Maneeshaa Panchakam

Introduction
In this work consisting of just five verses Sri Sankara has brought out succinctly the essence of Advaita Vedanta. The occasion for this composition may first be narrated. One day Sri Sankara was walking towards the temple of Lord Viswanatha in Varanasi along with his disciples. It so happened that a sweeper was walking towards him on the same street. Sri Sankara asked the sweeper to move away from his path. The sweeper then asked him some questions which form the substance of two verses which are a prelude to the main work. On hearing these questions, Sri Sankara realized that the person before him was no ordinary sweeper. Sankara replies to these questions in five verses. These five verses have been collectively given the name 'Maneeshaapanchakam'. The word 'maneeshaa', meaning 'conviction' appears in the last line in all the five verses.

According to tradition, the sweeper was none other than Lord Siva Himself in that form. Sri Sankara himself is considered to be an incarnation of Lord Siva. Therefore this work is in essence a dialogue between two forms of Lord Siva, intended to convey to the world the essential teachings of Vedanta. Questions such as whether even Sri Sankara practiced untouchability in spite of being an enlightened soul have no place in the light of these facts. Moreover, in all such cases the story by itself is not important. To derive various conclusions about other matters on the basis of the story would be going off at a tangent. One fact which emerges is that, once a person has attained Self-knowledge, considerations such as his caste, etc., are totally irrelevant.

The verses are now taken up one by one.

The sweeper's questions:
1.O great among the twice-born! What is it that you want to move away by saying, "Go, go"? Do you want the body made up of food to move away from another body made up of food? Or do you want consciousness to move away from consciousness?

2. Is there any difference between the reflection of the sun in the waters of the Ganga and its reflection in the water in a ditch in the quarters of the outcastes? Or between the space in a gold pot and in a mud pot? What is this illusion of difference in the form, "This is a Brahmana and this is an outcaste" in the indwelling self which is the ripple-free ocean of bliss and pure consciousness?
Note: The indwelling self, which is identical with the supreme Self whose nature is bliss and pure consciousness, is the same in all creatures. As the Bhagavad Gita says, "The enlightened see the same Self in the Brahmana endowed with learning and humility, the cow, the elephant, the dog and the outcaste" (5. 18).

Sri Sankara's answers:
1.If a person has attained the firm knowledge that he is not an object of perception, but is that pure consciousness which shines clearly in the states of waking, dream and deep sleep, and which, as the witness of the whole universe, dwells in all bodies from that of the Creator Brahma to that of the ant, then he is my Guru, irrespective of whether he is an outcaste or a Brahmana. This is my conviction.
Note: In the waking state the physical body as well as the senses and the mind function and experience external objects. In the state of dream there are no objects and the body and senses do not function, but the mind creates objects and events and experiences them. In deep sleep even the mind does not function. In all these three states consciousness is present. In the first two states the presence of consciousness is obvious because of the experience of external objects and the creations of the mind respectively. It may appear as if in deep sleep there is no such experience, but it is the experience of every one that on waking up he remembers that he slept happily and did not know anything. Remembrance is possible only of what has actually been experienced previously. It therefore follows that consciousness existed during deep sleep also and that it was because of this consciousness that happiness and ignorance were experienced. This consciousness is thus the witness of all experiences as well as the absence of experiences. This consciousness is the Self that dwells in every living being. Everything other than this consciousness is an object. The external objects are objects of experience for the sense organs. The sense organs are objects for the mind. The mind itself is an object for the consciousness or Self. Thus the self alone is the subject and everything else is an object of experience. The person who has realized that he is the Self and not the mind or the senses or the physical body is an enlightened person. Such a person is the Guru for the whole world.

2. "I am Brahman (pure consciousness). It is pure consciousness that appears as this universe. All this is only something conjured up by me because of avidya (nescience) which is composed of the three gunas (sattva, rajas and tamas)". One who has attained this definite realization about Brahman which is bliss itself, eternal, supreme and pure, is my Guru, whether he is an outcaste or a Brahmana.

3. Having come to the definite conclusion, under the instruction of his Guru, that the entire universe is always perishable, he who, with a calm and pure mind constantly meditates on Brahman, and who has burnt his past and future sins in the fire of knowledge, submits his present body to the operation of his praarabdha karma. This is my conviction.
Note: Karma, in the sense of results of actions performed, is divided into three categories. (1) sanchita karma - the accumulated results of actions performed in past births, (2) praarabdha karma - those results of past actions which have given rise to the present body and (3) aagaami karma - the results of actions performed in the present birth. On the dawn of Self-knowledge the first category is completely destroyed along with the third category acquired up to the time of attainment of knowledge. After the dawn of Self-knowledge any action performed does not produce any result in the form of merit or demerit. The second category, praarabdha karma, is not destroyed on the attainment of Self-knowledge, but has to be exhausted only by being actually experienced. On the exhaustion of this category of karma the body of the enlightened person falls and the jivanmukta becomes a videha mukta. This is brought out in the above sloka by the statement that the enlightened person merely submits his body to the operation of praarabdha karma.

4. The Self or pure consciousness is experienced clearly within by animals, men, and gods as 'I'. It is by the reflection of this pure consciousness that the mind, senses and body, which are all insentient, appear to be sentient. External objects are perceived only because of this consciousness. This Self is, however, concealed by the very mind, senses and body which are illumined by it, just as the sun is concealed by clouds. The yogi who, with a calm mind, always meditates on this Self is my Guru. This is my conviction.
Note: The Self or pure consciousness is what enlivens the mind, senses, etc., which are insentient, and enables them to function. Clouds owe their origin to the heat of the sun which makes the water in the oceans evaporate. The clouds become visible only because of the light of the sun behind them. The same clouds hide the sun from our view. Similarly, the body, mind, and senses, which owe their sentiency to the pure consciousness that is the Self, conceal the Self from us by making us engage ourselves in worldly pursuits all the time. The self can be realized only if the senses and mind are withdrawn from external objects.

