When we develop patience, we find that we develop a reserve of calm and tranquility. We tend to be less antagonistic and more pleasant to associate with. This creates a positive atmosphere around us and it is easy for others to relate to us. Better grounded emotionally through patience, we become stronger mentally and spiritually, and tend to be healthier physically.
From one viewpoint, religion can be seen as sort of a luxury. If you have religion, that’s good, but even without it you can manage and survive but we can't survive without human affection. While anger and hatred, like compassion and love, are part of our mind, I still believe the dominant forces are compassion and a...ffection. Therefore, usually I refer to these human qualities as spirituality.
We can't be useful to ourselves unless we're useful to others. Whether we like it or not, we're all connected, and it is unthinkable to be happy all by oneself. Anyone concerned only by his own well-being will suffer eventually. Anyone concerned with the well-being of others takes care of himself without even thinking ...about it. Even if we decide to remain selfish, let us be intelligently selfish let us help others.
Satisfaction is characterized by inner peace. It arises from generosity, honesty and what I call ethical conduct, a way of behaving that respects others’ right to be happy.
Once you shift your focus from yourself to others and extend your concern to others, this will have the immediate effect of opening up your life and helping you to reach out. The practice of cultivating altruism has a beneficial effect not only from a religious point of view but also from a mundane point of view; not o...nly for long-term spiritual development but even in terms of immediate rewards.
We must learn how to identify the opposing sides in our inner conflicts. Take anger: we need to see how destructive it is and at the same time, realize there are antidotes within our own thoughts and emotions that can counter it. So by understanding how negative it is and then by strengthening our positive thoughts and... emotions, we can gradually reduce the force of our anger and hatred.
Mere restraint may prevent us from grossly negative misdeeds, but it's insufficient to attain the happiness characterized by inner peace. In order to transform our habits and dispositions so that our actions are compassionate, it is necessary to develop what we might call an ethic of virtue. As well as restraining ours...elves from negative thoughts and emotions, we need to cultivate and reinforce our positive qualities
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