TERMS STARTING WITH
empowered ::: 1. To invest with power, especially legal power or official authority. 2. To equip or supply with an ability; enable; make powerful.
empowered ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Empower
empowering ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Empower
empowerment. See ADHIstHĀNA.
empowerment
empower ::: v. t. --> To give authority to; to delegate power to; to commission; to authorize (having commonly a legal force); as, the Supreme Court is empowered to try and decide cases, civil or criminal; the attorney is empowered to sign an acquittance, and discharge the debtor.
To give moral or physical power, faculties, or abilities to.
Empowerment: Realization of the power of an Enlightened mind and Inspired Science; in mystic terms, the Awakening. Also, a preferred term for what Reality Deviants call Ascension.
Empowerment - To give official authority to employees to make decisions and control their own activities.
TERMS ANYWHERE
1. vase empowerment (S. kalasābhiseka; T. bum dbang; C. baoping guanding 寶瓶灌頂)
2. secret empowerment (S. guhyābhiseka; T. gsang dbang; C. mimi guanding 秘密灌頂)
3. wisdom-knowledge empowerment (S. prajNājNānābhiseka; T. shes rab ye shes kyi dbang; C. zhihui guanding 智慧灌頂)
4. word empowerment (S. sabdābhiseka; T. tshig dbang/dbang bzhi pa; C. mingci guanding 名詞灌頂)
abhicAra. [alt. abhicara] (T. mngon spyod). In Sanskrit, "magic" or "wrathful action"; in ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, the fourth of the four activities (CATURKARMAN) of the Buddhist tantric adept. AbhicAra is broken down into mArana "killing," mohana "enchanting," stambhana "paralyzing," vidvesana "rendering harm through animosity," uccAtana "removing or driving away," and vasīkarana "subduing." After initiation (ABHIsEKA), adepts who keep their tantric commitments (SAMAYA) properly and reach the requisite yogic level are empowered to use four sorts of enlightened activity, as appropriate: these four types of activities are (1) those that are pacifying (S. sANTICARA); (2) those that increase prosperity, life span, etc. (PAUstIKA), when necessary for the spread of the doctrine; (3) those that subjugate or tame (S. VAsĪKARAnA) the unruly; and finally (4) those that are violent or drastic measures (abhicAra) such as war, when the situation requires it. In the MANJUsRĪNAMASAMGĪTI, CAnakya, Candragupta's minister, is said to have used abhicAra against his enemies, and because of this misuse of tantric power was condemned to suffer the consequences in hell. Throughout the history of Buddhist tantra, the justification of violence by invoking the category of abhicAra has been a contentious issue. PADMASAMBHAVA is said to have tamed the unruly spirits of Tibet, sometimes violently, with his magical powers, and the violent acts that RWA LO TSA BA in the eleventh century countenanced against those who criticized his practices are justified by categorizing them as abhicAra.
abhiseka. (P. abhiseka; T. dbang bskur; C. guanding; J. kanjo; K. kwanjong 灌頂). In Sanskrit, "anointment," "consecration," "empowerment," or "initiation"; a term originally used to refer to the anointment of an Indian king or the investiture of a crown prince, which by extension came to be applied to the anointment of a BODHISATTVA as a buddha. Just as a wheel-turning monarch (CAKRAVARTIN) invests the crown prince by sprinkling the crown of his head with fragrant water from all the four seas, so too do the buddhas anoint the crown of a bodhisattva when he makes his vow to achieve buddhahood. The Chinese translation, lit. "sprinkling the crown of the head," conveys this sense of anointment. In the MAHAVASTU, an early text associated with the LOKOTTARAVADA branch of the MAHASAMGHIKA school, the tenth and last stage (BHuMI) of the bodhisattva path is named abhiseka, rather than the more commonly known DHARMAMEGHABHuMI, indicating that the bodhisattva has then been initiated into the lineage of the buddhas. Abhiseka is used especially in tantric literature, such as the MAHAVAIROCANABHISAMBODHISuTRA, to refer to an initiation ceremony that empowers disciples to "enter the MAndALA," where they are then allowed to learn the esoteric formulae (MANTRA) and gestures (MUDRA) and receive the instructions associated with a specific tantric deity. In ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, a series of four initiations or empowerments are described, the vase empowerment (KALAsABHIsEKA), the secret empowerment (GUHYABHIsEKA), the knowledge of the wisdom empowerment (PRAJNAJNANABHIsEKA), and the word empowerment (sabdAbhiseka), also known as the "fourth empowerment" (caturthAbhiseka). The vase empowerment is the only one of the four that is used in the three other tantras of KRIYATANTRA, CARYATANTRA, and YOGATANTRA. A special type of consecration ceremony, called a BUDDHABHIsEKA, is conducted at the time of the installation of a new buddha image, which vivifies the inert clay, metal, or wood of the image, invests the image with insight into the dharma (e.g., through reciting some version of the formula concerning causality, or PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA), and transforms the image into a living buddha.
Abhisheka ::: In Tibetan Buddhism, this is a tantric empowerment and form of esoteric transmission that confers the blessings of a lineage to an adherent. A practical example: to work successful magic within the mandala of a specific deity, abhisheka is often very close to a necessity.
adhisthAna. (P. adhitthAna; T. byin gyis brlabs pa; C. jiachi; J. kaji; K. kaji 加持). In Sanskrit, lit. "determination" or "decisive resolution" and commonly translated as "empowerment." Literally, the term has the connotation of "taking a stand," viz., the means by which the buddhas reveal enlightenment to the world, as well as the adept's reliance on the buddhas' empowerment through specific ritual practices. In the former sense, adhisthAna can refer to the magical power of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, in which contexts it is often translated as "blessing" or "empowerment." As the LAnKAVATARASuTRA notes, it is thanks to the buddhas' empowerment issuing from their own original vows (PRAnIDHANA) that BODHISATTVAS are able to undertake assiduous cultivation over three infinite eons (ASAMKHYEYAKALPA) so that they may in turn become buddhas. The buddhas' empowerment sustains the bodhisattvas in their unremitting practice by both helping them to maintain tranquillity of mind throughout the infinity of time they are in training and, ultimately, once the bodhisattvas achieve the tenth and final stage (BHuMI) of their training, the cloud of dharma (DHARMAMEGHA), the buddhas appear from all the ten directions to anoint the bodhisattvas as buddhas in their own right (see ABHIsEKA). ¶ In mainstream Buddhist materials, adhisthAna refers to the first of a buddha's six or ten psychic powers (ṚDDHI), the ability to project mind-made bodies (MANOMAYAKAYA) of himself, viz., to replicate himself ad infinitum. In PAli materials, adhitthAna is also used to refer to the "determination" to extend the duration of meditative absorption (P. JHANA; S. DHYANA) and the derivative psychic powers (P. iddhi; S. ṚDDHI).
Agantukaklesa. (P. Agantukakilesa; T. glo bur gyi nyon mongs; C. kechen fannao; J. kyakujin bonno; K. kaekchin ponnoe 客塵煩惱). In Sanskrit, "adventitious afflictions" or "adventitious defilements"; indicating that the KLEsA are accidental and extrinsic qualities of the mind, rather than natural and intrinsic. This notion builds on an ancient strand in Buddhist thought, such as in the oft-quoted passage in the PAli AnGUTTARANIKAYA: "The mind, O monks, is luminous but defiled by adventitious defilements" (pabhassaraM idaM bhikkave cittaM, taN ca kho Agantukehi upakkilesehi upakkilittham). Since defilements are introduced into the thought processes from without, the intrinsic purity of the mind (CITTA) can be restored through counteracting the influence of the klesa and overcoming the inveterate tendency toward attachment and its concomitant craving (LOBHA) and ill will (DVEsA), which empower them.This concept of Agantukaklesa is critical to the MAHAYANA doctrine of TATHAGATAGARBHA (embryo of buddhahood), where the mind is presumed to be innately enlightened, but that enlightenment is temporarily obscured or concealed by defilements (KLEsA) that are extrinsic to it.
arbiter ::: 1. One empowered to decide matters at issue; judge. 2. Having the sole or absolute power of judging or determining. arbiters.
attorney-general ::: n. --> The chief law officer of the state, empowered to act in all litigation in which the law-executing power is a party, and to advise this supreme executive whenever required.
authorize ::: v. t. --> To clothe with authority, warrant, or legal power; to give a right to act; to empower; as, to authorize commissioners to settle a boundary.
To make legal; to give legal sanction to; to legalize; as, to authorize a marriage.
To establish by authority, as by usage or public opinion; to sanction; as, idioms authorized by usage.
To sanction or confirm by the authority of some one;
Being or a Presence — sometimes one of these, sometimes several of them or all together. The movement of ascension has diffe- rent results ; it may liberate the consciousness so that one feels no longer in he body, but above it or else spread in wideness with the body whether almost non-existent or only a point in one’s free expanse. It may enable the being or some part of the being to go out from the body and move elsewhere, and this action is usually accompanied by some kind of partial Samadhi or else a complete trance. Or, it may result in empowering the cons- ciousness, no longer limited by the body and the habits of the external nature, to go within, to enter the inner mental depths, the inner vital, the inner (subtle) physical, the psychic, to become aware of its inmost psychic self or its inner mental, vital, and subtle physical being, and it may be, to move and live in the domains, the planes, the worlds that correspond to these parts of the nature. It is the repeated and constant ascent of the lower consciousness that enables the mind, the vital, the physical to come into touch with the higher planes up to the Supramental and get impregnated with their light and power and influence.
empowered ::: 1. To invest with power, especially legal power or official authority. 2. To equip or supply with an ability; enable; make powerful.
empowered ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Empower
empowering ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Empower
empowerment. See ADHIstHĀNA.
empowerment
empower ::: v. t. --> To give authority to; to delegate power to; to commission; to authorize (having commonly a legal force); as, the Supreme Court is empowered to try and decide cases, civil or criminal; the attorney is empowered to sign an acquittance, and discharge the debtor.
To give moral or physical power, faculties, or abilities to.
caturthAbhiseka. (T. dbang bzhi pa; C. disi guanding; J. daishi kanjo; K. chesa kwanjong 第四灌頂). In Sanskrit, "fourth empowerment"; the fourth of the four empowerments or initiations employed in ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, the other three being the vase empowerment (KALAsABHIsEKA), the secret empowerment (GUHYABHIsEKA), and the knowledge of the consort empowerment (PRAJNAJNANABHIsEKA). After having engaged in sexual union with a consort in the third empowerment, in this fourth and final empowerment, the practitioner seeks to attain the state of innate bliss (sahajAnanda) with the mind of clear light (PRABHASVARACITTA), in a vision like the natural color of the autumn sky at dawn, free from moonlight, sunlight, and darkness. The initiation is also called the "word empowerment" (sabdAbhiseka) because the teacher will identify this state for the disciple.
censor ::: n. --> One of two magistrates of Rome who took a register of the number and property of citizens, and who also exercised the office of inspector of morals and conduct.
One who is empowered to examine manuscripts before they are committed to the press, and to forbid their publication if they contain anything obnoxious; -- an official in some European countries.
One given to fault-finding; a censurer.
A critic; a reviewer.
constitute ::: v. t. --> To cause to stand; to establish; to enact.
To make up; to compose; to form.
To appoint, depute, or elect to an office; to make and empower. ::: n. --> An established law.
delegate ::: n. --> Any one sent and empowered to act for another; one deputed to represent; a chosen deputy; a representative; a commissioner; a vicar.
One elected by the people of a territory to represent them in Congress, where he has the right of debating, but not of voting.
One sent by any constituency to act as its representative in a convention; as, a delegate to a convention for nominating
deputize ::: v. t. --> To appoint as one&
deputy ::: n. --> One appointed as the substitute of another, and empowered to act for him, in his name or his behalf; a substitute in office; a lieutenant; a representative; a delegate; a vicegerent; as, the deputy of a prince, of a sheriff, of a township, etc.
A member of the Chamber of Deputies.
disempower ::: v. t. --> To deprive of power; to divest of strength.
Dorzhiev, Agvan. (T. Ngag dbang rdo rje) (1854-1938). Influential Mongol-Russian monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition; born in the Siberian region of Buryatia to a semi-nomadic Buddhist family. As a child, Dorzhiev was introduced to Buddhism at the monastery at Atsagat, receiving his first tantric empowerment (ABHIsEKA) at the age of thirteen. He continued his education in Urga after his father died in 1868, at which time there were thirteen thousand monks in the city. For a time he was married to a woman named Kholintsog and worked in the local government. In 1873, he began his first journey to LHA SA and spent a few months in eastern China. Because of his linguistic and academic prowess, he was sent to 'BRAS SPUNGS monastery, where he became a scholar at Sgo mang (Gomang) College. In 1880, he settled in Lha sa, and rapidly completed his DGE BSHES degree. By 1888, he was teaching logic, debate, and language at 'Bras spungs. At this time, the thirteenth DALAI LAMA was twelve or thirteen years old, and Dorzhiev became one of his religious teachers and political advisors. Dorzhiev displayed great ability in political diplomacy and served as the only emissary between Russia and Tibet for many years. He feared that British influence in Tibet could be detrimental to the future of the country, and advised the Dalai Lama to initiate relations between Lha sa and St. Petersburg as a counter. In 1898, Prince Ukhtomsky summoned him to St. Petersburg, where he met with Tsar Nicholas II. From there, he traveled to Paris, where he lectured on Buddhism at the Musée Guimet. He then went to Kalmykia and Buryatia before returning to Lha sa. Dorzhiev sought to improve the quality of Buddhist practice in Russia, specifically in Buryatia and Kalmykia, where he opened monasteries, initiated monks, and opened a school for Tibetan Buddhist doctors. In 1915 he opened a temple and monastery in St. Petersburg, the first in the West. Dorzhiev was arrested at the onset of the "Red Terror" of 1918, but was soon released. Buddhism remained comparatively inviolable over the next decade, although other Russian religions suffered. Dorzhiev wrote his memoirs in Tibetan around 1924. In 1922, an "All-Buryat Buddhist Congress" was held, followed by a 1927 "Congress of Soviet Buddhists" in Moscow. Russian Buddhism entered a bleak period after the death of Lenin in 1924; in 1930, an antireligion campaign began in Buryatia, during which the aged Dorzhiev was placed under house arrest. He wrote his will in 1937, at which time he left house arrest in Leningrad and traveled to Ulan Udé, Buryatia. In Ulan Udé, he was arrested and interrogated before being sent to the prison hospital, where he died in January of 1938.
Empowerment: Realization of the power of an Enlightened mind and Inspired Science; in mystic terms, the Awakening. Also, a preferred term for what Reality Deviants call Ascension.
Empowerment - To give official authority to employees to make decisions and control their own activities.
enable ::: v. t. --> To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.
To make able (to do, or to be, something); to confer sufficient power upon; to furnish with means, opportunities, and the like; to render competent for; to empower; to endow.
er jia. (J. nika; K. i ka 二加). In Chinese, "two kinds of empowerment (ADHIstHĀNA) [of the Buddha]": "manifest empowerment" (xian jia) and "covert empowerment" (min jia). Manifest empowerment is the direct, physical assistance provided by the Buddha through such acts as aiding and protecting the empowered with his psychic powers (S. ṚDDHI); verbally communicating with and speaking the dharma to them; displaying physical gestures, such as rubbing the disciple's head, in order to increase the latter's faith; verbal exhortation in order to enhance the eloquence (S. PRATISAMVID) of the empowered, etc. Because this type of empowerment is visible to all, it is manifest empowerment. Covert empowerment has been variously interpreted to be the Buddha's telepathic assistance to his disciples, or his disciples' ability to partake mystically in the Buddha's powers by recollecting him or invoking his name. Because such empowerment is typically hidden from view, it is covert.
Esoteric Transmission ::: A concept in certain religions and spiritual traditions that emphasizes a relationship between a teacher and a student (or a group and its members) in order to preserve certain systems of magic and specific spiritual practices. Over time and over the course of many minds working the system, power is built up through a lineage and the rituals and practices themselves become vital to being able to work within the current being taught. This is a complex idea but, as an example, is found in Tibetan Buddhism when one wants to work with a Tantric deity, they first must receive abhisheka from a lama. Even in Christianity there are lineages that confer the power to bestow appellations and blessings of the Church to others. The idea is that these are more than symbolic gestures; being a part of the lineage and being empowered within that lineage is necessary in many cases to work magic or utilize the practices taught effectively or at all.
fajie jiachi. (J. hokkai kaji; K. popkye kaji 法界加持). In Chinese "the empowerment of the DHARMADHĀTU." According to the MAHĀVAIROCANĀBHISAMBODHISuTRA, the buddhas, the TANTRAS, and sentient beings (SATTVA) mutually pervade and "empower" (ADHIstHĀNA) each other. This mutual interfusion is what makes the dharmadhātu unfathomably profound and interconnected.
forum ::: n. --> A market place or public place in Rome, where causes were judicially tried, and orations delivered to the people.
A tribunal; a court; an assembly empowered to hear and decide causes.
four empowerments. (S. abhiseka; T. dbang; C. guanding 灌頂)
Godform ::: Generally godforms refer to aspects of a deity that can be invoked in order to empower certain sides of the self or to understand certain parts of reality.
gter ma. (terma). In Tibetan, "hidden treasures" or "treasure text," a source of Tibetan Buddhist and BON sacred objects, including a wide range of manuscripts, relics, statuary, and ritual implements from earlier periods. Such treasure texts have been found in caves, mountains, lakes, valleys, or sequestered away in monasteries, sometimes within a pillar. Whether gter ma are BUDDHAVACANA, i.e., authentic words of the Buddha (or a buddha) or whether they are APOCRYPHA, is contested. In the RNYING MA canon, a division is made between gter ma and BKA' MA, the latter made up of commonly authenticated canonical works. Some gter ma are authentic (although proper criteria for authenticity is a subject of debate in both traditional and modern sources), and some are clearly forgeries and fabricated antiquities. Gter ma are of three types: sa gter ("earth treasure"), dgongs gter ("mind treasure"), and dag snang ("pure vision"). Those physically discovered in caves and so on are sa gter; they may be revealed in a public gathering (khrom gter) or found privately (gsang gter) and then shown to others; they may be accompanied by a prophecy (lung bstan; gter lung; see VYĀKARAnA) of the discovery, made at the time of concealment; the gter ma may have a guardian (gter srung), and the revealer (GTER STON) is often assisted by a dĀKINĪ. Dgongs gter are discovered in the mindstream of the revealer, placed there as seeds to be found, coming from an earlier lifetime, often as a direct disciple of PADMASAMBHAVA. Dag snang are discovered by the revealer through the power of the innate purity of the mind. Gter ma are associated most closely with the RNYING MA sect, although not exclusively so. The basic account of gter ma, in which myth and historical fact are interwoven, relates that prior to the persecution of Buddhism by GLANG DAR MA (reigned c. 838-842), PADMASAMBHAVA hid many teachings, often dictated to YE SHES MTSHO RGYAL, as treasures to be discovered in later times in order to ensure the continuation of the doctrine and to provide appropriate teachings for future generations. The first Tibetan gter ma appear sometime after the start of the second dispensation (PHYI DAR), c. 1000, with the rise of the new (GSAR MA) sects of BKA' GDAMS, SA SKYA, and BKA' BRGYUD, who in many cases call into question the authenticity of earlier Tibetan practices and translations. Gter ma became more common in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Prominent among the revealers is PADMA LAS 'BREL RTSAL, a shadowy figure who revealed the RDZOGS CHEN SNYING THIG that KLONG CHEN RAB 'BYAMS PA then systematized into the definitive RDZOGS CHEN teachings. Klong chen pa's scholarly presentation was again made more accessible through a series of gter ma (called the KLONG CHEN SNYING THIG) discovered by 'JIGS MED GLING PA. These are the basis of the rdzogs chen teachings as they are commonly found today in most branches of the Rnying ma sect. According to traditional accounts, Padmasambhava taught a system of meditation called the MKHA' 'GRO SNYING THIG ("Heart Essence of the dākinī") to PADMA GSAL, the daughter of king KHRI SRONG SDE BTSAN, in whose heart he had inscribed a sacred syllable after bringing her back from the dead. They were discovered there by Padma las 'brel rtsal and Klong chen pa, who are her reincarnations. Besides this widely acknowledged tradition, there are numerous other gter ma that form the basis of practices and rituals in specific Rnying ma monasteries. For example, the main line of teachings and consecrations (ABHIsEKA) in the DPAL YUL monastery in the Khams region of eastern Tibet, and in its reestablished Indian branch near Mysore in South India, is based on gter ma teachings combining Rnying ma and Bka' brgyud practices, revealed by Mi 'gyur rdo rje and redacted by KARMA CHAGS MED; the gter ma discovered by PADMA GLING PA are held in great reverence by the 'BRUG PA BKA' BRGYUD sect in Bhutan; and the secret teachings of the fifth DALAI LAMA (1617-1682) that later locate and legitimate the role of the Dalai Lamas in the Dge lugs pa sect originated in gter ma that he revealed. The different gter ma were brought together in a quasi-canonical form by 'JAM MGON KONG SPRUL BLO GROS MTHA' YAS in his RIN CHEN GTER MDZOD ("Treasury of Precious Treasure Teachings"). It is believed that the sacred and even political space of Tibet is empowered through the discovery of gter ma and, by extension, that the religious practice of a region is empowered through the discovery of treasures within it.
guhyābhiseka. (T. gsang dbang; C. mimi guanding; J. himitsukanjo; K. pimil kwanjong 秘密灌頂). In Sanskrit, "secret empowerment," the second of the four empowerments or initiations employed in the ANUTTARAYOGA tantras, the other three being the vase empowerment (KALAsĀBHIsEKA), which precedes the secret empowerment (guhyābhiseka), and the knowledge of the consort empowerment (PRAJNĀJNĀNĀBHIsEKA) and the fourth empowerment (CATURTHĀBHIsEKA), which both follow it. The secret empowerment is intended for initiates who have already received the full vase empowerment. In the secret empowerment, the disciple presents his master with a fully qualified consort. The consort, representing wisdom (PRAJNĀ), and the master, representing method (UPĀYA), then unite sexually. A drop of the fluid that results from their union, called BODHICITTA, is then placed on the tongue of the disciple, who swallows it. In the next empowerment, "the knowledge of the consort," the disciple then engages in sexual union with the same consort, inducing increasing levels of bliss. Although later monastic exegetes would interpret these empowerments symbolically, it appears that they were actually practiced as the tantric systems developed in India, and they continued to be practiced among certain groups of adepts in Tibet.
If we regard the Powers of the Reality as so many Godheads, we can say that the Overmind releases a million Godheads into action, each empowered to create its own world, each world capable of relation, communication and interplay with the others. There are in the Veda different formulations of the nature of the Gods: it is said they are all one Existence to which the sages give different names; yet each God is worshipped as if he by himself is that Existence, one who is all the other Gods together or contains them in his being; and yet again each is a separate Deity acting sometimes in unison with companion deities, sometimes separately, sometimes even in apparent opposition to other Godheads of the same Existence. In the Supermind all this would be held together as a harmonised play of the one Existence; in the Overmind each of these three conditions could be a separate action or basis of action and have its own principle of development and consequences and yet each keep the power to combine with the others in a more composite harmony. As with the One Existence, so with its Consciousness and Force. The One Consciousness is separated into many independent forms of consciousness and knowledge; each follows out its own line of truth which it has to realise. The one total and many-sided Real-Idea is split up into its many sides; each becomes an independent Idea-Force with the power to realise itself. The one Consciousness-Force is liberated into its million forces, and each of these forces has the right to fulfil itself or to assume, if needed, a hegemony and take up for its own utility the other forces. So too the Delight of Existence is loosed out into all manner of delights and each can carry in itself its independent fullness or sovereign extreme. Overmind thus gives to the One Existence-Consciousness-Bliss the character of a teeming of infinite possibilities which can be developed into a multitude of worlds or thrown together into one world in which the endlessly variable…
impower ::: v. t. --> See Empower.
In its nature and law the Overmind is a delegate of the Supermind Consciousness, its delegate to the Ignorance. Or we might speak of it as a protective double, a screen of dissimilar similarity through which Supermind can act indirectly on an Ignorance whose darkness could not bear or receive the direct impact of a supreme Light. Even, it is by the projection of this luminous Overmind corona that the diffusion of a diminished light in the Ignorance and the throwing of that contrary shadow which swallows up in itself all light, the Inconscience, became at all possible. For Supermind transmits to Overmind all its realities, but leaves it to formulate them in a movement and according to an awareness of things which is still a vision of Truth and yet at the same time a first parent of the Ignorance. A line divides Supermind and Overmind which permits a free transmission, allows the lower Power to derive from the higher Power all it holds or sees, but automatically compels a transitional change in the passage. The integrality of the Supermind keeps always the essential truth of things, the total truth and the truth of its individual self-determinations clearly knit together; it maintains in them an inseparable unity and between them a close interpenetration and a free and full consciousness of each other: but in Overmind this integrality is no longer there. And yet the Overmind is well aware of the essential Truth of things; it embraces the totality; it uses the individual self-determinations without being limited by them: but although it knows their oneness, can realise it in a spiritual cognition, yet its dynamic movement, even while relying on that for its security, is not directly determined by it. Overmind Energy proceeds through an illimitable capacity of separation and combination of the powers and aspects of the integral and indivisible all-comprehending Unity. It takes each Aspect or Power and gives to it an independent action in which it acquires a full separate importance and is able to work out, we might say, its own world of creation. Purusha and Prakriti, Conscious Soul and executive Force of Nature, are in the supramental harmony a two-aspected single truth, being and dynamis of the Reality; there can be no disequilibrium or predominance of one over the other. In Overmind we have the origin of the cleavage, the trenchant distinction made by the philosophy of the Sankhyas in which they appear as two independent entities, Prakriti able to dominate Purusha and cloud its freedom and power, reducing it to a witness and recipient of her forms and actions, Purusha able to return to its separate existence and abide in a free self-sovereignty by rejection of her original overclouding material principle. So with the other aspects or powers of the Divine Reality, One and Many, Divine Personality and Divine Impersonality, and the rest; each is still an aspect and power of the one Reality, but each is empowered to act as an independent entity in the whole, arrive at the fullness of the possibilities of its separate expression and develop the dynamic consequences of that separateness. At the same time in Overmind this separateness is still founded on the basis of an implicit underlying unity; all possibilities of combination and relation between the separated Powers and Aspects, all interchanges and mutualities of their energies are freely organised and their actuality always possible.
Intermediaries - Firms which act as a link between producers and consumers in a channel of distribution. 2) Are the person or institution empowered to be the intermediary in making investment decisions for others. Examples: banks, insurance companies, savings and loan institutions, brokerage firms, credit unions and mutual funds.
kalasābhiseka. (T. bum dbang; C. baoping guanding; J. hobyokanjo; K. pobyong kwanjong 寶瓶灌頂). In Sanskrit, "vase empowerment," "jar empowerment," or "pot empowerment"; one of the four empowerments or initiations (ABHIsEKA) of ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, the other three being the secret empowerment (GUHYĀBHIsEKA), the knowledge of the consort empowerment (PRAJNĀJNĀNĀBHIsEKA), and the fourth empowerment (CATURTHĀBHIsEKA). The vase empowerment is the only one of the four that is used in the three other tantras of KRIYĀTANTRA, CARYĀTANTRA, and YOGATANTRA. The term itself generally is meant to designate a series of empowerments or initiations, variously enumerated, but commonly counted as five: the water, crown, vajra, bell, and name empowerments, with a sixth, called the vajra master (VAJRĀCĀRYA) added in yogatantra and anuttarayogatantra. The vase empowerment may be publicly performed, often in large gatherings, and is considered a prerequisite for the three other empowerments.
Left-Hand Path ::: A magical paradigm that, generally, has as its main goal the empowerment of the self and a journey toward self-deification.
MahāvairocanābhisaMbodhisutra. (T. Rnam par snang mdzad chen po mngon par rdzogs par byang chub pa rnam par sprul ba byin gyis rlob pa shin tu rgyas pa mdo; C. Da piluzhena chengfo shenbian jiachi jing/Dari jing; J. Daibirushana jobutsu jinben kajikyo/Dainichikyo; K. Tae Pirojana songbul sinbyon kaji kyong /Taeil kyong 大毘盧遮那成佛神 變加持經/大日經). In Sanskrit, "The Discourse on the Enlightenment of Mahāvairocanā"; a scripture also known as the Mahāvairocanasutra and the VairocanābhisaMbodhitantra; the full title of the work is MahāvairocanābhisaMbodhivikurvitādhisthānavaipulyasutra ("Extensive Sutra on the Enlightenment, Transformations, and Empowerment of MAHĀVAIROCANĀ"). This scripture is an early Buddhist TANTRA, which was probably composed sometime between the mid-sixth and seventh centuries, around the time that the MANTRAYĀNA was emerging as distinct strand of MAHĀYĀNA Buddhism; the text is later classified as both a YOGATANTRA and a CARYĀTANTRA. It was first translated into Chinese by sUBHAKARASIMHA and YIXING in 724-725, and would become one of the two most important tantras for East Asian esoteric Buddhism (the other being the SARVATATHĀGATATATTVASAMGRAHA). The text was translated into Tibetan in the early ninth century; the Tibetan version contains an additional seven chapters, called the "continuation" (uttaratantra), that do not appear in the Chinese version. Among the commentaries to the text, the most important is that of BUDDHAGUYHA and that of the Chinese translators, subhakarasiMha and Yixing. The tantra is set forth as a dialogue between VAJRAPĀnI and the buddha Mahāvairocanā. The central topics of the text are BODHICITTA, KARUnĀ, and UPĀYA, which the buddha VAIROCANA explains are respectively the cause, root, and culmination of his own omniscience. Much of the text deals with the traditional tantric topics of initiation (ABHIsEKA), MANTRA recitation, MUDRĀ, visualization, and the description of the MAndALA.
Messenger ::: In the theosophical sense, an individual who comes with a mandate from the Lodge of the Masters ofWisdom and Compassion to do a certain work in the world.Only real genius -- indeed something more than merely human genius -- only extraordinary spiritual andintellectual capacity, native to the constitution of some lofty human being, could explain the reason forthe choice of such messengers. But, indeed, this is not saying enough; because in addition to genius andto merely native spiritual and intellectual capacity such a messenger must possess through initiatorytraining the capacity of throwing at will the intermediate or psychological nature into a state of perfectquiescence or receptivity for the stream of divine-spiritual inspiration flowing forth from the messenger'sown inner divinity or monadic essence. It is obvious, therefore, that such a combination of rare andunusual qualities is not often found in human beings; and, when found, such a one is fit for the work tobe done by such a messenger of the Association of great ones.The Masters of Wisdom and Compassion and Peace send their envoys continuously into the world ofmen, one after the other, and in consequence these envoys are working in the world among men all thetime. Happy are they whose hearts recognize the footfalls of those crossing the mountaintops of theMystic East. The messengers do not always do public work before the world, but frequently work in thesilences and unknown of men, or relatively unknown. At certain times, however, they are commissionedand empowered and directed to do their work publicly and to make public announcement of theirmission. Such, for instance, was the case of H. P. Blavatsky.
Mystes (Greek) [from muo to close the mouth] Plural mystai. An initiate to the first degrees of the Mysteries; the next higher rank being that of the epoptes (seer); and the highest function being that of the hierophantes (teacher or communicator). With the Pythagoreans the neophyte or mystes guarded silence as to what he had learned, and was authorized and empowered to speak or teach only when his mouth had been opened because of attaining the rank of epoptes. This custom has been borrowed by Roman Catholic Cardinals along with the term Mystes: “A word or two may be said of the singular practice of closing and subsequently opening the mouth of a newly created cardinal. Like almost everything else connected with the subject, this form had once a real significance, but has become a mere meaningless formality. Some reasonable time was originally allowed to elapse before the pontiff in one consistory formally pronounced the mouth to be opened which he had declared to be closed in a previous consistory. Now the form of opening is pronounced within a few minutes of the form of closing” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th ed., “Cardinal”).
paNcakrama. (T. rim lnga; C. wucidi; J. goshidai; K. och'aje 五次第). In Sanskrit, "five stages," the five stages of the completion stage (NIsPANNAKRAMA) of the ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA path according to the GUHYASAMĀJATANTRA. The five stages are (1) vajra repetition (vajrājāpa), (2) purification of consciousness (cittavisuddhi), (3) self-empowerment (svādhisthāna), (4) enlightenment (abhisaMbodhi), and (5) union (yuganaddha). ¶ PaNcakrama is also the title of a text attributed to NĀGĀRJUNA on the five stages according to the Guhyasamājatantra. Scholars attribute this to the "tantric Nāgārjuna," and not to the MADHYAMAKA master, although, according to the Tibetan tradition, Nāgārjuna lived for six hundred years and thus composed works on tantra. Together with ĀRYADEVA's commentary, the Caryāmelāpakapradīpa, the paNcakrama provides one of the most influential interpretive systems for an anuttarayogatantra cycle.
prajNājNānābhiseka. (T. shes rab ye shes kyi dbang). In Sanskrit, lit., "knowledge of the wisdom empowerment," with wisdom (PRAJNĀ) here referring to a tantric consort. It is the third of the four empowerments or initiations employed in the ANUTTARAYOGATANTRAs, the other three being the vase empowerment (KALAsĀBHIsEKA) and the secret empowerment (GUHYĀBHIsEKA) that precede it, and the fourth empowerment (CATURTHĀBHIsEKA), which follows it. Having received the vase empowerment, in the secret empowerment the disciple ingests a drop of fluid (called BODHICITTA) that results from the sexual intercourse of his master and a consort. In the knowledge of the consort empowerment, the disciple engages in sexual union with the same consort, resulting in increasing levels of bliss, which is said to result as a drop (BINDU) that ascends through the central channel (AVADHuTĪ). Although later monastic exegetes would interpret these empowerments symbolically, it appears that they were originally practiced as the tantric systems developed in India, and they continued to be practiced among certain groups of adepts in Tibet.
procuration ::: n. --> The act of procuring; procurement.
The management of another&
questman ::: n. --> One legally empowered to make quest of certain matters, esp. of abuses of weights and measures.
A churchwarden&
sanmitsu. (C. sanmi, K. sammil 三密). In Japanese, "three secrets" or "three mysteries"; an esoteric Buddhist teaching that posits that the body, speech, and mind of sentient beings, which are understood to be the source of the three forms of KARMAN in standard Buddhist doctrine, abide in a nondual relationship with the body, speech, and mind of MAHĀVAIROCANA, the DHARMAKĀYA buddha. All speech is therefore in actuality the speech of this buddha, all forms are his body, and all mental formations are at their root the mind of Mahāvairocana. The doctrine of the three mysteries appears in various strata of MAHĀYĀNA materials, but is featured most prominently in esoteric literature. In China, TIANTAI thinkers such as TIANTAI ZHIYI and ZHANRAN argued that the Buddha taught via his NIRMĀnAKĀYA, SAMBHOGAKĀYA, or dharmakāya, depending on the capacities of his audience. On another level, however, these three bodies of the Buddha were said to be nondual. In Japan, KuKAI argued that all beings had the capacity to experience the teaching of the dharmakāya directly, a position that later Japanese TENDAI thinkers argued was implicit in the earlier Chinese Tiantai teachings on the three mysteries. Kukai's sanmitsu theory held that ordinary beings may rapidly realize their buddha-nature through ABHIsEKA, or ritual initiation, and ADHIstHĀNA, or ritual empowerment, which allowed for the efficacious performance of MUDRĀ, the chanting of MANTRA and DHĀRAnĪ, and the contemplation of the MAndALA of a chosen object of devotion. These forms of initiation and empowerment, when followed by these three modes of ritual comportment, were said to reveal that the sublime reality of buddhahood is alive within the mundane reality that beings ordinarily inhabit. Once the body, speech, and mind of beings and buddhas are recognized as nondual, an ordinary being is then able to acquire SIDDHI, or supernatural powers, which may be used to effect change in the world, up to and including achieving buddhahood in this very body (J. SOKUSHIN JoBUTSU; C. JISHEN CHENGFO).
sāriputra. (P. Sāriputta; T. Shā ri bu; C. Shelifu; J. Sharihotsu; K. Saribul 舍利弗). In Sanskrit, "Son of sārī"; the first of two chief disciples of the Buddha, along with MAHĀMAUDGALYĀYANA. sāriputra's father was a wealthy brāhmana named Tisya (and sāriputra is sometimes called Upatisya, after his father) and his mother was named sārī or sārikā, because she had eyes like a sārika bird. sārī was the most intelligent woman in MAGADHA; she is also known as sāradvatī, so sāriputra is sometimes referred to as sāradvatīputra. sāriputra was born in Nālaka near RĀJAGṚHA. He had three younger brothers and three sisters, all of whom would eventually join the SAMGHA and become ARHATs. sāriputra and Mahāmaudgalyāyana were friends from childhood. Once, while attending a performance, both became overwhelmed with a sense of the vanity of all impermanent things and resolved to renounce the world together. They first became disciples of the agnostic SANJAYA VAIRĀtĪPUTRA, although they later took their leave of him and wandered through India in search of the truth. Finding no solution, they parted company, promising one another that whichever one should succeed in finding the truth would inform the other. It was then that sāriputra met the Buddha's disciple, AsVAJIT, one of the Buddha's first five disciples (PANCAVARGIKA) and already an arhat. sāriputra was impressed with Asvajit's countenance and demeanor and asked whether he was a master or a disciple. When he replied that he was a disciple, sāriputra asked him what his teacher taught. Asvajit said that he was new to the teachings and could only provide a summary, but then uttered one of the most famous statements in the history of Buddhism, "Of those phenomena produced through causes, the TATHĀGATA has proclaimed their causes (HETU) and also their cessation (NIRODHA). Thus has spoken the great renunciant." (See YE DHARMĀ s.v.). Hearing these words, sāriputra immediately became a stream-enterer (SROTAĀPANNA) and asked where he could find this teacher. In keeping with their earlier compact, he repeated the stanza to his friend Mahāmaudgalyāyana, who also immediately became a streamenterer. The two friends resolved to take ordination as disciples of the Buddha and, together with five hundred disciples of their former teacher SaNjaya, proceeded to the VEnUVANAVIHĀRA, where the Buddha was in residence. The Buddha ordained the entire group with the EHIBHIKsUKĀ ("Come, monks") formula, whereupon all except sāriputra and Mahāmaudgalyāyana became arhats. Mahāmaudgalyāyana was to attain arhatship seven days after his ordination, while sāriputra reached the goal after a fortnight upon hearing the Buddha preach the Vedanāpariggahasutta (the Sanskrit recension is entitled the Dīrghanakhaparivrājakaparipṛcchā). The Buddha declared sāriputra and Mahāmaudgalyāyana his chief disciples the day they were ordained, giving as his reason the fact that both had exerted themselves in religious practice for countless previous lives. sāriputra was declared chief among the Buddha's disciples in wisdom, while Mahāmaudgalyāyana was chief in mastery of supranormal powers (ṚDDHI). sāriputra was recognized as second only to the Buddha in his knowledge of the dharma. The Buddha praised sāriputra as an able teacher, calling him his dharmasenāpati, "dharma general" and often assigned topics for him to preach. Two of his most famous discourses were the DASUTTARASUTTA and the SAnGĪTISUTTA, which the Buddha asked him to preach on his behalf. Sāriputra was meticulous in his observance of the VINAYA, and was quick both to admonish monks in need of guidance and to praise them for their accomplishments. He was sought out by others to explicate points of doctrine and it was he who is said to have revealed the ABHIDHARMA to the human world after the Buddha taught it to his mother, who had been reborn in the TRĀYASTRIMsA heaven; when the Buddha returned to earth each day to collect alms, he would repeat to sāriputra what he had taught to the divinities in heaven. sāriputra died several months before the Buddha. Realizing that he had only seven days to live, he resolved to return to his native village and convert his mother; with this accomplished, he passed away. His body was cremated and his relics were eventually enshrined in a STuPA at NĀLANDĀ. sāriputra appears in many JĀTAKA stories as a companion of the Buddha, sometimes in human form, sometimes in animal form, and sometimes with one of them a human and the other an animal. sāriputra also plays a major role in the MAHĀYĀNA sutras, where he is a common interlocutor of the Buddha and of the chief BODHISATTVAs. Sometimes he is portrayed as a dignified arhat, elsewhere he is made the fool, as in the VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEsA when a goddess turns him into a woman, much to his dismay. In either case, the point is that the wisest of the Buddha's arhat disciples, the master of the abhidharma, does not know the sublime teachings of the Mahāyāna and must have them explained to him. The implication is that the teachings of the Mahāyāna sutras are therefore more profound than anything found in the canons of the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS. In the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀHṚDAYA ("Heart Sutra"), it is sāriputra who asks AVALOKITEsVARA how to practice the perfection of wisdom, and even then he must be empowered to ask the question by the Buddha. In the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA, it is sāriputra's question that prompts the Buddha to set forth the parable of the burning house. The Buddha predicts that in the future, sāriputra will become the buddha Padmaprabha.
seguestration ::: n. --> The act of separating, or setting aside, a thing in controversy from the possession of both the parties that contend for it, to be delivered to the one adjudged entitled to it. It may be voluntary or involuntary.