5. The Self, which is Brahman, is the eternal ocean of supreme bliss. A minute fraction of that bliss is enough to satisfy Indra and other gods. By meditating on the Self with a perfectly calm mind the sage experiences fulfillment. The person whose mind has become identified with this Self is not a mere knower of Brahman, but Brahman itself. Such a person, whoever he may be, is one whose feet are fit to be worshipped by Indra himself. This is my definite conviction.
Note: The Upanishads say that the happiness experienced by all living beings, including the gods, is only a minute fraction of the supreme, infinite bliss of Brahman (Brihadaranyaka, 4.3.32, Taittiriya, 2.8). Knowing Brahman means knowing that one is Brahman and not the body-mind complex. He who attains this knowledge is Brahman itself (Mundaka, 3.2.9).Thus knowing Brahman is the same as remaining as Brahman. It should be noted that this is not the attainment of any new state. Every one is in reality Brahman, even when he is in bondage and looks upon himself as a limited human being. Liberation is nothing but the removal of the wrong identification with the body-mind complex by the realization of his real nature as the infinite, eternal Brahman. A rope is mistaken for a snake in dim light, but when it is examined with a light it is found that there never was a snake and that there was only a rope all the time. No one would say that there was a snake previously and that it had gone away. Similarly, when a person realizes that he is not the body-mind complex, but Brahman, it follows that he was always Brahmanand that only the wrong notion about himself has been removed and nothing new has emerged. Thus there is no real bondage, but the individual jiva thinks, wrongly, that he is in bondage, due to ignorance of his real nature. When this ignorance is removed as a result of sravana, manana, and nididhyasana, the person becomes a jivanmukta here itself.
-Adi Sankaracharya's Maneeshaa Panchakam,  Translated by S. N. Sastri

http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/Manishapanchakam.pdf

50 Prosperity Classics: Attract It, Create It, Manage It, Share It

Principles for Attracting Wealth

• Paradoxically, wealth (and happiness) comes most easily to those who forget themselves in the service of others. The law of giving infallibly returns more to the giver than they contribute.
• When you focus on other people and circumstances as the source of your prosperity, you tend to lose it. But when you recognize God, a higher power, or the universe as the source of your supply, money begins to flow. Actual money does not make you secure; what does is a thorough knowledge of the universe’s power to provide.
• To receive good things you must first cleanse your mind of clutter and negative emotions. In forming a vacuum, you allow good things to rush in. 
• When you are resentful, you are bound to the person or situation you resent. In forgiving, you free yourself and allow the floodgates of prosperity to open.
• The universe is perfectly ordered, therefore the person who makes their own affairs more orderly is attuned to universal riches. To receive more money, you must first demonstrate that you can manage what you already have well, however little it is.
• The basic law of the universe is tht things come into being that did not exist before. When you create mental pictures of health, wealth, and happiness, you are not trying to change the laws of nature, but instead fulfilling your unique promise to bring these things into being.
• According to the law of attraction, whatever you put your attention on through thought or desire becomes reality. You attract to yourself things or people that are the equivalent of your current state of being, or “vibration.”
• The “creative process” is the specific way in which you can use the law of attraction to obtain what you want. It involves: Asking the universe, and being very clear about what you want; Believing, acting, and speaking as though you have already received what you have asked for; and Receiving—feeling great that it is coming to you, which sets up the necessary vibration to manifest the desire. This process is summed up in the Bible: “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them and ye shall have them.
• Deciding to elevate your mood or feeling in each moment is vital for increasing your vibration, which in turn attracts things, people, and feelings of a like vibration. To be both rich and happy, you must make a positive mental attitude a basic habit of living.
• If you are low on funds, praise and bless whatever you have, and imagine it growing larger. Blessing both what you have and what others have puts the law of increase into motion.
• Gratitude is the key to an abundant life, because it puts you in a state of mind that attracts even more of what you are grateful for. Love, appreciation, and thanks are the essence of prosperity. It is right to become a giver, but you must also learn to be a good receiver.

Principles for creating wealth

• The foundation of a prosperous life (combining material wealth, health, and mental wellbeing) is personal character, formed from self-control and cultivation of virtue. A person of integrity, trust, and good character is “bankable”; their riches evolve out of who they are as much as what they do.
• Definiteness of purpose is essential to the success of the wealth creator. A clear purpose enables you to see setbacks as temporary, banishes fear and doubt, and inspires the help of others.
• Do more than is asked or expected of you, “go the extra mile.” Putting in an extraordinary effort with no guarantee of gain is the basis of most great fortunes.
• Whatever you do, provide, or create, make sure you do it in an outstanding way. Remember the Latin dictum In excellentia lucrum—in excellence is profit.
• The fear of failure or embarrassment is the greatest obstacle to achieving wealth. Fear puts a brake on action, yet if you are not willing to fail you will forever be bound in circumstances that involve little risk. With little risk there are only small rewards.
• Learn, don’t blame. It is easy to blame people or events when things are not going smoothly, but the enlightened wealth creator seeks only to learn in every situation. Don’t complain, look for opportunities.
• Thinking big is the basis of all great enterprises and fortunes. You are constantly thinking, therefore it takes no more effort to think big instead of small.
• Wealth flows to the person who has a high tolerance for uncertainty or disappointment.
• Handle disappointment well, and you will make more attempts to achieve your goals. By the law of averages, where others have given up you will succeed.
• Wealth-minded people do not try to avoid risk or complexity. They even embrace large problems because they know that solving them can produce significant value. It is not enough to want to be rich, you must commit to it. Providence moves all for the person who determines to stick it out, doing what they can to make a venture work. The half-hearted achieve half-success.
• Choose your vocation wisely. Love of your work sets up a “circle of excellence” that cannot fail to deliver great gains over time. But along with love and talent, you must work hard.
• If you think you see the future, act on it. Hunches based on in-depth knowledge are usually right. If something captures your imagination, chances are it will capture that of others too.
• Everything that you see around you, someone has made a fortune from. All you need is one idea that can make you your fortune, and it is probably to be found in your own backyard.
• Don’t be afraid to be different. On entering any new field or an industry, aim to really shake it up and provide new value.
• The surest way to wealth is to create a product or service that increases the ease and speed of results.
• Above all, it is customers that create wealth. Have customers before you even start your business.
• The seed of entrepreneurship is a wish to be in control of your own destiny.
• The purpose of entrepreneurship is to deliver new satisfaction and value. It is built on unexpected successes that are quickly capitalized on.
• Riches follow ownership. Own something, or at least a part of something.
• Have many sources of income. Do not depend on a single wage for your financial security.
• Wealthy people create money-producing systems. Middle-class people work within and for these systems, and so never get rich.
• All wealth is created first in the mind. Therefore, a political-economic system that fosters and protects the freedom to think, innovate, create, and prosper, with free and open markets in which to trade the product, is a moral system. 

