ROAD TO SERENITY

 

Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad they may be.  Nothing is ever gained by that.  You never help one by talking about his faults; you do him an injury, and injure yourself as well.

                                                                          -  Swami Vivekananda

Most of us  indulge in gossip and  dwell at length on the faults of others,  forgetting  our  own.   But the wisdom masters say that this trait will  put you in deep trouble and rob your own inner serenity.

When you talk  ill of others, the toxic emotions are bound to destabilize your own emotional balance.  That's why you must concentrate  your energies more on your own conduct than onlookers.     

Some months back I wrote this wonderful quote of Dalai Lama in my journal which I come back and forth to remind myself  of the truth:

If someone remains in a peaceful and tranquil state of mind, external surroundings can cause them only a limited disturbance.quo

If you are in a situation  which you can't  tolerate, better to walk out  politely instead of silently enduring the ordeal.   Suppose if the situation doesn't permit you to leave, be prepared to endure with full acceptance.   You get more inner strength by reading this famous quote of American novelist and short story writer James Lane Allen:

Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.


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