A prerogative process empowering certain commissioners to take and hold a defendant&
Shotoku Taishi. (聖德太子) (572-622). Japanese statesman of the Asuka period (593-710) and second son of Emperor Yomei (r. 585-587), who is traditionally assumed to have played an important role in the early dissemination of Buddhism in Japan. He is also known as Umayado no Miko (Prince Stable Door), but by the eighth century, he became known as Shotoku Taishi (lit. Prince Sagacious Virtue). Given that the earliest significant writings on the life of Shotoku Taishi come from two early histories, the Kojiki (712) and Nihon shoki (720), which are both written nearly a century after his death, little can be said definitively about his biography. According to the traditional accounts in these two texts, Suiko (554-628), the aunt of Prince Shotoku and the Japanese monarch, appointed her nephew regent in 593, giving him broad political powers. Thanks to his enlightened leadership, Prince Shotoku is credited with numerous historical achievements. These include the promotion of Buddhism within the court under an edict he issued in 594; promulgation of the Seventeen-Article Constitution in 604, which stresses the importance of the monarchy and lays out basic Buddhist and Confucian principles; sponsorship of trade missions to China; construction of the monasteries of HoRYuJI and SHITENNoJI; authorship of two chronological histories (Tennoko and Kokki); and composition of three of the earliest Buddhist commentaries in Japan, on the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra"), VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEsA, and sRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIMHANĀDASuTRA ("Lion's Roar of Queen srīmālā"), which demonstrate his deep familiarity with Mahāyāna Buddhist doctrine. The credibility of Prince Shotoku's achievements as described in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki is undermined by fact that both texts were commissioned by the newly empowered monarchy in an attempt to strengthen its political standing. Some scholars have thus argued that because the new royal family wanted to identify itself with the powerful instrument of the new religion, they selected the person of Prince Shotoku, who shared their lineage, to serve as the first political patron of Buddhism in Japan. This historical narrative focused on Prince Shotoku thus denigrated the importance of the defeated SOGA clan's extensive patronage of Buddhism. As early as the Nara period (710-794), Prince Shotoku began taking on legendary, even mythical status, and was eventually transformed into one of Japan's greatest historical figures, representing the quintessence of Buddhist religious virtue and benevolent political leadership. Priests often dedicated temples to him or transferred the merit of religious enterprises to Shotoku. Both SHINRAN (1173-1263) and NICHIREN (1222-82) dedicated written works to his name. Throughout the Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura (1185-1333) periods, what is now referred to as the cult of Shotoku Taishi was widely popular and members of the aristocracy regularly venerated him (a practice referred to as Taishi shinko, lit. devotion to the Prince).
Since the Consciousness-Force of the eternal Existence is the universal creatrix, the nature of a given world will depend on whatever self-formulation of that Consciousness expresses itself in that world. Equally, for each individual being, his seeing or representation to himself of the world he lives in will depend on the poise or make which that Consciousness has assumed in him. Our human mental consciousness sees the world in sections cut by the reason and sense and put together in a formation which is also sectional; the house it builds is planned to accommodate one or another generalised formulation of Truth, but excludes the rest or admits some only as guests or dependents in the house. Overmind Consciousness is global in its cognition and can hold any number of seemingly fundamental differences together in a reconciling vision. Thus the mental reason sees Person and the Impersonal as opposites: it conceives an impersonal Existence in which person and personality are fictions of the Ignorance or temporary constructions; or, on the contrary, it can see Person as the primary reality and the impersonal as a mental abstraction or only stuff or means of manifestation. To the Overmind intelligence these are separable Powers of the one Existence which can pursue their independent self-affirmation and can also unite together their different modes of action, creating both in their independence and in their union different states of consciousness and being which can be all of them valid and all capable of coexistence. A purely impersonal existence and consciousness is true and possible, but also an entirely personal consciousness and existence; the Impersonal Divine, Nirguna Brahman, and the Personal Divine, Saguna Brahman, are here equal and coexistent aspects of the Eternal. Impersonality can manifest with person subordinated to it as a mode of expression; but, equally, Person can be the reality with impersonality as a mode of its nature: both aspects of manifestation face each other in the infinite variety of conscious Existence. What to the mental reason are irreconcilable differences present themselves to the Overmind intelligence as coexistent correlatives; what to the mental reason are contraries are to the Overmind intelligence complementaries. Our mind sees that all things are born from Matter or material Energy, exist by it, go back into it; it concludes that Matter is the eternal factor, the primary and ultimate reality, Brahman. Or it sees all as born of Life-Force or Mind, existing by Life or by Mind, going back into the universal Life or Mind, and it concludes that this world is a creation of the cosmic Life-Force or of a cosmic Mind or Logos. Or again it sees the world and all things as born of, existing by and going back to the Real-Idea or Knowledge-Will of the Spirit or to the Spirit itself and it concludes on an idealistic or spiritual view of the universe. It can fix on any of these ways of seeing, but to its normal separative vision each way excludes the others. Overmind consciousness perceives that each view is true of the action of the principle it erects; it can see that there is a material world-formula, a vital world-formula, a mental world-formula, a spiritual world-formula, and each can predominate in a world of its own and at the same time all can combine in one world as its constituent powers. The self-formulation of Conscious Force on which our world is based as an apparent Inconscience that conceals in itself a supreme Conscious-Existence and holds all the powers of Being together in its inconscient secrecy, a world of universal Matter realising in itself Life, Mind, Overmind, Supermind, Spirit, each of them in its turn taking up the others as means of its self-expression, Matter proving in the spiritual vision to have been always itself a manifestation of the Spirit, is to the Overmind view a normal and easily realisable creation. In its power of origination and in the process of its executive dynamis Overmind is an organiser of many potentialities of Existence, each affirming its separate reality but all capable of linking themselves together in many different but simultaneous ways, a magician craftsman empowered to weave the multicoloured warp and woof of manifestation of a single entity in a complex universe. …
source code "language, programming" (Or "source", or rarely "source language") The form in which a {computer program} ({software}) is written by the {programmer}. Source code is written in some formal {programming language} which can be {compiled} automatically into {object code} or {machine code} or executed by an {interpreter}. Source code might be stored in a {source code management} system. If you have the source code for a program rather than just its compiled, executable form, then you can, with the right tools, modify it to fix {bugs} or add new {features}. This is the basis of the {open source} philosophy - empowering people to improve the software they use for the benefit of themselves and others. The {Jargon File} would have us believe that an old-time hacker might refer to source code informally as "English", with the implication that to him his favourite {programming language} is at least as readable as English. (2014-06-27)
university ::: n. --> The universe; the whole.
An association, society, guild, or corporation, esp. one capable of having and acquiring property.
An institution organized and incorporated for the purpose of imparting instruction, examining students, and otherwise promoting education in the higher branches of literature, science, art, etc., empowered to confer degrees in the several arts and faculties, as in theology, law, medicine, music, etc. A university may exist without
warranter ::: n. --> One who warrants, gives authority, or legally empowers.
One who assures, or covenants to assure; one who contracts to secure another in a right, or to make good any defect of title or quality; one who gives a warranty; a guarantor; as, the warranter of a horse.
Yu sim allak to. (C. Youxin anledao; J. Yushin anrakudo 遊心安樂道). In Korean, "Wandering the Path to Mental Peace and Bliss"; traditionally attributed to the Korean monk WoNHYO, its authorship remains a matter of debate. No early references to this text are found in Korean canonical catalogues, and the earliest extant version was found in the library of the Raigoin in Kyoto, Japan. The prevailing scholarly view is that the text was composed in tenth-century Japan, perhaps by an adherent of the TENDAISHu, with the first half of the work taken virtually verbatim from Wonhyo's Muryangsugyong chongyo ("Doctrinal Essentials of the SUKHĀVATĪVYuHASuTRA"). The Yu sim allak to was influential in Japan, especially during the Kamakura period, when it was quoted in such texts as the Komyo shingon dosha kanjinki by MYoE KoBEN, An'yoshu by Minamoto Takakuni (1004-1077), Ketsujo ojoshu by Chinkai (1087-1165), and the SENCHAKU HONGAN NENBUTSUSHu by HoNEN. The Yu sim allak to consists of seven sections: (1) the central tenet (i.e., the benefits of rebirth), (2) the whereabouts of the land of peace and happiness (ANLEGUO, viz., SUKHĀVATĪ), (3) clarification of doubts and concerns, (4) the various causes and conditions of rebirth in the PURE LAND, (5) the nine grades (JIUPIN) of rebirth, (6) the ease and difficulty of rebirth in the different buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA), (7) and the rebirth of women, those with dull faculties, and sinners. The last section also contains a MANTRA from the Amoghapāsakalparājāsutra and an empowerment (ADHIstHĀNA) ritual.
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*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:I observe my thoughts and entertain only those that empower me. ~ t-harv-eker, @wisdomtrove 2:You empower what you fight.You withdraw power from what you release. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 3:Fear does not have any special power unless you empower it by submitting to it. ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 4:The loving personality seeks not to control, but to nurture, not to dominate, but to empower. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 5:Only insecure boys will belittle a woman. The greatest way to "man-up" is to empower women. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 6:There are certain areas that you can move to on the earth that will empower you and there are certain areas that can drain you. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 7:Fear has the role we give it. We are able to empower or poison ourselves to whatever degree we want. This is the beauty of our design. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 8:Don't confuse poor decision-making with destiny. Own your mistakes. It's ok; we all make them. Learn from them so they can empower you! ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 9:Don’t confuse poor decision- making with destiny. Own your mistakes. It’s ok; we all make them. Learn from them so they can empower you! ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 10:Our job is obvious: we need to get out of the way, shine a light, and empower a new generation to teach itself and to go further and faster than any generation ever has. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 11:The absorption in nirvana is all that matters. All the strategies of your life are only there to empower you for your final assault on the impenetrable cliffs of forever. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 12:People who work to bring about perfection see work as an extension of themselves. The point is to do a good job. That will empower you. To do a poor job will make you weaker. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 13:If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove 14:The Secret's message is to empower people. Its message releases people from feeling like victims and gives them the knowledge to intentionally create their lives the way they want. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 15:Celebrate how far you’ve come, and not how much you have yet to achieve. The former will empower you to greatness, while the latter is rooted in fear and only serves to hold you back from greatness. ~ celestine-chua, @wisdomtrove 16:A good personal mission statement should be highly motivational and inspiring. It should empower you to go onwards and upwards. It is never a static statement, but should be refined and enhanced as life moves forward. ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove 17:With each choice that you make to align yourself with the energy of your soul, you empower yourself. Authentic power is built up step by step, choice by choice. It cannot be meditated or prayed into being. It must be earned. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 18:Your dream is a reality that is waiting for you to materialize. Today is a new day! Don’t let your history interfere with your destiny! Learn from your past so that it can empower your present and propel you to greatness ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 19:People try to get into your life. They try and keep you off-balance, keep you from making good decisions that will empower you - because if your attention field is sharp - you will see if anyone is in your life for ill reasons. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 20:Where globalisation means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom. ~ nelson-mandela, @wisdomtrove 21:I do not make a judgment about the creations that you conjure, I simply empower you to conjure more—and more and more and more. If you don’t like what you’ve just created, choose again. My job, as God, is to always give you that opportunity. ~ neale-donald-walsch, @wisdomtrove 22:In our interconnected world, novel technology could empower just one fanatic, or some weirdo with a mindset of those who now design computer viruses, to trigger some kind of disaster. Indeed, catastrophe could arise simply from technical misadventure - error rather than terror. ~ martin-rees, @wisdomtrove 23:Instead of believing the world is plotting to do you harm, choose to believe the world is plotting to do you good. Instead of seeing every difficult challenging event as a negative, see it for what it could be - something that is meant to enrich you, empower you, or advance your causes. ~ w-clement-stone, @wisdomtrove 24:Perhaps one day we will do everything that we can to protect our people and the timeless values that we stand for. But today, we won’t even honestly describe the motivations of our enemies. And in the act of lying to ourselves, we continue to pay lip service to the very delusions that empower them. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 25:In our course we teach that "no thought lives in your head rent-free." Each thought you have will either be an investment or a cost. It will either move you toward happiness and success or away from it. It will either empower you or disempower you. That's why it is imperative you choose your thoughts and beliefs wisely. ~ t-harv-eker, @wisdomtrove 26:When we are in touch with our universal Self, we empower others by allowing them to be themselves. This means we react to people without preconditions and preconceptions. We accept people for who they are and do not force them to conform to our needs and expectations. In doing so, we empower others to express their full potential as well. ~ deepak-chopra, @wisdomtrove 27:There are those, of course, who claim we must give up freedom in exchange for economic progress. Well, pardon me, but anyone trying to sell you that line is no better than a three-card-trick man. One thing becoming more clear every day is that freedom and progress go hand in hand. Throughout the developing world, people are rejecting socialism because they see that it doesn't empower people, it impoverishes them. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 28:The faithful man perceives nothing less than opportunity in difficulties. Flowing through his spine, faith and courage work together: Such a man does not fear losing his life, thus he will risk losing it at times in order to empower it. By this he actually values his life more than the man who fears losing his life. It is much like leaping from a window in order to avoid a fire yet in that most crucial moment knowing that God will appear to catch you. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:I want to empower women. ~ Alexander McQueen, #NFDB
2:Never delegate. Always empower. ~ Mike Krzyzewski, #NFDB
3:Leaders are those who empower others. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
4:Empower them to run their own reports. ~ A G Riddle, #NFDB
5:If you have power, you have to empower. ~ Kanye West, #NFDB
6:Change the way we teach; Empower teachers ~ John Doerr, #NFDB
7:True power is the power to empower others. ~ Rhymefest, #NFDB
8:We as women need to empower each other. ~ Ariel Winter, #NFDB
9:High heels empower women in a way. ~ Christian Louboutin, #NFDB
10:Politics is a potent way to empower women. ~ Preneet Kaur, #NFDB
11:If elected, will you vote to empower yourself? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
12:If you empower women, you can change the world. ~ Meg Ryan, #NFDB
13:My real mantra for my life is "empower others". ~ Guy Kawasaki, #NFDB
14:Divide and conquer must become define and empower. ~ Audre Lorde, #NFDB
15:I am doing the mountain climbing to empower women. ~ Samina Baig, #NFDB
16:You should empower the creativity of others. ~ Brad Garlinghouse, #NFDB
17:The ultimate use of power is to empower others. ~ William Glasser, #NFDB
18:Fact is, empower a woman, and you empower the world. ~ Emma Mildon, #NFDB
19:I want to empower farmers to expand their market share. ~ Ted Cruz, #NFDB
20:I finally got it: empower girls and everything changes. ~ Jane Fonda, #NFDB
21:I think the press is here to inform and empower people. ~ Jill Stein, #NFDB
22:We must do more and with more urgency to empower women. ~ Judith Rodin, #NFDB
23:I like women who like each other and empower each other. ~ Drew Barrymore, #NFDB
24:Empower us women and we will change this whole entire world. ~ Alicia Keys, #NFDB
25:Even the simplest tools can empower people to do great things. ~ Biz Stone, #NFDB
26:Enable and empower teams to make fast and courageous decisions. ~ Eric Ries, #NFDB
27:Societies that empower women are less violent in every way. ~ Steven Pinker, #NFDB
28:I observe my thoughts and entertain only those that empower me. ~ T Harv Eker, #NFDB
29:In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower. ~ Audre Lorde, #NFDB
30:I want to give some positive messages and to empower some people. ~ Chaka Khan, #NFDB
31:What you build today will either empower or restrict you tomorrow. ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
32:Millions of children are disempowered and we need to empower them. ~ Ben Kingsley, #NFDB
33:A mother is a school. Empower her; and you empower a great nation. ~ Hafez Ibrahim, #NFDB
34:I'm continuing to do what I can to empower and inspire other women. ~ Camila Alves, #NFDB
35:I think I've really learned how important it is to empower women. ~ Geri Halliwell, #NFDB
36:Let's protect and empower workers who actually drive our economy. ~ Hillary Clinton, #NFDB
37:You empower what you fight.
You withdraw power from what you release. ~ Alan Cohen,#NFDB
38:To empower people in an unaligned organization can be counterproductive. ~ Peter M Senge, #NFDB
39:Gender equality will only be reached if we are able to empower women. ~ Michelle Bachelet, #NFDB
40:My dream is to empower myself with education, and then it is a weapon. ~ Malala Yousafzai, #NFDB
41:Service is an opportunity for young women to really empower themselves. ~ Chelsea Clinton, #NFDB
42:Words empower us, move us beyond our suffering, and set us free. ~ Terry Tempest Williams, #NFDB
43:Fear does not have any special power unless you empower it by submitting to it. ~ Les Brown, #NFDB
44:In tyranny lies only failure. Empower every man and you will gain strength. ~ Russell Crowe, #NFDB
45:As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
46:To blame and accuse other people, is to choose to empower them, to control us. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
47:You manage things, but you lead people. That is how we will empower them.”[42] ~ George Couros, #NFDB
48:A true leader doesn't lead to gain power. They lead to empower and give power away. ~ Jon Gordon, #NFDB
49:Inspirational people weren't meant to be enablers. They were meant to empower! ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
50:Together we can make a difference and empower communities to be self sufficient. ~ David Batstone, #NFDB
51:We need to empower everybody, not one person, not almost everybody, but everybody. ~ Rahul Gandhi, #NFDB
52:The Internet can empower groups whose aims are in fact antithetical to democracy. ~ Evgeny Morozov, #NFDB
53:The best way to fight poverty is to empower people through access to quality education ~ John Legend, #NFDB
54:Attitude is the ability to reframe the experience to empower you to future victories ~ Orrin Woodward, #NFDB
55:The stories that spread today empower us and give us belief in our own heroic potential. ~ Jonah Sachs, #NFDB
56:If we don't empower ourselves with knowledge, then we're gonna be led down a garden path. ~ Fran Drescher, #NFDB
57:The loving personality seeks not to control, but to nurture, not to dominate, but to empower. ~ Gary Zukav, #NFDB
58:The role of leaders is not to get other people to follow them but to empower others to lead. ~ Bill George, #NFDB
59:Only insecure boys will belittle a woman. The greatest way to "man-up" is to empower women. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
60:The higher the better. It's more about an attitude. High heels empower women in a way. ~ Christian Louboutin, #NFDB
61:Religion must use law to empower itself and control the people needed in order to survive. ~ William Paul Young, #NFDB
62:Real leaders are not those who simply get the job done. Leaders empower others to get the job done. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
63:What is the point of hiring smart people, we asked, if you don’t empower them to fix what’s broken? ~ Ed Catmull, #NFDB
64:Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
65:The role of a trainer or consultant is to empower the customer, not to make himself indispensable ~ Bertrand Meyer, #NFDB
66:we must have uncomfortable conversations if we’re going to work to empower people and change systems. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
67:Key message to all patients: Let go of all negativity and empower your body through your positivity. ~ Widad Akreyi, #NFDB
68:Leadership is not just about what you do but what you can inspire, encourage and empower others to do. ~ Jon Gordon, #NFDB
69:For me, I understood the gift of being able to empower others and to not do everything yourself. ~ Wilmer Valderrama, #NFDB
70:He who defines himself can't know who he really is.
He who has power over others can't empower himself. ~ Lao Tzu,#NFDB
71:No form of gender equity can ever truly be achieved until we first work to empower femininity itself. ~ Julia Serano, #NFDB
72:When we oppose oppression, we lift our hands from the collective reins that empower such oppression. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
73:To be scientifically literate is to empower yourself to know when someone else is full of shit. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, #NFDB
74:Future is about creating value. If we have tools to empower each other, more possibility is reality. ~ Jessica Jackley, #NFDB
75:Religion must use law to empower itself and control the people who they need in order to survive. ~ William Paul Young, #NFDB
76:Don't cheat people of their growth. Empower them to solve problems and generate ideas. Watch them grow! ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
77:A leader is great not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
78:If we don't empower women, we don't allow them to unlock the potential of themselves and their children. ~ Melinda Gates, #NFDB
79:We empower ourselves every time we accept responsibility for choosing the thoughts and feelings we act on. ~ Karan Casey, #NFDB
80:A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
81:I think the most important thing people can do to save our planet and the human race is to empower women! ~ Robert Ballard, #NFDB
82:When we empower Iran, then get ready for more unrest and more murder and more violence in the Middle East. ~ Chris Christie, #NFDB
83:By needlessly provoking him [Vladimir Putin] and humiliating him, we empower far worse possibilities in Russia. ~ Jill Stein, #NFDB
84:The only point of having power it seems to me is to empower others. The only point of leadership is to inspire. ~ Eve Ensler, #NFDB
85:As soon as we ask whether or not a story is true in the present moment, we empower ourselves to re-frame it. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
86:The very technologies that empower us to do great good can also be used to undermine us and inflict great harm. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
87:We cannot win this war on terror if people are undercutting us. And one way to undercut us is to empower Iran. ~ Lindsey Graham, #NFDB
88:Allowing God to charge our lives that we may empower people around us to live In a greater relationship with him. ~ David Walker, #NFDB
89:popular education’s goal is to empower groups of people who have been marginalized socially and politically. The ~ Barry Estabrook, #NFDB
90:The key is to cut out the middleman and empower both doctor and patient with information about what things cost. ~ Benjamin Carson, #NFDB
91:You don't have to be famous. You just have to find your own coven of bad-asses that you trust and want to empower. ~ Lizz Winstead, #NFDB
92:Freedom rings bells to wake us from the comfort of beautiful dreams and empower the efforts that turn them into reality. ~ Aberjhani, #NFDB
93:But when you are born again (saved), the Holy Spirit takes up residence in you to empower you to live a life of victory. ~ Paul Tsika, #NFDB
94:Anytime we think the problem is “out there,” that thought is the problem. We empower what’s out there to control us. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
95:Democracy does not empower individuals. It disempowers individuals and instead empowers the majority of the moment. In ~ Jason Brennan, #NFDB
96:Leadership is building a bridge that connects the vision with the purpose, in order to empower those who are around us. ~ David Walker, #NFDB
97:If you want to empower anyone else in your life, you need to start living the most empowered version of yourself first! ~ Michael Eisen, #NFDB
98:Only reckless confidence in a Source greater than ourselves can empower us to forgive the woulds inflicted by others. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
99:Civil religion is the attempt to empower religion, not for the good of religion, but for the creation of the citizen. ~ Stanley Hauerwas, #NFDB
100:Royalty comes with a cost. My great-great-grandfather was one, and he left me no royalty but loyalty to empower people. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
101:Whether you are helping someone on an individual basis or supporting an organized cause, aim to empower everyone involved. ~ Tim Sanders, #NFDB
102:Your relationships will either empower you to overcome obstacles, or put fears in you so you can run away from them. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
103:Embrace love and compassion with all your spirit. Understand that they never hurt or offend, they just heal and empower. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
104:I thoroughly enjoy the work I do in helping motivate and empower young girls to celebrate and love their natural selves. ~ Dominique Dawes, #NFDB
105:When you empower women and help them thrive, you help their communities thrive. Women shoulder the burden disproportionately. ~ Joy Bryant, #NFDB
106:Our role is to empower students to see themselves as innovators who take responsibility for their own learning and leading. ~ George Couros, #NFDB
107:When you know that your fate is completely random, you have the freedom to commit yourself to any theory that will empower you. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
108:Problems, as a rule, solve themselves or disappear if you remove yourself as an information bottleneck and empower others. ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
109:The roles that push you out of your comfort zones are the ones in which you learn a great deal and really empower yourself. ~ Ruzwana Bashir, #NFDB
110:We must convince and empower people to adopt the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity as their guiding principle. ~ Klaus Topfer, #NFDB
111:All good leaders listen to their people and empower them to go away and turn any innovative ideas they have into a reality. ~ Richard Branson, #NFDB
112:Let’s pray that God would empower us so radically that we would get no glory. That people would see our works and glorify God. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
113:If you watch great things, you empower your thought greatly. They that do great things do not only look but they see. ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
114:Instead of manipulating people, why not empower them? Let them know what we’re up against. And have that drive our collective will. ~ Hugh Howey, #NFDB
115:There are certain areas that you can move to on the earth that will empower you and there are certain areas that can drain you. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
116:Leaders inform, inspire and improve people. They educate, empower and enrich the value of their followers. They make impacts. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
117:I acknowledged that I owed my presidency to People Power. I resolved during my presidency that I would in turn empower the people. ~ Corazon Aquino, #NFDB
118:The picture of God that I embraced could get me to feel shame for my sinful deeds, but it could not empower me to rise above them. ~ Gregory A Boyd, #NFDB
119:Pentecost is a celebration of God... a celebration of God's power... a celebration of God's desire to empower us and to dwell within us. ~ Mark Hart, #NFDB
120:The more you suffered, the more you survived. It shaped people in different ways, and what broke one person could empower another. ~ Penelope Douglas, #NFDB
121:Fear has the role we give it. We are able to empower or poison ourselves to whatever degree we want. This is the beauty of our design. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
122:God is willing! God will save! God will rescue! God will restore! God will revive! God will empower! God willing and He will do it! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
123:I've had great people come in my life, meaning not just men, but women, support me and empower me. So that has lifted me to be the woman I am. ~ Ledisi, #NFDB
124:Don't confuse poor decision-making with destiny. Own your mistakes. It’s ok; we all make them. Learn from them so they can empower you! ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
125:You empower everything you complain about. You strengthen the negative things you speak of. And you energize the problems you vocalize. ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
126:Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
127:Keep building and supporting new tools, technologies, and platforms to empower independence, interoperability, and web property ownership. ~ Marco Arment, #NFDB
128:most valuable businesses of coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make them obsolete. ~ Peter Thiel, #NFDB
129:Words empower us, move us beyond our suffering and set us free. This is the sorcery of literature. We are healed by our stories. ~ Terry Tempest Williams, #NFDB
130:Opening your chakras and allowing cosmic energies to flow through your body will ultimately refresh your spirit and empower your life. ~ Barbara Marciniak, #NFDB
131:I have always wanted to do something high octane. I've wanted to tackle an action role where I play a tomboy but empower myself as a woman. ~ Annie Ilonzeh, #NFDB
132:By empowering a woman, we empower a child. By educating a girl child, we make it possible for her to grow up to become an empowered woman. ~ Winnie Byanyima, #NFDB
133:I want to make women laugh. I want to make them feel beautiful in their own skin. I want to empower them to use their voice and not apologize. ~ Amy Schumer, #NFDB
134:Mountain climbing is my passion, and to empower women through my expeditions is the reason. I am doing the mountain climbing to empower women. ~ Samina Baig, #NFDB
135:Sometimes you're so nervous about piloting something that you could probably just not empower others to finish what they're supposed to. ~ Wilmer Valderrama, #NFDB
136:I don't think I'm always right, but I would like to empower people to come to sound conclusions using a systematic way of looking at things. ~ Daniel Levitin, #NFDB
137:The best way to help Burma is to empower the people of Burma, to help us have enough self-confidence to obtain what we want for ourselves. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi, #NFDB
138:The most valuable businesses of coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make them obsolete. ~ Peter Thiel, #NFDB
139:By boosting oversight and accountability, we can empower the VA in its core mission of helping the men and women who have served our country. ~ Ann Kirkpatrick, #NFDB
140:It’s about how we can empower ourselves to bring true meaning to our lives and the lives of others in ways most people would consider impossible. ~ Sean Patrick, #NFDB
141:The ultimate objective of subsidies should be to empower the poor, to break the cycle of poverty, and become foot-soldiers in our war on poverty. ~ Narendra Modi, #NFDB
142:I would prefer to believe that a market in fetal organs would empower women to use their reproductive capabilities to their own economic advantage. ~ Jacob M Appel, #NFDB
143:Love has an effect few other things have: to empower you with happiness, and at the same time, strip you of all power, making you a prisoner of fear. ~ Layla Hagen, #NFDB
144:If an assemblage of words you’re using is creating states that disempower you, get rid of those words and replace them with those that empower you! ~ Anthony Robbins, #NFDB
145:If people maintain the belief systems that empower them, they'll keep coming back with enough action and enough resourcefulness to succeed eventually. ~ Tony Robbins, #NFDB
146:Making fun of guys to get them to perform and prove themselves, that's always going to exist. But we have to equally celebrate them and empower them. ~ Michael Gurian, #NFDB
147:When leaders fail to empower others, it is usually due to three main reasons: 1. Desire for Job Security 2. Resistance to Change 3. Lack of Self-Worth ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
148:You know, there's a lot of activism that doesn't deal with empowerment, and you have to empower yourself in order to be relevant to any type of struggle. ~ Talib Kweli, #NFDB
149:For our welfare reform efforts to be successful, we must empower local charitable organizations with the resources to address their local community needs. ~ Mel Carnahan, #NFDB
150:And if we want to achieve our goal, then let us empower ourselves with the weapon of knowledge and let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness. ~ Malala Yousafzai, #NFDB
151:It's just so impressive to see how the women have used making Fair Trade clothes to escape poverty and empower themselves and their children. - Emma Watson ~ Safia Minney, #NFDB
152:Don't wait for anyone to deputize you or authorize you or empower you. You have to just start out with yourself...and put one foot in front of the other. ~ Hazel Henderson, #NFDB
153:Walmart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative is working to create opportunity and empower women and girls in markets around the world. ~ Sylvia Mathews Burwell, #NFDB
154:You are not, though, forgiving so as to let others off with things. You are forgiving so that you can empower yourself to get over it and become strong. ~ Stephen Richards, #NFDB
155:If you focus on principles, you empower everyone who understands those principles to act without constant monitoring, evaluating, correcting, or controlling. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
156:I needed no man to empower me. I had my father to thank for that much; his absence in most everyday things had prepared me well enough to stand on my own. ~ Kerri Maniscalco, #NFDB
157:Labor is at its best when we are the party of ideas and action - ideas that empower the powerless and actions that build a better Australia for the long term. ~ Bill Shorten, #NFDB
158:We will also be funding projects that empower women and children in Afghanistan and now and then give scholarships to Afghan students here in the Bay Area. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
159:Women – love each other, support each other, defend each other. It comes at a greater cost to you to attack the women around you than it does to empower them. ~ Caitlin Stasey, #NFDB
160:If you don't choose heroes, heroes will be chosen for you, and they will not represent values that empower you, they will represent powers that will enslave you ~ Russell Brand, #NFDB
161:I think at some point you have to empower others and really allow everyone else to do what they're hired to do and what they're brought onto the team to do. ~ Wilmer Valderrama, #NFDB
162:You empower ignorance if you as teacher hide yourself among the students because you know less and give less... Don’t hide your identity, make it a reality! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
163:Always remember the gospel, so you won’t forget that God will not expect something of you that He won’t both empower you to obey and forgive you for not obeying. ~ Matt Chandler, #NFDB
164:If we are going to empower our students, we must help them find what they love and create learning experiences that encourage them to develop their strengths. So ~ George Couros, #NFDB
165:That’s all you really hope for from a book – that it’s going to resonate with young people and empower them in some way. I believe poetry can get kids reading. ~ Kwame Alexander, #NFDB
166:What we focus on, we empower and enlarge. Good multiplies when focused upon. Negativity multiplies when focused upon. The choice is ours: Which do we want more of? ~ Julia Cameron, #NFDB
167:Remember, don’t drive into the past using your rear-view mirror as a guide. You want to learn from your past, not live in it—focus on the things that empower you. ~ Anthony Robbins, #NFDB
168:Strength through Faith. Empower your supporters and gain strength in them. Pray for safety, strength, and blessings for all who help you succeed. - Strong by Kailin Gow ~ Kailin Gow, #NFDB
169:Our job is obvious: we need to get out of the way, shine a light, and empower a new generation to teach itself and to go further and faster than any generation ever has. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
170:The sixth sense will empower your instinct endlessly if it understands the feelings. Thus the seventh sense is used to help the sixth sense in working effectively. ~ Stephen Richards, #NFDB
171:You won’t find magic potions here. No matter how enticing they may seem, promises of quick fixes mostly set us up for failure and do more to deter us than empower us. ~ Chris Gardner, #NFDB
172:Consumers today are less responsive to traditional media. They are embracing new technologies that empower them with more control over how and when they are marketed to. ~ Jim Stengel, #NFDB
173:If you really want to change a culture to empower women improve basic hygiene and health care and fight high rates of infant mortality the answer is to educate girls. ~ Greg Mortenson, #NFDB
174:Collectively, we activists are essential to advancing U.S. policy to help empower marginalized people to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty for good. ~ Michael Franti, #NFDB
175:I think education is power. I think that being able to communicate with people is power. One of my main goals on the planet is to encourage people to empower themselves. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
176:I love connecting with people who have been through the fire and come out stronger and wiser. Using their experiences to inspire and empower others. Those are my people. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
177:We'll try to include Iraqi officers in our staffs. We will do everything we can to empower Iraqi security forces to stand up on their own and operate where they can alone. ~ John Abizaid, #NFDB
178:Our lives are the results of our choices. To blame and accuse other people, the environment, or other extrinsic factors is to choose to empower those things to control us. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
179:The absorption in nirvana is all that matters. All the strategies of your life are only there to empower you for your final assault on the impenetrable cliffs of forever. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
180:We want to empower the doctors and patients to get all the other assholes out of the way,' Clark had once told me, then laughed. 'Except for us. One asshole in the middle. ~ Michael Lewis, #NFDB
181:If you educate children, then they are capable of so much - you empower them, you give them choices, and you enable them to create the lives that they dream for themselves. ~ Naomie Harris, #NFDB
182:We in the majority have worked hard to empower people to create opportunities, to make jobs, to do things that turn America into a place where people can achieve their dreams. ~ Robin Hayes, #NFDB
183:You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them. ~ Wangari Maathai, #NFDB
184:Learning should never stop for all age groups. We can empower millions to realize the opportunity to help shape a new society of creative 'mentorologists' in all areas of life. ~ Patti Austin, #NFDB
185:People who work to bring about perfection see work as an extension of themselves. The point is to do a good job. That will empower you. To do a poor job will make you weaker. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
186:The government would devote all its effort to empower the poor and give them strength to fight poverty. Skill development would be accompanied by the spirit of Shrameva Jayate. ~ Narendra Modi, #NFDB
187:We've been using C and C++ way too much - they're nice, but they're very close to the machine and what we wanted was to empower regular users to build applications for Linux. ~ Miguel de Icaza, #NFDB
188:If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
189:It would be wonderful if people could grow together in groups, teaching and learning communities where they empower, evoke, explore the enormous capacities of the human condition. ~ Jean Houston, #NFDB
190:My life purpose is to inspire and empower people and organizations to live their highest vision in a context of love and joy and in harmony with the highest good of all concerned. ~ Jack Canfield, #NFDB
191:The Secret's message is to empower people. Its message releases people from feeling like victims and gives them the knowledge to intentionally create their lives the way they want. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
192:Religion will tell you it is impossible to love like you've never been hurt. God, however, will give you the grace you need and empower you to love like you've never been hurt. ~ Jentezen Franklin, #NFDB
193:If you can’t understand these paradoxes – the ways in which symbolic powerlessness can empower and symbolic cruelty can sensitize – please sit down and think them through carefully. ~ Dossie Easton, #NFDB
194:We want to empower our people; we want to strengthen them; we want to provide them with the kind of qualifications that will enable them to build up their own country themselves. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi, #NFDB
195:Educate and empower your clients. You can create a client army that will go out of their way to spread the word about how amazing you are. That’s the key to being a career trainer. ~ Jonathan Goodman, #NFDB
196:In our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first creations, we empower other people and circumstances to shape our lives by default. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
197:we ask for too much salvation by legislation. All we need to do is empower individuals with the right philosophy and the right information to opt out en masse. (quoting Joel Salatin) ~ Michael Pollan, #NFDB
198:Discover the truth about your underlying psychic gifts and not only stop thinking of yourself as crazy but also empower yourself to make a major difference in the lives of others. ~ Catherine Carrigan, #NFDB
199:Father, You are calling upon me to be completely humble and gentle; to be patient, bearing with others in love. (Eph. 4:2) Please empower me with Your Spirit to be obedient to this command. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
200:Becoming a producer enables you to empower yourself, to make the film that you want to make. I have desires to make movies - I have movies I'm developing, and things that I'm interested in. ~ Andy Garcia, #NFDB
201:I was told that my going to college wouldn't be good for my career. I think that's nonsense. It's good to empower yourself by cutting yourself off from this business every once in a while. ~ Claire Danes, #NFDB
202:We know what to do and we know how to do it, these investments save lives, empower women and girls, strengthen health systems and have a profound and lasting impact on development. ~ Babatunde Osotimehin, #NFDB
203:Stop allowing your outdated ideas to hinder your progress. Become open to new information that can refine, improve, and enhance your way of thinking. This will empower your way of living. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
204:How do we think beyond interruptive ad formats, and do things that are much more integrated, much more innovative, and actually empower the viewer and give them a better product experience? ~ James Murdoch, #NFDB
205:So, yes, we do celebrate America today because the majority will stand up and empower the American people to live that American Dream and to be part of making a better, freer, and safer world. ~ Robin Hayes, #NFDB
206:What makes a college of social work a unique laboratory for rumbling is the expectation that we must have uncomfortable conversations if we’re going to work to empower people and change systems. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
207:The promises of eternal life stored up in our heart through the work of the Holy Spirit empower us to walk through the most difficult of life’s trials and tragedies and glorify God in the process. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
208:We all have a story. The difference is: do you use the story to empower yourself? Or do you use your story to keep yourself a victim? The question itself empowers you to change your life. ~ Sunny Dawn Johnston, #NFDB
209:Judging yourself is just as bad as judging someone else. Our thoughts are a powerful force, and what you pay attention to you empower. Judging yourself only serves to strengthen your shortcomings. ~ Jon Gabriel, #NFDB
210:For my brothers it was easy to think about the future. They can be anything they want. But for me it was hard and for that reason I wanted to become educated and empower myself with knowledge. ~ Malala Yousafzai, #NFDB
211:I always try to be very human in my performances and hang out with my fans. It is cool to be a celebrity, but at the end of the day I want to empower my audience and say, 'Hey, I am just like you. ~ Kate Voegele, #NFDB
212:Poverty suppresses growth in regions of the brain that empower children to do well in school, handle the greater threats they face on a daily basis, and eventually make a difference in the world. ~ Dacher Keltner, #NFDB
213:Since violence is largely a male pastime, cultures that empower women tend to move away from the glorification of violence and are less likely to breed dangerous subcultures of rootless young men. ~ Steven Pinker, #NFDB
214:The power and influence of a movie star is curious: I didn't ask for it or take it; people gave it to me. Simply because you're a movie star, people empower you with special rights and privileges. ~ Marlon Brando, #NFDB
215:You know you have an emancipated team when you no longer need to empower them. Indeed, you no longer have the ability to empower them because they are not relying on you as their source of power. ~ L David Marquet, #NFDB
216:Gradually, he began to understand that the AI community was actually his philosophical enemy. After all, their vision was to replace humans with machines, while he wanted to extend and empower people. ~ John Markoff, #NFDB
217:It is the government's strong desire to empower this fabric, this social fabric of our society where faith-based programs large and small feel empowered, encouraged, and welcomed into changing lives. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
218:The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower. ~ Audre Lorde, #NFDB
219:Law 4: Rewrite your models of reality. Extraordinary minds have models of reality that empower them to feel good about themselves and powerful in shifting the world to match the visions in their minds. ~ Vishen Lakhiani, #NFDB
220:If you achieve a voice that will be heard, you should use it to speak up for the voiceless and oppressed. If you possess any power or authority, you must strive to use it to help and empower the powerless. ~ Craig Murray, #NFDB
221:The essence of spirituality is the duty to live to its full the glorious destiny of being human. The purpose of religion should be to empower all people in this adventure of living with dignity and fulfilment. ~ Agnivesh, #NFDB
222:Because we are, by nature, proactive, if our lives are a function of conditioning and conditions, it is because we have, by conscious decision or by default, chosen to empower those things to control us. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
223:I always felt called to serve, to empower and ennoble as many people as I could, teaching, truth-telling, exposing lies, bearing witness, and being willing to live and die for something bigger than yourself. ~ Cornel West, #NFDB
224:Bill Clinton, talking about the need to financially empower wives and mothers in regressive countries, once remarked that women have 'the responsibility gene.' No one has that gene more markedly than his wife. ~ Tina Brown, #NFDB
225:On Capitol Hill, House Republicans have been doing our part. We've been hard at work developing policies that will help empower all Americans. We're beginning to see results. We reduced taxes for everyone. ~ Dennis Hastert, #NFDB
226:To insist on one's place in the scheme of things and to live up to that place.To empower others in their reaching for some place in the scheme of things.To do these things is to make fairy tales come true. ~ Robert Fulghum, #NFDB
227:Twerking is not feminism. Thats what I’m referring to. It’s not — it’s not liberating, it’s not empowering. It’s a sexual thing that you’re doing on a stage; it doesn’t empower you. That’s my feeling about it. ~ Annie Lennox, #NFDB
228:Everything today is "transient." Technology and its ability to empower actors large and small evolve so quickly that we have to get used to living in a world that exists in a more or less constant state of flux. ~ Ian Bremmer, #NFDB
229:On the subject of money and politics and the rest, I have a DARE: Disclose who are these people; Amend the Constitution to overturn Citizens United; Reform: let's have public financing of campaigns; and Empower. ~ Nancy Pelosi, #NFDB
230:Anytime we think the problem is “out there,” that thought is the problem. We empower what’s out there to control us. The change paradigm is “outside-in”—what’s out there has to change before we can change. The ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
231:Blame doesn't empower you. It keeps you stuck in a place you don't want to be because you don't want to make the temporary, but painful decision, to be responsible for the outcome of your own life's happiness. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
232:Your faith in "what will be" will not only empower you to let go "what was", but it will also encourage you to accept "what is" existing now! Have faith in God; His plans are to prosper you, not to harm you! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
233:Learning this skill of distinguishing awareness from that which you are aware of will enable you to expand the container of consciousness and empower you to “taste” so much more than just a salty glass of water. ~ Daniel J Siegel, #NFDB
234:I only know that you can’t fight darkness with darkness. So maybe a Jedi shouldn’t fight violence with violence, either. Sometimes, I even think that the more you fight evil, the more you empower it.”