Principles for Managing Wealth

• Live within your means. If you are not wealthy, do not have a wealthy lifestyle. You will get rich by imitating the mindset of the wealthy, not by imitating their spending.
• Poor people are focused on spending money; the wealthy are focused on creating it, saving it, and investing it.
• Most people see money as cash in their hands to be used and spent. Wealthy people understand money primarily as seeds to be planted that will grow into money trees.
• Plan your spending. Never shop on impulse. The longer you plan a purchase for, generally the more money you will save.
• Document your spending. It is the first step to getting control of your finances. Become a habitual saver. Pay yourself the first 10 percent of what you earn, before tax, and invest it. The discipline of saving (given a certain amount of time) can make you rich. Do not risk your peace of mind or relationships by chasing a quick dollar.
• Use the magic of compound interest by reinvesting all interest or dividends you earn.
• Savings allow you to pick up bargains and take advantage of opportunities.
• Earning more will not solve your debt problem (debts increase to match earnings). Learning how to manage money responsibly will.
• The frugal enjoy what they have more, get more use out of what they own, and delight in the ability to make gifts when they wish.
• Have an emergency fund that covers your living expenses for three to six months. If something happens and you need money, you will not have to go into debt or depend on the charity of others.
• Resist invitations to own a credit card. Debit cards now perform all the functions that credit cards were once useful for, and will not lead you into a debt spiral.
• Pay for most things with cash. You will spend less.
• When you do borrow money, make sure it is for a productive asset or one that is likely to appreciate, and pay off the loan as soon as you can.
• Don’t be someone who “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” In stock investing, consider yourself part owner of a company you are investing in, not a trader.
• Don’t try to beat the market or speculate. Trust the long-term ability of stock markets to deliver good returns overall.
• With the power of leverage and modest price appreciation, plus a normal degree of patience, in two or three decades you can build a real-estate fortune.
• Too little or too much money magnifies personal deficiencies, or reveals the good character that was already there. Therefore, in relation to your financial life, work you do on your personal qualities is never wasted. 

Principles for sharing wealth

• Money is a kind of energy and it is always active. To bring the greatest benefit to the greatest number, it must flow and circulate.
• Generating, using, and spending money in a way that is consistent with your deepest values has a healing effect not only on yourself but on the world.
• You never really possess wealth, but are a steward of it until you die. When a fortune is made, the creator has a duty to apply at least some of it to causes and projects that will assist and elevate others.
• With clear goals and a focus on results, private wealth in the form of foundations can change the world.
• Prosperity’s basis is a healthy natural environment. Without clean air, water, and a fertile earth humanity has nothing. Invest, spend, or make money in a way that causes no harm and is good for the planet.
• If given access to finance, the world’s poorest people will strive for, and achieve, self-reliance and prosperity.

http://66.230.175.74/download/g3752406-50-prosperity-classics.pdf

50 Prosperity Classics

• To obtain your desired outer results, you must first master the inner game of wealth.
• You must daily practice the habit of putting your mind at rest, “going into the silence,” as it is  commonly called. This is a method of replacing a troubled thought with one of peace, a thought of weakness with one of strength.
• What we visualize tends to come into being. Use this invisible but logical power to turn any desire into reality.
• Mental conditioning is the foundation of wealth; once your goals are programmed in, success comes easily.
• You are a powerful magnet, attracting into your life the equivalent of whatever you are strongly feeling or thinking about.
• The key to manifesting your desires is to assume that your desire is already being experienced, that you already have it and are enjoying it. In this  way, you set up a level of vibration that can only attract its material equivalent.
• Do you wish for kindness? Be kind. Do you ask for truth? Be true. What you give of yourself you find; Your world is a reflex of you.
• Once the work is done on the mental plane, you can be assured your pictured good will manifest on the outer plane just as soon as the time, people and events have arranged themselves accordingly. If you transform your beliefs about spirituality and wealth, you can welcome great well being and prosperity into your life.
• Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow. Work that is consciously chosen naturally expresses the interests and abilities of the worker, and in doing it, he or she becomes a confident and satisfied individual.
• You will only become truly prosperous when you have disciplined your mind. Paradoxically, wealth (and happiness) comes most easily to those who forget themselves in their service to others.
• You can’t move on to something better without having fulfilled what is expected of you in the current position.
• “Shake off the delusion that you are being injured or oppressed by another,” Allen tells the reader, “you are only really injured by what is within you. 
• There is no practice more degrading, debasing, and  soul destroying than that of self-pity.”

Wealthy People

• Allen identifies three “money mountains”—investing, real estate, and marketing—from which the average person should, with just a little knowledge and effort, be able to obtain at least 10 streams of income that keep flowing in, in the process creating freedom from a single employer.
• The wealth creator has a moral obligation to enrich the lives of others in whatever way they can.
• Poor people see money simply as cash in their hands, to be used as soon as they get it. Rich people, in contrast, understand money primarily as seeds to be planted that will grow into “money trees.”
• “Poverty is when large efforts produce small results. Wealth is when small efforts produce large results.”
• You must “stop the leaks.” One leak is taxes. Wealthy people are not afraid to spend money on getting the best tax advice available.
• They make sure that most of their purchases are planned. Generally, the longer the time frame before a purchase, the less you will pay (as oil magnate J. P. Getty put it, “I buy my straw hats in the fall”).

1. They ask for and get discounts (“never pay retail”).
2. They always get receipts, check them, and then once they get home put the receipts into a categorized file.
3. They balance their accounts on a regular basis.

• “Working for someone else, unless you own a piece of the profits, is not security. It’s just the illusion of security.”
• The foundation of success in life is good health:
• The possession of a perfect knowledge of your business is an absolute necessity in order to insure success
• There are no shortcuts to wealth, aside from right vocation, good character, and perseverance—and don’t forget to advertise.

Stocks

• If you invest in stocks at all, put your money in a fund that automatically owns a little bit of every company listed. Over time, it is a sure and almost worry-free way to accumulate wealth.
• Don’t invest in stocks, invest in the businesses behind them. 
• “[Once] you have bought your stocks, get out of the casino and stay out.

