A Collection of Aphorisms
FOR ME, I shall . . .
For me, I shall accept myself for what I am; be mindful of what I can become; and be aware that I am now, and always will be a product of how I choose to spend my time.
Realizing that the responsibility for what I feel, for what I say, and for what I do is ultimately, and forever, within me, I will pray to my God to give me the courage to face, with glad heart, this responsibility He has given me.
I shall strive to be aware of my feelings, and with that awareness, to be self-loving enough to speak up for where I am, fearing no consequences of the choices I freely make.
I shall seek to be open and sharing with those who are willing to be open and sharing with me—being fully conscious that openness is the key to intimacy, and that intimacy must be based on mutuality, lest it be used as a weapon against me.
I shall strive to integrate what I feel, what I say, and what I do; for it is my belief that herein lies the basis of self trust, the knowledge that I know how to protect myself, the willingness to risk, and the ability to lover others without feeling the need to mold them into an extension of myself. This, to me, is the source of true happiness.
I shall endeavor to re-educate myself, and to continue to discard old theories that make me subservient to others.
I shall continue to grow in the knowledge that I am unique and different from every other person on this earth and that it’s OK to just be me.
I shall rejoice in the progress I have made thus far, and I shall work not to forget that I neither have to be perfect, nor do I have to grow at any pace other than my own.
I shall hope that I may always remain willing to grow, to change, to risk, to hurt; for I believe that God did not intend that we should have the great rewards of wholeness without paying the price. This is what the parable of the talents say to me.
I shall take solace in the belief that most people want love, openness, honesty, intimacy, self-esteem; and it is these wants, and others, that we share in common with our fellow men—through our very souls we are fused with all we chance to meet. The person who has learned to suppress these wants is in need of my support and my encouragement, not my disdain.
I shall attempt to teach those who seek my counsel, but shall not accept responsibility for their choices, nor shall I protect them from their pain—for as we would physically cripple a person we constantly carried, we would mentally, spiritually, and emotionally cripple the one we did not allow to stand alone.
I shall work to separate who I am from what I do, that I may slow down and reap the benefits of my labors. I shall try not to base my self-worth on my accomplishments or on my possessions, but yet neither will I discount, or allow others to discount me for what I am able to attain.
I shall actively search for one other kindred soul who is strong enough to stay separate from me, open enough to be candid with me, caring enough to be gentle with me, self-assured to have no need to manipulate me, courageous enough to be risking with me, exciting enough to arouse me—and when I find this person, and if we meet on common ground, we shall establish a relationship that can be ended only by our own choice, not by any adversity or outside force.
- Author Unknown
For me, I shall accept myself for what I am; be mindful of what I can become; and be aware that I am now, and always will be a product of how I choose to spend my time.
Realizing that the responsibility for what I feel, for what I say, and for what I do is ultimately, and forever, within me, I will pray to my God to give me the courage to face, with glad heart, this responsibility He has given me.
I shall strive to be aware of my feelings, and with that awareness, to be self-loving enough to speak up for where I am, fearing no consequences of the choices I freely make.
I shall seek to be open and sharing with those who are willing to be open and sharing with me—being fully conscious that openness is the key to intimacy, and that intimacy must be based on mutuality, lest it be used as a weapon against me.
I shall strive to integrate what I feel, what I say, and what I do; for it is my belief that herein lies the basis of self trust, the knowledge that I know how to protect myself, the willingness to risk, and the ability to lover others without feeling the need to mold them into an extension of myself. This, to me, is the source of true happiness.
I shall endeavor to re-educate myself, and to continue to discard old theories that make me subservient to others.
I shall continue to grow in the knowledge that I am unique and different from every other person on this earth and that it’s OK to just be me.
I shall rejoice in the progress I have made thus far, and I shall work not to forget that I neither have to be perfect, nor do I have to grow at any pace other than my own.
I shall hope that I may always remain willing to grow, to change, to risk, to hurt; for I believe that God did not intend that we should have the great rewards of wholeness without paying the price. This is what the parable of the talents say to me.
I shall take solace in the belief that most people want love, openness, honesty, intimacy, self-esteem; and it is these wants, and others, that we share in common with our fellow men—through our very souls we are fused with all we chance to meet. The person who has learned to suppress these wants is in need of my support and my encouragement, not my disdain.
I shall attempt to teach those who seek my counsel, but shall not accept responsibility for their choices, nor shall I protect them from their pain—for as we would physically cripple a person we constantly carried, we would mentally, spiritually, and emotionally cripple the one we did not allow to stand alone.
I shall work to separate who I am from what I do, that I may slow down and reap the benefits of my labors. I shall try not to base my self-worth on my accomplishments or on my possessions, but yet neither will I discount, or allow others to discount me for what I am able to attain.
I shall actively search for one other kindred soul who is strong enough to stay separate from me, open enough to be candid with me, caring enough to be gentle with me, self-assured to have no need to manipulate me, courageous enough to be risking with me, exciting enough to arouse me—and when I find this person, and if we meet on common ground, we shall establish a relationship that can be ended only by our own choice, not by any adversity or outside force.