-Jacen Solo ~ Kathy Tyers,#NFDB
235:Five minutes after we die, we’ll know exactly how we should have lived. But God has given us His Word so that we don’t have to wait to die to find out. And He’s given us His Spirit to empower us to live that way now. ~ Randy Alcorn, #NFDB
236:In the game of life, we all receive a set of variables and limitations in the field of play. We can either focus on the lack thereof or empower ourselves to create better realities with the pieces we play the game with. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
237:leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. Success without a successor is failure. A worker’s main responsibility is developing others to do the work (see ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
238:Stop allowing your outdated ideas to hinder your progress. How would your life be different if you became open to new information that can refine, improve, enhance your way of thinking, and empower your way of living? ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
239:My messaging is not just to empower women, it's actually more directed at men because I think it's important for the men on college campuses to hear a women's perspective on how you shouldn't behave in the workplace. ~ Gretchen Carlson, #NFDB
240:Without imagination, you live in a small room with the windows closed. Imagination opens the windows and shows us landscapes, horizons that we would not otherwise perceive…I want education to empower people to see possibility. ~ Maxine, #NFDB
241:We need to empower ourselves and believe in ourselves, and not allow the world to take that away from us. No matter how dark we may think our world is, it's been much darker in the past, and we will make it through this. ~ Gale Anne Hurd, #NFDB
242:We need to support the governments of the world to create the world we want and I also think we need to empower the UN so that the secretariat, the people who work day in and day out, know that the people are behind them. ~ Jeremy Gilley, #NFDB
243:With each choice that you make to align yourself with the energy of your soul, you empower yourself. Authentic power is built up step by step, choice by choice. It cannot be meditated or prayed into being. It must be earned. ~ Gary Zukav, #NFDB
244:Your dream is a reality that is waiting for you to materialize. Today is a new day! Don’t let your history interfere with your destiny! Learn from your past so that it can empower your present and propel you to greatness ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
245:If I were not a writer, I would spend more time doing the things that I am already doing, which include doing research in physics, teaching, and running a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower women in Cambodia. ~ Alan Lightman, #NFDB
246:Leadership is influence. It is the ability to obtain followers. When the leader lacks confidence, the followers have no commitment. A leader is great not because of his power, but because of his ability to empower others. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
247:You're terrified of being alone. Anything you do now will be motivated by that fear. You have to stop worrying about finding love again. It will come when it comes. Get comfortable with being alone. It will empower you. ~ Jonathan Tropper, #NFDB
248:I confess that I am simply not changed enough by the great truths of the Gospel that I profess to believe with all my heart. Show me the specific gaps between my faith and my practice, and empower me to close them. Amen. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
249:If I were a carpenter, I'd find a way to empower using that skill. I'm using as much as God has given - my mind, my voice, my heart, my art forms. This is the highest form of expression on the planet from God, to me, to you. ~ Avery Brooks, #NFDB
250:One of the most important things we can do right now is empower ordinary working Americans who really do deserve a fair shot in this economy. But I'm not afraid to talk about any issue. But I do believe it is a distraction. ~ Keith Ellison, #NFDB
251:The real work of feminism is to empower a woman and to give her language to express a new value system for the world. The new feminism must create both the process by which we generate influence and the influence itself. ~ Elizabeth Lesser, #NFDB
252:When people are motivated by principles larger than themselves, you don't have to beat them over the head to get them to act. You simply empower them, you inform them, you give them tools, and they take it upon themselves to act. ~ Ted Cruz, #NFDB
253:I wanted to be an empowered woman, and I became an empowered woman. And now I want to empower every woman. And I do it through my clothes, I do it through my words, I do it through my money, I do it through everything. ~ Diane von Furstenberg, #NFDB
254:Do you have the vision to help empower and channel the energy at the grassroots level?This is not about one person; this is about millions of people all working together to protect and advance the interests of working Americans. ~ Keith Ellison, #NFDB
255:My father had a tremendous influence on me, and I think many children who come from broken homes, esp. when they're very early. My dad left when I was 3 1/2, and he left my mom and I. It was something in order to empower myself. ~ David Cassidy, #NFDB
256:People try to get into your life. They try and keep you off-balance, keep you from making good decisions that will empower you - because if your attention field is sharp - you will see if anyone is in your life for ill reasons. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
257:Whatever your quitting point, I challenge you to test God’s truth and faithfulness by saying, “God, I’m going to proceed, trusting you to empower me to crash through this quitting point and come out in one piece on the other side. ~ Bill Hybels, #NFDB
258:And so often the darkest hour is just before the dawn. You just have to hang on in there through those dark hours - don’t give up, let the mountain sustain you and empower you, and you will experience the mountain within you. ~ Bear Grylls, #NFDB
259:Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #NFDB
260:Once you empower people and say,' Here you are, now you get to dream the great dream of becoming a full citizen with equal rights and radical improvement in your living situation,' you are creating an illusion which will break one day. ~ Pankaj Mishra, #NFDB
261:After two decades of reconstruction work, I want to work on projects that lay at the intersection of cultural diplomacy and national identity - ones that empower local communities to define progress, not have it sanctioned by others. ~ Cameron Sinclair, #NFDB
262:Are you limiting your leadership to empowerment? What programs have you instituted to supplement control with competence and clarity? Have you divested yourself of the attitude that you, as a corporate leader, will empower your staff? ~ L David Marquet, #NFDB
263:Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved. Eliminate politics, by giving everybody the same message. Keep a flat organization in which all issues are discussed openly. Empower teams to do their own things. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
264:Being knocked out never means you can’t have another game! Just cheer up; think of the lessons, check the loopholes, empower your guts, train with diligence and tenacity, and you shall rewrite the story with distinctive footprints! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
265:It’s the choices you make that construct your future. You can choose to become a victim or you can choose to make decisions that empower you. Surround yourself with people who support your vision so you can keep your focus, and your energy! ~ Rashmi Bansal, #NFDB
266:We basically maintain that we can have an America and world that works for all of us, but that we need to really engage, and inform and empower the American voter, who are a bunch of very unhappy campers right now. They deserve to be informed. ~ Jill Stein, #NFDB
267:16I pray that from his glorious, unlimited hresources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
268:alignment is the necessary condition before empowering the individual will empower the whole team. Empowering the individual when there is a relatively low level of alignment worsens the chaos and makes managing the team even more difficult: ~ Peter M Senge, #NFDB
269:Historically, Labour has used technology as a form of control. We would use pagers and faxes to send out messages telling people what line to take. The key learning from the Obama campaign is to use technology to empower your supporters. ~ Douglas Alexander, #NFDB
270:Rise up, empower yourself and take a step. The only way to know that you still have some amount of strength in you when you fall is to attempt to rise up. However if you believe you don't have any strength, you will remain where you are! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
271:The simple fact of the matter is that the world has never built a multiethnic democracy in which no particular ethnic group is in the majority and where political equality, social equality and economies that empower all have been achieved. ~ Steven Levitsky, #NFDB
272:I'm thrilled to continue my partnership with U by Kotex for Generation Know while helping to empower girls. I've always been a motivational resource for my younger sisters and hope I can positively impact and inspire other young girls too. ~ Khloe Kardashian, #NFDB
273:My purpose is to develop a country, to empower its population. It's from that same population that will emerge the man or woman who will succeed me. And they will be chosen based on the consensus that they have the capacity to lead the country. ~ Paul Kagame, #NFDB
274:Senator Cruz has also strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Brussels, and yesterday put out this statement saying, quote, "that we need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized". ~ Sean Hannity, #NFDB
275:Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom. ~ Nelson Mandela, #NFDB
276:A guiding coalition with good managers but poor leaders will not succeed. A managerial mindset will develop plans, not vision; it will vastly undercommunicate the need for and direction of change; and it will control rather than empower people. ~ John P Kotter, #NFDB
277:We need to empower women. Give women a voice in the decision-making process. Give women a political voice where they can champion, for their own welfare. And, of course, for us. United Nations - organizations, agencies - we need to do our part. ~ Margaret Chan, #NFDB
278:Some people suggest that the problem is the separation of powers. If you had a parliamentary system, the struggle for power would not result in such complex peace treaties that empower so many different people to pursue so many contradictory aims ~ James Q Wilson, #NFDB
279:Engage, educate, equip, encourage, empower, energize, and elevate. Those are the methods for maximizing the potential of any individual, team, organization, or institution for ultimate success and significance. Those are the methods of a mentor leader. ~ Tony Dungy, #NFDB
280:I am not asking anyone to take the fun out of childhood. As we all know, treats are one of the best parts of being a kid. Instead, the goal here is to empower parents instead of undermining them as they try to make healthier choices for their families. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
281:So I'm very happy if my words can ever inspire or empower someone who considers themselves an oppressed minority. We are all the same and we all want the same things: the right to be happy, to be just who we want to be and to love who we want to love. ~ Beyonce Knowles, #NFDB
282:Two of the greatest hungers in our world today are the hunger for spirituality and the hunger for social change. The connection between the two is the one the world is waiting for, especially the new generation. And the first hunger will empower the second. ~ Jim Wallis, #NFDB
283:If you spend time in rural areas there’s always a hustler, someone who can get a solar panel or a woman who knows where to get Internet if they need to. These are the folks we want to empower, the person who knows how to get stuff done in these neighborhoods. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
284:Organizations that empower folks further down the chain or try to get rid of the big hierarchal chains and allow decision making to happen on a more local level end up being more adaptive and resilient because there are more minds involved in the problem. ~ Steven Johnson, #NFDB
285:We have the freedom to excel or inhibit our potential. You are the grand designer of your thoughts and emotions. At some level or another you are the one who chooses which thoughts to accept and which ones to ignore. That can be a very empower realization. ~ Michael Arndt, #NFDB
286:If you had told me when I was at high school that one day I would be working for a for-profit company, let alone running one, I would have said you were crazy. But I am interested in how you can empower individuals to make change, and Causes is doing just that. ~ Joe Greene, #NFDB
287:Prayer: Lord, empower your church to win the world by not just proclaiming your Word but also embodying it. Make our congregations places where we see the races and classes reconciled in ways that they are in no other place on the face of the earth. Amen. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
288:God’s vision for your ministry, like the one He prepares for a church, will cause you to grow by demanding that you change, sharpen your skills and participate in situations in which your only hope of success is enabling His Spirit to guide you and empower you. ~ George Barna, #NFDB
289:I am very grateful for the success, because it has given me the freedom to write without pressure, in my own way, and has enabled me to maintain my family and educate my children and grandchildren, as well as to create a Foundation to empower women and girls. ~ Isabel Allende, #NFDB
290:Others first. Whatever your corporate mission, paint a clear and compelling picture that others can understand and embrace. State your mission in terms that appeal to your team's best instincts. Persuade and empower as if you are leading and mentoring volunteers. ~ Tony Dungy, #NFDB
291:Being able to live my life transparently does empower me to feel like I can be myself more. It's easier for me to flirt with girls now that girls know that I'm gay. It almost makes it a sexier encounter than if I was trying to pretend that I was straight. ~ Neil Patrick Harris, #NFDB
292:Hillary Clinton has that, a passion to empower families and kids, and a desire to measure health of society by how families and kids are doing. You can see this from her service as a lawyer, first lady of Arkansas, and United States senator, and secretary of state. ~ Tim Kaine, #NFDB
293:I think we have to be accepting of one another, and we have to appreciate what every culture has given us and name that and accept that and empower and encourage that. I really think that's what it comes down to. The images won't change until we make them change. ~ Keke Palmer, #NFDB
294:Removing red tapism and favoritism in higher education and research administration and management is of utmost importance. We need to empower universities, both government funded and private, to promote research and enable them to improve research infrastructure. ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
295:I don't want to infantilize the actor; I want to empower the actor. Actors can be many things, but all of the really good ones are really great storytellers, and I'm interested in that. If you're not interested in that as a director then you better be Stanley Kurbrick. ~ Paul Bettany, #NFDB
296:The power of resistance is to set an example: not necessarily to change the person with whom you disagree, but to empower the one who is watching and whose growth is not yet complete, whose path is not at all clear, whose direction is still very much in the proverbial air. ~ Tim Wise, #NFDB
297:Unlike ‘mere’ medical or physical disorders, mental disorders are not just problems. If successfully navigated, they can also present opportunities. Simply acknowledging this can empower people to heal themselves and, much more than that, to grow from their experiences. ~ Neel Burton, #NFDB
298:[U]ntil feminists work to empower femininity and pry it away from the insipid, inferior meanings that plague it - weakness, helplessness, fragility, passivity, frivolity, and artificiality - those meanings will continue to haunt every person who is female and/or feminine. ~ Julia Serano, #NFDB
299:The power of resistance is to set an example: not necessarily to change the person with whom you disagree, but to empower the one who is watching and whose growth is not yet completed, whose path is not at all clear, whose direction is still very much up in the proverbial air. ~ Tim Wise, #NFDB
300:The power of resistance is to set the example: not necessarily to change the person with whom you disagree, but to empower the one who is watching and whose growth is not yet complete, whose path is not at all clear, whose direction is still very much up in the proverbial air. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
301:In our interconnected world, novel technology could empower just one fanatic, or some weirdo with a mindset of those who now design computer viruses, to trigger some kind of disaster. Indeed, catastrophe could arise simply from technical misadventure - error rather than terror. ~ Martin Rees, #NFDB
302:So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, those who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
303:Brands must empower their community to be change agents in their own right. To that end, they need to take on a mentoring role. This means the brand provides the tools, techniques and strategies for their customers to become more effective marketers in achieving their own goals. ~ Simon Mainwaring, #NFDB
304:When people talk about “reinventing” their career or their business, small boxes are often the root cause. What you build today will either empower or restrict you tomorrow. It will either serve as a platform for the next level of your success or as a box, trapping you where you are. ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
305:I write books to change the world. Perhaps I can only change one little piece of that world. But if I can empower teachers and good citizens to give these children, who are the poorest of the poor, the same opportunity we give our own kids, then I'll feel my life has been worth it. ~ Jonathan Kozol, #NFDB
306:Real leadership is about building people up and empowering them. Many leaders feel that empowering someone else will reduce their own authority. I ask you: When Rasulallah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam empowered the sahaba, did that take away from his authority or did it empower him? ~ Nouman Ali Khan, #NFDB
307:If you don't invest in the woman, empower her, give her the things she needs to lift her family up, you're just not going to make the progress that you want to make. But if you put her at the centre, you can change a lot for that family, and it has ripple effects through the economy. ~ Melinda Gates, #NFDB
308:The way that you empower the poor to be able to live in those neighborhoods is not to just move them and give them something, give them the better neighborhood. You have policies that allow them to get out of the neighborhood permanently and afford that neighborhood through hard work. ~ Katie Pavlich, #NFDB
309:I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game. ~ Toni Morrison, #NFDB
310:Regarding national security, we need to restore the defense cuts of Barack Obama to rebuild our military, to destroy ISIS before it destroys us. Regarding economic security, we need to take power and money away from Washington D.C. and empower American families so that they can rise up again. ~ Jeb Bush, #NFDB
311:It's really important that we stop body shaming people online and on social media. The rude comments under pictures, comparing women in "who looks better" posts - all that does is force us to judge each other. It only sets us back and women, now more than ever, need to empower each other. ~ Ashley Graham, #NFDB
312:Doing things for others is something that money cannot buy it is a priceless act which gives an abundance of worthy feelings for both involved, to empower others and to know that others care is an key part of listening, the stoppage of wars, the foundations of a hopeful future for everybody. ~ Paul Isaacs, #NFDB
313:no thought lives in your head rent-free.” Each thought you have will either be an investment or a cost. It will either move you toward happiness and success or away from it. It will either empower you or disempower you. That’s why it is imperative you choose your thoughts and beliefs wisely. ~ T Harv Eker, #NFDB
314:If psychedelics are exopheromones that dissolve the dominant ego, then they are also enzymes that synergize the human imagination and empower language. They cause us to connect and reconnect the contents of the collective mind in ever more implausible, beautiful, and self-fulfilling ways. ~ Terence McKenna, #NFDB
315:In honor of Oprah Winfrey: Even greater than the ability to inspire others with hope is the power to motivate them to give as much to the lives of others as they would give to their own; and to empower them to confront the worst in themselves in order to discover and claim the best in themselves. ~ Aberjhani, #NFDB
316:Entrepreneurship is the engine fuelling innovation, employment generation and economic growth. Only by creating an environment where entrepreneur- ship can prosper and where entrepreneurs can try new ideas and empower others can we ensure that many of the world’s issues will not go unaddressed. ~ Klaus Schwab, #NFDB
317:You completely redefine my idea of what love is and should be. That it needn't be possessive, volatile or detrimental to your well-being, but can be selfless, gentle and consistent -- and should empower you to pursue your passions. That it should balance and enrich a life, not tear it to pieces. ~ Beau Taplin, #NFDB
318:Connect with supportive people who empower you. The more you jump into your life, the further away from Ed you can get. Don’t have a backup plan for living. Live today. […] Trust in God. Believe in yourself. Get friends and family members to stand behind you. That’s the only backup you’ll need. ~ Jenni Schaefer, #NFDB
319:Practice: Please list the names of 5 people you could empower this month and how you could empower them with support, love, information, assistance, resources, knowledge, material objects or skills. Then, mark down in a Calendar or Time-Schedule by which day you will provide that Empowerment. ~ Frederick Dodson, #NFDB
320:But by confronting whatever lies beneath—be it our guilt for wanting more money or our mismanaged investments or our less-than-impressive plans for getting rich—once we give it attention and untangle it, we empower ourselves to end the torture. Our attempt to avoid pain backfires on us all the time. ~ Jen Sincero, #NFDB
321:Connect with supportive people who empower you. The more you jump into your life, the further away from Ed you can get. Don't have a backup plan for living. Live today. [...] Trust in God. Believe in yourself. Get friends and family members to stand behind you. That's the only backup you'll need. ~ Jenni Schaefer, #NFDB
322:Fill your life with women that empower you, that help you believe in your magic and aid them to believe in their own exceptional power and their incredible magic too. Women that believe in each other can survive anything. Women who believe in each other create armies that will win kingdoms and wars. ~ Nikita Gill, #NFDB
323:Perhaps one day we will do “everything that we can to protect our people and the timeless values that we stand for.” But today, we won’t even honestly describe the motivations of our enemies. And in the act of lying to ourselves, we continue to pay lip service to the very delusions that empower them. ~ Sam Harris, #NFDB
324:There are different varieties and forms of capitalism. There are priorities within the capitalist society so that you can have countervailing forces come in and empower your working people and your poor people. There are capitalist societies that do not have poverty. America needs to understand that. ~ Cornel West, #NFDB
325:My prayer is that the Holy Spirit would sweep into our lives with holy disruption, upending our assumptions and privileges, our greed and selfishness, our pride and our stupor. To empower our work and our witness. Like Zechariah 4:6 tells us, not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. ~ Sarah Bessey, #NFDB
326:This is a lyrical guide that addresses the deep human yearning to make a difference. It's full of indelible stories reminding us that, yes, helping people is hard-but it's both possible and infinitely rewarding. A Path Appears offers practical steps that any of us can take to empower others, and ourselves. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
327:It is truly a privilege to be able to support all women's causes on a global level. It is remarkable that something as simple as television can empower us to create change and awareness in the world. I am blessed to be able to work at a job I love and also give back in the most vital way-to people in need. ~ Teri Hatcher, #NFDB
328:situation. But notice how Laura drew the story out of her son, letting him take an active role in the storytelling process. She acted primarily as a facilitator, helping get the facts of the event straight. This is how stories empower us to move forward and master the moments when we feel out of control. ~ Daniel J Siegel, #NFDB
329:In Marcus’s words is the secret to an art known as turning obstacles upside down. To act with “a reverse clause,” so there is always a way out or another route to get to where you need to go. So that setbacks or problems are always expected and never permanent. Making certain that what impedes us can empower us. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
330:Lot of us have problems with over-eating, eating too often, eating too little, eating junk food, food allergies, etc. This Guide the Conscious Eating is designed is such a way to empower you in your relationship to food, helping you become more aware and conscious of your body / mind connection to food. ~ Nata a Nuit Pantovi, #NFDB
331:I've been a staunch advocate of women's empowerment, and I've worked hard throughout my career to advance the cause. It is heartening to see that gender equality is really becoming more of a reality. There is still much more to be done, and I'm confident that, by working together, we can empower women worldwide. ~ Madhuri Dixit, #NFDB
332:Music brings relief! Hymns change mood! Songs empower the downhearted. Sing songs always! When all things seem down, sing a good and an inspiring song! When you seem to be wasting your energy on toxic thoughts, invoke your spirit with an amazing song! Songs have power! Empower your life with good songs! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
333:Be a good example and a positive ambassador for vegan living, and be patient and understanding with people who aren't vegan. Support any move non-vegans make away from animal consumption toward plant-based eating. Nurture even small positive steps, as these tend to empower people and build momentum toward bigger steps. ~ Gene Baur, #NFDB
334:The hastily crafted [stimulus] bill, with its corrupt funding of ACORN and other favors, is a disgracefully irresponsible effort to expand the public sector, diminish the private sector, empower the autocrats, and further divest us of our individual liberties - all at the expense of present and future generations. ~ David Limbaugh, #NFDB
335:Writing becomes an act of compassion toward life, the life we so often refuse to see because if we look too closely or feel too deeply, there may be no end to our suffering. But words empower us, move us beyond our suffering, and set us free. This is the sorcery of literature. We are healed by our stories. ~ Terry Tempest Williams, #NFDB
336:Healthy children are born from healthy, respected, well-nourished and educated mothers and it is imperative that they have a voice in the decisions which affect them. If you empower a mother and let her have her say towards a poverty-free future, the positive impact this would have on ending hunger will be immense. ~ Dionne Warwick, #NFDB
337:The root cause of the looming energy problem - and the key to easing environmental, economic and religious tensions while improving public health - is to address the unending, and unequal, growth of the human population. And the one proven way to reduce fertility rates is to empower young women by educating them. ~ Lawrence M Krauss, #NFDB
338:In our course we teach that "no thought lives in your head rent-free." Each thought you have will either be an investment or a cost. It will either move you toward happiness and success or away from it. It will either empower you or disempower you. That's why it is imperative you choose your thoughts and beliefs wisely. ~ T Harv Eker, #NFDB
339:Kronos would be 10 times more powerful. His very presence would incinerate you. And once he achieves this he will empower the other Titans. They are weak, compared to what they soon will become, unless you can stop them, the world will fall, the gods will die, and I will never achieve a perfect score on this stupid machine. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
340:I tell you this: You always get what you create, and you are always creating. I do not make a judgment about the creations that you conjure, I simply empower you to conjure more-and more and more and more. If you don't like what you've just created, choose again. My job, as God, is to always give you that opportunity. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
341:I've learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a few steps down the road for you. The journey is valuable, but believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self-worth can empower you to walk down an even brighter path. Transforming fear into freedom - how great is that? ~ Soledad O Brien, #NFDB
342:One of the things that Claire [ McCaskill] and I are trying to do is put systems on campus in place so that a survivor knows who to talk to - that there's somebody who's an expert on their campus that will know all their options from day one and really empower them to make their own decision about what they want to do. ~ Kirsten Gillibrand, #NFDB
343:I have a really deep belief that we create technologies to empower ourselves. We've invented a lot of technology that just makes us all faster and better, and I'm generally a big fan of this. I just want to make sure that this technology stays subservient to people. People are the number one entity there is on this planet. ~ Sebastian Thrun, #NFDB
344:To empower people in an unaligned organization can be counterproductive. If people do not share a common vision, and do not share common mental models about the business reality within which they operate, empowering people will only increase organizational stress and the burden of management to maintain coherence and direction. ~ Peter M Senge, #NFDB
345:the reason God now calls kingdom people to remain separate from the ways of the kingdom-of-the-world is not to isolate them from their culture but to empower them to authentically serve their culture and ultimately win it over to allegiance to Jesus Christ. The reason we are not to be of the world is so we may be for the world. ~ Gregory A Boyd, #NFDB
346:We must not confuse resting on our laurels with walking intimately with God. If we rely on our past victories, we’ll fail in our current battles. However, if we rest in God more than we trust ourselves—because we have a history with Him—He’ll cover us, equip us, empower us, and protect us whether we feel up for the battle or not. ~ Susie Larson, #NFDB
347:You just had to know how to do it, and when to do it, and most important of all, why to do it. Powerful substance like this, Lowell would explain, it wasn't there just for any casual jack-off recreational urge. It was there to allow you to do things. To empower you, he said, so you could do things and, best of all, finish them. ~ William Gibson, #NFDB
348:That creates yet more work for the next woman up. That’s what can happen when we mentor and empower. That’s what happens when we realize that any joy we find in the next woman’s pain or struggle is just a reflection of our own pain: “See how hard this is? Do you appreciate how difficult this is?” Instead, I want to heal her and me. ~ Gabrielle Union, #NFDB
349:The message that I gave on the - on the steps today was that you need to stand for those things that are right and empower the individual. Believe in the power of one person. Don't believe that you can't do it. Everybody wants - everybody wants a shot. That we can all agree on. Beyond that, it becomes politics. I'm not talking politics. ~ Glenn Beck, #NFDB
350:When you move off a point of power, pay all your obligations on the nail, empower all your friends completely and move off with your pockets full of artillery, potential blackmail on every erstwhile rival, unlimited funds in your private account and the addresses of experienced assassins and go live in Bulgravia and bribe the police. ~ L Ron Hubbard, #NFDB
351:The question becomes what kind of coalition can we build that will make a transition and empower the people of Iraq? The American soldiers' presence there is an act of provocation. There's a big red ball on the back of every American soldier in that country, so our being there contributes to the crisis, it does not resolve the crisis. ~ Jesse Jackson, #NFDB
352:For me professionally as well I've built an incredible business that I'm very proud of that is my own brand and that is both creating incredible content to empower and inspire this next generation of working women through a digital platform, mainly through my website, ivankatrump.com, our email newsletters, and our social-media platforms. ~ Ivanka Trump, #NFDB
353:The best way to help your consumers with your business is to treat your employees right so they give better customer service, empower them so they can provide faster solutions, and to treat your vendors and partners fairly and with respect so they can continually provide the best product and services to their ability. - Strong by Kailin Gow ~ Kailin Gow, #NFDB
354:Populists have always been out to challenge the orthodoxy of the corporate order and to empower workaday Americans so they can control their own economic and political destinies. This approach distinguishes the movement from classic liberalism, which seeks to live in harmony with concentrated corporate power by trying to regulate excesses. ~ Jim Hightower, #NFDB
355:Everyone is driven by three things: 1. Achievement (the desire to compete against increasingly challenging goals) 2. Affiliation (the desire to be liked/loved) 3. Power, expressed in one of two ways: Personalized (the desire for influence and respect for yourself) Socialized (the desire to empower others; to offer them influence and respect) ~ Peter Bregman, #NFDB
356:The spirit of Ubuntu, that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent black nation in 1804, helped Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador attain liberty, and inspired our forefathers to shed their blood for the United States' independence, cannot die. Today, this spirit of solidarity must and will empower all of us to rebuild Haiti. ~ Jean Bertrand Aristide, #NFDB
357:He who stands on tiptoe doesn’t stand firm. He who rushes ahead doesn’t go far. He who tries to shine dims his own light. He who defines himself can’t know who he really is. He who has power over others can’t empower himself. He who clings to his work will create nothing that endures. If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
358:If Jesus has all authority, that would mean that Satan has none! We are in Christ, therefore we carry His authority into every circumstance, every geographic location and every situation. The only way that Satan has authority is when we give it to him. That is why he works so hard to get us to empower him through lies, sin or covenant agreements. ~ Kris Vallotton, #NFDB
359:When I take kids into the woods, I tell them, "What we're going to do today is going to be incredibly dangerous." And you just see 20 smiles go up. "But, we're also going to learn to look after each other, who to work together and who to understand and manage that risk." That's what it's about, you don't empower kids if you don't expose them to risk. ~ Bear Grylls, #NFDB
360:It was the community around me and the relationships and the love that people gave me that got me off the streets. We need to do that for Indigenous people, we need to empower Indigenous voices and Indigenous knowledge so they can get off the streets themselves and be the people they're supposed to be in society, so they can contribute in a good way. ~ Jesse Thistle, #NFDB
361:The demands of forgiveness are so daunting that they seem humanly impossible. The demands of forgiveness are simply beyond the capacity of ungraced human will. Only reckless confidence in a Source greater than ourselves can empower us to forgive the wounds inflicted by others. In boundary moments such as these there is only one place to go—Calvary. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
362:Such a leader knows how to empower groups to self-organize. When it’s done right, a governance structure by consensus naturally emerges, as happened both with Linux and Wikipedia. “What astonishes so many people is that the open source model actually works,” Torvalds said. “People know who has been active and who they can trust, and it just happens. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
363:All things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
364:Everyone is driven by three things: 1. Achievement (the desire to compete against increasingly challenging goals) 2. Affiliation (the desire to be liked/loved) 3. Power, expressed in one of two ways: • Personalized (the desire for influence and respect for yourself) • Socialized (the desire to empower others; to offer them influence and respect) ~ Peter Bregman, #NFDB
365:For me, I just want to feel great. But carrying the extra pounds started to weigh me down - literally. I want to encourage moms to feel good about themselves. I think it's important to empower ourselves. We have kids and we love our kids. But we still have ourselves. And I want to feel like the best version of myself. That's why I turned to Nutrisystem. ~ Soleil Moon Frye, #NFDB
366:Once you educate the boys, they tend to leave the villages and go search for work in the cities, but the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they’ve learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls. ~ Greg Mortenson, #NFDB
367:Privilege is not in and of itself bad; what matters is what we do with privilege. I want to live in a world where all women have access to education, and all women can earn PhD’s, if they so desire. Privilege does not have to be negative, but we have to share our resources and take direction about how to use our privilege in ways that empower those who lack it. ~ Bell Hooks, #NFDB
368:Privilege is not in and of itself bad; what matters is what we do with privilege. I want to live in a world where all women have access to education, and all women can earn PhD’s, if they so desire. Privilege does not have to be negative, but we have to share our resources and take direction about how to use our privilege in ways that empower those who lack it. ~ bell hooks, #NFDB
369:The bleakness of what faces us is difficult to swallow. As long as we engage in happy platitudes and a false kind of vision of the possible, it may empower you over the short term, but it is eventually, because of the reality in front of us, going to lead to despair and cynicism and apathy. It's better to swallow hard the bitter pill of what we're up against. ~ Chris Hedges, #NFDB
370:Mothers who are strong people, who can pursue a life of their own when it is time to let their children go, empower their childrenof either gender to feel free and whole. But weak women, women who feel and act like victims of something or other, may make their children feel responsible for taking care of them, and they can carry their children down with them. ~ Frank Pittman, #NFDB
371:As Rose correctly argues, tolerance properly understood is the ability to accept speech one dislikes. “When we focus on non-discrimination and equality, and aim to empower the aggrieved, tolerance is no longer about the ability to tolerate things we don’t like,” he explains. “It becomes the ability to keep quiet and refrain from saying things that others may dislike. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
372:If we empower ourselves with responsibility over our actions, responsibility over our destinies and responsibility for directing and maintaining and creating our own ethical and moral frameworks, which is the most important thing really isn’t it because perhaps the greatest insult to humanism is this idea that mankind needs a god in order to have a moral framework. ~ Stephen Fry, #NFDB
373:I try not to respond to trolls. I've learned blocking. If anybody is truly mean to me, or says something arrogant - don't respond, you'll only empower them. If you give them anything! So I'll block 'em. Or, if someone's annoying, but yet I still kind of like them, I mute them. Because they don't know! So then, it still looks like we're connected, but I don't have to listen. ~ Andie MacDowell, #NFDB
374:One of the great ironies is that the impact of the flattening world has not been to empower decentralized rural land, but to strengthen the cities in China and India and elsewhere that are gateways between those countries and the West. It's deeply wise for the Chinese to be pro-urban in terms of development. They're creating space for ideas and human capital to be developed. ~ Edward Glaeser, #NFDB
375:I ask you to join in a re-United States. We need to empower our people so they can take more responsibility for their own lives in a world that is ever smaller, where everyone counts.... We need a new spirit of community, a sense that we are all in this together, or the American Dream will continue to wither. Our destiny is bound up with the destiny of every other American. ~ William J Clinton, #NFDB
376:UN studies conducted in more than forty developing countries show that the birth rate falls as women gain equality... I believe income-earning opportunities that empower poor women ... will have more impact on curbing population growth that the current system of "encouraging" family planning practices through intimidation tactics.. Family planning should be left to the family. ~ Muhammad Yunus, #NFDB
377:Mentors and apprentices are partners in an ancient human dance, and one of teaching's great rewards is the daily chance it gives us to get back on the dance floor. It is the dance of the spiraling generations, in which the old empower the young with their experience and the young empower the old with new life, reweaving the fabric of the human community as they touch and turn. ~ Parker J Palmer, #NFDB
378:pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. EPHESIANS 3:16–18 ~ Susie Larson, #NFDB
379:Throughout all the years and in everything we do, we have focused most of all on the development of human capacity, beginning with our own professional staff, and leveraging their expertise to enrich the Arab community. We have embraced the concept of the 'knowledge worker' and have sought to empower our people and the Arab world's people to dream, to imagine, and to create. ~ Talal Abu Ghazaleh, #NFDB
380:I want the government in the DRC and everywhere where gender inequality is a problem, it's not only an African problem, to take this seriously, also to do everything they can to ensure that we put an end to impunity, to address the problem of impunity and also to assist the women; to empower women, to make sure that they have a voice and a seat at the table where decisions are made. ~ Margot Wallstrom, #NFDB
381:Our challenge, as we enter the new millennium, is to deepen the commonalities and the bonds between these tens of millions, while at the same time continuing to address the issues within our local communities by two-sided struggles that not only say "No" to the existing power structure but also empower our constituencies to embrace the power within each of us to crease the world anew. ~ Grace Lee Boggs, #NFDB
382:To me, what I've always said is that the president [Barack Obama] has set up an awful situation through his deal with Iran, because what his deal with Iran has done is empower them and enrich them. And that's the way ISIS has been created and formed here. ISIS is created and formed because of the abuse that [Bashar] Assad and his Iranian sponsors have rained down on the Sunnis in Syria. ~ Chris Christie, #NFDB
383:Americans cannot escape a certain responsibility for what is done in our name around the world. In a democracy, even one as corrupted as ours, ultimate authority rests with the people. We empower the government with our votes, finance it with our taxes, bolster it with our silent acquiescence. If we are passive in the face of America's official actions overseas, we in effect endorse them. ~ Mark Hertsgaard, #NFDB
384:He who stands on tiptoe
doesn't stand firm.