Entrepreneurship

• The purpose of entrepreneurship is to deliver new satisfaction and value, and it is built on “unexpected successes” that are quickly capitalized on.
• The entrepreneur is on the lookout for: “the unexpected”: an unexpected success, failure, or event (see below)  incongruities: between things as they ought or are said to be, and how they actually are  problems with an existing process for which no one has provided a solution changes in how an industry or market operates that take everyone by surprise  demographic (population) changes changes in “perception, mood or meaning”
• Rich people think differently to the average person. Copy the way they think, and you will be ready to become rich yourself.
• Building a fortune is one thing, but seeing it put to good use while you are alive is an even greater satisfaction.
• Don’t focus too much on your present conditions, only on what you are on your way to becoming.
• Private wealth in the form of foundations is a valuable “third force” in changing the world. They must get more rigorous about where their money is most efficiently and usefully deployed, tackling society’s most urgent problems, and they must set goals and benchmarks for their own performance.
• The free market, not government, ensures protection of individual rights and standards of quality, and delivers extraordinary prosperity to those who seek it.
• “Collaborators,” who coordinate efforts horizontally within and between companies; “synthesizers,” who integrate disparate areas of knowledge in innovative ways; “explainers,” who can explain complex matters to any audience; “personalizers,” who create value by providing the human touch to services and products; and “green people,” who have the knowledge and skills to fix environmental problems.
• Only those who love what they do and provide unique value will really prosper.
• Openness to innovation, adaptability, frugality, tenacity, patience, and hard work make all the difference to a nation’s success.
• In your field of work, see what can be achieved by “setting the standard.” With a big, clear vision in place, you can make the most of any opportunity that comes your way.
• If your business is to thrive, it will engage you in a process of constant personal development. For it to change, you have to change too.
• Everyone who becomes wealthy in the modern world knows the power of leverage: using other people’s resources and technology to multiply the effect of what you do.

The three principles of an enlightened millionaire are:

1. Do no harm—be ethical, honest, and seek win/win outcomes.
2. Do much good—improve the lives of many; by enriching others you enrich yourself.
3. Operate out of stewardship—create wealth so you can give it away; financial blessings are to be shared.

• “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.”
• You need a team to obtain your dream. Success is not a solo project.
• Having a top mentor is the quickest way to climb the millionaire mountain.
• “You can rest assured that if you devote your time and attention to the highest advantage of others, the Universe will support you, always and in the nick of time.”
• Finally, to get and retain customers, always offer something free: a report, diagnosis, CD, or book to everyone who registers with you. Don’t forget the law of prosperity: To get you must always first give.
• Genuine prosperity is not won at the expense of the earth.
• The more positive you think and feel in each moment, the more open is your connection to the Source, or provider of all things and all love.
• “No one has ever been known to achieve permanent success without doing more than he was paid for.”
• The basic law of prosperity is that to receive, you must first provide something of great value.
• “A positive mental attitude (PMA) is the starting point of all riches, whether they be riches of a material nature or intangible riches.”
• Having a dream and thinking big are the basic elements of all great enterprises and fortunes.
• Before anything else, the fundamental purpose in starting any new enterprise is to create meaning. Start off catering to a small market, and if what you are doing is worthwhile, other opportunities will emerge.
• It is better to have a reputation to risk than no business at all.

Tips on naming your enterprise:

1. The name should start with a letter early in the alphabet, so you are always at the top of any list.
2. Don’t have numbers in the name.
3. Have a name with verb potential (e.g., “Xerox it,” “Google her”).
4. Avoid trendiness (e.g., only lower-case letters).

• To succeed in business, balance boldness and promotion with patience, caution, and flexibility.
• Helping people who have no way of returning the favor is a means of thanking the universe for the many gifts you have received, including family and friends, good health, and economic success.
• The mindset and income patterns of the rich are totally different to those of the poor and middle class.
• Alert investors who focus on the fundamentals and do not get swayed by market sentiments can outperform the professionals.

Real Estate

• Buying rental properties is one of the lowest-risk and best-performing forms of investment.
• The important point about real-estate investing, in contrast to stocks, is safety of capital. History demonstrates that investing in real estate provides both good cash returns and very good capital appreciation.
• Mundis defines debt as anything you have used or are obliged to pay but have not yet paid for: credit card balances, store card balances, personal loans, taxes, rent, phone bills, loans from friends, child support, tuition fees, and so on—basically, anything you owe that is not backed by collateral. Home loans are not really debt, in that they are secured against the house.
• Getting your own home is an important first step on the road to wealth.

If you really want to be a millionaire, Bach says, you need do just three things:

1. Decide to Pay Yourself First 10 per cent of what you earn, 
2. Make it Automatic, and 
3. Buy a home and pay it off early.

• Give away 10 percent of all money that comes to you: “There is nothing that keeps a person's mind so fearless and so free to receive the good constantly coming to him as the practice of tithing.” Make sure that the organization you are giving money to is officially a charity and you will also get tax benefits on what you contribute.
• To ensure their financial freedom, women need to have new respect for their relationship to money and defy cultural conditioning.
• The worlds were formed by the word of God. Things which are seen are not made of things which do appear.
• If you believe that the nature of God is abundance, you can begin to believe in the possibility of unlimited wealth on earth. We live in a world of plenty, and virtually every problem is solvable if we put our minds to it. God Wants You to Be Rich.
• If you know the universe to be an abundant place, you won’t fear not having the resources to pursue your purpose or mission in life.
• Things come to you easily when you live in a state of love and gratitude. Dwelling on thoughts of Spirit, God, and love leads you to everything you need, plus a host of blessings you never even expected or wanted.
• Mother Teresa, for example, thought only of the work she needed to do, and trusted that the money she needed to keep doing it would come. With the strength of her faith, it always did.
• Lynne Twist’s meeting with Mother Teresa shocked her, because she was told that part of her life’s work should be to sympathize with the wealthy, many of whom suffer isolation, mistrust, damaged relationships, and “hardening of the heart.”
• The universe wants to show you abundance, but you have to meet it halfway, as a “co-creator.”
• The quickest way to get rich quick is not to get rich quick. You can become a millionaire, but over the course of a normal working life, following “the tortoise’s approach to wealth, not the hare’s.”
• We have healed many of the wounds in our marriage by working on our budget together.
• The freedom of innovators to do their thing led to “better jobs, higher wages, and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific or technological advance.”
• Make your business a powerful force for social change.

You are in alignment with the spiritual laws of money if you:

1. Do the life’s work you were born to do, which is always something that helps others and fulfills your talents and interests simultaneously.
2. Engage in cooperation rather than competition, looking for everyone to win in all situations.
3. Invest, spend, or make money in a way that causes no harm and is good for the planet.

• Some think that money will bring them peace, but things such as meditation, stillness, and forgiveness are in fact better routes to peace than money.
• “Honor your integrity, and you will be repaid many times over with increased prosperity.”
• Nothing great is ever achieved without people making frightening leaps of faith.
• Huge enterprises can be built by giving people a small moment of joy in their day.
• We are more likely to help others, and be in a position to help them, when we have our own needs covered.
• Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend.

