
2007-10-25 00:00:00 When someone or something upsets us, our first response must be to deal with the negative emotion. Our inclination may be to express our anger, or our hatred, or jealousy. In many cases, some external action may be appropriate. However, before doing this, we must deal with our own inner state. The fact is, circumstances ...
Facing our fear of death
More articles from this author:2007-10-25 00:00:00 Death forces us to let go of everything. We must accept this and go peacefully. If we cling to people, or to things, or to our hopes and dreams, then death will be a moment of agony. We don’t know what will happen next, but it makes sense to accept the inevitable, and let death ... More About: Death , Fear , Facing 1, 2 |
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