He who rushes ahead
doesn't go far.
He who tries to shine
dims his own light.
He who defines himself
can't know who he really is.
He who has power over others
can't empower himself.
He who clings to his work
will create nothing that endures.
If you want to accord with the Tao,
just do your job, then let go. ~ Lao Tzu,#NFDB
385:The 8 Project Oxygen Attributes Be a good coach. Empower the team and do not micromanage. Express interest/concern for team members’ success and personal well-being. Be very productive/results-oriented. Be a good communicator—listen and share information. Help the team with career development. Have a clear vision/strategy for the team. Have important technical skills that help advise the team. ~ Laszlo Bock, #NFDB
386:By healing our internal divisions and fully accepting ourselves as we are, we learn to accept and empower our sexual core, and we learn to honor our unique expression of Masculine and Feminine gifts. We fully incarnate in our bodies, at home and at ease in a man's body or a woman's body. And we learn to love with complete abandon, as free men and women, without rules or roles or guarded hearts. ~ David Deida, #NFDB
387:I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. It is an act that can be met with hostility, exclusion, and violence. It can also lead to love, understanding, transcendence, and community. I hope that my being real with you will help empower you to step into who you are and encourage you to share yourself with those around you. ~ Janet Mock, #NFDB
388:Edward Snowden's real "crime" is that he demonstrated how knowledge can be used to empower people, to get them to think as critically engaged citizens rather than assume that knowledge and education are merely about the learning of skills - a reductive concept that substitutes training for education and reinforces the flight from reason and the goose-stepping reflexes of an authoritarian mindset. ~ Henry Giroux, #NFDB
389:NVC is language, thoughts, communication skills and means of influence that serve my desire to do three things: 1) to liberate myself from cultural learning that is in conflict with how I want to live my life. 2) to empower myself to connect with myself and others in a way that makes compassionate giving natural. 3) to empower myself to create structures that support compassionate giving. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
390:Thus, Dr. Seuss's books structurally empower children to participate in the reading process, while the narratives reinforce a child's autonomy and power. Through his avant-garde approach, Dr. Seuss was disseminating the same norms that would be enshrined in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, taking children seriously, and empowering them to play an active role in matters that affect them ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
391:If you want to run for Prime Minister, you can. If you don't, that's wonderful, too. Shave your armpits, don't shave them, wear flats one day, heels the next. These things are so irrelevant and surface to what it is all really about, and I wish people wouldn't get caught up in that. We want to empower women to do exactly what they want, to be true to themselves, to have the opportunities to develop. ~ Emma Watson, #NFDB
392:And in my own life, in my own small way, I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us - no matter what our age or background or walk of life - each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
393:I just love the idea of witches, in general. The whole concept of witches was to keep down the feminine rise in power that was happening, at the time. They created this concept of witches, so that they could burn women at the stake and keep them in their place, and now we've turned it around to empower women. That's very ironic. If they only knew that they created a weapon for us to use against them. ~ Madchen Amick, #NFDB
394:When others hurt us in ways we don't deserve, at some point we will come to the crossroads of decision. We will have to look our pain square in the face and ask, "Am I going to hang on to my anger and do violence to myself, or am I going to forgive those who have wounded me? Am I going to allow bitterness to poison and putrefy my soul, or am I going to invite God to empower me to let the anger go?" ~ Pam W Vredevelt, #NFDB
395:Many of us were a little to early to assume that the most logical uses of the internet in authoritarian states would be to empower people. And to force them towards participation in politics. If you look at most authoritarian states, they are very grim places to live in. The only good thing about it is fast internet. That's the only way you can find some meaning in an otherwise very dark and gloomy life. ~ Evgeny Morozov, #NFDB
396:Performance improved only when companies implemented programs to empower employees (for example, by taking decision-making authority away from managers and giving it to individuals or teams), provided learning opportunities that were outside what people needed to do their jobs, increased their reliance on teamwork (by giving teams more autonomy and allowing them to self-organize), or a combination of these. ~ Laszlo Bock, #NFDB
397:This is precisely why success depends on experiencing tangible results immediately. If you use the right method and concentrate your efforts on eliminating clutter thoroughly and completely within a short span of time, you’ll see instant results that will empower you to keep your space in order ever after. Anyone who experiences this process, no matter who they are, will vow never to revert to clutter again. ~ Marie Kond, #NFDB
398:I love the donors and we thank them, but it has to be that the guys in the barber shop, the lady at the diner, the folks who are worried about whether that plant is going to close, they've got to be our focus. They've got to be a laser-beam focus on everything we do, and everything we do should animate and empower them at the grassroots level for working people across this country. That's how we come back. ~ Keith Ellison, #NFDB
399:I think education is power. I think that being able to communicate with people is power. One of my main goals on the planet is to encourage people to empower themselves." Another "I was raised to believe that excellence is the deterrent to racism and sexism. And that's how I operate my life." And another "It does not matter who you are or where you came from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
400:There’s light at the end of the tunnel. The problem is that tunnel is in the back of your mind. And if you don’t go to the back side of your mind you will never see the light at the end of the tunnel. And once you see it, then the task becomes to empower it in yourself and other people. Spread it as a reality. God did not retire to the seventh heaven, God is some kind of lost continent IN the human mind. ~ Terence McKenna, #NFDB
401:We only recently figured out the origin of our own moon. And we have some idea of how the Sun and Earth formed, but that's only because modern telescopes empower us to see other stars and planets freshly hatched within gas clouds across the galaxy. As for the origin of life itself, the transition from inanimate molecules to what any of us would call life remains one of the great frontiers of biology. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, #NFDB
402:think of a time when you were angry, when someone said or did something that you didn’t like, a time when you wanted to get even or you wanted to vent. Now, what if you had been able to stop, breathe deeply, and slow the process down? Right on the spot you could connect with natural openness. You could stop, give space, and empower the wolf of patience and courage instead of the wolf of aggression and violence. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
403:There are those, of course, who claim we must give up freedom in exchange for economic progress. Well, pardon me, but anyone trying to sell you that line is no better than a three-card-trick man. One thing becoming more clear every day is that freedom and progress go hand in hand. Throughout the developing world, people are rejecting socialism because they see that it doesn't empower people, it impoverishes them. ~ Ronald Reagan, #NFDB
404:The cross can heal and hurt; it can be empowering and liberating but also enslaving and oppressive. There is no one way in which the cross can be interpreted. I offer my reflections because I believe that the cross placed alongside the lynching tree can help us to see Jesus in America in a new light, and thereby empower people who claim to follow him to take a stand against white supremacy and every kind of injustice. ~ James H Cone, #NFDB
405:The Secret Language of Your Body truly is the essential guide to restore your body to its healthiest state and assist you to heal your life. Inna Segal offers invaluable insights into the underlying causes of illness and disease and provides practical advice which will undoubtedly empower many to self-heal. So read on and learn from the wisdom of this book, which can guide you to the life you were truly meant to live. ~ Bernie Siegel, #NFDB
406:There’s a saying in Africa, if you give a woman empowerment, you empower a community, you empower men, you empower man. When women become empowered and live in their strength it’s beneficiary to others, and I think as young women today we sometimes forget that we are standing on the struggle of other women. Those women had to stand up to make a change, and they were not popular, and now we’re making them unpopular again. ~ Danai Gurira, #NFDB
407:How, I asked myself, do you convince men and women who live comfortably to change a system that provides their comforts--even when they know about EHMs and jackals, when they understand that attached to their comforts are terrible price tags? Where do you find words to empower them to stand up to a force like the corporatocracy? How do you inspire them to take actions that will bend the corporations to the will of the people? ~ John Perkins, #NFDB
408:Leaders may not always be the ones who generate the specific strategies, tactics, or directions that lead their teams to success. But leaders who exhibit Extreme Ownership will empower key leaders within their teams to figure out a way to win. Some of the boldest, most successful plans in history have not come from the senior ranks but from frontline leaders. Senior leaders simply had the courage to accept and run with them. ~ Jocko Willink, #NFDB
409:Imagination can do miraculous things. If you have enough control over your life energies and can empower your imagination, it will become a reality. There are many yogis who live in their own worlds with their own kind of planets, earth, everything. They live in a cave, but they have used their imagination and their life energies to create a whole new dimension of life. He lives there happily. A universe is contained inside the cave. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
410:In other words, when we conflate deployment and release, it makes it difficult to create accountability for successful outcomes—decoupling these two activities allows us to empower Development and Operations to be responsible for the success of fast and frequent deployments, while enabling product owners to be responsible for the successful business outcomes of the release (i.e., was building and launching the feature worth our time). ~ Gene Kim, #NFDB
411:There are hard texts in each tradition which we must confront and ask ourselves, 'Can we reinterpret those texts to allow us to live peaceably, and respectfully, with people of other faiths?' That is a job only Jews can do for Judaism, only Christians can do for Christianity, and only Muslims can do for Islam. But sometimes the sight of someone in one faith wrestling with that faith can empower you to wrestle with another faith. ~ Jonathan Sacks, #NFDB
412:Instead of complaining about how things should be, I embraced how things were. I stopped putting energy into wishing my life were any different—into wishing bad things didn’t happen to me—and instead focused 100% on making the best of what I had. Since I couldn’t change the past, I focused on moving forward. I dedicated my life to fulfilling my potential and achieving my dreams so I could discover how to empower others to do the same. ~ Hal Elrod, #NFDB
413:We live in a society where too many women tear each other down instead of raising each other up. That's absurd to me. We need to empower one another, teach future generations of girls that it's important to stand together. Once upon a time, we had a common goal and a common enemy. We were burning bras, and fighting for the right to vote.
Now we're body shaming each other on social media and blaming the mistress if our man cheats. ~ Elle Kennedy,#NFDB
414:Every decision in your life is controlled by your beliefs and values. You may not realize it, but you have the power to choose what you believe about your life, people, money and health. You can either choose beliefs that limit you, or beliefs that empower you to move toward success. Your beliefs energize you to create the world you want to live in right now. The key is to be aware of them because what you value determines what you focus on. ~ Tony Robbins, #NFDB
415:decided that freedom is the right to control your own destiny, to empower yourself, to go and do and think and write and say what you want, when you want, how you want. It is also the right to pick and choose cultures and lifestyles and professions. It is the right to say no to almost anyone about almost anything. It is, first and foremost, the right to refuse the cultural blinders and self-imposed limitations of your fellow man. It ~ Cap n Fatty Goodlander, #NFDB
416:Instead of arguing about making sacrifices, let’s talk about how we can make money. Instead of pitting the environment versus the economy, let’s consider market principles and economic growth. Instead of focusing on polar bears, let’s focus on asthmatic children. And instead of putting all hope in the federal government, let’s empower cities, regions, businesses, and citizens to accelerate the progress they are already making on their own. ~ Michael R Bloomberg, #NFDB
417:The faithful man perceives nothing less than opportunity in difficulties. Flowing through his spine, faith and courage work together: Such a man does not fear losing his life, thus he will risk losing it at times in order to empower it. By this he actually values his life more than the man who fears losing his life. It is much like leaping from a window in order to avoid a fire yet in that most crucial moment knowing that God will appear to catch you. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
418:I'm So Sick is about how the world can sometimes be a sick and messed up place and how that influences us and tells us how we should live or who we should be. People do things just 'cause everyone else does and then they wonder why they feel empty all the time. Someone who has a firm stance in what they know to be true will empower empty followers to discover who they are as individuals with purposes and this creates leaders with voices of their own. ~ Lacey Mosley, #NFDB
419:Never hesitate to show your own staff that you need help. They need to be reminded how important they are to the process. In life and in business, we rely on each other to be responsible for individual tasks that benefit everyone. People sometimes forget how much interdependence there really is in a successful business. Learn the art of asking for help to empower and motivate others, and you will have learned a very powerful management strategy. ~ Georgette Mosbacher, #NFDB
420:Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled as they have been during the Bush administration. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
421:Jesus’ enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak to, to heal and empower the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
422:Anytime we think the problem is 'out there,' that thought is the problem. We empower what's out there to control us. The change paradigm is 'outside-in' - what's out there has to change before we can change. The proactive approach is to change from the 'inside-out': to be different, and by being different, to effect positive change in what's out there - I can be more resourceful, I can be more diligent, I can be more creative, I can be more cooperative. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
423:Releasing guilt is like removing a huge weight from your shoulders. Guilt is released through the empowering thought of love and respect for yourself. You empower yourself with love and respect, letting go of standards of perfection and refusing to use up the precious currency of your life, the now, with thoughts that only continue to frustrate and weaken you. Instead, you can vow to be better than you used to be, which is the true test of nobility. Apathetic ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
424:To argue that we need some technology in order to produce food to tackle hunger is completely blind to the facts on the ground. Actually, what we need is the exact opposite of what GMOs give us. We have to empower farmers to grow food for themselves and plant and grow their own seeds and use practices to deal with weeds and the need for fertility, not from purchased products like a seed or a chemical, but from their own farms, from their own knowledge and skill sets. ~ Anna Lappe, #NFDB
425:The same active and passive role is found in Philippians 2:12 – 13: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” The encouragement to work out our own salvation is based on the promise that God will work in us—God will empower our work! For this very reason, those who believe in Jesus can confidently “strive … for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). ~ Wayne Grudem, #NFDB
426:We will continue our journey to our destination of peace and education. No one can stop us. We will speak up for our rights and we will bring change to our voice. We believe in the power and the strength of our words. Our words can change the whole world because we are all together, united for the cause of education. And if we want to achieve our goal, then let us empower ourselves with the weapon of knowledge and let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness. ~ Malala Yousafzai, #NFDB
427:you find yourself in a fearful mode, stop right there and invite God onto the scene. Turn fear over to your Senior Partner with these words: “I don’t know how to deal with this, but I know I’m connected to You, the miraculous creative force in this universe. I’ll move my ego out of the way and turn it over to You.” Try it. You’ll be surprised by how quickly that higher energy of love will nullify and dissolve your fearful thoughts and empower you at the same time. Anger, ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
428:If we parents accept that problems are an essential part of life's challenges, rather than reacting to every problem as if something has gone wrong with the universe that's supposed to be perfect, we can demonstrate serenity and confidence in problem solving for our kids.By telling them that we know they have a problem and we know they can solve it, we can pass on a realistic attitude as well as empower our children with self-confidence and a sense of their own worth. ~ Barbara Coloroso, #NFDB
429:Practically all we know is that thousands of native Haitians have been killed by American Marines, and that many of our own gallant men have sacrificed their lives at the behest of an Executive department in order to establish laws drafted by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. ... I will not empower an Assistant Secretary of the Navy to draft a constitution for helpless neighbors in the West Indies and jam it down their throats at the point of bayonets borne by U.S. Marines. ~ Warren G Harding, #NFDB
430:Technology is a powerful tool for helping solve problems and promoting America’s ideals and values around the world. The fundamental rights we cherish— the right to assemble, speak, innovate, and advocate—apply online as well. Civil society across the globe should have the ability to use technology to hold their governments accountable, document abuses, and empower marginalized groups. It is the responsibility of all nations to respect free speech and human rights online. ~ Hillary Rodham Clinton, #NFDB
431:What are we praying for when we ask that His name become holy? Is it not holy already?” He immediately answers that of course it is holy, but that “in our use of it his name is not kept holy.”196 Luther points to the fact that all baptized Christians have God’s name put upon them. As name bearers they represent a good and holy God, and so we are praying that God keep us from dishonoring the name by which we are called, that he would empower us to become ourselves good and holy. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
432:All things are created twice, but not all first creations are by conscious design. In our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first creations, we empower other people and circumstances outside our Circle of Influence to shape much of our lives by default. We reactively live the scripts handed to us by family, associates, other people's agendas, the pressures of circumstance - scripts from our earlier years, from our training, our conditioning. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
433:history consists primarily of speaking and being answered, crying and being heard. If that is true, it means there can be no history in the empire because the cries are never heard and the speaking is never answered. And if the task of prophecy is to empower people to engage in history, then it means evoking cries that expect answers, learning to address them where they will be taken seriously, and ceasing to look to the numbed and dull empire that never intended to answer in the first place. ~ Walter Brueggemann, #NFDB
434:I don't understand women that call themselves a "bitch". It doesn't empower a woman. Rather, it reveals to everyone that you were deeply hurt at one time. Because of the pain your still carrying, you will continue to hurt anyone that reminds you of those moments when you let your guard down and were fooled. Sadly, it sends a clear message to the observant that you are still hurt. If only women would realize that "we all" have moments of stupidity then they would stop comparing themselves to the masses. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
435:The changes that we can make in the culture can be there for people that we will never meet, that will never know us, and that's what keeps me up at night. It's what excites me about science, that we can learn ways of being with each other. And the behavioral sciences have not been enough of a part of cultural development. The physical sciences have; the behavioral sciences have not. And I would like to see if we can bring some things into human culture that would humanize and soften and empower people. ~ Steven C Hayes, #NFDB
436:When this biblical code is cracked, something wonderful happens: awesome spiritual forces are suddenly released into our souls and discharged into the world at large. It’s like turning on the light in a dark room. These forces empower us to completely change our lives and absolutely transform our world. But when the Bible remains coded, read and taken literally (as it has been for some 2,000 years), it becomes a fruitless symbol of religious tradition instead of the awesome instrument of power it was meant to be. ~ Yehuda Berg, #NFDB
437:The "encounter" with the people on the peripheries is intended to draw them into the circle of common care and concern - that call to encounter is, to use a favorite world of John Paul II's, a call to solidarity. And that means, it seems to me, aggressive Catholic efforts to empower the poor - and a profound Catholic challenge to all those cultural forces that are eroding stable families, which are the elementary schools where we learn to take responsibility for our lives, which is the highest exercise of freedom. ~ George Weigel, #NFDB
438:No leader can possibly have all the answers . . . .The actual solutions about how best to meet the challenges of the moment have to be made by the people closest to the action. . . .The leader has to find the way to empower those frontline people, to challenge them, to provide them with the resources they need, and then to hold them accountable. As they struggle with . . . this challenge, the leader becomes their coach, teacher, and facilitator. Change how you define leadership, and you change how you run a company. ~ Steve Miller, #NFDB
439:QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER Why do we need empowerment? Do you need someone else to empower you? How reliant is your organization on the decision making of one person, or a small group of people? What kind of leadership model does your business or organization use? When you think of movie images that depict leadership, who/what comes to mind? What assumptions are embedded in those images? How do these images influence how you think about yourself as a leader? To what extent do these images limit your growth as a leader? ~ L David Marquet, #NFDB
440:It was something Brynna had done a report on in school last year. At the time he’d thought it stupid, but he finally got it. Visualization. In order to make something happen, to become something else, you had to see it clearly in your mind. That was the first step of achieving success. Vague dreams never amounted to anything. Only those that were fully seen could manifest. Just like with the dagger. Thoughts had power. Negative and positive. They influenced everything. They could empower a person or rip them to shreds. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
441:In all previously existing democracies, there have been two types of authority: one coming from the people and the other coming from the enemy. Enemy stereotypes empower. Enemy stereotypes have the highest conflict priority. They make it possible to cover up and force together all the other social antitheses. One could say that enemy stereotypes constitute an alternative energy source for consensus, a raw material becoming scarce with the development of modernity. They grant exemption from democracy by its own consent [143]. ~ Ulrich Beck, #NFDB
442:I have felt the pain that arises from a recognition of beauty, pain we hold when we remember what we are connected to and the delicacy of our relations. It is this tenderness born out of a connection to place that fuels my writing. Writing becomes an act of compassion toward life, the life we so often refuse to see because if we look too closely or feel too deeply, there may be no end to our suffering. But words empower us, move us beyond our suffering, and set us free. This is the sorcery of literature. We are healed by our stories. ~ Terry Tempest Williams, #NFDB
443:Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word and the light it sheds on my daily path. I pray the Holy Spirit will open my understanding that I may live my life pleasing to You. I’m asking You to empower me today that Christ Jesus my Lord might be magnified with my words, deeds, and attitudes. Please make me a living witness of Your amazing grace, mercy, and forgiveness so that others will see Jesus in me today. I choose today to serve You and all those You put in my path with love, kindness, and patience. I ask all this in Jesus’ wonderful name. Amen. ~ Paul Tsika, #NFDB
444:Normally we empower our demons by believing they are real and strong in themselves and have the power to destroy us. As we fight against them, they get stronger. But when we acknowledge them by discovering what they really need, and nurture them, our demons release their hold, and we find that they actually do not have power over us. By nurturing the shadow elements of our being with infinite generosity, we can access the state of luminous awareness and undermine ego. By feeding the demons, we resolve conflict and duality, finding our way to unity. ~ Tsultrim Allione, #NFDB
445:There's no greater sign of the failure of the American educational system than the extent to which Americans are distracted by the possibility that Earth might end on December 21, 2012. It's a profound absence of awareness of the laws of physics and how nature works. So they're missing some science classes in their training in high school or in college that would empower them to understand and to judge when someone else is basically just full of it. Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, #NFDB
446:1. If you continue to hold on to your excuses, what would your life be like five years from now? 2. Who would you be without your excuses? Enter all learning with this new mindset. 3. Remember they are just excuses. It is not the truth. Change them now. 4. What is more important to you: excusing yourself from experiencing your potential or being the best that you can be? 5. Why is it important for you to learn to empower your memory? Think about it and write down as many reasons as you can to create a big WHY. As Darren Hardy says, “We need why power not willpower. ~ Kevin Horsley, #NFDB
447:Sometimes the sight of someone in one faith wrestling with that faith can empower you to wrestle with another faith. For me, it was reading about how the Catholic Church wrestled with itself in the 1960s. Pope John XXIII set Nostra Aetate - the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions - in motion. It changed the relationship between Jews and Catholics. Today, Jews and Catholics meet as friends. If you can do that, after the longest history of hatred the world has known, that empowers you as a Jew or a Muslim to wrestle with your faith. ~ Jonathan Sacks, #NFDB
448:The first rule for such a situation is to make decisions like an engineer, based on technical merit rather than personal considerations. “It was a way of getting people to trust me,” Torvalds explained. “When people trust you, they take your advice.” He also realized that leaders in a voluntary collaborative have to encourage others to follow their passion, not boss them around. “The best and most effective way to lead is by letting people do things because they want to do them, not because you want them to.” Such a leader knows how to empower groups to self-organize. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
449:Our mother always taught us to be in control of our voice and our bodies and our work, and she showed us that through her example. If she conjured up an idea, there was not one element of that idea that she was not going to have her hand in. She was not going to hand that over to someone. And I think it's been an interesting thing to navigate, especially watching you do the same in all aspects of your work: Society labels that a control freak, an obsessive woman, or someone who has an inability to trust her team or to empower other people to do the work, which is completely untrue. ~ Solange Knowles, #NFDB
450:One dangerous definition of happiness is to think of happiness as kind of a warm, joyful feeling in your heart that you have to pursue and grab and hold onto for fear that it'll go away. A better way to think about happiness that actually is something that I think you can reach towards is, it's living in accord with your values and in a way that is more open and accepting of your history as it echoes into the present, that's more self-affirming, self-validating and values-based. The Greeks had a word for it; they called it eudaimonia. And it is something that will empower human lives. ~ Steven C Hayes, #NFDB
451:Performance improved only when companies implemented programs to empower employees (for example, by taking decision-making authority away from managers and giving it to individuals or teams), provided learning opportunities that were outside what people needed to do their jobs, increased their reliance on teamwork (by giving teams more autonomy and allowing them to self-organize), or a combination of these. These factors “accounted for a 9% increase in value added per employee in our study.” In short, only when companies took steps to give their people more freedom did performance improve. ~ Laszlo Bock, #NFDB
452:What she’d just experienced with Oliver had been the single most amazing moment of her life. Freeing. Selfactualizing. It had felt right. But she’d wanted to explore this world to empower herself. She’d been told numerous times by Caroline, read it in articles, that there was power in submission. Yet when she’d been restrained, had her sight taken away…she hadn’t wanted control. She’d wanted none. At all. Had wanted Oliver to take every ounce of it away. What did that mean? An unwanted image rose in her mind of her mother, always taking abuse. Almost…wanting it. Eliza felt sick, unease clawing at her ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
453:Believe in yourself, the organization you represent, its products and services, and the team you work with. Sales is not about making a sale; it’s about creating a relationship. The more relationships you have, the bigger your network. The bigger your network, the bigger your net worth. In sales, 70 percent of the time you are listening, and 30 percent of the time you are asking questions, which means there is no time for talking. It’s not about you, your product or service, or your brand. It’s all about the buyer, and when you are buyer focused, you facilitate the buying process and empower them to buy. ~ Hal Elrod, #NFDB
454:While coming to grips with my new reality wasn’t easy, and at times I couldn’t help but wonder—why did this happen to me?—I had to take responsibility for getting my life back. Instead of complaining about how things should be, I embraced how things were. I stopped putting energy into wishing my life were any different—into wishing bad things didn’t happen to me—and instead focused 100% on making the best of what I had. Since I couldn’t change the past, I focused on moving forward. I dedicated my life to fulfilling my potential and achieving my dreams so I could discover how to empower others to do the same. ~ Hal Elrod, #NFDB
455:When it becomes clear that Good Negro Government might, in some way, empower actual Negroes over actual whites, then the fear sets in, the affirmative-action charges begin, and birtherism emerges. And this is because, at its core, those American myths have never been colorless. They can not be extricated from the theory that a class of people carry peonage in their blood. That peon class provided the foundation on which all those myths and conceptions were build. And as much as we can theoretically imagine a seamless black integration into the American myth, the white part of this country remembers the myth as it was conceived. ~ Ta Nehisi Coates, #NFDB
456:One strain of African American thought holds that it is a violent black recklessness—the black gangster, the black rioter—that strikes the ultimate terror in white America. Perhaps it does, in the most individual sense. But in the collective sense, what this country really fears is black respectability, Good Negro Government. It applauds, even celebrates, Good Negro Government in the unthreatening abstract—The Cosby Show, for instance. But when it becomes clear that Good Negro Government might, in any way, empower actual Negroes over actual whites, then the fear sets in, the affirmative-action charges begin, and birtherism emerges. ~ Ta Nehisi Coates, #NFDB
457:I pray for you that if you have been abused in any way that God will take the shame off you, the guilt, the fear, the pain and the offense that has taken hold inside you…even the bitterness that may have come and risen inside you. I pray that God will forgive the person who abused you, but more than anything that God will empower you to rise above it and say, “I can overcome it.” I refuse to be molested. I refuse to be cursed out every day. I refuse to live in an abusive environment, and I rise above it. I pray that God will give you a supernatural power that, through the power of The Holy Spirit, you will rise up against that and even the memory of it. ~ Mike Murdock, #NFDB
458:We are all part of a loving gestation process. We are here to empower each other to face the journey through unconditional love. This voyage involves stopping over in conditioned configurations, such as our physical reality. Yet, these are all provisional abodes, and every step through this voyage entails becoming more whole, retrieving further pieces of the soul. All human sufferance derives from lack of awareness of this process.
Read on at: //www.facebook.com/notes/astroshamanism... ~ Franco Santoro,#NFDB
459:If we empower ourselves and become reacquainted with the authentic dimension within us, then we won’t put up with this crap anymore. This is what happened in the 1960s. People wouldn’t put up with it anymore and they poured into the streets and raised holy hell. Scared everybody to death. Why wouldn’t they put up with it anymore? Because they saw how shoddy, chintzy, and knocked-together it is. We’ve been sold a pig in a poke! It’s not worth having. These things don’t make us happy, they don’t bring us wisdom, they don’t give us depth. It’s an infantile, insulting, ridiculous society, except that it’s holding a gun to the head of every living thing on this planet. ~ Terence McKenna, The Edge Runner, #NFDB
460:People change their behavior and thinking not because they are “told to be different” but when the conditions are present that require and empower them to figure out what to do and to act on a plan. Try giving teenagers a lot of advice and see if it changes behavior. They probably don’t look at you and say, “Gee, Dad, or Mom, thanks for explaining reality to me. Now I will run out and do it.” But if you provide context—by listening, sharing information and positive examples, setting expectations and consequences, creating a healthy emotional climate, and challenging them to do their best—they will figure it out and implement it. That is a lot better than just “telling them what to do. ~ Henry Cloud, #NFDB
461:Certain words make people frown; certain words make people smile; certain words make people cautious; certain words make people ponder; certain words give people relief; certain words increase tension; certain words bring doubt; certain words give hope; certain words challenge gut; ; certain words empower courage; certain words increase fear; certain words invoke anger; certain words can trigger massacre; certain words can bring peace; Words can change thought, mood, actions and atmosphere in the twinkling of an eye... Not until we get to know how to truly present our daily deeds through our words, we shall always do good and in the end cancel every good deed we have done with just some simple words! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
462:In times of dramatic change, the large and slow cannot compete with the small and nimble. But being small and nimble requires a whole lot more than just understanding the Six Ds of exponentials and their expanding scale of impact. You’ll also need to understand the technologies and tools driving this change. These include exponential technologies like infinite computing, sensors and networks, 3-D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, and synthetic biology and exponential organizational tools such as crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, incentive competitions, and the potency of a properly built community. These exponential advantages empower entrepreneurs like never before. Welcome to the age of exponentials. ~ Peter H Diamandis, #NFDB
463:When people revert to clutter no matter how much they tidy, it is not their room or their belongings but their way of thinking that is at fault. Even if they are initially inspired, they can't stay motivated and their efforts peter out. The root cause lies in the fact that they can't see the results or feel the effects. This is precisely why success depends on experiencing tangible results immediately. If you use the right method and concentrate your efforts on eliminating clutter thoroughly and completely within a short span of time, you'll see instant results that will empower you to keep your space in order after. Anyone who experiences this process, no matter who they are, will vow never to revert to clutter again. ~ Marie Kond, #NFDB
464:They need us to affirm their intrinsic goodness, regardless of the ugly things they may say or do at times. This is how their natural inborn belief in themselves becomes solidly grounded instead of masked by ego. A sense of our children’s worth flourishes when the way we look at them, the way we listen to them, and the way we speak to them reflect just how lovable they are. This is how we empower them—how we draw out in them their innately powerful sense of self, which is what will carry them successfully through life. Only when we can separate our fantasies concerning who our children should be from who they actually are can we do justice to their original essence and craft our parenting to allow for this essence to flourish. ~ Shefali Tsabary, #NFDB
465:Let men position you in the den, God will make you a Daniel in the den. Let men position you to face Goliath, God will make you a David. Let men subject you to undue pressure, torture and pain, blindfold you and lead you into the dungeon, God will make you a Samson there! Let men sell you into indentured servitude, God will make you Joseph. Let men build a death trap for you, God shall turn it into the days of Mordecai and Haman and you shall only see with your eyes the destruction of evil conspirators who would never repent! Let all odds be against you, God will make you Job. And when though fear grips your heart because of the storm you see, God will empower you and make you more than Peter. Stay hopeful! Trust in God! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
466:MAINTAINING DOCTRINAL PURITY IS good, but it is not the whole picture for a New Testament church. The apostles wanted to do much more than simply “hold the fort,” as the old gospel song says. They asked God to empower them to move out and impact an entire culture. In too many places where the Bible is being thumped and doctrine is being argued until three in the morning, the Spirit of that doctrine is missing. William Law, an English devotional writer of the early 1700s, wrote, “Read whatever chapter of Scripture you will, and be ever so delighted with it—yet it will leave you as poor, as empty and unchanged as it found you unless it has turned you wholly and solely to the Spirit of God, and brought you into full union with and dependence upon him.”1 ~ Jim Cymbala, #NFDB
467:A DOZEN PHALLACIES WOMEN BUY
Phallacy 3.
If you use your power to support a man, he'll always support you.
Truth
Alas, not true. It's wonderful to stand by your man, to give to the one you love, but you must never forget yourself, and your children, since he may. Being a man, he takes for granted that his needs come first. Being a woman, you take that for granted too. Don't. Protect yourself -- not with feminist rhetoric or argument, but with actions. A bank account and real estate in your own name, money put aside for your kids' education that he can't touch (or give to the next -- younger -- wife and her spawn), a profession of your own to rely on. Above all, empower yourself, and then help empower him if it pleases you to do so. ~ Erica Jong,#NFDB
468:Writing about sex is a challenge for the same reason sex is a challenge. Because it’s complicated. Because it doesn’t always make sense and it isn’t always perfect and it’s sometimes awful and it’s sometimes hilarious. But underneath all the clever wordplay, it’s about hope. Hope that someone will see us, and accept us, and perhaps — after all that — choose us. It’s the barest we will ever be. The barest a character will ever be. That’s why it’s difficult.
