Some people wait all their lives for an opportunity that is sitting
right in front of them, but end up missing it because of fear and
reluctance to take chances. They let their excess baggage get in the
way. Remember that Zen perception is about living in the now of the
present moment, as well as spontaneity and simplicity.
If you are depressed, you are living in the past.
If you are anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace, you are living in the present.
Satoru
Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
Work like you don’t need the money.
Love like you’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching.
Sing like nobody’s listening.
Live like it’s Heaven on Earth.
Have a good holiday and drink more water.
Satoru
“Human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to make bears dance when we long to move the stars” (Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary)
Can you talk with marbles in your mouth? The junior senators in ancient Rome practiced elocution by giving speeches with four marbles in their mouths. After practicing extensively, they took one marble out of their mouth. They continued speaking in public and improved their erudition. Taking another marble out of their mouths they spoke in public making sure that they were understood. Eventually, when they lost all their marbles they became senators.
It is interesting to note that 95% of our senators and congressmen are lawyers. There is no law in the U.S.A. that, scrutinizes congressmen’s or senators’ finances and compares them before and after they have held office. Many of our politicians become significantly rich while in office considering their base salaries. Could a law degree and being a politician possibly have become a license to enrich your life disproportionately to your ability or at others’ expense?
Un-presidentially, Agent Orange just can’t help it, because he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.
Use tactics to achieve short-term goals and strategies to gain long term goals. Learn to play chess to learn about strategies and tactics.
The national game of Russia is chess. It is a game of perfect information. There are feints but no bluffs. This is why Khrushchev, confronted by imponderables, backed down from the nuclear conformation. Poker, on the other hand, originated in the United States. It is played here most avidly and expertly. The combination of risk, guile, open aggression and refined calculation reflects America and its frontier mentality. Even President John F. Kennedy was not obliged to show his cards.
Arguing with a Trump supporter is like playing chess with a pigeon.
The pigeon first knocks over all the pieces.
Then it defecates on the board.
Then it struts around as if it won the game.
I know agent orange just can’t help it.
He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.
Learn the rules, so you know how to break them properly.
A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse.
“But why?” they asked as they moved off.
“Because,” he answered, “I can’t stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.”
Satoru
Perhaps the most significant attribute a person can develop for success in life is the adaptability to change, and the ability to embrace change itself. Examine the last few years of your life. How much has changed? How many things in your existence have you altered? How much have you progressed? Most of us are arrogant and stubborn in our interpretation of our self-image and our life’s. We are comfortable with what we have developed, and the progress we have made, and cannot accept a quantum leap forward because it requires first unlearning a behavior and then, substituting an unfamiliar action in order to obtain a rational change forward.
If we always do what we have always done, although it is easier, then we will always get the same results. But the few opportunities to radically improve our lives usually are disguised in alternative actions and uncomfortable beginnings that require new efforts and a change in our behavior and our preconceived limitations.
So, luck, or in reality preparation meeting opportunity, only works if you are flexible and have the scope to face the realization that you have been; procrastinating, preoccupied, not prioritizing, and making excuses, (which in reality is just a well-planned lie,) and not making time to alter your direction and grow.
So, meditate on living in the now and being absolutely engaged, open yourself to new opportunities, cultivate a more objective persona, simplify and plan, and adapt as your new mantra, Life is Action.
Satoru
A Way To Live – ZEN 