Read this.. felt motivated!
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
I was talking with a client about beliefs and he shared this powerpoint that portrays a conversation between a Brazilian theologian, Leonardo Buff, and the Dalai Lama regarding which religion is the “best”.
Please note that I have not confirmed these quotes to be in fact from the Dalai Lama. Regardless of the origin, I like the underlying message and wanted to share.
“When asked “What thing about humanity surprises you the most?”, the Dalai Lama answered:
“Man…. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”
It has been pointed out to me in the comments, etc.. that this was not a quote by the Dalai Lama XIV, but rather falsely reported to be the case across the web. I shared this quote not because of “who said it” but because of the meaning of its content. Thanks to my readers, I can report the original author of this quote was James J. Lachard, while writing under the penname Jim Brown in his writing “I Dreamed I Had an Interview with God”. The full text of which is here:
“So you would like to interview me?” God asked.
“If you have the time”, I said … God Smiled.
“My time is eternity, … what questions do you have in mind for me?”
“What surprises you most about humankind?”
God answered.
“That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up and then long to be children again”
“That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.”
“That by thinking anxiously about the future, that they forget the present, such that they live neither in the present or the future.”
“That they live as if they will never die and die as if they had never lived.”
God’s hand took mine and we were silent for a while. And then I asked.
“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons that you want your children to learn?”
God replied with a smile.
“To learn they cannot make anyone love them, what they can do is let themselves be loved.”
“To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to other.”
“To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.”
“To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love and it takes many years to heal them.”
“To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.”
“To learn that there are persons who love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings.”
“To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently.”
‘To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they must forgive themselves.”
“And to learn that I am here … ALWAYS.”
James J. Lachard (Jim Brown)