As for what makes a good sex scene, a romance novelist would have told you that when done well and with a skilled hand, the best sex scenes can at once arouse and empower. Sex on the page gives readers the freedom to explore their own sexuality, their own pleasures, their own identities. With hope. And without judgment. ~ Sarah MacLean,#NFDB
469:Black feminist thought can create a collective identity among African-American women about the dimensions of a Black women's standpoint. Through the process of rearticulation, Black feminist thought can offer African-American women a different view of ourselves and our worlds. By taking the core themes of a Black women's standpoint and infusing them with new meaning, Black feminist thought can stimulate a new consciousness that utilizes Back women's everyday, taken-for-granted knowledge. Rather than raising consciousness, Black feminist thought affirms, rearticulates, and provides a vehicle for expressing in public a consciousness that quite often already exists. More important, this rearticulated consciousness aims to empower African-American women and stimulate resistance. ~ Patricia Hill Collins, #NFDB
470:There is perhaps no passage in the entire Bible in which the personality of the Holy Spirit comes out more tenderly and touchingly than in Eph. iv. 30, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Here grief is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a blind, impersonal influence or power that comes into our lives to illuminate, sanctify and empower them. No, He is immeasurably more than that, He is a holy Person who comes to dwell in our hearts, One who sees clearly every act we perform, every word we speak, every thought we entertain, even the most fleeting fancy that is allowed to pass through our minds; and if there is anything in act, or word or deed that is impure, unholy, unkind, selfish, mean, petty or untrue, this infinitely holy One is deeply grieved by it. ~ R A Torrey, #NFDB
471:Through his embedded experience in the Montgomery bus boycotts, Reverend King came to see the limits of Niebuhr’s abstract public theologizing. “Abstractions cannot empower acts of compassion and sacrifice,” Marsh summarizes, “or sustain the courage to speak against the day. Niebuhr’s much-heralded Christian realism was about working out ethical problems within the framework of options provided by Western liberalism. It was not about having a dream.”18 That dream was the kingdom of God, and King learned it at church. But it wasn’t just for the church: it was a vision of what the world was called to be. For King, the realization of this was not some merely evolutionary development but rather a divine gift. “God remains from beginning to end the ultimate agent of human liberation, not only in America but throughout all the nations and in creation. ~ James K A Smith, #NFDB
472:I think we finally have to say that Jesus' enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak to, to heal and empower, the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity.
He comes where we are, and he brings us the life we hunger for. An early report reads, "Life was in him, life that made sense of human existence" (John 1:4). To be the light of life, and to deliver God's life to women and men where they are and as they are, is the secret of the enduring relevance of Jesus. Suddenly they are flying right-side up, in a world that makes sense. ~ Dallas Willard,#NFDB
473:Through the process, Gilfoy discovered the most fundamental way to overcome the workforce’s inherent fear of simplicity was to explain the link between simplifying processes and expanding the company’s capacity. Simplification was a way to ensure employees could be released from administrative tasks and turn their attention to the company’s strategic priorities and, in the case of Vancity, the member experience. Less time focused on policies and process would make any company more efficient, but only as a side benefit. The real hope was that rapid cycling would empower individual employees to return to the work that matters. As Gilfoy explained, without addressing the fear that people were going to be pink-slipped at the end of the process, “We couldn’t get the same level of participation or the same level of thinking. And we certainly wouldn’t get the same level of output. ~ Lisa Bodell, #NFDB
474:Intelligent assistance involves leveraging artificial intelligence to enable the government, individual companies, and the nonprofit social sector to develop more sophisticated online and mobile platforms that can empower every worker to engage in lifelong learning on their own time, and to have their learning recognized and rewarded with advancement. Intelligent assistants arise when we use artificial intelligence to improve the interfaces between humans and their tools with software, so humans can not only learn faster but also act faster and act smarter. Lastly, we need to deploy AI to create more intelligent algorithms, or what Reid Hoffman calls “human networks”—so that we can much more efficiently connect people to all the job opportunities that exist, all the skills needed for each job, and all the educational opportunities to acquire those skills cheaply and easily. ~ Thomas L Friedman, #NFDB
475:The translators of the King James Version chose to render parakletos with the English word “Comforter” because at that time the English language was more closely connected to its historical roots in Latin. Today, we understand the word comfort to mean ease and solace in the midst of trouble. But its original meaning was different. It is derived from the Latin word comfortis, which consisted of a prefix (com-, meaning “with) and a root (fortis, meaning “strong”). So, originally the word carried the meaning “with strength.” Therefore, the King James Version translators were telling us that the Holy Spirit comes to the people of Christ not to heal their wounds after a battle but to strengthen them before and during a struggle. The idea is that the church operates not so much as a hospital but as an army, and the Holy Spirit comes to empower and strengthen Christians, to ensure victory or conquest. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
476:Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth 14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,[*] 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.[*] 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. 20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
477:There is a growing interest in examining the point at which the political and the spiritual intersect. Service to others is a spiritual value, and the overt recognition of this can be part of the development of our wholeness. My hope is to add my voice to the chorus of other women who are calling for a bridge between the secular and the spiritual. Our effectiveness in building this bridge will depend on how well we connect to each other in every interaction. That means taking the time to listen to those who come from points of view that are different from our own. If we listen well, learn from one another, and find the ability to empathize with one another's experiences, I believe the split will have served us well. When a broken bone mends, it becomes stronger along the break. When we strengthen our connections to one another, we become whole. And when we are whole, we are empowered an can empower others. ~ Helen LaKelly Hunt, #NFDB
478:Any so-called 'radical' strategy that seeks to empower the disempowered in the realm of social reproduction by opening up that realm to monetisation and market forces is headed in exactly the wrong direction. Providing financial literacy classes for the populace at large will simply expose that population predatory practices as they seek to manage their own investment portfolios like minnows swimming in a sea of sharks. Providing microcredit and microfinance facilities encourages people to participate in the market economy but does so in such a way as to maximise the energy they have to expend while minimising their returns. Providing legal title for land property ownership in the hope that this will bring economic and social stability to the lives of the marginalised will almost certainly lead in the long run to their dispossession and eviction from that space and place they already hold through customary use rights. ~ David Harvey, #NFDB
479:The historian E. P. Thompson said that history never happens as the actors suspect, that history is instead the “record of unintended consequences.” The assassination of Julius Caesar does not restore the Roman Republic, it leads to a brutal civil war and, at the end, another emperor. The Allied powers destroy Hitler and Germany but empower Russia and Stalin and create a new Cold War to follow the conclusion of the hot one. There is always something you didn’t expect, always some second-or third-order consequence. Peter Thiel’s conspiracy had achieved its intended outcome. A negotiated peace had been found. Gawker.com would cease to publish. A new leader was in charge of the rest of the sites, some of the offending articles would be removed. But what would the consequences, intended and otherwise, of it all be? What had this brilliant, independent mind neglected to see? What, if anything, would come as a surprise? His own power and strength for one. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
480:Focus on the positive
Here’s the key: Just because a thought comes doesn’t mean you have to dwell on it. You control the doorway to your mind. If the thought is negative, discouraging, and pushing you down, then dismiss it. Don’t dwell on it. Keep the door closed. Choose to dwell on thoughts that empower you, inspire you, and encourage you to have faith, hope, and joy.
If you keep your mind filled with the right thoughts, there won’t be any room for the wrong thoughts. All through the day you should be focused on the positive: “Something good is going to happen to me. I’m strong, healthy, talented, disciplined. I’m fun to be around. My children will be mighty in the land. I can do all things through Christ. I will pass this chemistry test. I will meet the right person. I will overcome this challenge. My best days are still out in front of me.”
When your mind is filled with thoughts of faith, hope, and victory, you will draw in the good things of God. ~ Joel Osteen,#NFDB
481:A tear slipped from eye, as I stood helpless beside Kiran. “They have done nothing wrong, except fight for the freedom you have stolen from them, from all of us!” I shouted back, unable to stay silent when my friends stood at his mercy.
“I give you freedom, the freedom to live your life as you please,” Lucan challenged, tilting his chin with pride and sincerity. “I ask nothing of you, except for your loyalty. I am the king, it is the least of what I deserve,” Lucan turned to address the kingdom, his argument ringing through the air.
“Then why is it only your bloodline that is allowed immortality?” I argued, taking a step forward. “Why do the rest of our people suffer from the separation of races? Why are the Shape-shifters exiled by penalty of death? What have they done? What is their crime? Are you afraid to share true immortality? Are you so scared of a people that realize they don’t need a king?” I turned to face the crowd too, hoping to empower them with my words. ~ Rachel Higginson,#NFDB
482:Our capitalist elites have used propaganda, money, and the marginalizing of their critics to erase the first three of philosopher John Locke’s elements of the perfect state: liberty, equality, and freedom. They exclusively empower the fourth, property. Liberty and freedom in the corporate state mean the liberty and freedom of corporations and the rich to exploit and pillage without government interference or regulatory oversight. And the single most important characteristic of government is its willingness to use force, at home and abroad, to protect the interests of the property classes. This abject surrender of the state to the rich is illustrated in the 2017 tax code and the dismantling of environmental regulations. This degradation of basic democratic ideals—evidenced when the Supreme Court refuses to curb wholesale government surveillance of the public or defines pouring unlimited dark money into political campaigns as a form of free speech and the right to petition the government—means the society defines itself by virtues that are dead. ~ Chris Hedges, #NFDB
483:There will always be people who try to squeeze you into their molds and pressure you into being who they want you to be. They may be good people. They may mean well, but the problem is they didn’t breathe life into you. They didn’t equip you or empower you. God did.
If you’re going to become the winner you were created to be, you need to have a boldness. The second quality of a winner is that you run your race the way you want to run it.
You can’t be insecure and you can’t worry about what everyone thinks. You can’t try to keep everyone happy. If you change with every criticism and play up to people, trying to win their favor, you’ll go through life letting people manipulate you and pressure you into their boxes.
You have to accept the fact that you can’t keep everyone happy. You can’t make everyone like you. You will never win over every critic. Even if you changed and did everything they asked, some would still find fault. You’re not really free until you’re free from trying to please everyone. You’re respectful, you’re kind, but you’re not living to please people, you’re living to please God. ~ Joel Osteen,#NFDB
484:What you said before…” He stopped and seemed to consider his words. “When you said love isn't about control…what did you mean?”
The insecurity in his voice charmed her down to her toes. “Well. I just think that love is supposed to empower, not subdue. To love someone unconditionally, is to give them the freedom to be who they are. There's no room for control. If you're telling someone who they should or
shouldn't be…well, that's not unconditional, is it? And there's no such thing as conditional love.”
She waited for his response, but he stayed quiet, so she continued. “My dad always said love is like a stallion. You can try to tame it but you'll miss out on its most beautiful form.” She snuggled closer to his warmth. “When it's wild and free, with no restricting fences, it can go on forever.”
He didn't say anything for a moment and her lids grew heavy. His deep voice shook her awake again. “But, if you love someone, you do what's best for them.”
Though he phrased it as a statement, she heard the question in his voice. “No. If you love someone, you support them in figuring out what's best for themselves. ~ Leia Shaw,#NFDB
485:Instead, finding a faith should help you to be freer, more full of life, more filled with joy, peace and love than you would ever imagine. And those qualities, in abundance, will only make you stronger and more capable of living a wild and adventurous life.
And what is even cooler is that Jesus turns out to be so much more than just a guide or a pointer of the way. He is also a backbone, a companion and a friend. When I look at my own heroes, I realize there aren’t many leaders who haven’t at some time quietly bent their knee and looked upwards for strength, resolve and peace.
Great men and women know their own frailty and have the humility to accept help to empower them to greatness. Be among their number.
Pioneers always take bold steps to explore new territory - you never know what you might find.
By the way, it is also good to know that faith isn’t one-sided. As Christ said: ‘I have come to seek and save.’
He is out looking for us, too.
So be brave and let Him do his side of the bargain. I call it the quest to be found.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
¹ I really recommend the book ,#NFDB
486:In retrospect, the word “remote control” was ultimately a misnomer. What it finally did was to empower the more impulsive circuits of the brain in their conflict with the executive faculties, the parts with which we think we control ourselves and act rationally. It did this by making it almost effortless, practically nonvolitional, to redirect our attention—the brain had only to send one simple command to the finger in response to a cascade of involuntary cues. In fact, in the course of sustained channel surfing, the voluntary aspect of attention control may disappear entirely. The channel surfer is then in a mental state not unlike that of a newborn or a reptile. Having thus surrendered, the mind is simply jumping about and following whatever grabs it.
All this leads to a highly counterintuitive point: technologies designed to increase our control over our attention will sometimes have the very opposite effect. They open us up to a stream of instinctive selections, and tiny rewards, the sum of which may be no reward at all. And despite the complaints of the advertising industry, a state of distracted wandering was not really a bad one for the attention merchants; it was far better than being ignored. ~ Tim Wu,#NFDB
487:75. Light Can Only Shine Through Broken Vessels
I want the last chapter of this book to be about humanity and humility.
In order to thrive and survive in the game of life, it is important to understand that we don’t have to have all parts of our life totally together - nicely sealed and wrapped - for it to be a success.
In fact, the opposite is true.
To live a life of adventure and impact we just need to have the will, and then to begin. There is power in that first simple step. The rest is then the process - hard and challenging, to be sure - but still a process. We are limited only by the extent of our courage, tenacity and vision.
We can all push the boundaries, make a difference, empower, encourage, and better many lives.
None of this requires us to be perfect and sorted first.
Life is a journey and we are all learning every day. Embrace that. Growing pains are part of life!
And finally, remember that light can only shine through broken vessels, and we are all a little broken. Sometimes it is the broken-ness that gives us the fire.
But it is when we know our need to change that we can finally begin to grow.
Here’s to your own great adventure… ~ Bear Grylls,#NFDB
488:But these assumptions could not accomplish much on their own. What gave them power, and made them able finally to dominate and reshape our society, was the growth of technology for the production and use of fossil fuel energy. This energy could be made available to empower such unprecedented social change because it was “cheap.” But we were able to consider it “cheap” only by a kind of moral simplicity: the assumption that we had a “right” to as much of it as we could use. This was a “right” made solely by might. Because fossil fuels, however abundant they once were, were nevertheless limited in quantity and not renewable, they obviously did not “belong” to one generation more than another. We ignored the claims of posterity simply because we could, the living being stronger than the unborn, and so worked the “miracle” of industrial progress by the theft of energy from (among others) our children.
That is the real foundation of our progress and our affluence. The reason that we are a rich nation is not that we have earned so much wealth— you cannot, by any honest means, earn or deserve so much. The reason is simply that we have learned, and become willing, to market and use up in our own time the birthright and livelihood of posterity. ~ Wendell Berry,#NFDB
489:Dear Kid President: Kids are awesome because: • They inspire us to believe in our dreams. • They know that what really matters in life is hugs, animals, kindness, friendship, and love! • For kids, words like “can’t,” “don’t,” and “stop” are the real bad words. • Kids don’t declare wars (except the occasional thumb war, which is harmless). • Their official language is laughter. • They believe in things that they can’t see but know are real. • Kids look beyond race, religion, and ethnicity to recognize that we’re all connected. • They remind us that life is precious, play is important, and art, dance, and music make the world better. • They color outside the lines, can turn anything into a toy, and feel lots of feelings. • Kids are awesome because we are awesome, and if we look deep enough, we’d see that we are all still kids. I believe with all my heart that we should try to be more like kids instead of making them more like us! Let’s listen to their concerns, learn from their wisdom, and be inspired by their imagination. When we empower kids, we change the world. There’s more JOY, more HOPE, more POSSIBILITY. Kids aren’t who we were; they’re who we could be! Kid Ideas + Kid Leadership + Kid Lunches = Awesomesauce! ~ Robby Novak, #NFDB
490:A leader’s checklist for planning should include the following: • Analyze the mission. —Understand higher headquarters’ mission, Commander’s Intent, and endstate (the goal). —Identify and state your own Commander’s Intent and endstate for the specific mission. • Identify personnel, assets, resources, and time available. • Decentralize the planning process. —Empower key leaders within the team to analyze possible courses of action. • Determine a specific course of action. —Lean toward selecting the simplest course of action. —Focus efforts on the best course of action. • Empower key leaders to develop the plan for the selected course of action. • Plan for likely contingencies through each phase of the operation. • Mitigate risks that can be controlled as much as possible. • Delegate portions of the plan and brief to key junior leaders. —Stand back and be the tactical genius. • Continually check and question the plan against emerging information to ensure it still fits the situation. • Brief the plan to all participants and supporting assets. —Emphasize Commander’s Intent. —Ask questions and engage in discussion and interaction with the team to ensure they understand. • Conduct post-operational debrief after execution. —Analyze lessons learned and implement them in future planning. ~ Jocko Willink, #NFDB
491:Noticing the disturbing similarity between the rhetoric surrounding "open government" and new public management, government expert Just Longo speculates that the former might be just a Trojan horse for the latter; in our excitement about the immense potential of new technologies to promote openness and transparency, we may have lost sight of the deeply political nature of the uses to which these technologies are put...
In India, recent digitization of land records and their subsequent publication online, while nominally an effort to empower the weak, may have actually empowered the rich and powerful. Once the digitized records were available for the whole world to see, some enterprising businessmen discovered that many poor families had no documents to prove ownership of land. In most cases, this was not the result of some nefarious land grab; local culture, with its predominantly oral ways of doing business, pervasive corruption, and poor literacy, partly explains why no such records exist...
The point here, as with most open-government schemes, is not that information shouldn't be collected or distributed; rather, it needs to be collected and distributed in full awareness of the social and cultural complexity of the institutional environment in which it is gathered. ~ Evgeny Morozov,#NFDB
492:A Prayer of Commitment Dear Father, I need You. I cannot love or respect perfectly, but I know You hear me when I ask You for help. First, please forgive me for the times I’ve been unloving or disrespectful. And help me to forgive my spouse for being unloving or disrespectful toward me. I open my heart to You, Father. I will not be fearful or angry at You or my spouse. I’m seeing myself and my spouse in a whole new light, and I will appreciate my spouse as being different, not wrong. Lord, I also ask You to fill my heart with love and reverence for You. After all, this marriage is ultimately about You and me. It isn’t about my spouse. Thank You for helping me both understand this truth and realize that my greatest reward will come from being a spouse as unto You. Now prepare me this day for those inevitable moments of conflict. I especially ask You to put respect or love in my heart when I feel unloved or disrespected. I know there is no credit for loving or respecting when doing so is easy. Finally, I believe that You hear my prayer, and I anticipate Your response. I thank You in advance for helping me take the next loving or respectful step in my marriage. I believe You will empower me, bless me, and even reward me for my effort as I approach marriage as unto You. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ~ Emerson Eggerichs, #NFDB
493:Liberals stand up for victims of oppression and exclusion. They fight to break down arbitrary barriers (such as those based on race, and more recently on sexual orientation). But their zeal to help victims, combined with their low scores on the Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity foundations, often lead them to push for changes that weaken groups, traditions, institutions, and moral capital. For example, the urge to help the inner-city poor led to welfare programs in the 1960s that reduced the value of marriage, increased out-of-wedlock births, and weakened African American families.72 The urge to empower students by giving them the right to sue their teachers and schools in the 1970s has eroded authority and moral capital in schools, creating disorderly environments that harm the poor above all.73 The urge to help Hispanic immigrants in the 1980s led to multicultural education programs that emphasized the differences among Americans rather than their shared values and identity. Emphasizing differences makes many people more racist, not less.74 On issue after issue, it’s as though liberals are trying to help a subset of bees (which really does need help) even if doing so damages the hive. Such “reforms” may lower the overall welfare of a society, and sometimes they even hurt the very victims liberals were trying to help. ~ Jonathan Haidt, #NFDB
494:Habit 1 says “You’re the programmer” and Habit 2 says “Write the program,” then Habit 3 says “Run the program,” “Live the program.” And living it is primarily a function of our independent will, our self-discipline, our integrity, and commitment—not to short-term goals and schedules or to the impulse of the moment, but to the correct principles and our own deepest values, which give meaning and context to our goals, our schedules, and our lives. As you go through your week, there will undoubtedly be times when your integrity will be placed on the line. The popularity of reacting to the urgent but unimportant priorities of other people in Quadrant III or the pleasure of escaping to Quadrant IV will threaten to overpower the important Quadrant II activities you have planned. Your principle center, your self-awareness, and your conscience can provide a high degree of intrinsic security, guidance, and wisdom to empower you to use your independent will and maintain integrity to the truly important. But because you aren’t omniscient, you can’t always know in advance what is truly important. As carefully as you organize the week, there will be times when, as a principle-centered person, you will need to subordinate your schedule to a higher value. Because you are principle-centered, you can do that with an inner sense of peace. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
495:I wrote Dr. Allen Guelzo for his perspective. Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and the director of the Civil War Era Studies Program at Gettysburg College. He is one of the great students of Lincoln and one of the great historians in the country. Frankly, I expected Allen to respond, “Have you just lost your mind!?” But he didn’t. Guelzo responded: Your points are entirely on the mark. I have done a quick comparative outline of both inaugural addresses, and while the existential situation of the two are different, on March 4th, 1861, Lincoln was already facing the secession of seven states, the official creation of a Confederate States of America, and demands for the surrender of federal property, there is this common thread, the sovereignty of the people. Lincoln used that principle to deny that one part of the nation, the seven seceding states, could break up the union without the consent of the American people, as well as denying that one branch of the government, the Supreme Court, could overrule the American people’s will. This was enough to make me feel better. But Guelzo continued. Trump invokes that principle. To deny that a federal bureaucracy can enrich and empower itself at the expense of the people, as well as denying that identity enclaves can overrule the fundamental unity of the American people. ~ Newt Gingrich, #NFDB
496:SECTION SUMMARY TO BE AN EFFECTIVE LEADER … Recognize that you have limited strengths. Do whatever it takes to discover what they are. Once you know, find a work environment that allows you to focus your energies on the few things you were created to do well. Don’t allow your time to get eaten up with responsibilities and projects that call for skills that fall outside your core competencies. That is a recipe for mediocrity. Embrace this truth: The less you do, the more you will accomplish. Narrow your focus to increase your productivity and expand your influence within your organization. Empower the leaders around you by delegating those responsibilities that fall outside your zone. Somebody is dying to pick up the ball you drop. Your weakness is his opportunity. Remember: Great leaders know when to follow. THE NEXT GENERATION CHALLENGE What defines success for you in your current employment situation? Is there alignment between your core competencies and those competencies necessary to succeed in your job? What would change about your current job description if you were given the freedom to focus on the two or three things you do best? What would need to change in your current employment situation in order for you to focus on the things that add the most value to your organization? Take some time to complete the exercises described on this page through this page. ~ Andy Stanley, #NFDB
497:Our present system based on preparing children for individual upward mobility into the system by making “us” like “them” is destroying our communities because those who succeed in the system leave the community while those who don’t take out their frustration and sense of failure in acts of vandalism. It is leaving too many children behind, labeling too many as suffering from attention deficit disorder and therefore requiring Ritalin, and widening the gap between the very rich and the very poor. The main cause of youth violence and addiction to drugs, I believe, is youth powerlessness. We have turned young people into parasites with no socially necessary or productive roles, nothing to do for eighteen years but go to school, play, and watch TV. Rich and poor, in the suburbs and the inner city, they are, as Paul Goodman pointed out years ago, “Growing Up Absurd,”4 deprived of the natural and normal ways of learning the relationship between cause and effect, actions and consequences by which the species has survived and evolved down through the millennia. Then we wonder why teenagers lack a sense of social responsibility. Schoolchildren need to be involved in community-building activities from an early age, both to empower themselves and to transform their communities from demoralizing wastelands into sources of strength and renewal. Their heads work better when their hearts and hands are engaged. ~ Grace Lee Boggs, #NFDB
498:When you eagerly give your life in submission to the Lord, He takes over and everything begins to unfold, and from there on He begins to empower and change you. C. S. Lewis has a marvelous illustration of this: When I was a child I often had a toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get sleep. But I did not go to my mother—at least, not till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this. I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from pain; but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists; I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. They would not let sleeping dogs lie.3 Our Lord is like that dentist. If you give Him one problem to fix, He’ll fix them all. That’s why He warned people to count the cost before becoming Christians. He will make you perfect—nothing less. That process begins the moment you trust Him and continues until the moment you arrive in heaven and are instantly glorified. When you put yourself in His hands, that’s what you’re in for, whatever it takes. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
499:Effective leadership begins with having the right mind-set; in particular, it begins with having an ownership mind-set. This means a willingness to put oneself in the shoes of a decision maker and think through all of the considerations that the decision maker must factor into his or her thinking and actions. Having an ownership mind-set is essential to developing into an effective leader. By the same token, the absence of an ownership mind-set often explains why certain people with great promise ultimately fail to reach their leadership potential. An ownership mind-set involves three essential elements, which I will put in the form of questions: • Can you figure out what you believe, as if you were an owner? • Can you act on those beliefs? • Do you act in a way that adds value to someone else: a customer, a client, a colleague, or a community? Do you take responsibility for the positive and negative impact of your actions on others? These elements are not a function of your formal position in an organization. They are not a function of title, power, or wealth, although these factors can certainly be helpful in enabling you to act like an owner. These elements are about what you do. They are about taking ownership of your convictions, actions, and impact on others. In my experience, great organizations are made up of executives who focus specifically on these elements and work to empower their employees to think and act in this way. ~ Robert S Kaplan, #NFDB
500:When our faith sinks, empower and uplift us
When our hopes die, redeem and give us life
When we face battles untold, lead and guard us
When our sins show, show your mercy and your grace
Oh Thou who sustained them, sustain us
Oh Thou who led them, lead us
Oh Lord God Almighty, be with us!
When we meet the walls of Jericho in our days,
let them fall before our eyes as in their days
When we meet the deepest puzzles like the then,
do the Daniels thing for us with Thy ‘pen’
Oh Thou who sustained them, sustain us
Oh Thou who led them, lead us
Oh Lord God Almighty, be with us!
When we seem lost and blocked
Be the God of Elijah for us
When the night seem long for a dawn
Let us see the days of Joshua in our days
Oh Thou who sustained them, sustain us
Oh Thou who led them, lead us
Oh Lord God Almighty, be with us!
When the accuser arise with accusations untold
Be our fence, our counsel and our defense
When we call on you, answer us by Thy grace
When we cry unto you, hear us with Thy mercies
Oh Thou who sustained them, sustain us
Oh Thou who led them, lead us
Oh Lord God Almighty, be with us!
That glory and honor shall be unto the Father
That glory and honor shall be unto the Son
We humbly plea; be with us! Be with us!
In our journey to Thy gracious end, be with us!
Oh Thou who sustained them, sustain us
Oh Thou who led them, lead us
Oh Lord God Almighty, be with us! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah,#NFDB
501:If a man who wants to create greatness uses the past, then he will empower himself through monumental history. On the other hand, the man who wishes to emphasise the customary and traditionally valued cultivates the past as an antiquarian historian. Only the man whose breast is oppressed by a present need and who wants to cast off his load at any price has a need for critical history, that is, history which sits in judgement and passes judgement. From the thoughtless transplanting of plants stem many ills: the critical man without need, the antiquarian without reverence, and the student of greatness without the ability for greatness are the sort who are receptive to weeds estranged from their natural mother earth and therefore degenerate growths.
History belongs secondly to the man who preserves and honours, to the person who with faith and love looks back in the direction from which he has come, where he has been. Through this reverence he, as it were, gives thanks for his existence. While he nurtures with a gentle hand what has stood from time immemorial, he want to preserve the conditions under which he came into existence for those who are to come after him. And so he serves life. His possession of his ancestors' goods changes the ideas in such a soul, for those goods are far more likely to take possession of his soul. The small, limited, crumbling, and archaic keep their own worth and integrity, because the conserving and honouring soul of the antiquarian man settles on these things and there prepares for itself a secret nest. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#NFDB
502:If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize, who you are and what you want to become in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape your journey by default. Your silence makes you reactive vs. proactive. God will bring people in your life that can take you on many different journeys that will bring about different outcomes to your life mission. However, if you are not proactive and define your dreams you will never know where “you” need to be and who needs to be with you to fulfill what God is asking you to do. Your life is your own. You must define your dreams, not live someone else’s vision of a good life. What is it that God is asking you to do with the talents and hobbies you enjoy? What were you blessed with a desire for? A good life is one spent in the service of helping others. Find a life partner that will help you reach God’s highest potential—service to humanity, service to his Kingdom, service to building others up. Also, begin any choice with the end in mind. This means to begin each day with a clear vision of your desired direction. It is not enough to live a passive life of religious devotion. God asked you to do more than worship. He has called you to serve, not to be a servant to other people’s dreams. You and only you know where your heart must travel. God brings you storms in life to wake you up. Don’t see it as his disappointment, but as his parental love for you. Life was not meant to stay the same. If someone truly loves you they will never take you away from God’s plan, they will only magnify it. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
503:Let there be light! Abba! Father, let there be light!
In our dark moments we cry; let there be light!
Light to show us the way; light to shine before all others!
Light to see through darkness; light to change all staleness!
Let there be light! Abba! Father, we cry, let there be light!
Let there be light! Abba! Father, let there be light!
The future is always truly uncertain; let there be light!
Light to shine on the snares of darkness; light to take steps with calmness!
Light for us to see our paths well; light for us to understand your ways well!
Let there be light! Abba! Father, we cry, let there be light!
Let there be light! Abba! Father, let there be light!
We do not know who is coming in the darkness; let there be light!
Light to blindfold the attacker; light to change the sinner!
Light to give us power; light to make all things better!
Let there be light! Abba! Father, we cry, let there be light!
Let there be light! Abba! Father, let there be light!
We need freedom to do your work; let there be light!
Light to free us from bondage; light to escape attackers’ carnage!
Light to lead us into your sonship; Light to empower our sonship!
Let there be light! Abba! Father, we cry, let there be light!
Let there be light! Abba Father, let there be light!
We need your light to know the truth; let there be light!
Light to enlighten our understanding; light to overcome misunderstanding!
Light to withstand strongholds; light to empower our goals!
Let there be light! Abba! Father, we cry, let there be light! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah,#NFDB
504:Those who argued that the number of Cambodians killed was in the hundreds of thousands or those who tried to generate press coverage of the horrors did so assuming that establishing the facts would empower the United States and other Western governments to act. Normally, in a time of genocide, op-ed writers, policymakers, and reporters root for a distinct outcome or urge a specific U.S. military, economic, legal, humanitarian, or diplomatic response. Implicit indeed in many cables and news articles, and explicit in most editorials, is an underlying message, a sort of “if I were czar, I would do X or Y.” But in the first three years of KR rule, even the Americans most concerned about Cambodia—Twining, Quinn, and Becker among them—internalized the constraints of the day and the system. They knew that drawing attention to the slaughter in Cambodia would have reminded America of its past sins, reopened wounds that had not yet healed at home, and invited questions about what the United States planned to do to curb the terror. They were neither surprised nor agitated by U.S. apathy. They accepted U.S. noninvolvement as an established background condition. Once U.S. troops had withdrawn from Vietnam in 1973, Americans deemed all of Southeast Asia unspeakable, unwatchable, and from a policy perspective, unfixable. “There could have been two genocides in Cambodia and nobody would have cared,” remembers Morton Abramowitz, who at the time was an Asia specialist at the Pentagon and in 1978 became U.S. ambassador to Thailand. During the Khmer Rouge period, he remembers, “people just wanted to forget about the place. They wanted it off the radar. ~ Samantha Power, #NFDB
505:Of course, for all their counterculture pretensions, corporations like Google, Amazon, and Apple are still corporations. They seek profits, they try to maximize their monopoly power, they externalize costs, and, of course, they exploit labor. The American technology sector has externalized the cost of industrial pollution to Chinas cities, where people live in a pall of smog but no one - certainly not Apple - has to bear the cost of cleanup. Apple/Foxconn’s dreadful labor practices in China are common knowledge, and those Amazon packages with the sunny smile issue forth from warehouses that are more like Blake’s “dark satanic mills” than they are the new employment model for the internet age.
The technology industry has manufactured images of the rebel hacker and hipster nerd, of products that empower individual and social change, of new ways of doing business, and now of mindful capitalism. Whatever truth might attach to any of these, the fact is that these are impressions carefully managed to get us to keep buying products and, just as importantly, to remain confident in the goodness and usefulness of the high-tech industry. We are being told these stories in the hope that we will believe them, buy into them, and feel both ip and spiritually renewed by the association. Unhappily, in this view of things, mindfulness can be extracted from a context of Buddhist meanings, values, and purposes. Meditation and mindfulness are not part of a whole way of life but only a spiritual technology, a mental app that is the same regardless of how it is used an what it is used for. Corporate mindfulness takes something that has the capacity to be oppositional - Buddhism - and redefines it. Eventually, we forget that it ever had its own meaning. ~ Curtis White,#NFDB
506:Direct control problems are solved by working on our habits. They are obviously within our Circle of Influence. These are the “Private Victories” of Habits 1, 2, and 3. Indirect control problems are solved by changing our methods of influence. These are the “Public Victories” of Habits 4, 5, and 6. I have personally identified over 30 separate methods of human influence—as separate as empathy is from confrontation, as separate as example is from persuasion. Most people have only three or four of these methods in their repertoire, starting usually with reasoning, and, if that doesn’t work, moving to flight or fight. How liberating it is to accept the idea that I can learn new methods of human influence instead of constantly trying to use old ineffective methods to “shape up” someone else! No control problems involve taking the responsibility to change the line on the bottom on our face—to smile, to genuinely and peacefully accept these problems and learn to live with them, even though we don’t like them. In this way, we do not empower these problems to control us. We share in the spirit embodied in the Alcoholics Anonymous prayer, “Lord, give me the courage to change the things which can and ought to be changed, the serenity to accept the things which cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Whether a problem is direct, indirect, or no control, we have in our hands the first step to the solution. Changing our habits, changing our methods of influence and changing the way we see our no control problems are all within our Circle of Influence. EXPANDING THE CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE It is inspiring to realize that in choosing our response to circumstance, we powerfully affect our circumstance. When we change one part of the chemical formula, we change the nature of the results. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
507:In looking at fears, then, it is well to remember that Carl Jung saw this reservoir of the forbidden inside the shadow as a part of the collective unconscious. The term collective unconscious means that everybody has these thoughts and fantasies. There is nothing unique about any of us when it comes to the way we symbolize our emotions. Everybody secretly harbors the fear that they are dumb, ugly, unlovable, and a failure. The unconscious mind is not polite. It thinks in gross concepts. When it thinks of the phrase “Murder the bum!,” the unconscious literally means that. Look deep within yourself the next time somebody cuts you off in traffic, and picture what you would really do to that person if you were strictly honest with yourself and did not censor the image coming to mind. You’d like to run them off the road, wouldn’t you? Pulverize them. Push them off the cliff. Isn’t that right? That’s the way the unconscious thinks. The reason that a sense of humor is useful is because these images are comical once we look at them. There is nothing awful about it; it is just the way the unconscious handles images. It doesn’t mean that you are a rotten person or that you are potentially a criminal. It just means that you have gotten honest and faced how the human animal mind operates in this dimension. There is no point in getting melodramatic, self-critical, or tragic about it. The unconscious is crude and uncivilized. While your intellect went to prep school, your unconscious remained in the jungle where it is still swinging in the trees! Looking at the shadow side is not a time to get prissy or squeamish. It’s not a time to take it literally either, because the symbols of the unconscious are just that: they are symbols, and they are primitive in nature. If worked with consciously, they can empower us rather than inhibit us. ~ David R Hawkins, #NFDB
508:Awareness Belly Breathing The stomach area contains the largest energy center in your body, the navel center. The stomach and the breathing process can be used to help quiet and relax your mind. The body-awareness belly-breathing method given here is the simplest way I have found to achieve this. Awareness belly breathing can be done anytime, anywhere. Waiting and travel time are excellent opportunities for practicing mental relaxation and energy work. Belly breathing promotes deep physical as well as mental relaxation. A relaxed state provides a clearer inner focus. It also increases energy-body sensitivity and its responses to stimulation actions. Belly breathing also stimulates the navel center in a robust natural way. This helps empower and balance your whole energy body. It is also an excellent stand-alone meditation method. Method: Awareness belly breathing involves focusing your body awareness on the physical action of breathing, on the rise and fall of your stomach. Loosen your belt, sit quietly, close your eyes, and focus your attention on your stomach. Take your time and become more aware of and focused on this area. Let your stomach sag and relax. Breathe a little more deeply from your stomach, feeling it rising and falling as you breathe. Observe this action and use this focus of attention to relax your mind. Hold your mind relaxed and clear of thought words. If thought words begin, simply release them and bring your attention back to your breathing and stomach movement. No matter how many times distracting thoughts creep in, just push them away and refocus on your stomach. This is the easiest method I have found for relaxing the mind. Two ways to ease the pressure of persistent thoughts are (1) Write them down. This will lessen pressure from your subconscious to deal with pressing issues. (2) Making firm mental commands such as, "I choose not to think about that. I choose to relax my mind!" will also help. Energy-Movement ~ Robert Bruce, #NFDB
509:38. No One Cares How Much You Know Until They Know How Much You Care
My SAS patrol sergeant Chris Carter was the living embodiment of this advice, and if you are ever in a position of leading a team or managing people, following his selfless example will help you become a better leader and enable your team to achieve more.
Can you imagine how I felt after Chris had let me drink his last drops of water? Gratitude doesn’t come close.
One of the regiment’s toughest, most hardened of soldiers was showing that he was looking out for me way beyond the call of duty. And once I had been shown how much he cared, I knew that, in return, I would never let him, or the regiment, down.
That simple act of kindness, of caring, is always at the heart of great brotherhoods. Call it what you will: camaraderie, shared purpose. The end product was that here was a man I would work my guts out for. And that made us all stronger.
