Tattvartha Sutra

WE convince ourselves that life will be better tomorrow, than it is today. It'll all be fine after we get married, and have a baby and then maybe another one. And then when it dawns upon us that babies are consistently drooling and pooping, attention-seeking minions of satan and not the angels we thought, we make do with the understanding that maybe the kids aren't old enough, and we'll be absolutely content when they are. But after they grow up, we're frustrated that now, we have teenagers to deal with. We tell ourselves that our lives will be complete if our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a bigger apartment, shinier car, or go on that exotic vacation we planned years ago, or maybe just maybe situation will ameliorate after we retire. But the truth is, if there's any time to be happy, it is in this precise moment. It is now. Life will always be stocking up with challenges day after day, one after another, it's for the best to ...

WHEN an old lady turned eighty five, she was asked what she would do if she had her life to live over again. "I'd make more mistakes next time," she said. "I'd relax, I'd limber up. I would be sillier than I have been on this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances, climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I'd eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. You see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, and I've had my moments, and if I were to do it all over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else, just moments. One after another, instead of living so many years ahead of every day. I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, and a raincoat. If I were to do it all over again, I'd t...

THE work that you do takes on a life of its own as it benefits the lives of others. Each positive effort you make continues to live and expand in influence. Even after you have moved on to something else, what you do to make a difference keeps on making a difference. The song lives on in the hearts of those who hear it, long after the singer is finished. Kindness you offer, gives birth to more kindness. The love you give, enables more and more love. All of life is interconnected. Once your words are uttered, once your actions are taken, they begin spreading through the connections. Life expands, amplifies, widens the impact of the way you choose to live. Choose goodness, truth, love, peace, and your influence lifts the world in ways you cannot imagine. Visualise your actions cascading through the miles, through lives, over centuries. Make every choice worthy of the lasting, widespread influence it will have as it fans out through all of life. What takes much out ...

It's powerful when you know precisely where you intend to go. But it's not enough. No matter how strong your desire is, desire alone will not achieve what you wish to achieve. You must cross the distance between where you are and where you want to be. You must take action, with focus, with discipline, commitment and persistence. You're perfectly capable of doing all that. So go ahead. Engage that capability, make the effort, reach the goal. Yes, it will be difficult, challenging, uncomfortable, inconvenient. That's what makes it worth doing, what gives it value. Feel your desire to achieve, to go from where you are now to where you want to be. Find great satisfaction and fulfilment in doing that work, in covering the ground to make it happen. Put your frustrations in perspective, and most of them will disappear. Refuse to get caught up in them and they'll have no power over you. Small inconveniences and minor disappointments can lead to ma...

MAYBE difficult is not so bad. Maybe easy is not so desirable. Easy makes you soft, complacent, vulnerable. Difficult makes you strong, decisive, capable. Easy puts you in danger of being arrogant, disrespectful, and bored. Difficult fills you with a wealth of gratitude that connects you to life's richest abundance. The more you must work for something, the more you must invest yourself, the more value it has. A difficult journey makes the destination all the more appealing. Wouldn't it be nice to stop worrying whether the day, the job, the encounter will be difficult? Wouldn't it be great to just stride right up to the moment and meet it with confidence and joy? Look back at what you have learnt from your life and you'll realise this is what you have learnt: what is difficult is nothing to fear. Occasional effort can create illusion of success. Consistent effort is what brings lasting success, achievement, fulfillment. Are you working out once ...

YES you can live this day in accordance with your most treasured values. Yes you can create an intention and then do the work to fulfil that intention. Yes you can overcome the obstacles. Yes you can successfully deal with the challenges. Yes you can make real progress in the direction of your dreams. Yes you can focus on getting real, effective work done. Yes you can find satisfaction and fulfilment in every step along the way. Yes you can add something positive to the life of every person you encounter. Yes you can persevere through the disappointments and emerge even stronger than before. Yes you can meet your highest expectations and then raise them up. Yes you can get past your fears, build a positive future, live with integrity and prosper in a world that often does not seem to care. Yes you can, if you will. Make a generous amount of space in your life for enj...

ONE day a woman's husband died, and on that clear, cold morning, in the warmth of their bedroom, the wife was stuck with the pain of learning that sometimes some things aren't there anymore. No more hugs, special moments to celebrate together, phone calls just to chat. No more 'just one minute'. Sometimes, what we care about the most gets all used up and goes away never to return, even before we can say goodbye, or that we can say 'I love you'. So while we have it, it's the best we love it, savour it, care for it. Fix it when it's broken and heal it when it's sick. This is true for marriages, for old cars, for children with bad report cards, for dogs with bad hips and for aging parents and grandparents. We keep them because they're worth it. Because we are worth it. Some things we keep with ourselves, forever, like a best friend who moved away or a poem written but never told. There are just a handful of thi...