The warning signs of a debt problem. They include:

1. You are constantly juggling payment demands, still dealing with last month’s bills when the new ones arrive.
2. You regularly miss payment-due demands and find yourself in arrears.
3. You stop opening your mail because of the fear of what it contains.
4. You stop wanting to know how much is left in your bank account, always fearing the worst.
5. You are ignorant of the terms of your various loans and card agreements; all you know is what your limit is and how much you can spend before it is reached.
6. You rarely pay off more than the minimum due on your credit cards, and when you max out on one card, you turn to the other one/s.
7. Where once you paid cash for most things, now you use store cards.
8. When you buy things on credit, you opt for the longest payback terms available.
9. You use your credit card for cash advances, and often borrow small amounts from friends to get you through to the next paycheck.
10. You are delighted when a credit card company increases your limit or offers to give you a new card, as it makes you feel like a person of “worth,  accomplishment and responsibility.”
11. You get a sense of accomplishment out of just meeting basic expenses for food, shelter, and clothing.
12. You have little or no savings or investments, no back-up if you get unemployed or ill.
13. You have little idea of your monthly costs and outgoings or how they match up to what you earn.

Your Money or Your Life provides lots of great tips for becoming frugally minded, including:

1. Never go shopping on the spur of the moment (“He who hesitates saves money”).
2. Don’t go shopping as a form of leisure (“Needs expand to encompass whatever you want to buy on impulse”).
3. Use what you have longer. Using everything for 20 percent longer can save you a lot over a year.
4. Love materials. Learn more about them and what they need to stay in good shape.
5. Pay with cash. You spend on average 23 percent more if you are using cards.

Seven common denominators of the wealthy:

1. They live well below their means.
2. They allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth.
3. They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status.
4. Their parents did not provide money handouts.
5. Their adult children are economically self-sufficient.
6. They are proficient in targeting market opportunities.
7. They chose the right occupation.

Financially educating your children. 

1. Don’t give monetary gifts to your adult children. Gifts will make them financially dependent on you and will encourage them to be consumers. Instead, teach them your habits of frugality and discipline.
2. Don’t reveal your wealth to your children, at least not fully, until they are financially established adults. Otherwise, they may start spending more money than they should, in anticipation of receiving a large inheritance, and discussions about inheritance can undermine family relationships.
3. Teach your children that what matters is achievement, not material symbols of success. Money can be a measure of achievement, but it certainly isn’t the only one.

Society

• Don’t be afraid to be different. On entering any new field or an industry, aim to really shake it up and provide new value.
• Be willing to fail in public, and you have jumped the hurdle holding most people back from getting rich.
• The “rat race” involves working to buy luxuries that you don’t have enough time to enjoy. By living on less, you can actually enjoy life more.
• Generating, using, and spending money in a way that is consistent with your deepest values has a healing effect not only on you but on the world.
• A series of workshops helped to steer many people from feeling hopeless to instead formulating a new vision of self-sufficient communities. This vision resulted in building of roads, farms, and fisheries, reduced crime by up to 70 percent in some areas, and in many areas doubled incomes.
• The spirit of capitalism is not greed and consumption, but the creation of order and the best use of resources.
• Don’t worry about the state of the economy, as if it is a reason holding you back. Instead, believe that you yourself can alter the economy through what you create.

http://66.230.175.74/download/g3752406-50-prosperity-classics.pdf

8 Qualities of a Wealthy Woman - Women & Money

• Most pour so much energy into the needs of others, doing a juggling act of children, partner, parents, friends, and work, that little time or energy is devoted to money management.
• Many women depend financially on their husband or partner, which often takes away their courage to “speak their truth.” Stay-at-home mums are usually afraid to ask their husbands for more money because they are not “earning it.” But as Orman points out, you are doing at least half the work in keeping the household going, so that money is yours together, not his.
• Many women also find it difficult to say “No,” wanting to be seen as givers. But if doing so means that you have to use credit card debt to buy things for people, or deplete your own savings to bail others out, or be a cosignee on loans, this will have an impact emotionally as well as financially.

Partners:

• When your husband has a midlife crisis and wants to risk the equity in your home on a start-up business, you need to be strong enough to say no.
• Many women still love their partners, but they no longer like them due to their financial irresponsibility and unreasonable demands. The more you and your partner talk about your finances and come clean on their true state, the sooner you can have a relationship based on truth. Remember: “It takes more power to say no out of love than to say yes out of weakness.” You must do what is right, not what is easy.

Parents:

• When you have to support your parents to such an extent that you can’t pay your own bills, you have at some point to say no.

Siblings:

• When your brother asks for a significant loan to help him out of a tight spot, one of many he has been in, you have to draw the line somewhere.

Children:

• When it comes to children, be honest with them if you don’t have the money to buy them a $150 pair of jeans. They might not appreciate it now, but you will earn their respect more by being a parent who is solvent and looks to the future. Many women feel terrible if they do not have the means to pay for their kids’ college education, but Orman asserts that if you have to make a choice between your  financial security in retirement and their tuition fees, you should be your priority. Help your kids to research early on all the possibilities for aid and scholarships, and have them try working in part-time jobs to get used to paying their way.

Saying no in all such cases may risk the relationship, but it is better to have self-respect than be dragged down by other people’s negligence or unreliability with money. As Orman notes from the experience of those who have been there, when you make financial decisions with a view to saving a relationship, it never works.

Millions of women stay in relationships where there is no love simply because they could not financially make it on their own, or cannot imagine being in control of their own affairs. But Orman asks readers to see things another way: If you can identify what you truly value, then you will take steps to protect it and enlarge it in your life.

You can’t really live life to the full or reach your potential if you remain poor.

Order Your Life

• When you don’t know where your money is, when you have no filing system for your important documents, when you dive into your pocketbook to pull out crumpled bills, when your car looks like a garbage can, when your closets are filled with junk and clutter—I’m sorry, but you can’t possibly be a wealthy woman.
• She suggests giving to charity clothes you have not worn in the last year, and throwing out any unused beauty products. You must have a good system to organize your documents, because only in doing so can you make good financial decisions. If your affairs remain a mess, “Wealth will elude you.”

Say your name

• Because only women change their surname on marriage, there is an unconscious assumption that women’s names are not as important as men’s. Yet without the ability to say your name confidently and look people in the eye when you say it, you lack power.
• When Orman speaks at women’s organizations, often those involved in setting up the event are asked to stand up in the audience so everyone can applaud them. Most stand up and sit down again quicker than the blink of an eye, squirming back into their seats. Why is the average woman so afraid to take credit for things and to enjoy her name being spoken?

8 Qualities of a Wealthy Women

Qualities 1 and 2: Harmony and Balance
Harmony is an agreement in feeling, approach, and sympathy. It is the pleasing interaction between what you think, feel, say, and do. 
Balance is a state of emotional and rational stability in which you are calm and able to make sound decisions and judgments. 