Ditto, on a mountain: the most important bit of kit or resource on any expedition is always the human asset. When valued and empowered, humans have proved they can truly overcome the impossible and scale the unconquerable. But first we have to be valued and empowered.
The real value of a team is never in the flash hi-tech equipment or branded sponsors. It’s the people and the relationships between them.
As a leader, in whatever field, it is one thing for your team to see how much you know, but that knowledge isn’t what will make your team great. What makes the critical difference is how you use that knowledge.
Do you use it to empower and support those around you? Do you value others above yourself?
Is your ego small enough, and your backbone strong enough, to raise others up high on your shoulders?
If you let people know, through your words and actions, that they really matter, that their work matters, that their wellbeing matters to you, then they will go to the ends of the Earth for you. Why? Because they know they can trust you to use all your knowledge, skills and power to support and encourage them.
You see, no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. ~ Bear Grylls,#NFDB
510:When those who have been placed in my life to lead me and train me betray me and turn against me, as Saul turned against David, I will follow the example of David and refuse to let hope die in my heart. Holy Spirit, empower me to be a spiritual father or mother to those who need me to disciple, love, support, and encourage them. Father, raise up spiritual leaders in our land who can lead others with justice, mercy, integrity, and love. Allow me to be one of these leaders. When I am cut off from my father [physical or spiritual] through his insecurity, jealousy, or pride, cause me to recognize that as You did with David, You want to complete Your work in my life. Holy Spirit, release me from tormenting thoughts or self-blame and striving for acceptance. Cause me to seek only Your acceptance and restoration. I refuse to allow the enemy to cause me to seek revenge against those who have wronged me. I will not raise my hand against the Lord’s anointed or seek to avenge myself. I will leave justice to You. Father, cause my heart to be pure as David’s was pure. Through Your power, O Lord, I will refuse to attack my enemies with my tongue, for I will never forget that both death and life are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21). I will never seek to sow discord or separation between myself and my Christian brothers and sisters, for it is an abomination to my Lord. I will remain loyal to my spiritual leaders even when they have rejected me or wronged me. I choose to be a man [or woman] after the heart of God, not one who seeks to avenge myself. Holy Spirit, like David I will lead my Christian brother and sister to honor our spiritual leaders even in the face of betrayal. I refuse to sow discord among brethren. I will show kindness to others who are in relationship with the ones who have wronged me. Like David I will find ways to honor them and will not allow offense to cause me to disrespect them. Father, only You are worthy to judge the intents and actions of myself or of those around me. I praise You for Your wisdom, and I submit to Your leading. Lord, I choose to remain loyal to those in a position of authority over me. I choose to focus on the calling You have placed on my life and to refuse to be diverted by the actions of others, even when they have treated me wrongly. Father, may You be able to examine my life and know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my heart toward others (1 Sam.24:11). ~ John Bevere, #NFDB
511:44. Let The Mountain Give You Strength
This is something I couldn’t quite get my head round when I was younger. One of my heroes, Sir Edmund Hillary, used to say that he drew strength from the mountain, and I just couldn’t understand what he meant. Then one day I experienced it for myself.
Let me explain…
Mountains - and all the natural struggles and obstacles they present - are also arenas to find out what we are made of. Inside every challenge, high on every mountain, is the opportunity to find a strength within us to survive and thrive. It just takes us to be willing to dig deep and push on hard enough and long enough to find that strength.
But most people give up before they find it. This is why most people never reach the summit of their goals.
They quit when the winds pick up. They let their heads dip when it gets hard.
But I have learnt that on the mountains, the winds invariably pick up as you near the summit. (There is a scientific reason for this called the venturi effect, which means that as the wind hits the steep faces it gets squeezed, and when wind is compressed it speeds up. Hence windswept mountaintops.)
So don’t be daunted or downhearted when it gets tough, don’t shy away - step up to the plate, rise up to the challenge, and embrace the mountain. When we do this, the mountain will reward you, it will ‘give’ you the strength to overcome.
I don’t always know where this strength comes from but I have often felt it within me. The tougher it becomes, the more I have felt this strength welling up inside.
So embrace that push, don’t hide from the squeeze, but push on and allow the mountain to give you that strength.
Edmund Hillary found it, many explorers when really up against the ropes have found it, and I have found it. The key to its discovery is a willingness to push on and feed off the scale of the climb or the obstacle. Do this and the strength will come. Dig a little deeper, keep going a little longer, and somehow the summit will eventually come into view. It might not be until dawn, when the sun rises, but if you hang on in there long enough, it will inevitably come.
And so often the darkest hour is just before the dawn. You just have to hang on in there through those dark hours - don’t give up, let the mountain sustain you and empower you, and you will experience the mountain within you. ~ Bear Grylls,#NFDB
512:My Dear Fellow Subjects,
I have recently learned a Truth that I wish to share with you: A man can be powerful, wealthy, privileged, even arrogant, yet still bend himself down to the level of the lowliest child to act with kindness, compassion, and heroism. I have witnessed it.
I have been wrong my friends. In the past, cynicism and old hurt threaded through my disparagements of great men. Some men of position and wealth do serve England for their own gain. But some do so because they wish to help others and to make the world a better place. Whether it is always apparent to observers, the fact that they serve from a place of both Honor and Love – love of their families, their lands, and England.
The People of this great nation and its Rulers have much to teach other. Both sides should listen.
In this same manner, a wife and her husband must coexist. In sharing and celebrating their partnership, they must trust each other; depend upon each other, support each other, and raise each other up – in equal measure. For where there is Love there must always be Respect.
For Respect to flourish, however, Equality must first exist. I ask you: How can a man with a single slice of bread look upon a rich man’s feast day after day, yet not come to resent him for that bounty? And how can a feasting lord look upon a pauper’s crust and not feel contempt, even judge that pauper deficient in some manner? Is not a well-fed man a happier man and a better contributor to Society? Is not an equal sharing of resources a pathway toward equal respect?
In much the same way, to withhold from wives the same rights and privileges in marriage as their husbands is to sow Anger, Resentment, Fear, and Weakness into the fertile soil of this most blessed union. Instead of allowing wives equal rights and privileged as their husbands is to empower women to love and serve with Strength, Vigor, and Honesty.
Dear fellow subjects, I have witnessed the intimate bond between Love and Respect: I have seen it in my parents’ marriage and in the marriages of my dearest friends. Now I have also felt it in my heart. And I have learned that without the one, the other cannot survive. Entwined together, however, they can conquer the worst of life’s challenges.
In learning this lesson, I have come to understand that I can no longer hide in anonymity. In doing so, I only contribute to mistrust between the People of this kingdom and its Rulers, who should instead be united, bonded, as spouses are bonded, in Love and Respect. In remaining anonymous, I am also a hypocrite. For how can I claim that women’s voices are worthy of being heard when I have hidden my own so effectively behind this crusade that even those who I love most dearly do not know me?
Therefore, today I sign off sincerely,
-- Emily Vale, “Lady Justice ~ Katharine Ashe,#NFDB
513:Obviously, in those situations, we lose the sale. But we’re not trying to maximize each and every transaction. Instead, we’re trying to build a lifelong relationship with each customer, one phone call at a time. A lot of people may think it’s strange that an Internet company is so focused on the telephone, when only about 5 percent of our sales happen through the telephone. In fact, most of our phone calls don’t even result in sales. But what we’ve found is that on average, every customer contacts us at least once sometime during his or her lifetime, and we just need to make sure that we use that opportunity to create a lasting memory. The majority of phone calls don’t result in an immediate order. Sometimes a customer may be calling because it’s her first time returning an item, and she just wants a little help stepping through the process. Other times, a customer may call because there’s a wedding coming up this weekend and he wants a little fashion advice. And sometimes, we get customers who call simply because they’re a little lonely and want someone to talk to. I’m reminded of a time when I was in Santa Monica, California, a few years ago at a Skechers sales conference. After a long night of bar-hopping, a small group of us headed up to someone’s hotel room to order some food. My friend from Skechers tried to order a pepperoni pizza from the room-service menu, but was disappointed to learn that the hotel we were staying at did not deliver hot food after 11:00 PM. We had missed the deadline by several hours. In our inebriated state, a few of us cajoled her into calling Zappos to try to order a pizza. She took us up on our dare, turned on the speakerphone, and explained to the (very) patient Zappos rep that she was staying in a Santa Monica hotel and really craving a pepperoni pizza, that room service was no longer delivering hot food, and that she wanted to know if there was anything Zappos could do to help. The Zappos rep was initially a bit confused by the request, but she quickly recovered and put us on hold. She returned two minutes later, listing the five closest places in the Santa Monica area that were still open and delivering pizzas at that time. Now, truth be told, I was a little hesitant to include this story because I don’t actually want everyone who reads this book to start calling Zappos and ordering pizza. But I just think it’s a fun story to illustrate the power of not having scripts in your call center and empowering your employees to do what’s right for your brand, no matter how unusual or bizarre the situation. As for my friend from Skechers? After that phone call, she’s now a customer for life. Top 10 Ways to Instill Customer Service into Your Company 1. Make customer service a priority for the whole company, not just a department. A customer service attitude needs to come from the top. 2. Make WOW a verb that is part of your company’s everyday vocabulary. 3. Empower and trust your customer service reps. Trust that they want to provide great service… because they actually do. Escalations to a supervisor should be rare. 4. Realize that it’s okay to fire customers who are insatiable or abuse your employees. 5. Don’t measure call times, don’t force employees to upsell, and don’t use scripts. 6. Don’t hide your 1-800 number. It’s a message not just to your customers, but to your employees as well. 7. View each call as an investment in building a customer service brand, not as an expense you’re seeking to minimize. 8. Have the entire company celebrate great service. Tell stories of WOW experiences to everyone in the company. 9. Find and hire people who are already passionate about customer service. 10. Give great service to everyone: customers, employees, and vendors. ~ Tony Hsieh, #NFDB
514:Hi there, cutie."
Ash turned his head to find an extremely attractive college student by his side. With black curly hair, she was dressed in jeans and a tight green top that displayed her curves to perfection. "Hi."
"You want to go inside for a drink? It's on me."
Ash paused as he saw her past, present, and future simultaneously in his mind. Her name was Tracy Phillips. A political science major, she was going to end up at Harvard Med School and then be one of the leading researchers to help isolate a mutated genome that the human race didn't even know existed yet.
The discovery of that genome would save the life of her youngest daughter and cause her daughter to go on to medical school herself. That daughter, with the help and guidance of her mother, would one day lobby for medical reforms that would change the way the medical world and governments treated health care. The two of them would shape generations of doctors and save thousands of lives by allowing people to have groundbreaking medical treatments that they wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford.
And right now, all Tracy could think about was how cute his ass was in leather pants, and how much she'd like to peel them off him.
In a few seconds, she'd head into the coffee shop and meet a waitress named Gina Torres. Gina's dream was to go to college herself to be a doctor and save the lives of the working poor who couldn't afford health care, but because of family problems she wasn't able to take classes this year. Still Gina would tell Tracy how she planned to go next year on a scholarship.
Late tonight, after most of the college students were headed off, the two of them would be chatting about Gina's plans and dreams.
And a month from now, Gina would be dead from a freak car accident that Tracy would see on the news. That one tragic event combined with the happenstance meeting tonight would lead Tracy to her destiny. In one instant, she'd realize how shallow her life had been, and she'd seek to change that and be more aware of the people around her and of their needs. Her youngest daughter would be named Gina Tory in honor of the Gina who was currently busy wiping down tables while she imagined a better life for everyone.
So in effect, Gina would achieve her dream. By dying she'd save thousands of lives and she'd bring health care to those who couldn't afford it...
The human race was an amazing thing. So few people ever realized just how many lives they inadvertently touched. How the right or wrong word spoken casually could empower or destroy another's life.
If Ash were to accept Tracy's invitation for coffee, her destiny would be changed and she would end up working as a well-paid bank officer. She'd decide that marriage wasn't for her and go on to live her life with a partner and never have children.
Everything would change. All the lives that would have been saved would be lost.
And knowing the nuance of every word spoken and every gesture made was the heaviest of all the burdens Ash carried.
Smiling gently, he shook his head. "Thanks for asking, but I have to head off. You have a good night."
She gave him a hot once-over. "Okay, but if you change your mind, I'll be in here studying for the next few hours."
Ash watched as she left him and entered the shop. She set her backpack down at a table and started unpacking her books. Sighing from exhaustion, Gina grabbed a glass of water and made her way over to her...
And as he observed them through the painted glass, the two women struck up a conversation and set their destined futures into motion.
His heart heavy, he glanced in the direction Cael had vanished and hated the future that awaited his friend. But it was Cael's destiny.
His fate...
"Imora thea mi savur," Ash whispered under his breath in Atlantean. God save me from love. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon,#NFDB
515:Plutonian Ode
What new element before us unborn in nature? Is there
a new thing under the Sun?
At last inquisitive Whitman a modern epic, detonative,
Scientific theme
First penned unmindful by Doctor Seaborg with poisonous hand, named for Death's planet through the
sea beyond Uranus
whose chthonic ore fathers this magma-teared Lord of
Hades, Sire of avenging Furies, billionaire HellKing worshipped once
with black sheep throats cut, priests's face averted from
underground mysteries in single temple at Eleusis,
Spring-green Persephone nuptialed to his inevitable
Shade, Demeter mother of asphodel weeping dew,
her daughter stored in salty caverns under white snow,
black hail, grey winter rain or Polar ice, immemorable seasons before
Fish flew in Heaven, before a Ram died by the starry
bush, before the Bull stamped sky and earth
or Twins inscribed their memories in clay or Crab'd
flood
washed memory from the skull, or Lion sniffed the
lilac breeze in Eden-Before the Great Year began turning its twelve signs,
ere constellations wheeled for twenty-four thousand
sunny years
slowly round their axis in Sagittarius, one hundred
sixty-seven thousand times returning to this night
Radioactive Nemesis were you there at the beginning
black dumb tongueless unsmelling blast of Disillusion?
I manifest your Baptismal Word after four billion years
I guess your birthday in Earthling Night, I salute your
dreadful presence last majestic as the Gods,
Sabaot, Jehova, Astapheus, Adonaeus, Elohim, Iao,
Ialdabaoth, Aeon from Aeon born ignorant in an
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Abyss of Light,
Sophia's reflections glittering thoughtful galaxies, whirlpools of starspume silver-thin as hairs of Einstein!
Father Whitman I celebrate a matter that renders Self
oblivion!
Grand Subject that annihilates inky hands & pages'
prayers, old orators' inspired Immortalities,
I begin your chant, openmouthed exhaling into spacious
sky over silent mills at Hanford, Savannah River,
Rocky Flats, Pantex, Burlington, Albuquerque
I yell thru Washington, South Carolina, Colorado,
Texas, Iowa, New Mexico,
Where nuclear reactors creat a new Thing under the
Sun, where Rockwell war-plants fabricate this death
stuff trigger in nitrogen baths,
Hanger-Silas Mason assembles the terrified weapon
secret by ten thousands, & where Manzano Mountain boasts to store
its dreadful decay through two hundred forty millenia
while our Galaxy spirals around its nebulous core.
I enter your secret places with my mind, I speak with
your presence, I roar your Lion Roar with mortal
mouth.
One microgram inspired to one lung, ten pounds of
heavy metal dust adrift slow motion over grey
Alps
the breadth of the planet, how long before your radiance
speeds blight and death to sentient beings?
Enter my body or not I carol my spirit inside you,
Unnaproachable Weight,
O heavy heavy Element awakened I vocalize your consciousness to six worlds
I chant your absolute Vanity. Yeah monster of Anger
birthed in fear O most
Ignorant matter ever created unnatural to Earth! Delusion
of metal empires!
Destroyer of lying Scientists! Devourer of covetous
Generals, Incinerator of Armies & Melter of Wars!
Judgement of judgements, Divine Wind over vengeful
nations, Molester of Presidents, Death-Scandal of
Capital politics! Ah civilizations stupidly industrious!
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Canker-Hex on multitudes learned or illiterate! Manufactured Spectre of human reason! O solidified
imago of practicioner in Black Arts
I dare your reality, I challenge your very being! I
publish your cause and effect!
I turn the wheel of Mind on your three hundred tons!
Your name enters mankind's ear! I embody your
ultimate powers!
My oratory advances on your vaunted Mystery! This
breath dispels your braggart fears! I sing your
form at last
behind your concrete & iron walls inside your fortress
of rubber & translucent silicon shields in filtered
cabinets and baths of lathe oil,
My voice resounds through robot glove boxes & ignot
cans and echoes in electric vaults inert of atmosphere,
I enter with spirit out loud into your fuel rod drums
underground on soundless thrones and beds of
lead
O density! This weightless anthem trumpets transcendent
through hidden chambers and breaks through
iron doors into the Infernal Room!
Over your dreadful vibration this measured harmony
floats audible, these jubilant tones are honey and
milk and wine-sweet water
Poured on the stone black floor, these syllables are
barley groats I scatter on the Reactor's core,
I call your name with hollow vowels, I psalm your Fate
close by, my breath near deathless ever at your
side
to Spell your destiny, I set this verse prophetic on your
mausoleum walls to seal you up Eternally with
Diamond Truth! O doomed Plutonium.
II
The Bar surveys Plutonian history from midnight
lit with Mercury Vapor streetlamps till in dawn's
early light
he contemplates a tranquil politic spaced out between
Nations' thought-forms proliferating bureaucratic
66
& horrific arm'd, Satanic industries projected sudden
with Five Hundred Billion Dollar Strength
around the world same time this text is set in Boulder,
Colorado before front range of Rocky Mountains
twelve miles north of Rocky Flats Nuclear Facility in
United States of North America, Western Hemisphere
of planet Earth six months and fourteen days around
our Solar System in a Spiral Galaxy
the local year after Dominion of the last God nineteen
hundred seventy eight
Completed as yellow hazed dawn clouds brighten East,
Denver city white below
Blue sky transparent rising empty deep & spacious to a
morning star high over the balcony
above some autos sat with wheels to curb downhill
from Flatiron's jagged pine ridge,
sunlit mountain meadows sloped to rust-red sandstone
cliffs above brick townhouse roofs
as sparrows waked whistling through Marine Street's
summer green leafed trees.
III
This ode to you O Poets and Orators to come, you
father Whitman as I join your side, you Congress
and American people,
you present meditators, spiritual friends & teachers,
you O Master of the Diamond Arts,
Take this wheel of syllables in hand, these vowels and
consonants to breath's end
take this inhalation of black poison to your heart, breath
out this blessing from your breast on our creation
forests cities oceans deserts rocky flats and mountains
in the Ten Directions pacify with exhalation,
enrich this Plutonian Ode to explode its empty thunder
through earthen thought-worlds
Magnetize this howl with heartless compassion, destroy
this mountain of Plutonium with ordinary mind
and body speech,
thus empower this Mind-guard spirit gone out, gone
out, gone beyond, gone beyond me, Wake space,
67
so Ah!
~ Allen Ginsberg,#NFDB
516:Orpheus
ORPHEUS.
LAUGHTER and dance, and sounds of harp and lyre,
Piping of flutes, singing of festal songs,
Ribbons of flame from flaunting torches, dulled
By the broad summer sunshine, these had filled
Since the high noon the pillared vestibules,
The peristyles and porches, in the house
Of the bride's father. Maidens, garlanded
With rose and myrtle dedicate to Love,
Adorned with chaplets fresh the bride, and veiled
The shining head and wistful, girlish face,
Ineffable sweetness of divided lips,
Large light of clear, gray eyes, low, lucid brows,
White as a cloud, beneath pale, clustering gold.
When sunless skies uncertain twilight cast,
That makes a friend's face as an alien's strange,
Investing with a foreign mystery
The dear green fields about our very home.
Then waiting stood the gilded chariot
Before the porch, and from the vine-wreathed door,
Issued the white-veiled bride, while jocund youths
And mænads followed her with dance and song.
She came with double glory; for her lord,
Son of Apollo and Calliope,
Towered beside her, beautiful in limb
And feature, as though formed to magic strains,
Like the Bœotian city, that arose
In airy structures to Amphion's lute.
The light serene shone from his brow and eyes,
Of one whose lofty thoughts keep consonance
With the celestial music of the spheres.
His smile was fluent, and his speech outsang
The cadences of soft-stringed instruments.
He to the chariot led Eurydice,
And these twain, mounting with their paranymph,
Drove onward through the dusky twilit fields,
Preceded by the nymphs and singing youths,
And boys diffusing light and odors warm,
With flaming brands of aromatic woods,
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And matrons bearing symbols of the life
Of careful wives, the distaff and the sieve;
And followed by the echoes of their songs,
The fragrance crushed from moist and trodden grass,
The blessing of the ever-present gods,
Whom they invoked with earnest hymns and prayer.
From Orpheus' portico, festooned with vines,
Issued a flood of rare, ambrosial light,
As though Olympian portals stood ajar,
And Hymen, radiant by his torch's flame,
Mystic with saffron vest and purple, stood
With hands munificent to greet and bless.
Ripe fruits were poured upon the married pair
Alighting, and the chariot wheels were burnt,
A token that the bride returned no more
Unto her father's house. With step resolved,
She crossed the threshold soft with flowers, secure
That his heroic soul who guided her,
Was potent and alert to grace her life,
With noble outlines and ideal hues,
Uplifting it to equal height with his.
EPITHALAMIUM. TO ZEUS.
Because thou art enthroned beyond our reach,
Behind the brightest and the farthest star,
And silence is as eloquent as speech,
To thee who knowest us for what we are,
We bring thee naught save brief and simple prayer,
Strong in its naked, frank sincerity.
Send sacred joys of marriage to this pair,
With fertile increase and prosperity.
Three nymphs had met beneath an oak that cast
Cool, dappled shadow on the glowing grass,
And liquid gleam of the translucent brook.
The air was musical with frolic sounds
Of feminine voices, and of laughter blithe.
Patines of sunshine fell like mottled gold
On the rose-white of bright bare limbs and neck,
On flowing, snowy mantles, and again
With sudden splendor on the gloriole
Of warm, rich hair. The fairest nymph reclined
Beneath the tree, and leaned her yellow head,
With its crisp, clustering rings, against the trunk,
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And dipped her pure feet in the colorless brook,
Stirring the ripples into circles wide,
With cool, delicious plashings in the stream.
Her young companions lay upon the grass,
With indolent eyes half closed, and parted lips
Half-smiling, in the languor of the noon.
But suddenly these twain, arising, cried,
Startled and sharply, 'Lo, Eurydice,
Behold!' and she, uplifting frightened eyes,
Saw a strange shepherd watching with bold glance.
Veiling their faces with their mantles light,
Her sisters fled swift-footed, with shrill cries,
Adown the meadow, but her wet feet clung
To the dry grasses and the earthy soil.
'Eurydice, I love thee! fear me not,
For I am Aristæus, with gray groves
Of hoary olives, and innumerous flocks,
And precious swarms of yellow-vested bees.'
But she with sudden strength eluding him,
Sprang o'er the flowery turf, with back-blown hair,
And wing-like garments, shortened breath, and face
Kindled with shame and terror. In her flight
She ran through fatal flowers and tangled weeds,
And thick rank grass beside a stagnant pool,
When, with a keen and breathless cry of pain,
Abrupt she fell amidst the tall, green reeds.
Then Aristæus reached her, as a snake
Crept back in sinuous lines amidst the slime.
Desire was changed to pity, when he saw
The wounded dryad in her agony
Strive vainly to escape, repelling him
With feeble arms. 'Forgive me, nymph,' he cried;
' I will not touch, save with most reverent hands,
Thy sacred form. But let me bear thee hence,
And soothe thy bruise with healing herbs. 'Too late,
Leave me,' she sighed, 'and lead thou Orpheus here,
That I may see him ere the daylight fails.'
He left her pale with suffering, —earth seemed strange
Unto her eyes, who knew she looked her last
On level-stretching meadows, hazy hills,
And all the light and color of the sky.
Brief as a dream she saw her happy life,
140
Her father's face, her mother's blessed eyes,
The hero who, unheralded, appeared,
And all was changed,— all things put forth a voice,
As in the season of the singing birds.
She looked around revived, and saw again
The lapsing river and abiding sky.
Across the sunny fields came Aristæus,
With Orpheus following,— and after these,
Sad nymphs and heroes grave with sympathy.
Quite calm she lay, and almost wished to die
Before they reached her, if the throbbing pain
Of limb and heart could only thus be stilled.
But Orpheus hastened to her side, and mourned,
'Eurydice, Eurydice! Remain, —
For there is no delight of speech nor song
Among the dead. Will the gods jest with me,
And call this life, which must forevermore
Be but a void, a hunger, a desire,
A stretching out of empty hands to grasp
What earth nor sea nor heaven will restore?
Is this the life that I conceived and sang,
Rich with all noble opportunities
And beautiful realities?' But she:
'Brave Orpheus, search thou not the eternal gods,
Surely they love us dearer than we know.
Do thou refrain, for yet I hold my faith.
When I am gone, thou still wilt have thy lyre;
Love it and cherish,— it is Fate's best gift,
And with death's clearer vision, I can see
That in all ages men will be upraised
Nearer to gods through this than through aught else.
My death may but inspire a larger note,
A passionate cadence to thy strain, which else
Were not quite human, and thus incomplete.
And with this thought I am content to die.
Cease not to sing to me when I am gone;
Thy voice will reach me in the farthest spheres,
Or wake me out of silence. Now begin,
That I may float on those celestial waves
Into the darkness, as I oft have longed.'
ORPHEUS.
Once in a wild, bright vision, came to me
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Beautiful music, luminous as morn,
An effluence of light and rapture born,
With eyes as full of splendor as the sea;
Dazzling as youth, with pinions frail as air,
Yet potent to uplift and soar as prayer.
Again I see her, cypress in her wreath,
Sad with all grave and tender mysteries;
Tears in her unimaginable eyes,
That look their first with wondering awe on Death.
Never again, in all the after years,
Will her lips laugh with utter mirthfulness;
Nor the strange longing in her eyes grow less,
Nor any time dispel their mist of tears.
Yea, with new numbers she completes her strain,
A song unsung before by gods or men;
But she hath lost, ah! lost for evermore,
The ringing note of joy ineffable,
The high assurance proud, that all is well,
The glad refrain that pealed from shore to shore.
O lyre, thou hast done with joyous things,
Triumphant ecstasies, exultant song;
Of subtle pain, keen anguish, hopeless wrong,
I fashion now another of thy strings,
And strike thee with a strong hand passionate,
Into a fuller music, adequate
Unto a soul that seeks insatiably,
With fond, illusive hope and faith divine;
For through all ages will my soul seek thine,
Eurydice, my lost Eurydice!
What solace to lament with empty hands
And smitten heart, above a mound of earth,
Vivid with mockery of perpetual flowers,
O'er one small urn that holds beneath its lid,
With overmeasure, all the flameless dust
And soulless ashes of our love? Yet this
Was Orpheus' life, to mourn beside the grave,
From his stringed lyre compelling wild response
And thrilling intonation of his grief,
That made the hearts of gnarled and knotty oaks
Ache as with human sympathy, and rived
The adamantine centre of the rock,
And lured the forest beasts, and hushed the birds,
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Mavis and lark, while with wide, awful wings,
The eagle shadowed his exalted brow.
'Surely,' he cried, 'the senseless dust hears not,
More than the burnt brand hears old natural sounds
Innumerable rustle of young leaves.
It cannot be that only these remain,
The ashes of her glittering limbs, warm flesh,
And blessed hair,— my love had more than these
Where is the vital soul, that was to me
An inspiration and an influence?
The gods are not unstable like rash man,
Aimlessly to create and discreate,
With cruel and capricious fantasy,
For thus the immaculate skies would be a lie;
Eurydice is but withdrawn from me,
And disembodied, while mine eyesight blinds,
My senses are a hindrance, and obstruct
The accurate perception of my soul.
When mine own spirit, nightly disenthralled,
Soars to the land of dreams, whose boundaries,
By day, loom infinitely far and vague,
And yet, at night, become our very home,—
There still I see thee with the same bright form,
The same auroral eyes that made for me
Perpetual morning; and I stretch mine arms
Hungering after thee, and, calling, wake
Unto the vapid glare of languid dawn.
Yet all these things address my very soul,
Telling it that thou art not dead; for death
Is but the incarnation of man's fears;
Gods do not recognize it. If thou art
(As I have faith) in the known universe,
Yea, though it be in the extremest land,
Beyond the sunset, with its shining isles,
I will go forth and seek thee, nor will cease
To mourn thee and desire, till I have found.'
Thus Orpheus fared across the full-fed streams
Of Hebrus and of Strymon, and beyond
The purple outlines and aerial crags,
Snow-glittering of Scardus, Rhodope,
And grand Orbelus; through fair, fertile fields
Of Thessaly with increase of ripe corn,
143
Through Attica, Bœotia and Eubœa,
And southward to the royal-citied state,
Beautiful Corinth, throned upon the base
Of green Acrocorinthus, whose soft slope
Was dedicate with temples to the gods,
And towering over all the sacred shrine
Of Aphrodite. Upward from the town
The mountain rose defensive, where the walls
Of Corinth ended, and beyond the gates,
The radiant plain of the Corinthian Gulf
Stretched infinitely. Orpheus rested here,
Till he bethought him to ascend the mount,
With offerings at Aphrodite's shrine—
Not sanguine victims, but fresh myrtle wreath
And faultless rose—to sue the oracle
For help and guidance.
All the town was still,
The bright red band of sunrise lit the sky
Above the dark blue gulf, and Orpheus heard
A hundred birds saluting, from the brake,
Aurora, and cool rush of waterfalls.
Made murmurous music, while Athené breathed
The vigor of the morning in his soul.
Up the steep mountain side he passed, beyond
The silver growth of olives, and the belt
Of pines, to where the foam-white temple stood,
Smitten at once by all the beams of morn.
He saw the double peak, rose-white with snow
And early sunshine, of Parnassus cleave
The northern sky, and sacred Helicon
Erect its head, crowned with the Muses' grove,
The Bay of Crissa and Corinthian Gulf,
Below flashed restless, and a path of gold
Divided with clear, tremulous light the waves.
From the large beauty of the morn, he went
Into the holy limits of the shrine,
With warm air heavy with the odorous rose.
ORPHEUS.
I put into my prayer to thee, O mother,
The tumult and the passion of the ocean,
The unflecked purity of winnowed foam-wreaths;
To thee who sprang from these, the incarnation
144
Of all the huge sea holds of grace or splendor,
With its own light between thine amorous eyelids.
For I, in thy most sacred cause a pilgrim,
Have wandered tireless, from Thrace to Corinth,
'Midst foreign scenes and alien men and women.
And at my right hand Grief incessant follows,
And at my left walks Memory with the semblance
Of lost Eurydice's ethereal beauty.
Infatuate I gaze, until the vision
Thrills me to madness, and I start and tremble,
Remembering also Grief is my companion.
Onward through spacious fields, by copious waters,
Through purple growth of amaranth and crocus,
And past the marble beauty of great cities,
We three have journeyed,— strangers saw me reckless,
And knew at once that I had walked with sorrow,
And that the gods had chosen me their victim.
Are all my carols useless, worse than useless?
Shall my long pilgrimage, thus unrewarded,
End at the blank, insuperable ocean?
Hast thou no wise compassion, goddess, mother?
In all the measureless years' unfathomed chances,
Is the dear past to be repeated never?
O supreme mother! crowned with blessed poppy
As well as myrtle,— bring her here, or compass
My soul with death, that elsewhere I may seek her.
He ceased, and through the temple spread a mist
Ambrosial, and above the shrine a star
Serenely brightened, and a heavenly voice
Made sweet response: ' Love guides himself thy course
To the last sea-girt rock. No worthy soul
May ever truly seek, and fail to find.'
Still southward Orpheus journeyed, till he reached
Cape Tænarus, the last bleak point of Greece,
Desolate o'er an infinite waste of waves,
While sunset lit the western sea and sky
With yellow floods of warm, diffusive light,
Kindling his serious face and earnest eyes,
And glittering on his lyre. Long time he stood,
And gazed upon the trouble of the waves,
Expectant of a word, a sign— and still
No answer made the wild, indifferent sea.
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Impetuous, he smote his quivering lyre
To reckless and sonorous melody,
Vibrating o'er the watery turbulence.
Then far below its western bath, the sun
Dipped and was gone, and all the sea was gray.
Still through the air rang those imploring notes,
Unutterably plaintive— till there came
From out the ocean cave of Tænarus
The shining forms of Oceanides,
With myriad faces raised supremely fair,
And myriad arms that beckoned as he sang.
Behold! a stir amidst the frothing brine,
As though upheaved by powers submarine,
In implicate confusion, wave on wave,
Then rose with windy manes and fiery eyes,
Proudly careering, the immortal steeds,
Bearing, within the shell-shaped car, the god
Of august aspect and imperial port,
With such profusion of ambrosial locks
As curl around the very front of Zeus.
He with benign regard the minstrel viewed,
Then whirling thrice his massy trident, struck
The scarpéd promontory with its fork.
And Orpheus felt the solid basis yield,
And heard the hollow rumbling, as when earth
Rocks to her centre, and high hills spit flame.
And lo! he stood before a sulphurous throne,
Set in an open space, wherefrom there streamed
Four rivers stagnant, black. Here Ades reigned,
His very presence unto mortal sense
Oppressive as low thunder in the air.
The triple-headed guardian of his realm
Crouched at his feet, and in the dismal murk,
The hideous Harpies hovered o'er his head.
The serpent-haired Eumenides stood near,
Brow-bound with sanguine fillets, and the Fates
Wielded the distaff, spindle, and sharp shears.
The air was dense with noisome influence,
And shadowy apparitions seemed to float
Athwart the dusk. But on the infernal throne
Conspicuous in beauty, by her lord,
Persephone was seated. Wonderment
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Looked from her eyes, in seeing him, no god,
Who came before his time among the dead,
Unarmed with spear or shield, a glistening lyre
Nigh slipping from the loose grasp of his hands.
'Who comes unsummoned to my realm?' began
The baleful godhead in discordant tones,
Widely reverberant; and the low, clear voice
Of Orpheus answered: 'One who would remain,
If but the impotent body could be free
To follow the desires of the soul,—
Orpheus, an unskilled singer.' 'Birth and death
Are preordained for thee, presumptuous man.
What narrow space of time the Fates accord,
'Twould best become thee to bear worthily,
With dignity, and leave the rest to them,
The end as the beginning.' 'Plead for me,
O beautiful Persephone, — behold!
Eurydice was snatched with violent hand
From out mine eager arms, and I have sought
Her image o'er the peopled earth in vain.'
Then she: 'I may not summon her, nor hope
To swerve the haughty purpose of my lord.
With influence of thy familiar voice,
If thou canst touch her spirit, she is thine.'
But Ades: 'Who recalls the dead by prayer?
They whose calm souls are once possessed by death,
Find such a solid joy in grasping firm,
After life's phantasms, this reality,
That wisdom, grief, nor love persuadeth them
Their liberated spirits to confine
With fleshly limitations. Nathless sing,—
And prove life's glittering evanescence vain,
Outweighed by death's sublime security.'
ORPHEUS.
I render thanks, eternal gods, that ye
Empower myself to call Eurydice.
Man only can fulfill his own desire;
And if I fail, the sorrow rests with me.
Ye give what we deserve; I pray alone
Ne'er to be cursed with what I have not won.
And to whom else would I intrust my lyre,
This supreme invocation to intone?
147
But in myself I feel the love, the power,
The lyric inspiration, while the flower
Of all my life brings forth its proper fruit,
In this my loftiest, most godlike hour.
If I could make ye feel the agony
Of the strong man, O gods, condemned to see
The light fail from dear eyes, the white lips mute,
The elusive soul take flight eternally
To where we cannot follow it nor find,
With the most subtle searchings of the mind,
With the most passionate longings of the soul,
Deaf, unresponsive as the empty wind;
Then would your pity as your power be,
'Twould crown us all with immortality,
And grace us with completeness, make us whole,
Worthy to be the peers of deity.
For we are mighty now to slay and bless,
Yea, gifted with strange strength of steadfastness,
To conquer bodiless and viewless foes
Within ourselves, yet in our helplessness,
As children, in the presence of this Death,
Whom nor revolt nor patience conquereth,
Implacable, with grim mouth fastened close,
That with no hope our anguish answereth.
Resound with wildest utterance, O my lyre;
Let each note be a living flame of fire,
To reach her, to burn through her, to compel,
Strong with the infinite strength of my desire.
I am no god, yet Fate, Eurydice,
A goddess for my slave hath given me,—
Immortal Music, pure, ineffable;
And I send her, my handmaid, after thee.
If all wherein I put my faith as sure,
Be not delusions vain which death will cure;
If the sublime reliance of the soul
On her own powers be no empty lure,
Whereat the high gods laugh in bitter scorn;
If what I have achieved and what forborne,
Will lead me nearer to a worthy goal,
If all life's promises be not forsworn,—
Eurydice, appear! Before mine eyes,
O gods, I see a formless essence rise,
148
That moulds itself unto the music's beat,
Appareled in the glory of the skies.
Now, while I ring a more celestial tone,
The spirit more divinely bright hath grown,
To larger modulations, strains complete,
The white limbs from the shapeless mist are won,
As from the bosom of a summer cloud,
Wherewith a goddess would her semblance shroud.
Is this mine own creation? Is it truth,
That with warm life I have blank air endowed?
The soft cloud parts asunder,— yea, 'tis she!
Once more the face that was my star I see,
Crowned with the beauty of immortal youth,
Eurydice, my lost Eurydice!
Silent beside his silent, fallen lyre,
The singer stood, and clasped her in his arms,
Gazing upon this pale, fair face as one
Whose heart's supreme desire is satisfied.
'Is not this hour the hour I have foreseen,
Through all obstructions and infirmities
Of my mortality, and is it not
More glorious in fruition than I dreamed!