- Author Unknown
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Katherine Lopa on -
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
- Steve Prefontaine
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Permalink Reply by Katherine Lopa on
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To see your drama clearly is to be liberated from it.
- Ken Keyes Jr.
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Permalink Reply by Katherine Lopa on
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From suffering I have learned this: that whoever is sore wounded by love will never be made whole unless she embrace the very same love that wounded her.
- Mechtilde of Magdeburg
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Permalink Reply by Katherine Lopa on
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When Zusya, a Hasidic rabbi, was criticized for unorthodox behavior, he replied, “In the next world I will not be asked why in this life I was not Moses but rather why I was not Zusya.”
- Hasidic Tale
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Permalink Reply by Katherine Lopa on
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No longer susceptible to being true believers and perpetrating fundamentalism, we may be able to see our own shadows, accept the limitations of our teachers, and empathize more deeply with others who hold diverse views.
We learn to trace some of the roots of our religious longings to early family issues (feelings of isolation, emptiness, or low self-worth, patterns of victimization and caretaking, a need to feel special, an inability to face limits, an inability to deal with negative emotion or conflict, and a driving perfectionism). And we learn to acknowledge the dark sides of our spiritual beliefs, working through overly simplistic, black-and-white ideas, until we can eventually hodl greater paradox and ambiguity.
For some, this inner work requires separation from an esteemed teacher, which can evoke powerful feelings of loss, guilt, anxiety, and shame. It may require separation from an institutionalized community or informal group… or separation from a set of teachings or a philosophy, which triggers strong feelings of meaninglessness and purposelessness..
… we begin to … [question] the dubious behaviors of our priests or teachers, as well as the authoritative assumptions we have taken for granted. In this way, we can begin to see through those beliefs that maintain our suffering and our shame. We begin to see through those imagoes that block our transcendence.
- Connie Zweig, in the book “The Holy Longing”
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Permalink Reply by Katherine Lopa on
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Every change of level on one side of the balance releases a flood of forces that must be controlled by an immediate movement of contrary forces.
- Omraam Mikael Aivanhov
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Permalink Reply by Katherine Lopa on
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WHAT'S THE LIFE-REVIEW LIKE AFTER DEATH?
Each man’s life is a tome of episodes. Consider all the moments of your life enumerated one by one with full description… Let me discuss… this display of scenes. It was more than a “flash before me eyes”. I was more than just a viewer… I re-lived each moment with acute perception, experiencing and understanding simultaneously… each emotion infinitely multiplied by level upon level of awareness.
… my thoughts had been real. Not just the things I said and did. What went on in my mind as well, positive or negative.
Each memory was brought to life before me and within me. I could not avoid them. Neither could I rationalize, explain away. I could only re-experience with total cognizance, unprotected by pretense. Self-delusion was impossible, truth exposed in blinding light. Nothing as I thought it had been. Nothing as I hoped it had been. Only as it had been.
Failures plagued me. Things I had omitted, ignored or neglected. What I should have given and hadn’t—to my friends, my relatives, to Mom and Dad… to my children, mostly [my wife] I felt the biting pang of every unfulfillment. Not only personal but in my work as well—my failures as a writer… Now in this stark unmasking of my life, condoning was impossible, self-justifying was impossible. An infinitude of lacks reduced to one fundamental challenge: What I might have done and how irrevocably I fell short of almost every mark.
Not that is was unjust; not that the scales were forced out of balance. Where there had been good, it showed as clearly.
Now I saw how much time I had spent in gratifying sense… Not only did I re-discover every sense experience of my life, I had to live each unfulfilled desire… I saw that what transpires in the mind is just as real as any flesh and blood occurrence. What had only been imagination in life now became tangible… reality. I lived them all… a witness to their, often, intimate squalor. A witness cursed with total objectivity.
Still always the balance… I emphasize the balance. The scales of justice; darkness paralleled by light, cruelty by compassion, lust by love. And always, unremittingly, that inmost summons: What have you done with your life?
An added mercy was the knowledge that this deep, internal review was witnessed only by myself. It was a private re-enactment, a judgment rendered by my own conscience. Moreover, I felt sure that, somehow, every act and thought re-lived was being printed on my consciousness indelibly for future reference.
- Richard Matheson, from the book “What Dreams May Come”, pp. 27-29
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Permalink Reply by Katherine Lopa on
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If you know your true worth, you do not need anyone else to confirm it.
If you do not recognize your value, you will not gain it by getting others to approve.
- Alan Cohen
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Permalink Reply by Katherine Lopa on
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"Nothing is determined until you want it and WILL it. There is no destiny, not for God. If you look at things from the standpoint of God, there is no destiny that controls Him. There is only the destiny that He creates. If you are God within, you would see things that way."
- The Kundalini Man
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Permalink Reply by Andrew on -
Kim,
Do you think it's politically correct to ask Kundalini Man to keep his references to 'God' as being gender neutral? Like say next time he sends a message, when he speaks through whomever, have him refer to God as say maybe a shim or her/him or a he/she. Case in point, destiny that controls Him becomes destiny that controls Shim or destiny that He creates becomes destiny that she/he creates. I'm just saying, people are sensitive about these subjects and we definitely want to stay politically correct about it.
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