The reason why these (2) qualities go together is because you cannot effectively have one without the other. When you have a harmonious spirit, what you say, think, feel and do align with one another. Sometimes we may think or feel one way but say another because we are afraid to hurt someone’s feelings or we fear being rejected. But a woman of true wealth is not afraid to speak how she thinks (always in a respectable manner of course). When what we think, feel, say and do does not align with one another we tend to become emotional, irrational and experience imbalance. Being harmonious makes you balanced, and helps you live in a rational and calm state of mind.

Quality 3: Courage
Courage is the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action. 

When you have harmony, you words and actions reflect how you actually feel. In order to do that, you must have courage. When you have true courage you’re not a slave to your fear. Courage helps you overcome all fear. But sometimes we lose our courage when we think we’ll hurt others. Fear does not allow us to be courageous. FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real; therefore, do not allow your fears to control you. Whether it’s a fear of losing someone or fear of being scrutinized, learn to conquer your fear by adjusting your thoughts to think positively and step out on faith!

Quality 4: Generosity
Generosity is when you give the right thing to the right person at the right time -- and it benefits both of you. 

There is much power in giving and giving from a pure place in your heart. When you give from an honest perspective and you do not expect anything in return, it reciprocates a rewarding feeling that is overwhelmingly pleasing. Be sure to always give from a sincere place in your heart, but be conscious of how you give and realize what your intentions are. Give so that you both benefit, if you give someone money but you cannot afford your bills at the end of the month then you might want to reconsider. Give of yourself, even if it’s your time, but be wise in how much of yourself that you give.

Quality 5: Happiness
Happiness is a state of well-being and contentment. 

Happiness is a choice. You can choose to allow situations to mess with your inner happy or you can choose to be happy no matter what life throws your way. Now this is far easier said than done, but you have to start practicing to do so. Practice makes perfect right? Be optimistic about your situations. When you’re harmonious, balanced, courageous, and generous then you can find happiness. If you feel that you’re not happy, try and figure out why and start from there. Maybe you’re not being appropriately compensated at work or you’re tired of always giving of yourself and not having it reciprocated. Think about what’s making you unhappy and develop the courage to choose to do something about it!

Quality 6: Wisdom
Wisdom is the knowledge and experience needed to make sensible decisions and judgments.

Can I just say that is my favorite quality! Ladies, if we do not own and use our wisdom then we can never really live and embrace our legacies. Wisdom shows us how to shut out the noise in our lives. We are inundated with all sorts of noise on a daily basis that can distract us from tapping into our inner power. A wise woman realizes her faults and plans to do something about it. Her faults and mistakes enable her to know better so that she can do better. Being wise means being conscious of your thoughts, words and actions. It’s about accepting responsibility and realizing what you need to do in order to make sensible decisions to get where you want to go in life.

Quality 7: Cleanliness
Cleanliness is a state of purity, clarity, and precision. 

Attaining cleanliness is about being orderly and organized. From the way you dress to the way you manage your important documents in the house are a reflection of your cleanliness. You want to always be presentable and your wallet or purse should also be organized. In the home, try to organize your clothes and put all of your important documents in a safe place. Even paying your bills in an orderly fashion is key. Keep all your bills in a folder and date when they’re due so you can pay ahead of time. Learn your credit card billing cycle so you know when to expect a bill or how to spend ahead of time. Being orderly is a task but make an effort to start somewhere, even if that means cleaning out your closet to get some space. Or better yet, start with organizing your wallet or purse perhaps that may be an easier task to being with.

Quality 8: Beauty
Beauty is the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit. 

Beauty does indeed shine from within. True beauty is the culmination of all the other qualities working with one another. Your beauty and confidence exude from the inside when you incorporate all these qualities in your character. Be secure in yourself and in your ability, the power to be great lies within. Acknowledging and living in that beyond a doubt makes you beautiful. When you achieve the equilibrium state of these qualities then you are on your way to true wealth!

To ensure their financial freedom, women need to have new respect for their relationship to money and defy cultural conditioning.

-Women and Money, Suze Orman
http://embraceherlegacy.com/8-qualities-of-a-wealthy-woman/

How I Turned $1,000 into Five Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time

• Over a 20-year period, it is difficult not to get rich from real estate if you follow a simple formula. There are always “good reasons” not to buy, but always more and better reasons to buy.
• The “pyramiding power” of borrowing money to buy rental properties, and without any particular striving soon built up a valuable portfolio.
• “Pyramiding power of borrowed money” as the “secret force of capitalism,” used by every great industrialist.
• Whatever your return year to year, do not diverge from these four principles:

1.  Don’t borrow more than you can safely repay from rental returns.
2. Only buy properties that need renovation while still renting out.
3. Only make improvements that increase the property’s value.
4. Keep selling at a profit and reinvesting your profits.

Eg:

• Save enough money for a 25 percent down payment on a property, borrowing the remaining 75 percent, giving you a total of $10,000. Two years later, sell the improved property for $14,000. Repay the $7,500 loan, and after the cost of selling the property, you now have equity of $5,800.
• This process, if repeated over a period of 20 years, results in the following:

After 4 years $11,575
After 6 years $21,000
After 8 years $39,363
After 10 years $70,548
After 12 years $124,884
After 14 years $219,972
After 16 years $386,376
After 18 years $677,583
After 20 years $1,187,195

- How I Turned $1,000 into Five Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time, William Nickerson
http://66.230.175.74/download/g3752406-50-prosperity-classics.pdf

Master Key to Riches: The Secret to Making Your Fortune

17 Principles of Success

1. Develop Definiteness of Purpose 
When one has thoughtfully defined his personal goal(s) in life, then he can be focusing his energy in pursuing them. He can then create the environment and circumstances to achieve what he want rather than simply drift along with the environment aimlessly or simply accept what others have to offer him.

2. Establish a Mastermind Alliance 
Outstanding success in life had never been achieved by the effort of one man. The Master Mind effort is to get those of like mind, form an alliance, to work actively in a spirit of perfect harmony towards accomplishing of a definite purpose.

3. Use Applied Faith 
Goal that's worth achieving always accompany with great challenges, and temporary defeats along the journey is almost certain. Faith is the "rocket fuel" of human endeavor. Applied Faith is the ability to hold on to the Positive Mental Attitude in mind when the going is tough.

4. Going The Extra Mile 
Make it a habit to contribute more than expected, with no expectation for immediate reward. It insures an increase in personal courage, self-reliance, personal initiative and it builds greater enthusiasm. Sooner or later, the law of compensation will bring its greater rewards.