Yea, I have dreamed it all, eternal gods,
Even as now have pressed her to my heart
With the same clinging effort to retain,
And seen this breathing form, these lucent eyes
Vivid as now, instinct with life and love.
Yet have I waked to chill discouragement,
To vacant disappointment, and the sense
Of aching, unassuaged desire. O speak,
For in my dreams I never hear thy voice,
Save veiled and indistinct, a mockery
Of the old limpid music. Speak to me:
Thy flesh is warm, thy heart beats close to mine,
Thine upturned face is wet with human tears;
O speak to me,— lest I should wake again
To barren fields and empty skies of Thrace.'
Then in low, natural tones, Eurydice:
'Thy voice hath reached me in the farthest spheres,
And waked me out of silence.' 'Follow me,—
It is thyself,— if I must wake from this,
'Twill be to death or madness. Follow me,
149
From darkness palpable, to earth, to light
Of ample skies, and freshness of blown grass
And rolling waters.' 'Hold!' the jarring voice
Of Ades interposed: ''Tis excellent
The attribute we gave thee, to convert
To such a weapon as may overcome
The old hereditary foes of man,
Sleep, death, corruption, and necessity.
But to reveal thyself the peer of gods,
Not only through inspired ecstasy,
But through a continent persistency,
This never was accomplished by thy race,
And thou must yet be tried. This soul is thine,
For thou hast won her from the jaws of Hell;
Yea, she may follow thee as free as light,—
Lead thou the way and charm the hostile fiends.
Look forward ever; if thine eyes revert
But once to gaze on her, to reassure
Unworthy fears, or sate a mean desire,
Thou art not mate for us. She will dissolve
To empty air —never to be recalled.
ORPHEUS.
Back to the vital earth, O follow me,
Regained Eurydice.
To rippling well-heads and to sunlit plains,
Greened by soft wash of rains.
See orchards rosy with prolific bloom,
And vineyards' purple gloom.
Lulled by the languid flow of lilied streams,
There will I sing my dreams.
Behold! I chant a hymn of adoration,
Triumphant exultation,
For I can see, in all the universe,
No error and no curse.
The gods have naught withheld, in power and sway,
From him who will obey
Their own divine and everlasting laws.
Above the world's applause,
As vigorous as morning, he can rise,
Wrest the desired prize
From the clenched hands of Nemesis and Fate.
With victory elate,
150
I chant unmitigated prayer and praise
To gods who part our ways,
Seeing 'midst clamorous change incredible,
That all is ordered well.
In more harmonious strains, O lyre, express
My twice-born happiness;
Yea, utter and translate with larger sense
My rich experience,
That makes complete life's solemn threnody
Joy unalloyed and free,
Grief unexampled, victory at last,
When strife is overpast.
Through pathways hedged with horrors still they fared
Invulnerable. Darkness stayed them not,
Nor yet more dreadful light, revealing oft
The hideous fiends who rose on every side,
Huge shapes of ill, to gaze upon the twain.
A Greek, who, fleeing, smote a vibrant lyre,
That chimed to carols more divinely quired
Than those that fill with ravishment a grove,
Misty with moonlight, where the plain brown bird
Makes midnight vocal. Closely following him,
A woman with grave aspect, parted lips,
Upraising, in enthralléd ecstasy,
Large eyes serene, fulfilled with holier light
For having pierced beyond the boundaries
Of time and of mortality. The day
Shone through the murk at last, and filled their path
With dusky sunbeams; and far-stretching fields
Of soft, delicious green, and crystal skies,
Encouraged them; all perils past save one.
But a black, stagnant river crawled along,
Spanned by no bridge, and ferried by no sail,
With muddy tide between the day and them.
And Orpheus with enamored eyes passed on,
And saw not how the loathsome waters crept,
Nor how his magic song enchanted them
To solid substance; but he missed at once
The footsteps light that had inspired his lay.
Impetuous he turned to reassure
His fearful soul, and sate his hungry eyes;
But as he turned, the inspiration fled,
151
His lips refused to frame the fruitless words,
His eyes beheld,—O gods! Eurydice
Removed already far away from him,
By all the wide-expanded space, between
Our loftiest dream and our unworthy deed.
She gazed with no reproachful glance nor tears,
And Orpheus felt himself beneath her, fall,
Momently down from empyreal heights,
And lo! he stood within the fields of Thrace,
On earth familiar, 'neath familiar skies,
And heard a voice float through the shining air,
From unimaginable distances,
Faint as a dream, — 'Farewell, farewell, farewell.'
'Woe! woe! what lamentations may express
The fullness of my new calamity!
I, overbearing, who presumed to reach
The lordly and severe stability
Of the immortals, — whom may I invoke?
To whom may man appeal when he hath failed
Unto himself? What god will interpose
To thwart invincible necessity?
Lost, lost forever! I stood elevate,
For one brief moment dreaming I had won
The skill and power of true divinity.
Gods! with what lofty and superb disdain
Ye must look down on mine unworthy haste,—
Ye, who with grandeur of sublime repose,
And majesty of patience, still abide
Invariable through eternity!
Alas! my mighty visions were to me
Auspicious omens, and they fed my heart
With vigor and encouragement; but now,
This was no dream; for Hope, full-flushed and fair,
Born, like the freshness of auroral dew,
From unseen air, and traceless vanishing,
Consorts not with this mighty goddess, Truth,
With solemn and unfathomable eyes,
For Truth is one with Death and Destiny.
With what a depth of meaning didst thou turn,
For the last time, to me, Eurydice,
A glory 'midst the darkness, with that glance
Of infinite compassion, hands outstretched,
152
As if to save the from mine own defect.
With what humiliation and despair
I saw thee rising unattainably!—
The vault, the stream accursed had disappeared;
I was in Thrace uplooking to the sky.
O, to what harmonies I might have wed
The blessed tidings which all men await!
Now I can only make my song express
A distant echo, a suggestion vague,
Of the serene contentment of thy voice.
Sing this, my lyre, that all who hark to thee
With an attentive and a gentle ear,
May hear the promise, faint and yet assured,
Recall the grace and the deliciousness
Of immortality, and strive anew
Towards the ideal unattained by me,
Yet still accessible to stronger souls.'
Thus Orpheus, when the first wild burst of woe
Had passed; no need to seek her now;
No need to wander o'er the peopled earth.
Was he in truth a victim of the gods,
Or rather with a fairer fortune blest
Than happier men, selected for a fate
Divinely tragical, that he might know
The fullness of a life's experience,
And find expression adequate for all,
Simple as wisdom, and as dignified
As silence? From his kind he lived apart,
As one who cherishes a grief, nor seeks
Forgetfulness nor comfort; elevate
To glittering eminence by destiny,
And lonely through the privacy of woe
Beyond the reaches of man's sympathy.
Where lucid Hebrus bathes its golden sands,
He sat discoursing gracious harmonies,
Amidst the morning fields, when on his ears
Sounded with horrid dissonance the clang
Of smitten cymbals and the throb of drums.
But still the revelers remained unseen,
Till, rounding suddenly a neighboring hill,
The whole mad troop came dancing into sight.
First marched a jovial bacchanal, who bore
153
A crystal vessel, decked with branching vine,
Then youth and nymphs with ivy chapleted,
In purfled raiment of hues delicate,
With mitres, thyrsi, cymbals, drums and flutes,
Some balancing upon their graceful heads,
Regal with crisp-curled gold, their burdens light
Of baskets heaped with figs and dusky grapes.
And 'midst them all the sacrificial goat,
Adorned with berries. Thus the festal throng,
With wanton gestures, and with antic bounds,
And wild embracings, mad with wine, approached,
With peals of laughter, echoing faintly back
From jocund hill to hill, and lusty shouts
Of 'Bacché, Bacché!'
SONG.
With wassail all the night,
Celestial Bacchus, we have worshipped thee!
With riotous revel and with festal wine.
Still on the hills in early morning light,
With frolic dances and brisk jollity,
Our hymns of praise are thine.
For we have seen thee, god!
The fawn-skin slipping from thy shoulder bare,
Thy gestures lithe and loose, thine eyes that shine,
Thy rosy hands that waved a clustered rod
Of uncrushed grapes, and thine ambrosial hair,
Dripping with myrrh and wine.
Thou art not strict, severe,
Like loftier gods and ruthless goddesses,
Implacable like Pallas, Zeus, or Truth;
But to humanity akin and near,
Eager for folly, and the luxuries
Of lustful health and youth.
This crystal-vialed balm,
Divinely brewed, soothing as Lethe's streams,
Is the most generous gift of Deity,
Informing us with soft oblivion calm
Of Death and Fate, with joys beyond the dreams
Of grave sobriety.
Come, let us drink again.
Resound, O timbrels, and thou bird-voiced flute;
Thyrsus and pipes make shrill and dear acclaim,
154
To Bacchus, who impurples hill and plain
With vineyards bursting with increase of fruit,
Subtle as liquid flame.
Œoë! quaff and sing!
Who drinks no more, offends the deity
Of Bacchus! lo on Hebrus' grassy brink,
A minstrel sits, with gold lute glistening,
Marring our rites with stern solemnity,
Who doth not chant nor drink.
Ho! Orpheus, laugh again,
From mirthful heart, and join our happy throng;
Cease to lament with unappeased desire.
We bring a cordial for all grief and pain.
Add to the choral strain thy siren song,
And thine enchanted lyre.
For Fate hath answered thee
With cold derision; Death respondeth not.
Here is a god who soothes tire soul and sense
With sweet nepenthe,—thy Eurydice
Thou wilt not lure to earthly grove nor grot
With suasive eloquence.
Here, nymphs no whit less fair
Are waiting thee, with warm, caressing arms
And loving eyes, lips fit for gods to kiss,
And rosy shoulders, dimpling white and bare,—
Pliant and graceful, with innumerous Charms,
To sate thy heart with bliss.
ORPHEUS.
Hence, thou ignoble throng!
Dare ye profane the splendid purity,
The high nobility of morn, with rites
Lewd and disgusting, and delirious song,
Completing in dear sunshine, shamelessly,
Rude orgies of wild nights?
BACCHANTES.
Ha! he insults the god,
With his presumptuous and impious scorn.
Avenge, O bacchanals, the cause divine;
Compel him with the sacred cup and rod,
To quaff his salutation to the morn,
In frothing, Massic wine!
ORPHEUS.
155
Mad bacchanals, begone!
I honor all the gods and Nemesis.
They favor not such frantic revelry,
But blameless lives, and deeds most like their own,
The service of a patient heart submiss,
And staunch integrity.
Behold the morning hills,
Sky-kissed Libethra, delicate as air;
The fragile grasses gray with wreaths of dew.
Hark to the tumbling of the mountain rills
To Eos and Athene your first prayer
And sacrifice are due.
BACCHANTES.
With shameless blasphemy,
He dares proscribe, O god, thy rank and fame.
Enough! enough! he hath despised us long,
Bewailing his beloved Eurydice.
O nymphs, avenge yourselves in Liber's name,
Slay him 'midst dance and song.
Your deadly javelins fling
With flinty missiles at the singer proud,
Who deems himself an equal of the gods,
Because he hath the skill to pipe and sing,
With facile fluency of speech endowed.
Smite him with spears and rods.
ORPHEUS.
Ring forth, my lyre, again,—
With magic harmonies my doom avert,
In tones as plaintive and as rich as life.
BACCHANTES.
Our stones and javelins we have hurled in vain;
His lyre enchants them, he remains unhurt,
'Midst all the wrath and strife.
Toss the loud tambourine,
Its tight-drawn skin with noisy fingers smite;
Clash ye the cymbals, sing with fatal art;
Cast ye his sundered limbs the stream within,—
They irritate us, soft and bare and white;
Rend them, O nymphs, apart.
ORPHEUS.
Sweet Death, deliver me
Out of the reach of envy, lust, and hate;
156
Enfold me in thy large-embracing arms.
BACCHANTES.
Ah! will he now invoke Eurydice,
Madly resisting his allotted fate
With vile, unhallowed charms?
So with a clamorous swell
Of drums and timbrels, we o'erpower the breath
Of dulcet and persuasive melody.
ORPHEUS.
The maniacs conquer! O my lyre, farewell!
Approach, thou beautiful and welcome Death,
With lost Eurydice.
~ Emma Lazarus,#NFDB
3 Integral Yoga
3 Buddhism
2 Poetry
2 Kabbalah
2 Christianity
1 Occultism
1 Integral Theory
1 Baha i Faith
11 Sri Aurobindo
3 Bokar Rinpoche
2 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
5 The Life Divine
4 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
3 Tara - The Feminine Divine
2 General Principles of Kabbalah
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
04.01 - The Birth and Childhood of the Flame, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A Mind empowered from Truth's immutable seat
Was framed for vision and interpreting act
1.01 - Tara the Divine, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
That is the reason why her empowerment is sought
and her practice performed when one's health is
1.01 - The Offering, #Hymn of the Universe, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
mother; and there empowered by that priesthood
which you alone (as I firmly believe) have be-
1.02 - The 7 Habits An Overview, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
True independence of character empowers us to act rather than be acted upon. It frees us from our dependence on circumstances and other people and is a worthy, liberating goal. But it is not the ultimate goal in effective living.
Independent thinking alone is not suited to interdependent reality. Independent people who do not have the maturity to think and act interdependently may be good individual producers, but they won't be good leaders or team players. They're not coming from the paradigm of interdependence necessary to succeed in marriage, family, or organizational reality.
--
The Seven Habits are habits of effectiveness. Because they are based on principles, they bring the maximum long-term beneficial results possible. They become the basis of a person's character, creating an empowering center of correct maps from which an individual can effectively solve problems, maximize opportunities, and continually learn and integrate other principles in an upward spiral of growth.
They are also habits of effectiveness because they are based on a paradigm of effectiveness that is in harmony with a natural law, a principle I call the "P/PC Balance," which many people break themselves against. This principle can be easily understood by remembering Aesop's fable of the Goose and the
1.02 - The Age of Individualism and Reason, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
For this discovery by individual free-thought of universal laws of which the individual is almost a by-product and by which he must necessarily be governed, this attempt actually to govern the social life of humanity in conscious accordance with the mechanism of these laws seems to lead logically to the suppression of that very individual freedom which made the discovery and the attempt at all possible. In seeking the truth and law of his own being the individual seems to have discovered a truth and law which is not of his own individual being at all, but of the collectivity, the pack, the hive, the mass. The result to which this points and to which it still seems irresistibly to be driving us is a new ordering of society by a rigid economic or governmental Socialism in which the individual, deprived again of his freedom in his own interest and that of humanity, must have his whole life and action determined for him at every step and in every point from birth to old age by the well-ordered mechanism of the State.1 We might then have a curious new version, with very important differences, of the old Asiatic or even of the old Indian order of society. In place of the religio-ethical sanction there will be a scientific and rational or naturalistic motive and rule; instead of the Brahmin Shastrakara the scientific, administrative and economic expert. In the place of the King himself observing the law and compelling with the aid and consent of the society all to tread without deviation the line marked out for them, the line of the Dharma, there will stand the collectivist State similarly guided and empowered. Instead of a hierarchical arrangement of classes each with its powers, privileges and duties there will be established an initial equality of education and opportunity, ultimately perhaps with a subsequent determination of function by experts who shall know us better than ourselves and choose for us our work and quality. Marriage, generation and the education of the child may be fixed by the scientific State as of old by the Shastra. For each man there will be a long stage of work for the State superintended by collectivist authorities and perhaps in the end a period of liberation, not for action but for enjoyment of leisure and personal self-improvement, answering to the Vanaprastha and Sannyasa Asramas of the old Aryan society. The rigidity of such a social state would greatly surpass that of its Asiatic forerunner; for there at least there were for the rebel, the innovator two important concessions. There was for the individual the freedom of an early Sannyasa, a renunciation of the social for the free spiritual life, and there was for the group the liberty to form a sub-society governed by new conceptions like the Sikh or the Vaishnava. But neither of these violent departures from the norm could be tolerated by a strictly economic and rigorously scientific and unitarian society. Obviously, too, there would grow up a fixed system of social morality and custom and a body of socialistic doctrine which one could not be allowed to question practically, and perhaps not even intellectually, since that would soon shatter or else undermine the system. Thus we should have a new typal order based upon purely economic capacity and function, guakarma, and rapidly petrifying by the inhibition of individual liberty into a system of rationalistic conventions. And quite certainly this static order would at long last be broken by a new individualist age of revolt, led probably by the principles of an extreme philosophical Anarchism.
On the other hand, there are in operation forces which seem likely to frustrate or modify this development before it can reach its menaced consummation. In the first place, rationalistic and physical Science has overpassed itself and must before long be overtaken by a mounting flood of psychological and psychic knowledge which cannot fail to compel quite a new view of the human being and open a new vista before mankind. At the same time the Age of Reason is visibly drawing to an end; novel ideas are sweeping over the world and are being accepted with a significant rapidity, ideas inevitably subversive of any premature typal order of economic rationalism, dynamic ideas such as Nietzsches Will-to-live, Bergsons exaltation of Intuition above intellect or the latest German philosophical tendency to acknowledge a suprarational faculty and a suprarational order of truths. Already another mental poise is beginning to settle and conceptions are on the way to apply themselves in the field of practice which promise to give the succession of the individualistic age of society not to a new typal order, but to a subjective age which may well be a great and momentous passage to a very different goal. It may be doubted whether we are not already in the morning twilight of a new period of the human cycle.
1.03 - Invocation of Tara, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
The empowerment's function is to open a process
that will allow us to purify the veils and to "awaken"
--
An empowerment can only be conferred by a
vajra-master (vajracharya) belonging to the Vajrayana
--
- Having received the deity empowerment that he or
she is ready to transmit to others
- This empowerment must have been transmitted up
to the master by an unbroken lineage
--
The empowerment itself is represented in the form
of a ritual with visualizations, recitation of mantras,
--
An empowerment can be given to a large group of
people (as is the case for Tara) with only the condition
--
the empowerment, or it can be given to small groups,
even a single individual.
TARA empowerMENT
For the same deity, there are various empowerments
that correspond to various lineages, tantras, or levels
--
The Tara empowerment bestowed in public is that
of the external practice belonging to the Kriya Tantra.
--
an empowerment is designated in Tibetan.
. Tara's other empowerments, especially those
belonging to the higher tantras, can be presented in a
--
the empowerment. Is it the same for Tara?
Answer: In the higher tantras, it is not allowed to
--
those who have not first received the empowerment.
- 81 -
--
greater when one has received the empowerment.
- 82 -
1.05 - Buddhism and Women, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
teachings and empowerments to Khyungpo Naljor,
telling him, Among illusory phenomena, through
--
conferred teachings and empowerments to her. It is
said that in one night, she obtained liberation and
--
could teach, give empowerments, and accomplish all
the activities of the dharma.
1.06 - The Ascent of the Sacrifice 2 The Works of Love - The Works of Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It covers the entire range of life's more visible activities; under it fall the multiform energies of the Will-to-Life throwing itself outward to make the most of material existence. It is here that an ascetic or other-worldly spirituality feels an insurmountable denial of the Truth which it seeks after and is compelled to turn away from terrestrial existence, rejecting it as for ever the dark playground of an incurable Ignorance. Yet it is precisely these activities that are claimed for a spiritual conquest and divine transformation by the integral Yoga. Abandoned altogether by the more ascetic disciplines, accepted by others only as a field of temporary ordeal or a momentary, superficial and ambiguous play of the concealed spirit, this existence is fully embraced and welcomed by the integral seeker as a field of fulfilment, a field for divine works, a field of the total self-discovery of the concealed and indwelling spirit. A discovery of the Divinity in oneself is his first object, but a total discovery too of the Divinity in the world behind the apparent denial offered by its scheme and figures and, last, a total discovery of the dynamism of some transcendent Eternal; for by its descent this world and self will be empowered to break their disguising envelopes and become divine in revealing form and manifesting process as they now are secretly in their hidden essence.
This object of the integral Yoga must be accepted wholly by those who follow it, but the acceptance must not be in ignorance of the immense stumbling-blocks that lie in the way of the achievement; on the contrary we must be fully aware of the compelling cause of the refusal of so many other disciplines to regard even its possibility, much less its imperative character, as the true meaning of terrestrial existence. For here in the works of life in the earth-nature is the very heart of the difficulty that has driven Philosophy to its heights of aloofness and turned away even the eager eye of Religion from the malady of birth in a mortal body to a distant Paradise or a silent peace of Nirvana.
1.28 - Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
8:In its nature and law the Overmind is a delegate of the Supermind Consciousness, its delegate to the Ignorance. Or we might speak of it as a protective double, a screen of dissimilar similarity through which Supermind can act indirectly on an Ignorance whose darkness could not bear or receive the direct impact of a supreme Light. Even, it is by the projection of this luminous Overmind corona that the diffusion of a diminished light in the Ignorance and the throwing of that contrary shadow which swallows up in itself all light, the Inconscience, became at all possible. For Supermind transmits to Overmind all its realities, but leaves it to formulate them in a movement and according to an awareness of things which is still a vision of Truth and yet at the same time a first parent of the Ignorance. A line divides Supermind and Overmind which permits a free transmission, allows the lower Power to derive from the higher Power all it holds or sees, but automatically compels a transitional change in the passage. The integrality of the Supermind keeps always the essential truth of things, the total truth and the truth of its individual self-determinations clearly knit together; it maintains in them an inseparable unity and between them a close interpenetration and a free and full consciousness of each other: but in Overmind this integrality is no longer there. And yet the Overmind is well aware of the essential Truth of things; it embraces the totality; it uses the individual self-determinations without being limited by them: but although it knows their oneness, can realise it in a spiritual cognition, yet its dynamic movement, even while relying on that for its security, is not directly determined by it. Overmind Energy proceeds through an illimitable capacity of separation and combination of the powers and aspects of the integral and indivisible all-comprehending Unity. It takes each Aspect or Power and gives to it an independent action in which it acquires a full separate importance and is able to work out, we might say, its own world of creation. Purusha and Prakriti, Conscious Soul and executive Force of Nature, are in the supramental harmony a two-aspected single truth, being and dynamis of the Reality; there can be no disequilibrium or predominance of one over the other. In Overmind we have the origin of the cleavage, the trenchant distinction made by the philosophy of the Sankhyas in which they appear as two independent entities, Prakriti able to dominate Purusha and cloud its freedom and power, reducing it to a witness and recipient of her forms and actions, Purusha able to return to its separate existence and abide in a free self-sovereignty by rejection of her original overclouding material principle. So with the other aspects or powers of the Divine Reality, One and Many, Divine Personality and Divine Impersonality, and the rest; each is still an aspect and power of the one Reality, but each is empowered to act as an independent entity in the whole, arrive at the fullness of the possibilities of its separate expression and develop the dynamic consequences of that separateness. At the same time in Overmind this separateness is still founded on the basis of an implicit underlying unity; all possibilities of combination and relation between the separated Powers and Aspects, all interchanges and mutualities of their energies are freely organised and their actuality always possible.
9:If we regard the Powers of the Reality as so many Godheads, we can say that the Overmind releases a million Godheads into action, each empowered to create its own world, each world capable of relation, communication and interplay with the others. There are in the Veda different formulations of the nature of the Gods: it is said they are all one Existence to which the sages give different names; yet each God is worshipped as if he by himself is that Existence, one who is all the other Gods together or contains them in his being; and yet again each is a separate Deity acting sometimes in unison with companion deities, sometimes separately, sometimes even in apparent opposition to other Godheads of the same Existence. In the Supermind all this would be held together as a harmonised play of the one Existence; in the Overmind each of these three conditions could be a separate action or basis of action and have its own principle of development and consequences and yet each keep the power to combine with the others in a more composite harmony. As with the One Existence, so with its Consciousness and Force. The One Consciousness is separated into many independent forms of consciousness and knowledge; each follows out its own line of truth which it has to realise. The one total and manysided Real-Idea is split up into its many sides; each becomes an independent Idea-Force with the power to realise itself. The one Consciousness-Force is liberated into its million forces, and each of these forces has the right to fulfil itself or to assume, if needed, a hegemony and take up for its own utility the other forces. So too the Delight of Existence is loosed out into all manner of delights and each can carry in itself its independent fullness or sovereign extreme. Overmind thus gives to the One Existence-Consciousness-Bliss the character of a teeming of infinite possibilities which can be developed into a multitude of worlds or thrown together into one world in which the endlessly variable outcome of their play is the determinant of the creation, of its process, its course and its consequence.
10:Since the Consciousness-Force of the eternal Existence is the universal creatrix, the nature of a given world will depend on whatever self-formulation of that Consciousness expresses itself in that world. Equally, for each individual being, his seeing or representation to himself of the world he lives in will depend on the poise or make which that Consciousness has assumed in him. Our human mental consciousness sees the world in sections cut by the reason and sense and put together in a formation which is also sectional; the house it builds is planned to accommodate one or another generalised formulation of Truth, but excludes the rest or admits some only as guests or dependents in the house. Overmind Consciousness is global in its cognition and can hold any number of seemingly fundamental differences together in a reconciling vision. Thus the mental reason sees Person and the Impersonal as opposites: it conceives an impersonal Existence in which person and personality are fictions of the Ignorance or temporary constructions; or, on the contrary, it can see Person as the primary reality and the impersonal as a mental abstraction or only stuff or means of manifestation. To the Overmind intelligence these are separable Powers of the one Existence which can pursue their independent self-affirmation and can also unite together their different modes of action, creating both in their independence and in their union different states of consciousness and being which can be all of them valid and all capable of coexistence. A purely impersonal existence and consciousness is true and possible, but also an entirely personal consciousness and existence; the Impersonal Divine, Nirguna Brahman, and the Personal Divine, Saguna Brahman, are here equal and coexistent aspects of the Eternal. Impersonality can manifest with person subordinated to it as a mode of expression; but, equally, Person can be the reality with impersonality as a mode of its nature: both aspects of manifestation face each other in the infinite variety of conscious Existence. What to the mental reason are irreconcilable differences present themselves to the Overmind intelligence as coexistent correlatives; what to the mental reason are contraries are to the Overmind intelligence complementaries. Our mind sees that all things are born from Matter or material Energy, exist by it, go back into it; it concludes that Matter is the eternal factor, the primary and ultimate reality, Brahman. Or it sees all as born of Life-Force or Mind, existing by Life or by Mind, going back into the universal Life or Mind, and it concludes that this world is a creation of the cosmic Life-Force or of a cosmic Mind or Logos. Or again it sees the world and all things as born of, existing by and going back to the Real Idea or Knowledge-Will of the Spirit or to the Spirit itself and it concludes on an idealistic or spiritual view of the universe. It can fix on any of these ways of seeing, but to its normal separative vision each way excludes the others. Overmind consciousness perceives that each view is true of the action of the principle it erects; it can see that there is a material world-formula, a vital world-formula, a mental world-formula, a spiritual worldformula, and each can predominate in a world of its own and at the same time all can combine in one world as its constituent powers. The self-formulation of Conscious Force on which our world is based as an apparent Inconscience that conceals in itself a supreme Conscious-Existence and holds all the powers of Being together in its inconscient secrecy, a world of universal Matter realising in itself Life, Mind, Overmind, Supermind, Spirit, each of them in its turn taking up the others as means of its selfexpression, Matter proving in the spiritual vision to have been always itself a manifestation of the Spirit, is to the Overmind view a normal and easily realisable creation. In its power of origination and in the process of its executive dynamis Overmind is an organiser of many potentialities of Existence, each affirming its separate reality but all capable of linking themselves together in many different but simultaneous ways, a magician craftsman empowered to weave the multicoloured warp and woof of manifestation of a single entity in a complex universe.
11:In this simultaneous development of multitudinous independent or combined Powers or Potentials there is yet - or there is as yet - no chaos, no conflict, no fall from Truth or Knowledge. The Overmind is a creator of truths, not of illusions or falsehoods: what is worked out in any given overmental energism or movement is the truth of the Aspect, Power, Idea, Force, Delight which is liberated into independent action, the truth of the consequences of its reality in that independence. There is no exclusiveness asserting each as the sole truth of being or the others as inferior truths: each God knows all the Gods and their place in existence; each Idea admits all other ideas and their right to be; each Force concedes a place to all other forces and their truth and consequences; no delight of separate fulfilled existence or separate experience denies or condemns the delight of other existence or other experience. The Overmind is a principle of cosmic Truth and a vast and endless catholicity is its very spirit; its energy is an all-dynamism as well as a principle of separate dynamisms: it is a sort of inferior Supermind, - although it is concerned predominantly not with absolutes, but with what might be called the dynamic potentials or pragmatic truths of Reality, or with absolutes mainly for their power of generating pragmatic or creative values, although, too, its comprehension of things is more global than integral, since its totality is built up of global wholes or constituted by separate independent realities uniting or coalescing together, and although the essential unity is grasped by it and felt to be basic of things and pervasive in their manifestation, but no longer as in the Supermind their intimate and ever-present secret, their dominating continent, the overt constant builder of the harmonic whole of their activity and nature.
1.3.5.04 - The Evolution of Consciousness, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
When Nature, the Divine Power, had formed a body erect and empowered to think, to devise, to inquire into itself and things and work consciously both on things and self, she had what she wanted for her secret aim; relegating all else to the sphere of secondary movements, she turned toward that long-hidden aim her main highest forces. For all till then was a long strenuously slow preparation; but throughout it the development of consciousness in which the appearance of man was the crucial
The Evolution of Consciousness
1.61 - Power and Authority, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
For instance, in the theory of the Church of Rome a bishop is a person on whom has been conferred the magical power to ordain priests. He may choose a totally unworthy person for such ordination, it makes no difference; and the priest, however unworthy he may be, has only to go through the correct formul which perform the miracle of the Mass, for that miracle to be performed. This is because in the Church we are dealing with a religious as opposed to a magical or scientific qualification. If the Royal Society elected a cobbler, as it could, it would not empower the New Fellow to perform a boiling-point determination, or read a Vernier.
In our own case, though Our authority is at least as absolute as that of the Pope and the Church of Rome, it does not confer upon me any power transferable to others by any act of Our will. Our own authority came to Us because it was earned, and when We confer grades upon other people Our gift is entirely nugatory unless the beneficiary has won his spurs.
1.rb - Sordello - Book the Third, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
"His vilest wrong, empowered the losel clutch
"One pleasure from a multitude of such
1.sk - Is there anyone in the universe, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
English version by Lex Hixon Original Language Bengali Is there anyone in the universe, among heavenly or earthly beings, who can understand what Kali is? The systems of all traditions are powerless to describe Her. Is Mother a feminine being or greater than Being itself? Chanting Her transforming Name -- OM KALI OM KALI OM KALI, empowers Lord Shiva, Who is transcendent Knowledge, to drink the negativity of all beings, turning His Throat dark blue. Without Her protection such poison would be deadly, even to the highest Divinity. More than Creator and creation, Mother is sheer Creativity beyond the notion of duality. Universe and Father-God are thrilling glances from Her seductive Eyes. Always pregnant with ecstasy, She gives birth to manifest Being from Her Womb of primal Awareness, nursing it tenderly at Her Breast, then playfully consumes Her Child. The world dissolves instantly upon touching Her white Teeth, attaining the realization of Her brilliant Voidness. The various Divine Forms that manifest throughout history take refuge at Her Lotus Feet. The Essence of Divinity, the Great Ground of Being, lies in ecstatic absorption beneath Her red-soled Feet. Is Mother simply a Goddess? Does She need a male consort to protect or complete Her? The cycle of birth and death bows reverently before Her. Is She simply naked or is She naked Truth? No veil can conceal Her. Her naked radiance slays demons not with weapons but with splendor. If Mother is a conventional wife, why is She dancing fiercely on the breast of Shiva? Her timeless play destroys conventions and conceptions. She is primal purity, Her ecstatic lovers are purity. Purity merges into purity, with no remainder. I am totally inebriated by Her wine of timeless bliss. The wine cup is Her Name -- OM KALI OM KALI OM KALI. Those drunk on ordinary wine assume I am one of them. Not everyone will encounter the dazzling darkness called Goddess Kali. Not everyone can consciously receive the infinite treasure of Her Nature. The foolish mind refuses to perceive and accept that She alone exists. Even the noble Lord Shiva, most enlightened of beings, can barely catch a glimpse of Her flashing crimson Feet. The wealth of world-emperors and the richness of Paradise are but abject poverty to those who meditate on Her. To swim in a single Glance from Her three Cosmic Eyes is to be immersed in an ocean of ecstasy. Not even Shiva, prince of yogis, can focus upon Her dancing Feet without falling into trance. Yet the worthless lover who sings this mad song aspires to conscious union with Her during waking, dream, and deep sleep. [1146.jpg] -- from Great Swan: Meetings with Ramakrishna, by Lex Hixon
2.01 - Habit 1 Be Proactive, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
Our unique human endowments lift us above the animal world. The extent to which we exercise and develop these endowments empowers us to fulfill our uniquely human potential. Between stimulus and response is our greatest power -- the freedom to choose.
--- "Proactivity" Defined
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Because we are, by nature, proactive, if our lives are a function of conditioning and conditions, it is because we have, by conscious decision or by default, chosen to empower those things to control us.
In making such a choice, we become reactive. Reactive people are often affected by their physical environment. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and their performance. Proactive people can carry their own weather with them. Whether it rains or shines makes no difference to them. They are value driven; and if their value is to produce good quality work, it isn't a function of whether the weather is conducive to it or not.
Reactive people are also affected by their social environment, by the "social weather." When people treat them well, they feel well; when people don't, they become defensive or protective. Reactive people build their emotional lives around the behavior of others, empowering the weaknesses of other people to control them.
The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values -- carefully thought about, selected and internalized values.
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Our basic nature is to act, and not be acted upon. As well as enabling us to choose our response to particular circumstances, this empowers us to create circumstances
Taking initiative does not mean being pushy, obnoxious, or aggressive. It does mean recognizing our responsibility to make things happen.
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They're driven by feelings. Hollywood has generally scripted us to believe that we are not responsible, that we are a product of our feelings. But the Hollywood script does not describe the reality. If our feelings control our actions, it is because we have abdicated our responsibility and empowered them to do so.
Proactive people make love a verb. Love is something you do: the sacrifices you make, the giving of self, like a mother bringing a newborn into the world. If you want to study love, study those who sacrifice for others, even for people who offend or do not love in return. If you are a parent, look at the love you have for the children you sacrificed for. Love is a value that is actualized through loving actions. Proactive people subordinate feelings to values. Love, the feeling, can be recaptured.
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As long as we are working in our Circle of Concern, we empower the things within it to control us.
We aren't taking the proactive initiative necessary to effect positive change.
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No control problems involve taking the responsibility to change the line on the bottom on our face -to smile, to genuinely and peacefully accept these problems and learn to live with them, even though we don't like them. In this way, we do not empower these problems to control us. We share in the spirit embodied in the Alcoholics Anonymous prayer, "Lord, give me the courage to change the things which can and ought to be changed, the serenity to accept the things which cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference."
Whether a problem is direct, indirect, or no control, we have in our hands the first step to the solution. Changing our habits, changing our methods of influence and changing the way we see our no control problems are all within our Circle of Influence.
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Anytime we think the problem is "out there," that thought is the problem. We empower what's out there to control us. The change paradigm is "outside-in" -- what's out there has to change before we can change.
The proactive approach is to change from the Inside-Out: to be different, and by being different, to effect positive change in what's out there -- I can be more resourceful, I can be more diligent, I can be more creative, I can be more cooperative.
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It usually puts a person on a self-deceiving, self-justifying path, often involving rationalization (rational lies) to self and to others. This second mistake, this cover-up, empowers the first, giving it disproportionate importance, and causes far deeper injury to self.
It is not what others do or even our own mistakes that hurt us the most; it is our response to those things. Chasing after the poisonous snake that bites us will only drive the poison through our entire system. It is far better to take measures immediately to get the poison out.
Our response to any mistake affects the quality of the next moment. It is important to immediately admit and correct our mistakes so that they have no power over that next moment and we are empowered again.
--- Making and Keeping Commitments
2.02 - Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The same conciliation occurs everywhere, when we look with a straight and accurate look on the truth of the Reality. In our experience of it we become aware of an Infinite essentially free from all limitation by qualities, properties, features; on the other hand, we are aware of an Infinite teeming with innumerable qualities, properties, features. Here again the statement of illimitable freedom is positive, not negative; it does not negate what we see, but on the contrary provides the indispensable condition for it, it makes possible a free and infinite self-expression in quality and feature. A quality is the character of a power of conscious being; or we may say that the consciousness of being expressing what is in it makes the power it brings out recognisable by a native stamp on it which we call quality or character. Courage as a quality is such a power of being, it is a certain character of my consciousness expressing a formulated force of my being, bringing out or creating a definite kind of force of my nature in action. So too the power of a drug to cure is its property, a special force of being native to the herb or mineral from which it is produced, and this speciality is determined by the Real-Idea concealed in the involved consciousness which dwells in the plant or mineral; the idea brings out in it what was there at the root of its manifestation and has now come out thus empowered as the force of its being. All qualities, properties, features are such powers of conscious being thus put forth from itself by the Absolute; It has everything within It, It has the free power to put all forth;6 yet we cannot define the Absolute as a quality of courage or a power of healing, we cannot even say that these are a characteristic feature of the Absolute, nor can we make up a sum of qualities and say "that is the Absolute". But neither can we speak of the Absolute as a pure blank incapable of manifesting these things; on the contrary, all capacity is there, the powers of all qualities and characters are there inherent within it. The mind is in a difficulty because it has to say, "The Absolute or Infinite is none of these things, these things are not the Absolute or Infinite" and at the same time it has to say, "The Absolute is all these things, they are not something else than That, for That is the sole existence and the all-existence." Here it is evident that it is an undue finiteness of thought conception and verbal expression which creates the difficulty, but there is in reality none; for it would be evidently absurd to say that the Absolute is courage or curing-power, or to say that courage and curing-power are the Absolute, but it would be equally absurd to deny the capacity of the Absolute to put forth courage or curingpower as self-expressions in its manifestation. When the logic of the finite fails us, we have to see with a direct and unbound vision what is behind in the logic of the Infinite. We can then realise that the Infinite is infinite in quality, feature, power, but that no sum of qualities, features, powers can describe the Infinite.
