Who said if it is to be its up to me

It may be just the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don't know. With spiritual maturity Integrated and personal spiritual practice includes our work, our love, our families, and our creativity.

It understands that the personal and the universal are inextricably connected, that the universal truths of spiritual life can come alive only in each particular and personal circumstance. How we live is our spiritual life. As one wise student remarked, 'If you really want to know about a Zen master, talk to their spouse. Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say 'Look!

Your generosity toward others is key to your positive experiences in the world. Know that there's enough room for everyone to be passionate, creative, and successful. In fact, there's more than room for everyone; there's a need for everyone. Don't think the purpose of meditation is to go deep into consciousness, wrap a blanket around yourself, and say, 'How cozy!

I'm going to curl up in here by myself; let the world burn. We go deep into meditation so that we can reach out further and further to the world outside. You are not a drop in the ocean, You are the entire ocean in a drop. Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well. Paradise is thus not so much a place, as liberation into the fullness and bounty of everyday experience.

When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point.

And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us. One day I asked Kassie [Temple] the question that had been vexing me: "How do you keep doing this hard, heart-wrenching work when you know you'll wake up tomorrow to problems that are as bad or worse than the ones you're dealing with today?

What if our religion was each other? If our practice was our life? If prayer was our words? What if the Temple was the Earth? If forests were our church? If holy water - the river, lakes and oceans? What if meditation was our relationships? If the Teacher was life? If wisdom was self-knowledge? If love was the center of our being? As often happens on the spiritual journey, we have arrived at the heart of a paradox: each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up.

All we need to do is stop pounding on the door that has just closed, turn around - which puts the door behind us - and welcome the largeness of life that now lies open to our souls. The door that closed kept us from entering a room, but what now lies before us is the rest of reality. In the end, these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you learn to let go? You and I appear to be separate. We differ in color, size, and shape Beneath this apparent division, however, hidden deep within each of us is the one Self - eternal, infinite, ever-perfect.

This is the closely guarded secret of life: that we are all caught up in a divine masquerade, and all we are trying to do is take off our masks to reveal the pure, perfect Self within. Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself.

Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison. Let us encourage one another with spiritual friendship, conversations that are uplifting, and remembrance of our sacred purpose in life.

Go and love someone exactly as they are and watch how quickly they transform into the greatest, truest version of themselves. When one feels seen and appreciated in their own essence, one is instantly empowered.

It has a lot to do with developing patience, not with the check-out person so much, but with your own pain that arises, the rawness and the vulnerability, and sending some kind of warmth and love to that rawness and soreness. I think that's how we have to practice. There ain't no answer. There ain't ever going to be an answer. There never was an answer. That's the answer.

If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher. We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the one that is waiting for us. Forster -. When is the last time that you had a great conversation, a conversation that wasn't just two intersecting monologues, which is what passes for conversation a lot in this culture? That you heard yourself receiving from somebody words that absolutely found places within you that you thought you had lost I've had some of them recently Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond.

Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to be friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.

Nouwen -. During my life I have met some of the kindest people who don't consider themselves spiritual at all. Yet their approach to life comes from a deep caring and concern for all human beings.

It comes from a basic kindness. That is what spirituality is about. It is about our deep connections. It isn't about what gender we think God is, or whether we even think God exists or what rituals we perform or the creeds we profess. It is experiencing and acting from our deep connections. It is often done quietly, with no fanfare. It is a friendliness to all life. My beloved child, break your heart no longer. Each time you judge yourself, you break your heart.

You pull away from the love that is the well-spring of your vitality. But now the time has come, your time, to live and to trust the goodness that you are. The distinction And what does mystery ask of us? Only that we be in its presence, that we fully, consciously hand ourselves over.

That is all, and that is everything. Over the years I have seen the power of taking an unconditional relationship to life …, a willingness to show up for whatever life may offer and meet with it rather than wishing to edit and change the inevitable…. Perhaps the wisdom lies in engaging the life you have been given as fully and courageously as possible and not letting go until you find the unknown blessing that is in everything.. Often in meditative language we speak of letting go of things: let go of thoughts, let go of emotions, let go of pain.

Sometimes that is not exactly the right phrase, because letting go suggests that you need to do something. Everything comes and goes by itself. We do not have to do anything to make it come, or make it go, or to let it go. We just have to let it be. Each one of us, I believe, is a gift the earth is giving to itself now, a unique gift.

If the world is to be healed through human effort, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear.

People who can open to the web of life that called us into being, and who can rest in the vitality of that larger body. A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of a prison to us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for only the few people nearest us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.

I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. If you pour a handful of salt into a cup of water, the water becomes undrinkable. But if you pour the salt into a river, people can continue to draw the water to cook, wash, and drink. The river is immense, and it has the capacity to receive, embrace, and transform.