5. Assemble A Pleasing Personality 
No man is an island. Before one can sell any product or service to others, he has to sell himself first. One should put in the effort in doing self-analysis and improve in this area.

6. Create Personal Initiative 
When one has a definite goal in mind and has the burning desire to achieve it, then opportunities for personal initiative are easy to find.

7. Build A Positive Mental Attitude 
Positive Mental Attitude is the cornerstone for success. The mind is the only thing one can control. In order to achieve the definite purpose of life, one must exercise that control and direct it by using Positive Mental Attitude.

8. Enforce Self-Discipline 
Self-Discipline is the first rule of all success leadership. It is the training which corrects, molds, strengthens, and perfects. When one gets himself under complete control, he then can be his own boss, and it makes discipline from the outside unnecessary.

9. Control Your Enthusiasm 
Enthusiasm is an emotion, the physical counterpart to one's idea. It starts the wheels of the imagination to turning. It is a feeling of confidence and harmony in working towards the definite goal. A man lack of Enthusiasm is like an automobile without gas.

10. Control Your Concentration or Attention 
Where concentration goes, energy flows. Controlled Attention is the act of focusing the mind on a given desire until ways and means for its realization have been worked out and successfully put into operation. Success comes after much concentration.

11. Think Accurately 
The ability to differentiate facts from opinions, and the ability to focus on important facts enable one to make effective decisions in achieving success.

12. Learn from Adversity and Defeat 
Adversity is part of life, and every adversity carries within it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit. A man's attitude in time of adversity determines much of its eternal effect on his life - for good or ill. All success is based on the experience learn from defeats. No one has failed until he accepts the defeats as failure.

13. Cooperation 
Cooperation is the beginning of all organized effort. True cooperation has no room for selfishness or greed. All achievement is the form of significant and successful cooperation and teamwork between individuals.

14. Cultivate Creative Vision or Imagination
Creative Vision or Imagination is a demonstration of the use of subconscious mind to tap into the wisdom of the infinite intelligence in getting breakthrough solution for any challenge. And, one way to communicate with the subconscious mind is to repetitively thinking for the solution with the burning desire. Especially, the time just before going to sleep, and the time just wake up from the bed [while the brain is still at Alpha state.]

15. Maintain Sound Health 
Various habits affect heal:-

• Mental Attitude affect health and it is something that one can control. Good thinking and feeling good generates harmony within one body and generates physical manifestations or order and system.
• Eating habit affect health. (No over eating, don't eat rapidly, no soft drinks, no candy bar or snack between meals, take more water, more fruits and balance of food.)
•  Exercise/Meditation/Fasting.... Etc.

16. Budget Your Time and Money 
In our "spaceship earth", there is certain amount of natural resources. Same as individual, one has limited time and money; therefore there is a need to have a system to spend them well.

17. Use Cosmic "Habitforce". 
Cosmic "Habitforce" is so obvious and can be overlooked easily. The power is always there regardless if you aware of it or not. They are the physical laws which make our patterns of natural behavior operate in predictable order and regularity. Blending the natural laws of the universe with our own activities helps create the power, that force, that energy which bring harmony, peace of mind, success.

"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve." - Napoleon Hill.

-Master Key to Riches: The Secret to Making Your Fortune, Napoleon Hill
http://www.slideshare.net/akerstkh/napoleon-hills-12-riches-of-life-and-17-principles-of-success

17 Ways Rich People Think and Act Differently from Poor and Middle-Class People

1. Rich people believe “I create my life.” Poor people believe “Life happens to me.”
Wealth Principle: When you are complaining, you become a living, breathing “crap magnet.”

2. Rich people play the game of money to win. Poor people play the game of money not to lose.
Wealth Principle: If your goal is to be comfortable, chances are you’ll never get rich. But if your goal is to be rich, chances are you’ll end up mighty comfortable. 

3. Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.
Wealth Principle: The number one reason most people don’t get what they want is that they don’t know what they want. 

4. Rich people think big. Poor people think small. 
Wealth Principle: The Law of Income: You will be paid in direct proportion to the value your deliver according to the marketplace.

5. Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.
Wealth Principle: If you are not fully, totally, and truly committed to creating wealth, chances are you won’t.

6. Rich people admire other rich and successful people. Poor people resent rich and successful people.

7. Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people. 

8. Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their value. Poor people think negatively about selling and promotion.
Wealth Principle: Leaders earn a heck of a lot more money than followers.

9. Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems.
Wealth Principle: The secret to success is not to try to avoid or get rid of or shrink from your problems; the secret is to grow yourself so that you are bigger than any problem.

10. Rich people are excellent receivers. Poor people are poor receivers.
Wealth Principle: If you say you’re worthy, you are. If you say you’re not worthy, your not. Either way you will live into your story.

11. Rich people choose to get paid based on results. Poor people choose to get paid based on time.
Wealth Principle: Never have a ceiling on your income.

12. Rich people think “both.” Poor people think “either/or.”
Wealth Principle: Rich people believe “You can have your cake and eat it too.” Middle class people believe “Cake is too rich, so I’ll only have a little piece.” Poor people don’t believe they deserve cake, so they order a doughnut, focus on the hole and wonder why they have “nothing.”

13. Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people focus on their working income.
Wealth Principle: The true measure of wealth is net worth, not working income.

14. Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.

15. Rich people have their money work hard for them. Poor people work hard for their money.
Wealth Principle: Rich people see every dollar as a “seed” that can be planted to earn a hundred more dollars, which can then be replanted to earn a thousand more dollars.

16. Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them. 
Wealth Principle: It is not necessary to try to get rid of fear in order to succeed.

17. Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.
Wealth Principle: If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.

Wealth Principle: The only time you are actually growing is when you are uncomfortable.

Wealth Principle: Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success.

-Secrets of Millionaires Mind, T. Harv Eker

http://ritchey.ariixinfinityteam.com/17-ways-rich-people-think-and-act-differently-from-poor-and-middle-class-people/

Stillness Speaks

Silence and Stillness

• The Equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking. The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness.
• Feeling the oneness of yourself with all things is true love.
• Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness underneath the noise, of the space in which the noise arises. Become aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness.
• Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is - no matter what form it takes - you are still, you are at peace.
• True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.
• It is the intelligence itself -  the underlying consciousness out of which every form is born.
• Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you.

