Photo courtesy of Zevotron

Buddha means "Awakened One", someone who has awakened and sees things as they really are. According to AboutBuddha.org , a Buddha is a person who is completely free from all faults and mental obstructions. Because he has awakened from the sleep of ignorance and has removed all obstructions from his mind, he knows everything of the past, present, and future, directly and simultaneously. Moreover, Buddha has great compassion which is completely impartial, embracing all living beings without discrimination.

The person who is generally referred to by the name Buddha was Siddhārtha Gautama , a spiritual teacher from ancient India and the founder of Buddhism who lived at around 500 BCE. Forty-nine days after Buddha attained enlightenment he was requested to teach. As a result of this request, Buddha rose from meditation and taught the first Wheel of Dharma.

Those teachings of The Buddha such as The Four Noble Truths or the Noble Eightfold Path are timeless and reflect personal and spiritual development.

Many quotes that are handed down until today are both inspirational as well as reflecting deeper truth of reality. What can we learn, where can we be inspired from The Buddha today for everyday life and our own development?

I selected following quotations as both inspirational and helpful, regardless of where we are in personal development … Read more…

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"I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life… to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." ~Henry David Thoreau in “Walden”, quoted by the Character Neil in the Movie “Dead Poets Society”

Seizing the day, living life fully, sucking out all the marrow of life – how marvelous this sounds …

Isn’t that the very thing we are here for – to experience life fully?

If we really look at it closely we can see what a strong and liberating message "Carpe Diem" holds: life is now and life will always only be now. The present moment is really all there ever is to experience everything. So it is to us to take this responsibility for ourselves and seize it fully.

Yet – it also entails the message not to waste a single moment. It means giving our all, being the best we could possibly be. It means dropping what still holds us back, dissolving the resistance to what we are and to what could be. It means to free ourselves from what we are not and to set free that what we really are. Let’s have a look together at how we can seize the day and make this happen …

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"Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time: and not only time but temporalities, not only temporal things but temporal affections, not only temporal affections but the very taint and smell of time." - Meister Eckhart

Our daily life is full of time. We are surrounded by time from getting up in the morning until checking the alarm clock in the evening. At work there are appointments and pressing deadlines. The news come at every full hour. By splitting our mental attention in such a way there is always the possiblity to get stuck in time. Then we take our attention away from the present moment and we lose ourselves by thinking in time.

But being fully in the present moment (or as Eckhart Tolle calls it The Now) is the key to spiritual awakening, or to say the least, to live a happier and more liberated life. So how can we balance the fact that we have to use time so often and also stay more present?

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"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly." - Buddha

I can remember when I first saw the book "The Power of Now". After I got several tools to fulfill my dreams, for instance in goal-achievement and personal effectiveness, I expected the message to be "Don’t procrastinate, do it now!" This is the Now-habit and it is a powerful habit to develop.

But this is not what The Now or in other words the present moment is ultimately about. Although on the surface this is a part of it, it has a far deeper meaning than this. Depending on how much experience one has with spiritual teachings, the present moment has a different meaning.

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"You cannot transcend what you do not know.  To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I recently discovered the posting from MonkMojo called The Tony Robbins vs Eckhart Tolle Debate in which he shows Tony Robbins shouting "Feel my Personal Power" opposed to Eckhart Tolle answering calmly with "I am rubber and you are glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you" …

While this is kinda funny, it brings a typical debate to the surface: Do we become happy by fulfilling our deepest dreams and by being the best version of us we can? Or do we just have to awaken to our true self and see that all craving is ego-land and won’t make us happy in the end? It is the debate between Mind-based Power vs. Spiritual Power, between success-oriented doing vs. calm but conscious being. In the example above: Anthony Robbins standing for the first while Eckhart Tolle is representing the latter. It is the debate between an educated and maybe ego-influenced mind and the self-less spirit. At least, it seems so on the surface.
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"By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter." - Confucius

For me Self-Reflection is the way to remove inner road-blocks, to first become aware of the things that really holding me back and then tackle them by finding a solution. Of course writing it down into a personal journal is the best way to do it. It’s also interesting to do with a good friend who is open enough to take part. Some forms of psycho-therapy are similar to this approach, where you have a hopefully competent listener reflecting back to you and guiding you to a finally self-found solution.

This is a process of bringing inner road-blocks or wishes to the light is one of the most important things to do for personal inner growth. It’s one of the best ways to attain clarity and by that immense power.
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"Failures do what is tension relieving, while winners do what is goal achieving." – Dennis Waitley

I’m currently working on a more detailed post on Goal-Setting. While researching, especially over the internet, I realized that there are a lot of sites on goals, but there are only very few that give a straight and no non-sense way to get goals working fast and effectively.

While I’m usually no supporter of any quick fix tactics, but it is quite interesting to strip a topic down to its core and try to keep it sound and usable. The following is the fastest way I know, to develop real goals that are personally meaningful. The whole process may take 10 minutes to get out at least 3 compelling goals.

A goal is a future achievement with a timely deadline you can work towards to. A compelling goal is something that has a deeper meaning to you. It is the kind of goal that excites you, that lets you grow and the achievement is fulfilling and rewarding.
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