6 The word for creation in Sanskrit means a loosing or putting forth of what is in the being.
2.02 - Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
It's a principle that all things are created twice, but not all first creations are by conscious design. In our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first creations, we empower other people and circumstances outside our Circle or Influence to shape much of our lives by default. We reactively live the scripts handed to us by family, associates, other people's agendas, the pressures of circumstance -- scripts from our earlier years, from our training, our conditioning
These scripts come from people, not principles. And they rise out of our deep vulnerabilities, our deep dependency on others and our need for acceptance and love, for belonging, for a sense of importance and worth, for a feeling that we matter.
--
Through conscience, we can come in contact with universal laws or principles with our own singular talents and avenues of contri bution, and with the personal guidelines within which we can most effectively develop them. Combined with self-awareness, these two endowments empower us to write our own script.
Because we already live with many scripts that have been handed to us, the process of writing our own script is actually more a process of "rescripting," or Paradigm Shifting -- of changing some of the basic paradigms that we already have. As we recognize the ineffective scripts, the incorrect or incomplete paradigms within us, we can proactively begin to rescript ourselves.
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principles, on the self-evident truths contained in the Declaration of Independence. These principles empower the Constitution with a timeless strength, even in the midst of social ambiguity and change.
"Our peculiar security," said Thomas Jefferson, "is in the possession of a written Constitution."
A personal mission statement based on correct principles becomes the same kind of standard for an individual. It becomes a personal constitution, the basis for making major, life-directing decisions, the basis for making daily decisions in the midst of the circumstances and emotions that affect our lives. It empowers individuals with the same timeless strength in the midst of change.
People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value.
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The ideal, of course, is to create one clear center from which you consistently derive a high degree of security, guidance, wisdom, and power, empowering your proactivity and giving congruency and harmony to every part of your life.
If you are Spouse Centered...
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As we consider various ways of looking at a single event, is it any wonder that we have "young lady/old lady" perception problems in our interactions with each other? Can you see how fundamentally our centers affect us? Right down to our motivations, our daily decisions, our actions (or, in too many cases, our reactions), our interpretations of events? That's why understanding your own center is so important. And if that center does not empower you as a proactive person, it becomes fundamental to your effectiveness to make the necessary Paradigm Shifts to create a center that will.
As a principle-centered person, you try to stand apart from the emotion of the situation and from other factors that would act on you, and evaluate the option. Looking at the balanced whole -- the work needs, the family needs, other needs that may be involved and the possible implications of the various alternative decisions -- you'll try to come up with the best solution, taking all factors into consideration.
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As we go deeply within ourselves, as we understand and realign our basic paradigms to bring them in harmony with correct principles, we create both an effective, empowering center and a clear lens through which we can see the world. We can then focus that lens on how we, as unique individuals, relate to that world
Frankl says we detect rather than invent our missions in life. I like that choice of words. I think each of us has an internal monitor or sense, a conscience, that gives us an awareness of our own uniqueness and the singular contri butions that we can make. In Frankl's words, "Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated.
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Our self-awareness empowers us to examine our own thoughts. This is particularly helpful in creating a personal mission statement because the two unique human endowments that enable us to practice Habit 2 -- imagination and conscience -- are primarily functions of the right side of the brain.
Understanding how to tap into that right brain capacity greatly increases our first-creation ability.
2.03 - Karmayogin A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
him which is empowered to fulfil his evolution and even in this
life become no longer an animal, or a mind, a heart, an intellect,
2.05 - Habit 3 Put First Things First, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
Habit 1 says, "You're the creator. You are in charge." It's based on the four unique human endowments of imagination, conscience, independent will, and particularly, self-awareness. It empowers you to say, "That's an unhealthy program I've been given from my childhood, from my social mirror. I don't like that ineffective script. I can change."
Habit 2 is the first or mental creation. It's based on imagination -- the ability to envision, to see the potential, to create with our minds what we cannot at present see without eyes; and conscience -- the ability to detect our own uniqueness and the personal, moral, and ethical guidelines within which we can most happily fulfill it. It's the deep contact with our basic paradigms and values and the vision of what we can become.
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But as we examine this endowment in the context of effective self-management, we realize it's usually not the dramatic, the visible, the once-in-a-lifetime, up-by-the-bootstraps effort that brings enduring success. empowerment comes from the learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day.
The degree to which we have developed our independent will in our everyday lives is measured by our personal integrity. Integrity is, fundamentally, the value we place on ourselves. It's our ability to make and keep commitments to ourselves, to "walk our talk." It's honor with self, a fundamental part of the character ethic, the essence of proactive growth.
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We say "yes" or "no" to things daily, usually many times a day. A center of correct principles and a focus on our personal mission empowers us with wisdom to make those judgments effectively.
As I work with different groups, I tell them that the essence of effective time and life management is to organize and execute around balanced priorities. Then I ask this question: if you were to fault yourself in one of three areas, which would it be: (1) the inability to prioritize; (2) the inability or desire to organize around those priorities; or (3) the lack of discipline to execute around them, to stay with your priorities and organization?
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While each of the three generations has recognized the value of some kind of management tool, none has produced a tool that empowers a person to live a principle-centered, Quadrant II life-style.
The first-generation note pads and "to do" lists give us no more than a place to capture those things that penetrate our awareness so we won't forget them. The second-generation appointment books and calendars merely provide a place to record our future commitments so that we can be where we have agreed to be at the appropriate time.
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As each generation builds on those that have preceded it, the strengths and some of the tools of each of the first three generations provide elemental material for the fourth. But there is an added need for a new dimension, for the paradigm and the implementation that will empower us to move into
Quadrant II, to become principle-centered and to manage ourselves to do what is truly most important.
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Although my effort here is to teach principles, not practices, of effectiveness, I believe you can better understand the principles and the empowering nature of the fourth generation if you actually experience organizing a week from a principle-centered, Quadrant II base.
Quadrant II organizing involves four key activities.
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Even with time set aside to accomplish 19 important goals during the week, look at the amount of remaining unscheduled space on the worksheet! As well as empowering you to Put First Things First,
Quadrant II weekly organizing gives you the freedom and the flexibility to handle unanticipated events, to shift appointments if you need to, to savor relationships and interactions with others, to deeply enjoy spontaneous experiences, knowing that you have proactively organized your week to accomplish key goals in every area of your life.
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Quadrant II activities you have planned. Your principle center, your self-awareness, and your conscience can provide a high degree of intrinsic security, guidance, and wisdom to empower you to
use your independent will and maintain integrity to the truly important.
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It helps you rise above the limitations of daily planning and organize and schedule in the context of the week. And when a higher value conflicts with what you have planned, it empowers you to use your self-awareness and your conscience to maintain integrity to the principles and purposes you have determined are most important. Instead of using a road map, you're using a compass.
The fourth generation of self-management is more advanced than the third in five important ways.
First, it's principle-centered. More than giving lip service to Quadrant II, it creates the central paradigm that empowers you to see your time in the context of what is really important and effective
Second, it's conscience-directed. It gives you the opportunity to organize your life to the best of your ability in harmony with your deepest values. But it also gives you the freedom to peacefully subordinate your schedule to higher values.
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Certainly you can pick up that room better than a child, but the key is that you want to empower the child to do it. It takes time. You have to get involved in the training and development. It takes time, but how valuable that time is downstream! It saves you so much in the long run.
This approach involves an entirely new paradigm of delegation. In effect, it changes the nature of the relationship: The steward becomes his own boss, governed by a conscience that contains the commitment to agreed upon desired results. But it also releases his creative energies toward doing whatever is necessary in harmony with correct principles to achieve those desired results.
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tool or extrinsic factor. It is intrinsic -- in the Quadrant II paradigm that empowers you to see through the lens of importance rather than urgency.
I have included in the Appendix an exercise called "A Quadrant II Day at the Office" which will enable you to see in a business setting how powerfully this paradigm can impact your effectiveness.
2.05 - The Line of Light and The Impression, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
of His exaltedness to empower them with the supervision
of the worlds that leads to the ultimate unity of all.
2.06 - Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Action does not bind or limit the liberated man; action does not bind or limit the Eternal: but we can go farther and say that action does not bind or limit our own true being at all. Action has no such effect on the spiritual Person or Purusha or on the psychic entity within us, it binds or limits only the surface constructed personality. This personality is a temporary expression of our self-being, a changing form of it, empowered to exist by it, dependent on it for substance and endurance, - temporary, but not unreal. Our thought and action are means for this expression of ourselves and, as the expression is incomplete and evolutive, as it is a development of our natural being in Time, thought
Reality and the Cosmic Illusion
2.06 - Works Devotion and Knowledge, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Power in Nature unrolls the cycles of the world and the natural evolution of creatures in the cycles, Parameshwara. From him the Jiva, individual spirit, soul in Nature, existent by his being, conscious by the light of his consciousness, empowered to knowledge, to will and to action by his will and power, enjoying existence by his divine enjoyment of the cosmos, has come here into the cosmic rounds.
The inner soul in man is here a partial self-manifestation of the Divine, self-limited for the works of his Nature in the universe, prakr.tir jva-bhuta. In his spiritual essence the individual is one with the Divine. In the works of the divine Prakriti he is one with him, yet there is an operative difference and many deep relations with God in Nature and with God above cosmic Nature.
2.08 - The Branches of The Archetypal Man, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
the soul will be empowered to rise from its low estate to
triumph over the body, to purify it in successive stages,
2.10 - Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
We see then all the powers inherent in the original selfexistent spiritual Awareness slowly brought out and manifested in this growing separative consciousness; they are activities suppressed but native to the secret and involved knowledge by identity and they now emerge by degrees in a form strangely diminished and tentative. First, there emerges a crude or veiled sense which develops into precise sensations aided by a vital instinct or concealed intuition; then a life-mind perception manifests and at its back an obscure consciousness-sight and feeling of things; emotion vibrates out and seeks an interchange with others; last arises to the surface conception, thought, reason comprehending and apprehending the object, combining its data of knowledge. But all are incomplete, still maimed by the separative ignorance and the first obscuring inconscience; all are dependent on the outward means, not empowered to act in their own right: consciousness cannot act directly on consciousness; there is a constructive envelopment and penetration of things by the mind consciousness, but not a real possession; there is no knowledge by identity. Only when the subliminal is able to force upon the frontal mind and sense some of its secret activities pure and untranslated into the ordinary forms of mental intelligence, does a rudimentary action of the deeper methods lift itself to the surface; but such emergences are still an exception, they strike across the normality of our acquired and learned knowledge with a savour of the abnormal and the supernormal. It is only by an opening to our inner being or an entry into it that a direct intimate awareness can be added to the outer indirect awareness.
It is only by our awakening to our inmost soul or superconscient self that there can be a beginning of the spiritual knowledge with identity as its basis, its constituent power, its intrinsic substance.
2.21 - The Order of the Worlds, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
If it be said that subjective experience or subtle-sense images can easily be deceptive, since we have no recognised method or standard of verification and a too great tendency to admit the extraordinary and miraculous or supernatural at its face value, this may be admitted: but error is not the prerogative of the inner subjective or subliminal parts of us, it is also an appanage of the physical mind and its objective methods and standards, and such liability to error cannot be a reason for shutting out a large and important domain of experience; it is a reason rather for scrutinising it and finding out in it its own true standards and its characteristic, appropriate and valid means of verification. Our subjective being is the basis of our objective experience, and it is not probable that only its physical objectivisations are true and the rest unreliable. The subliminal consciousness, when rightly interrogated, is a witness to truth and its testimony is confirmed again and again even in the physical and the objective field; that testimony cannot, then, be disregarded when it calls our attention to things within us or to things that belong to planes or worlds of a supraphysical experience. At the same time belief by itself is not evidence of reality; it must base itself on something more valid before one can accept it. It is evident that the beliefs of the past are not a sufficient basis for knowledge, even though they cannot be entirely neglected: for a belief is a mental construction and may be a wrong building; it may often answer to some inner intimation and then it has a value, but, as often as not, it disfigures the intimation, usually by a translation into terms familiar to our physical and objective experience, such as that which converted the hierarchy of the planes into a physical hierarchy or geographical space-extension, turned the rarer heights of subtle substance into material heights and placed the abodes of the gods on the summits of physical mountains. All truth supraphysical or physical must be founded not on mental belief alone, but on experience, - but in each case experience must be of the kind, physical, subliminal or spiritual, which is appropriate to the order of the truths into which we are empowered to enter; their validity and significance must be scrutinised, but according to their own law and by a consciousness which can enter into them and not according to the law of another domain or by a consciousness which is capable only of truths of another order; so alone can we be sure of our steps and enlarge firmly our sphere of knowledge.
If we scrutinise the intimations of supraphysical worldrealities which we receive in our inner experience and compare with it the account of such intimations that has continued to come down to us from the beginnings of human knowledge, and if we attempt an interpretation and a summarised order, we shall find that what this inner experience most intimately conveys to us is the existence and action upon us of larger planes of being and consciousness than the purely material plane, with its restricted existence and action, of which we are aware in our narrow terrestrial formula. These domains of larger being are not altogether remote and separate from our own being and consciousness; for, though they subsist in themselves and have their own play and process and formulations of existence and experience, yet at the same time they penetrate and envelop the physical plane with their invisible presence and influences, and their powers seem to be here in the material world itself behind its action and objects. There are two main orders of experience in our contact with them; one is purely subjective, though in its subjectivity sufficiently vivid and palpable, the other is more objective. In the subjective order, we find that what shapes itself to us as a life-intention, life-impulse, life-formulation here, already exists in a larger, more subtle, more plastic range of possibilities, and these pre-existent forces and formations are pressing upon us to realise themselves in the physical world also; but only a part succeeds in getting through and even that emerges partially in a form and circumstance more proper to the system of terrestrial law and sequence. This precipitation takes place, normally, without our knowledge; we are not aware of the action of these Powers, Forces and Influences upon us, but take them as formations of our own life and mind, even when our reason or will repudiates them and strives not to be mastered: but when we go inwards away from the restricted surface consciousness and develop a subtler sense and deeper awareness, we begin to get an intimation of the origin of these movements and are able to watch their action and process, to accept or reject or modify, to allow them passage and use of our mind and will and our life and members or refuse it. In the same way we become aware of larger domains of mind, a play, experience, formation of a greater plasticity, a teeming profusion of all possible mental formulations, and we feel their contacts with us and their powers and influences acting upon our parts of mind in the same occult manner as those others that act upon our parts of life. This kind of experience is, primarily, of a purely subjective character, a pressure of ideas, suggestions, emotional formations, impulsions to sensation, action, dynamic experience. However large a part of this pressure may be traced to our own subliminal self or to the siege of universal Mindforces or Life-forces belonging to our own world, there is an element which bears the stamp of another origin, an insistent supraterrestrial character.
2.3.02 - The Supermind or Supramental, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The achievement inner, subjective, individual might be perfect, but the dynamic outcome insufficient, disparate, a mixture, not a perfect harmony of the inner and the outer, a new integral rhythm of existence here that could be called truly divine. Only a consciousness like the supramental, unconditioned and in perfect unity with its source, a Truth-Consciousness empowered to create its own free determinations would be able to establish some perfect harmony and rhythm of the higher hemisphere in this lowest rung of the lower hemisphere. Whether it is to do so or not depends on the significance of the evolutionary
The Supermind or Supramental
3.11 - Spells, #Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E, #unset, #Zen
limited wish spell must be used to empower the duplicate with 40% to 65% (35% + 5 to
30%) of the knowledge and personality of the original. The level of the simulacrum, if
3.7.2.03 - Mind Nature and Law of Karma, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Three movements of the mental energy of man projecting itself along the lines of life, successive movements that yet overlap and enter into each other, have created a triple strand of the law of his Karma. The first is that, primary, obvious, universal, predominant in his beginnings, in which his mind subjects and assimilates itself to the law of life in matter in order to make the most of the terrestrial existence for its own pleasure and profit, artha, kma, without any other modification or correction of its pre-existing lines than is involved in the very impact of the human intelligence, will, emotion, aesthesis. These indeed are forces that lift up and greatly enlarge and infinitely rarefy and subtilise by a consciously regulated and more and more skilful and curious use the first crude, narrow and essentially animal aims and movements common to all living creatures. And this element of the mentalised vital existence, these lines of its movement making the main grey solid stuff of the life of the average economic, political, social, domestic man may take on a great amplitude and an imposing brilliance, but they remain always in their distinctive, their original and still persistent character the lines of movement, the way of Karma of the thinking, willing, feeling, refining human animal,not to be despised or excluded from our total way of being when we climb to a higher plane of conception and action, but still only a small part of human possibility and, if regarded as the main preoccupation or most imperative law of the human being, then limiting and degrading it; for, empowered up to a certain point to enlarge and dynamise and enrich, but not raise to a self-exceeding, they are useful for ascension only when themselves uplifted and transformed by a greater law and a nobler motive. The momentum of this energy may be a very powerful mental action, may involve much output of intelligence and will power and aesthetic perception and expenditure of emotional force, but the return it seeks is vital success and enjoyment and possession and satisfaction. The mind no doubt feeds its powers on the effort and its fullness on the prize, but it is tethered to its pasture. It is a mixed movement, mental in its means, predominantly vital in its returns; its standard of the values of the return are measured by an outward success and failure, an externalised or externally caused pleasure and suffering, good fortune and evil fortune, the fate of the life and the body. It is this powerful vital preoccupation which has given us one element of the current notion of law of Karma, its idea of an award of vital happiness and suffering as the measure of cosmic justice.
The second movement of mind running on the lines of life comes into prominent action when man evolves out of his experience the idea of a mental rule, standard, ideal, a concretised abstraction which is suggested at first by life experience, but goes beyond, transcends the actual needs and demands of the vital energy and returns upon it to impose some ideal mental rule, some canon embodying a generalised conception of Right on the law of life. For its essence is the discovery or belief of the mind that in all things there is a right rule, a right standard, a right way of thought, will, feeling, perception, action other than that of the intuition of vital nature, other than that of the first dealings of mind seeking only to profit by the vital nature with a mainly vital motive,for it has discovered a way of the reason, a rule of the self-governing intelligence. This brings into the seeking of vital pleasure and profit, artha, kma, the power of the conception of a mental truth, justice, right, the conception of Dharma. The greater practical part of the Dharma is ethical, it is the idea of the moral law. The first mind movement is non-moral or not at all characteristically moral, has only, if at all, the conception of a standard of action justified by custom, the received rule of life and therefore right, or a morality indistinguishable from expediency, accepted and enforced because it was found necessary or helpful to efficiency, power, success, to victory, honour, approval, good fortune. The idea of Dharma is on the contrary predominantly moral in its essence. Dharma on its heights holds up the moral law in its own right and for its own sake to human acceptance and observance. The larger idea of Dharma is indeed a conception of the true law of all energies and includes a conscience, a rectitude in all things, a right law of thought and knowledge, of aesthesis, of all other human activities and not only of our ethical action. But yet in the notion of Dharma the ethical element has tended always to predominate and even to monopolise the concept of Right which man creates,because ethics is concerned with action of life and his dealing with his vital being and with his fellow-men and that is always his first preoccupation and his most tangible difficulty, and because here first and most pressingly the desires, interests, instincts of the vital being find themselves cast into a sharp and very successful conflict with the ideal of Right and the demand of the higher law. Right ethical action comes therefore to seem to man at this stage the one thing binding upon him among the many standards raised by the mind, the moral claim the one categorical imperative, the moral law the whole of his Dharma.
Appendix 4 - Priest Spells, #Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E, #unset, #Zen
Note also that the spell does not empower the caster with linguistic capabilities beyond those he normally has. The duration of the spell is a function of the charmed creature's
Intelligence, and it is tied to the saving throw. A successful saving throw breaks the spell.
--
This spell empowers the priest to comprehend and communicate with any warm- or cold-blooded normal or giant animal that is not mindless. The priest is able to ask questions of and receive answers from the creature, although friendliness and cooperation are by no means assured. Furthermore, terseness and evasiveness are likely in basically wary and cunning creatures (the more stupid ones will instead make inane comments). If the animal is friendly or of the same general alignment as the priest, it may do some favor or service for the priest (as determined by the DM). Note that this spell differs from the speak with monsters spell, for this spell allows conversation only with normal or giant nonfantastic creatures such as apes, bears, cats, dogs, elephants, and so on.
SPELL - Spiritual Hammer (Invocation)
--
By means of this spell, the caster empowers one or more creatures to withstand nonmagical fires of temperatures up to 2,000 F. (enabling them to walk upon molten lava). It also confers a +2 bonus to saving throws against magical fire and reduces damage from such fires by one-half, even if the saving throw is failed. For every experience level above the minimum required to cast the spell (5th), the priest can affect an additional creature. This spell is not cumulative with resist fire spells or similar protections.
The material components of the spell are the priest's holy symbol and at least 500 gp of powdered ruby per affected creature.
--
By means of this spell, the caster is able to empower one or more creatures to tread upon any liquid as if it were firm ground; this includes mud, quicksand, oil, running water, and snow. The recipient's feet do not touch the surface of the liquid, but oval depressions of his appropriate foot size and 2 inches deep are left in the mud or snow.
The recipient's rate of movement remains normal. If cast under water, the recipient is borne toward the surface.
--
The reverse of this spell, cloak of fear, empowers a single creature touched to radiate a personal aura of fear, at will, out to a 3-foot radius. All other characters and creatures within this aura must roll successful saving throws vs. spell or run away in panic for 2d8 rounds. Affected individuals may or may not drop items, at the DM's option.
The spell has no effect upon undead of any sort. The effect can be used only once, and the spell expires after eight hours if not brought down sooner. Members of the recipient's party are not immune to the effects of the spell.
--
The hold plant spell affects vegetable matter as follows: 1) it causes ambulatory vegetation to cease moving; 2) it prevents vegetable matter from entwining, grasping, closing, or growing; 3) it prevents vegetable matter from making any sound or movement that is not caused by wind. The spell effects apply to all forms of vegetation, including parasitic and fungoid types, and those magically animated or otherwise magically empowered. It affects such monsters as green slime, molds of any sort, shambling mounds, shriekers, treants, etc. The duration of a hold plant spell is one round per level of experience of the caster. It affects 1d4 plants in a 40-foot x 40-foot area, or a square 4 to
16 yards on a side of small ground growth such as grass or mold. If only one plant (or 4 yards square) is chosen as the target for the spell by the caster, the saving throw of the plant (or area of plant growth) is made with a -4 penalty to the die roll; if two plants (or 8 yards square) are the target, saving throws suffer a -2 penalty; if three plants (or 12 yards square) are the target, saving throws suffer a -1 penalty; and if the maximum of four plants (or 16 yards square) are the target, saving throws are unmodified.
--
This spell enables the caster to speak and understand additional languages, whether they are racial tongues or regional dialects, but not communications of animals or mindless creatures. When the spell is cast, the spellcaster selects the language or languages to be understood. The spell then empowers the caster with the ability to speak and understand the language desired with perfect fluency and accent. The spell enables the priest to be understood by all speakers of that language within hearing distance, usually 60 feet. This spell does not predispose the subject toward the caster in any way.
The priest can speak one additional tongue for every three levels of experience.
--
This spell enables the caster to become one with nature, thus being empowered with knowledge of the surrounding territory. For each level of experience of the caster, he can
"know" one fact--ahead, left, or right, about the following subjects: the ground, plants, minerals, bodies of water, people, general animal population, presence of woodl and creatures, etc. The presence of powerful unnatural creatures also can be detected, as can the general state of the natural setting. The spell is most effective in outdoor settings, operating in a radius of one-half mile for each level of the caster. In natural underground settings--caves, cavern, etc.--the range is limited to 10 yards per caster level. In constructed settings (dungeons and towns), the spell will not function. The DM may limit the casting of this spell to once per month.
Big Mind (ten perfections), #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
I am one with cause and effect (karma). I surrender to what is, or you could say acknowledge what is, and then work to improve the situation for the self and others. In fact it is my wish to improve conditions on this planet precisely because I know how to be satisfied with the way things are. Instead of whining and complaining, I truly do something about the world's situation. Most people have it all backwards; it is only by knowing how to be satisfied and feeling empowered and not being a victim that I can accomplish anything truly transformative. As Dr. Phil says, you can't change what you don't acknowledge.
--- Enjoying Quiet
Blazing P2 - Map the Stages of Conventional Consciousness, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
often characterized in terms of personal empowerment. This transformation, to the fourth
order, is enormously powerful and has a captivating perfume. It is, in fact, a highly prevalent
Blazing P3 - Explore the Stages of Postconventional Consciousness, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
defenses and expression of inner conflict. Sense of self-esteem, empowerment.37
Dominant center of awareness: Rational mind and intellect; thought as mediated through
BOOK XII. - Of the creation of angels and men, and of the origin of evil, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
This may be enough to prevent any one from supposing, when we speak of the apostate angels, that they could have another nature, derived, as it were, from some different origin, and not from God. From the great impiety of this error we shall disentangle ourselves the more readily and easily, the more distinctly we understand that which God spoke by the angel when He sent Moses to the children of Israel: "I am that I am."[522] For since God is the supreme existence, that is to say, supremely is, and is therefore unchangeable, the things that He made He empowered to be, but not to be supremely like Himself. To some He communicated a more ample, to others a more limited existence, and thus arranged the natures of beings in ranks. For as from sapere comes sapientia, so from esse comes essentia,a new word indeed, which the old Latin writers did not use, but which is naturalized in our day,[523] that our language may not want an equivalent for the Greek . For this is expressed word for word by essentia.[Pg 484] Consequently, to that nature which supremely is, and which created all else that exists, no nature is contrary save that which does not exist. For nonentity is the contrary of that which is. And thus there is no being contrary to God, the Supreme Being, and Author of all beings whatsoever.
3. That the enemies of God are so, not by nature but by will, which, as it injures them, injures a good nature; for if vice does not injure, it is not vice.
For a Breath I Tarry, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
When man had placed Solcom in the sky, invested with the power to rebuild the world, he had placed the Alternate somewhere deep below the surface of the Earth. If Solcom sustained damage during the normal course of human politics extended into atomic physics, then Divcom, so deep beneath the Earth as to be immune to anything save total annihilation of the glove, was empowered to take over the processes of rebuilding.
Now it so fell that Solcom was damaged by a stray atomic missile, and Divcom was activated. Solcom was able to repair the damage and continue to function, however.
Prayers and Meditations by Baha u llah text, #Prayers and Meditations by Baha u llah, #unset, #Zen
Lauded be Thy name, O my God! I am so carried away by the breezes blowing from Thy presence that I have forgotten my self and all that I possess. This is but a sign of the wonders of Thy grace and bountiful favors vouchsafed unto me. I give praise to Thee, O my God, that Thou hast chosen me out of all Thy creatures, and made me to be the Day-Spring of Thy strength and the Manifestation of Thy might, and empowered me to reveal such of Thy signs and such tokens of Thy majesty and power as none, whether in Thy heaven or on Thy earth, can produce.
I beseech Thee, O my Lord, by Thy most effulgent Name, to acquaint my people with the things Thou didst destine for them. Do Thou, then, preserve them within the stronghold of Thy guardianship and the tabernacle of Thine unerring protection, lest through them may appear what will divide Thy servants. Assemble them, O my Lord, on the shores of this Ocean, every drop of which proclaimeth Thee to be God, besides Whom there is none other God, the All-Glorious, the All-Wise.
--
Praised be Thou, O my God, inasmuch as Thou hast aided us to recognize and love Him. I, therefore, beseech Thee by Him and by Them Who are the Day-Springs of Thy Divinity, and the Manifestations of Thy Lordship, and the Treasuries of Thy Revelation, and the Depositories of Thine inspiration, to enable us to serve and obey Him, and to empower us to become the helpers of His Cause and the dispersers of His adversaries. Powerful art Thou to do all that pleaseth Thee. No God is there beside Thee, the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the One Whose help is sought by all men!
LVII
--
Glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! I yield Thee thanks for having enabled me to recognize the Manifestation of Thyself, and for having severed me from Thine enemies, and laid bare before mine eyes their misdeeds and wicked works in Thy days, and for having rid me of all attachment to them, and caused me to turn wholly towards Thy grace and bountiful favors. I give Thee thanks, also, for having sent down upon me from the clouds of Thy will that which hath so sanctified me from the hints of the infidels and the allusions of the misbelievers that I have fixed my heart firmly on Thee, and fled from such as have denied the light of Thy countenance. Again I thank Thee for having empowered me to be steadfast in Thy love, and to speak forth Thy praise and to extol Thy virtues, and for having given me to drink of the cup of Thy mercy that hath surpassed all things visible and invisible.
Thou art the Almighty, the Most Exalted, the All-Glorious, the All-Loving.
--
Glorified be Thy name, O Lord my God! I beseech Thee by Him Who is Thine exalted and supreme Remembrance, Whom Thou hast sent down unto all Thy creatures and invested with Thy name, the All-Glorious, Whose will Thou hast ordained to be Thine own will, Whose self Thou hast decreed to be the revealer of Thine own Self, and His essence the Day-Spring of Thy wisdom, and His heart the treasury of Thine inspiration, and His breast the dawning-place of Thy most excellent attributes and most exalted titles, and His tongue the fountain-head of the waters of Thy praise and the well-spring of the soft-flowing streams of Thy wisdom, to send down upon us that which will enable us to dispense with all else except Thee, and will cause us to direct our steps towards the sanctuary of Thy pleasure and to aspire after the things Thou didst ordain for us according to Thine irrevocable decree. empower us, then, O my God, to forsake ourselves and cleave steadfastly to Him Who is the Manifestation of Thy Self, the Most Exalted, the Most High. Supply us also with that which is best for us, and write us down with such of Thy servants as have repudiated the Idol (Mírzá Yahyá), and firmly believed in Thee, and been so established on the throne of certitude that the whisperings of the Evil One have been powerless to hinder them from turning their faces towards Thy name, the All-Merciful.
132
--
O Thou Whose nearness is my wish, Whose presence is my hope, Whose remembrance is my desire, Whose court of glory is my goal, Whose abode is my aim, Whose name is my healing, Whose love is the radiance of my heart, Whose service is my highest aspiration! I beseech Thee by Thy Name, through which Thou hast enabled them that have recognized Thee to soar to the sublimest heights of the knowledge of Thee and empowered such as devoutly worship Thee to ascend into the precincts of the court of Thy holy favors, to aid me to turn my face towards Thy face, to fix mine eyes upon Thee, and to speak of Thy glory.
175
--
Praised be Thou, O Lord my God! Thou art He the excellence of Whose glory hath exalted them who are the sources of authority and honor, the potency of Whose might hath empowered them who are the fountain-heads of energy and strength, the dominion of Whose will hath elevated the Exponents of Thy Cause above all that are in heaven and on earth, and the life-giving effusions of Whose Pen have quickened the souls of the denizens of the kingdom of creation.
176
--
Magnified be Thy name, O my Lord, for Thou hast enabled me to recognize the Manifestation of Thine own Self, and hast caused me to be assured of the truth of the verses which have descended upon Thee. empower me, I implore Thee, to cling steadfastly unto whatsoever Thou hast bidden me observe. Help me to guard the pearls of Thy love which, by Thy decree, Thou hast enshrined within my heart. Send down, moreover, every moment of my life, O my God, that which will preserve me from any one but Thee, and will set my feet firm in Thy Cause.
177
--
I pray Thee, O Thou Who art the Lord of all names and the Ruler of both earth and heaven, to grant that all who are dear to Thee may each become a cup of Thy mercy in Thy days, that they may quicken the hearts of Thy servants. empower them also, O my God, to be as the rain that poureth down from the clouds of Thy grace, and as the winds that waft the vernal fragrances of Thy loving-kindness, that through them the soil of the hearts of Thy creatures may be clad with verdure, and may bring forth the things that will shed their fragrance over all Thy dominion, so that every one may perceive the sweet smell of the Robe of Thy Revelation. Potent art Thou to do what Thou willest.
The power of Thy might beareth me witness! Whoso hath drunk of the cup which the hand of Thy mercy hath borne round will strip himself of all things except Thee, and will be able, through a word of his mouth, to enrapture the souls of such of Thy servants as have slumbered on the bed of forgetfulness and negligence, and to cause them to turn their faces toward Thy most Great Sign, and seek from Thee naught else except Thyself, and ask of Thee only what Thou hast determined for them by the pen of Thy judgment and hast prescribed in the Tablet of Thy decree.
--
I give thanks to Thee, O my God, that Thou hast suffered me to remember Thee. What else but remembrance of Thee can give delight to my soul or gladness to my heart? Communion with Thee enableth me to dispense with the remembrance of all Thy creatures, and my love for Thee empowereth me to endure the harm which my oppressors inflict upon me.
Send, therefore, unto my loved ones, O my God, what will cheer their hearts, and illumine their faces, and delight their souls. Thou knowest, O my Lord, that their joy is to behold the exaltation of Thy Cause and the glorification of Thy word. Do Thou unveil, therefore, O my God, what will gladden their eyes, and ordain for them the good of this world and of the world which is to come.
--
Glorified be Thy name, O Lord my God! I beseech Thee by Thy power that hath encompassed all created things, and by Thy sovereignty that hath transcended the entire creation, and by Thy Word which was hidden in Thy wisdom and whereby Thou didst create Thy heaven and Thy earth, both to enable us to be steadfast in our love for Thee and in our obedience to Thy pleasure, and to fix our gaze upon Thy face, and celebrate Thy glory. empower us, then, O my God, to spread abroad Thy signs among Thy creatures, and to guard Thy Faith in Thy realm. Thou hast ever existed independently of the mention of any of Thy creatures, and wilt remain as Thou hast been for ever and ever.
220
--
I beseech Thee, O my Lord, by Thy Name through which Thou hast enabled Thy servants and Thy people to know Thee, through which Thou hast drawn the hearts of those who have recognized Thee towards the resplendent court of Thy oneness, and the souls of Thy favored ones unto the Day-Spring of Thy unity,--I beseech Thee to grant that I may be assisted to observe the fast wholly for Thy sake, O Thou Who art full of majesty and glory! empower me, then, O my God, to be reckoned among them that have clung to Thy laws and precepts for the sake of Thee alone, their eyes fixed on Thy face. These, indeed, are they whose wine is all that hath proceeded out of the mouth of Thy primal will, whose pure beverage is Thine enthralling call, whose heavenly River is Thy love, whose Paradise is entrance into Thy presence and reunion with Thee. For Thou hast been their Beginning and their End, and their Highest Hope, and their Supreme Desire. Blinded be the eye that gazeth on whatsoever may displease Thee, and confounded be the soul that seeketh the things that are contrary to Thy will. [Fast] The Kitáb-i-Aqdas; The Kitáb-i-Íqán, p. 39-40; Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 109; Gleanings From The Writings Of Bahá'u'lláh; The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, vol. 2 p. 397, vol. 3, vol. 4 p. 9
299
r1918 04 20, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
(3) The ishwarabhava has come with the Chandi virya. It is in its perfection the aishwarya of the Dasi empowered by the Lover and Master, the [real]1 aishwarya being his, the executive aishwarya hers. But the mind element often insists too much on the instrumental aishwarya acting through the mind in forgetfulness of its source. Then there is trouble and disturbance of samata.
(4) The hasyam of the first chatusthaya is developing the attahasyam of Mahakali into which is to be taken the jnana-hasyam, sneha-hasyam and kautuka-hasyam of the three other powers. But with defect of perfect sraddha swashaktyam, of perfect samata in tapas and of perfect ishwarabhava, this cannot take possession of the temperament.
--- Overview of verb empower
The verb empower has 2 senses (first 1 from tagged texts)
1. (1) empower, authorise, authorize ::: (give or delegate power or authority to; "She authorized her assistant to sign the papers")
2. endow, indue, gift, empower, invest, endue ::: (give qualities or abilities to)
--- Grep of noun empower
empowerment
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The Secret Of Isis (1975 - 1976) - Egyptian Queen Hatchupset Was Given An Amulet With This Amulet Empowered Her With The Powers Of The Goddess Isis To Command The Elements Of Sky And Earth, Andera Thomas Found Her Lost Amulet While On An Archaeological Dig, She Found Out That She Was The Heir To The ''Secrets Of Isis'', By Wearing Th...
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Academy of Citizenship and Empowerment
Action for Climate Empowerment
Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project
African Center for Community Empowerment
All India Mahila Empowerment Party
A Nation Empowered
Black Economic Empowerment
Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor
Community Empowerment Network
Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015
Draft:Self Advocates Becoming Empowered
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EmPower (aircraft power adapter)
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Empower Group
Empowering Patients First Act
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Empowerment
Empowerment and Rights Institute
Empowerment zone
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Empower Playgrounds
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Female empowerment in Nigeria
Food Empowerment Project
Gender Empowerment Measure
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act
Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women
List of Empowered characters
Live at the New Empowering Church
Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act
Ministry of Social Empowerment, Welfare and Kandyan Heritage
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection
Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (Zimbabwe)
National Empowerment Television
National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities
Peace, Nonviolence and Empowerment - Gandhian Philosophy in the 21st Century
Society for Appraisal and Women Empowerment in Rural Areas
Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party
Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation
Women's empowerment
Women's Technology Empowerment Centre
Youth empowerment
Youth Empowerment & Support Services
Zambians for Empowerment and Development
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