Beyond The Thinking Mind 

• If you can witness your own mental-emotional reactive patterns as they happen, then the unconditioned dimension of consciousness is already emerging in you.
• Spiritual Practice: Don't take your thoughts too seriously.
• The thinking mind is a useful and powerful too, but it is also very limiting when it takes over your life completely.
• Wisdom is not a product of thought. The deep knowing that arises through the simple act of giving someone or something your full attention.
• The next step in human evolution is to transcend thought. It doesn't mean not to think anymore, but simply not to be completely identified with thought, possessed by thought.
• Become at ease with the state of "not knowing."

The Egoic Self

• When you say "I", it is conditioned by the past and seeking to find its fulfillment in the future.
• Complaining and reactivity are favorite mind patterns through which the ego strengthens itself.
• Envy is a by-product of the ego, which feels diminished if something good happens to someone esle, or someone has more, knows more, or can do more than you.
• Guilt is another attempt by the ego to create an identity, a sense of self. The ego, however personalizes it and says, "I did that," and so you carry a mental image of yourself as "bad."
• Set goals, but know that the arriving is not all that important. The doing is fulfilling in itself every moment.

The Now

• The present moment is as it is. Always. Can you let it be?
• Since the future never arrives, except as the present, it is a dysfunctional way to live. It generates a constant undercurrent of unease, tension, and discontent.
• Now is the only place where life can be found.
• I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am.

Who You Truly Are?

• It matters whether you succeed for fail in the eyes of the world. It matters whether you are healthy or not healthy, whether you are educated or not educated. It matters whether you are richr or poor -it certainly makes a difference in you life. Yes, all these things matter, relatively speaking, but they don't matter absolutely.
• Reincarnation doesn't help you if in your next incarnation you still don't know who you are.
• The truth is: you don;t have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a store or a blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.
• Time is useless, however, for the most essential thing in life. the one thing that really matters: self-realization, which means knowing who you are beyond the surface self - beyond your name, your physical form, your history, your story.
• As you go about your life, can you be aware of yourself as the awareness in which the entire content of your life unfolds?
• By knowing yourself, playfulness comes into your life. You recognize this world as a cosmic dance, the dance of form - no more and no less.
• Through "you," formless consciousness has become aware of itself.

Acceptance & Surrender

• Can you detect even the slightest element within yourself of not wanting to be doing what you are doing? That is a denial of life, and so a truly successful outcome is not possible.
• Doing one thing at a time means to be total in what your do, to give it your complete attention. This is surrendered action - empowered action.
• The "yes" to what is reveals a dimension of depth within you that is dependent neither on external conditions nor on the internal conditions of constantly fluctuating thoughts and emotions.
• Surrender is surrender to this moment, not to a story through which you interpret this moment and then try to resign yourself to it.
• Surrender comes when you no longer ask, "Why is this happening to me?"
• Acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world.
• Do you know of someone whose main function in life seems to be to make themselves and others miserable, to spread unhappiness? Forgive them,
• There is nothing personal in all this. It is not who they are.
• When you surrender, your sense of self shifts from identifcation with form-  the thought or the emotion -  to being and recognizing yourself as that which has no form - spacious awareness.
• Leave Life alone. Let it be.

Nature

• You didn't create your body, nor are you able to control the body's functions. An intelligence greater than the human mind is at work. It is the same intelligence that sustains all of nature. You cannot get any closer to that intelligence than by being aware of your own inner energy field - by feeling the aliveness, the animating presence within your body.
• Watch an animal, a flower, a tree and see how it rests in Being. It is itself. It has enormous dignity, innocence, and holiness. Have you notice how deeply peaceful they are.
• Only when your noisy mind subsides can you connect with nature at a deep level and go beyond the sense of separation created by excessive thinking.

Relationships

• What you want from them may be pleasure or material gain, recognition, praise or attention, or a strengthening of your sense of self thought comparison and through establishing that you are, have, or know more than they. What you fear is that the opposite may be the case, and they may diminish your sense of self in some way.
• When you give your fullest attention to whoever you are interacting with, you take past and future out of the relationship, except for practical matters.
• Love does not want or fear anything.
• If her past were your past, her pain your pain, her level of consciousness your level of consciousness, you would think and act exactly as she does.
• With this realization comes forgiveness, compassion, peace.
• When you receive whoever comes into the space of Now as a noble guest, when you allow each person to be as they are, they begin to change.
• Knowing about and knowing are totally different modalities. One is concerned with form, the other with formless. One operates through thought, the other through stillness.
• Meditate or spend silent time in nature together. When going for a walk or sitting in the car or at home, become comfortable with being in stillness together.
• When your unconscious identification with your pain-body is broken, who you are able to observe it within yourself, you don't feed it anymore, and it will gradually lose its energy charge.
• Through selfless appreciation of the realm of things, the world around your will come alive in ways that you cannot even being to comprehend with the mind.
• Ultimately, of course, there is no other, and you are always meeting yourself.

Death and The Eternal

• Death isn't to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms.
• Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.
• At the hour of your death, the story of your life may, indeed appear to you like a dream that is coming to an end. There must be a consciousness in which the dream happens; otherwise, it would not be.
• Why have most of those who went through a near-death experience lost their fear of death? Reflect upon this.
• When you see and accept the impermanent nature of all life forms, a strange sense of peace comes upon you.
• Through facing death, your consciousness is freed to some extent from identification with form. This why in some Buddhist traditions, the monks
• regularly visit the morgue to sit and meditate among the dead bodies.
• Whenever an experience comes to an end - a  gathering of friends, a vacation,  your children leaving home. You die a little death... By learning to die daily in this way, you open yourself to Life.
• The peace of God can come to you through the contemplation and acceptance of death.
• Death is recognized as ultimately illusory - as illusory as the form you had identified with as yourself.
• It is a great privilege and a sacred act to be present at the person's death as a witness and companion.
• With the stillness comes the benediction: peace.

Suffering  & The End of Suffering

• Whatever is could not be otherwise.
• The inner alignment with Now is the nd of suffering.
• Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.
• What a miserable day. She let me down.. Yes, The ego needs enemies to define its boundary, and even the weather can serve that function.
• Start pracitcing "not naming" with small things. Can you refrain from naming the experience as bad or painful? Can you immediatly accept the "isness" of that moment?
• Habit of creating suffering for yourself and others can come to an end simply by becoming aware of them as they happen.
• You cannot be conscious and create suffering for yourself.
• Accept what is. Accept that I'm agitated and angry? Accept that I cannot accept?
• Bring acceptance into your nonacceptance. Bring surrender into you nonsurrender. Then see what happens
• Suffer consciously, willingly. Then the physical pain can quickly burn up the ego in you, since ego consists largely of resistance.

http://www.happierabroad.com/StillnessSpeaks.pdf