When our hearts are small, our understanding and compassion are limited, and we suffer. We have a lot of understanding and compassion and can embrace others. We accept others as they are, and then they have a chance to transform. Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savor it.

This makes it hard to plan the day. But if we forget to savor the world, what possible reason do we have for saving it? In a way, the savoring must come first. White -. Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea. Our days are happier when we give people a bit of our heart rather than a piece of our mind.

Don't meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people's lives in a knot.

Instead there is now meditation as an act of love. How endlessly delightful and encouraging. Forget about enlightenment. Sit down wherever you are and listen to the wind that is singing in your veins. Feel the love, the longing, and the fear in your bones. Sometimes people talk about how we need to do things to connect. We are connected. What we need to do is to become aware of it, to live it, to express it.

Powell -. Want what you have. Do what you can. Be who you are. You do not have to leave the room. Remain sitting at your table and listen.

Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait. Be quiet, still, and solitary. He was sad but then he got a better job somewhere else. One day when he was passing by his old office when someone told him that the boss was dead and as their was no boss, the company was failing. As they were failing they got very less money.

So the people asked him to help them and Ian agreed. Then he took the to high stages again. Then the people thanked Ian and made him their boss. This quote is said by Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison was one of those person who were blind and did hundred of inventions such the light bulb which is now found in every house.

You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. The higher your position the more difficult this is.

My take is that you deal with it not by micro-management but by putting in place the structures and culture that encourage individual responsibility. Rick Lepsinger. Lolly, although I agree in principle with your perspective on accountability, putting all the responsibility on the individual fails to take into account the role of the leader in managing accountability and creating a culture of accountability.

As several people observed in their reply, accountability may be intrinsic but many people find it difficult to take responsibility for their actions and the consequences of these actions. The leader plays a critical role in setting people up for success so people are able to meet commitments and keep promises in the first place i. These questions — what can you do right now to get things back on track, what will you do to keep this from happening again, and how did you contribute to the problem — turn the conversation from blaming to problem solving.

Is there any book that you wrote about accountability in performance management? I would love to read it. Ruth Rooney. Thanks, Lolly, love the positive perspective. I would take it even one step further to say that for the most talented top performers, accountability is a reward. Most leaders I know thrive on being given full ownership for decisions, work, anything that is meaningful to them. I have watched people who leverage this sort of accountability find success beyond even great expectations!

At this moment I am going to do my breakfast, afterward having my breakfast coming again to read more news. I agree with your post. He passed away not long after. This has been my mantra and I try to live it every day. Lauren Schroth. However, they still manage to move forward and upward trailing their little pebbles of unfulfilled promises behind them for all the world to see.

He made Kay what it is today, and made many of us successful and wealthy men and women!! Accountability is everything in life and the key to true happiness. Thank you for this opportunity to share!! Some organizations struggle to understand true meaning of being accountable. People hide behind bureaucratic bushes to save their backsides when things go wrong.

Toggle navigation Lolly Daskal. Search for:. Jan, Excellent post Lolly. Jan, I want to repeat what you said because I want to shout from the roof tops! So relevant. As always, much love to you for sharing such wisdom Lolly. Terri Klass Thanks Lolly for sharing great insights on such an important human topic. Jan, Thanks Terri, You are right, it is an important topic, and yet it is a topic we have a hard time with. Just read the newspapers these days, or turn on the TV.

Where does accountability start? With you…. Love you Terri, still looking forward to our meet up. Jon Mertz Jan, Lolly, Accountability empowers trust, especially when leaders own up to their mistakes and successes, learn from them, and improve the way they lead forward. Great points. Thank you! Jan, Thanks Jon always an honor when you stop by. Simon Harvey Jan, Lolly, wonderful subject and so important to being centered and leading from within. Jan, words of wisdom from Simon! Love to you!

David Jan, I so agree Lolly! Jan, You are right David, I agree with my whole heart. Thanks for stopping by. Panteli Tritchew Jan, Lolly: It refreshing to read a positive perspective on accountability, a word layered with several millennia of labour relations baggage. Many many best wishes! Jan, Absolutely beautiful. Absolutely true. JUST wonderful. Always a pleasure to see where you will take my thoughts. Thank YOU for sharing.

Wayne McEvilly Jan, Lolly — I can always count on you to proceed from the core of being outward — that is the single aspect of your communications that I find most magnetizing — When I first encounted LeadFromWithin it was as though a refreshing breeze had suddenly been felt in an otherwise stale landscape — the insistence on going within, the gentility of the movement of the heart leading the mind, all these things have a poetic aspect which are aesthetically pleasing, as well as resonant of a deep metaphysical foundation.

Jan, Wayne What an honor to have you share your words and wisdom here. Your words have melody and poetry. Stunning sentiments. Really beautiful.