To Be Read Each Morning

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With the help of several other pledge participants, I've complied the below list to be read each and every morning.  I am growing more and more convinced that we can implant ideas like these in our minds, and that thus implanted they can have a significant impact on how we interact with the world.  I believe that to make this work, we must continually remind ourselves of the wisdom contained in these simple ideas. ​ Eknath Easwaran put it best:

Thoughts [are] packets of potential energy, which grow more and more solid when favorable conditions are present and obstacles are removed. They become desires, then habits, then ways of living with physical consequences. Those consequences may look no more like thoughts than an oak tree looks like an acorn, but they are just as intimately related. Just as a seed can grow into only one kind of tree, thoughts can produce effects only of the same nature. 

Some of these are pulled directly from ancient spiritual texts, others made up by my friends and by me.  Other suggestions are encouraged!

  • Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Think accordingly.
  • Be kind, reactions should be measured, not involuntary.
  • Do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do; give it to what you do or fail to do.
  • Damyata datta dayadhvam, Be self-controlled, give, be compassionate.
  • Pain in inevitable, but suffering is optional. Pain is what the world does to you; suffering is what you do to yourself. 
  • Complaining does absolutely no good.
  • Harmonize thoughts and actions.
  • Watch how sensory desires drive or control your actions. Do not let the expectations of others drive your actions.
  • Nullius in Verba – “Take no one’s word for it.”  Trust, but verify.
  • Focus on what you are for rather than what you are against.
  • Write down everything you would like to achieve.
  • Premeditate everything.
  • There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
  • Think of one thing for which you are grateful this morning.  
  • Treat those you love as if today is your last.
  • Judgment is useless, empathy is learning.
  • Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
  • If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
  • Don’t waste this day.