Time wasted

Since the beginning of this year I have been spending an excess of time on reading about and looking at satirical videos about Donald Trump. It has not contributed to any of my peace of mind, it has not contributed to my knowledge, it has not contributed to my psychological or spiritual growth. It has just given me an occasional laugh but more often it has given me enervation, anger and worry.

If I look at the obvious stupidity, narcissistic nonsense of that president, you feel a certain disgust, you feel a certain danger hanging above your head. Several times I have made the resolution not to look at it any more, but  somehow to see people ridicule the wickedness and bombastic stupidity of the man in power, seems a bit addictive.

Still it is a pure waste of time to follow exactly what this president of the USA is doing and saying and tweeting. I again have the firmest intention to stop reading about him, to stop looking at the satirical videos about him and use that time for my own spiritual and mental growth.

Let us on and off reflect, how much time we have wasted today.
Every minute of wasted time is a minute of wasted life.
Our life has only a limited number of minutes.

Let us reflect and think about how to spend our time in the best possible way
Love and helpfulness will boil up and that will help us lead a life
that is fulfilling and pleasant and peaceful.

If you click on the vertical black bar on the right of this page, you can go to the archive of this blog. on 5.7.16, I wrote something similar. Please enjoy the other great ideas in the archive too. 

The story of the refugees

Centuries ago, a boat of refugees reached the shore of India.

The leader of the refugees went to meet the king and asked 

for the permission to stay in his land. 

The king showed to the leader a glass that was full of water.
"You see, the glass is like my land.

Like the glass is filled with water,

my land is already filled with my people"

The leader took a spoon of sugar and put it into the water. 

He waited until the sugar dissolved in the water and said:

"My people will dissolve into the community of your people 

and in the process make it sweeter" 

The king allowed them to stay.

Perhaps today most countries facing an influx of refugees,

get them because the Universe thought they needed a bit

of extra sweetness, a bit of extra spice. 

I read the above story in a book, titled 'the gift of anger'
written by Arun Ghandi, the grandson of Mahatma Ghandi.
I warmly recommend this book as a very good read!

What a power!

At any time we see only a very small part of the whole world.
We see only our own garden, the book in front of us,
maybe more often the screen in front of us,
the person that does something we like,
the person that does something we don't like.

That is such an extremely small, minuscule part of the world.
And even a much smaller fraction of the universe.

The nice thing about the above thoughts,
is that actually we can choose what to look at, at any time.
We can even choose how to look at it (with an open mind,
with an angry heart, from a distance, as a bystander
as a victim,....).

If we become aware of this power to choose,
our whole life may become a bit different.
We do not need to be just undergoing what is happening,
we can choose to observe it or not,
to be involved in it or not,
to like it or not.

If we do not like it, we can choose to focus on something else.
It sounds, easy. It is initially not easy.
It requires some exercise.
Our mind is actually under our control
We say: my mind, meaning the mind of me
That me, that I who owns the mind
is not the mind. It is the higher self.
If our mind refuses to let go of a negative thought,
we can choose to think about something else and
the mind has to release anyhow.

I was reading about mindfulness from a few sources. 
The above is a kind of what I understood from it.

Poetry and greed

Can poetry help do away with the greed in this world?

Here is a quote from RW Emerson: " The use of symbols has a certain power of emancipation and exhilaration for all men. We seem to be touched by a wand, which makes us dance and run about happily, like children. We are like persons who come out of a cave or cellar into the open air. This is the effect on us of tropes, fables, oracles, and all poetic forms"

Would you not agree with Emerson?
The poet is putting new ideas in often symbolic language.
A touching metaphor can change one's life.
If we manage to have more poets writing truly positive ideas in wonderful verses,
it may be quite likely that poetry may save the world from destruction through ever increasing greed.

I have tried myself to make minuscule contribution to that way of thinking by writing a few uplifting poems, I think.

Please visit the page with the poems  (by clicking on the link).
Pick a few poems and perhaps let yourself be inspired to write a poem that may contribute to a better world yourself. :)

Race

Does a white man have to be ashamed of the actions of his ancestors (the aggression of the vikings, the inquisition, the extinction of many American native tribes, the nazi movement, the more recent senseless wars in Vietnam and Iraq, etc.) or does a white man have to be proud of the achievements of his ancestors (Plato, Edison, Pasteur, the wright bothers, mother Teresa. etc.) or is it best for the white man not be ashamed and neither be proud?

Honestly speaking, I am a white man, and I have nothing to do with the nazis, nothing to do with the cruelties. Also I have nothing to do with the achievements of other white people. I am as proud of the achievements of Marten Luther King and Gandhi as my fellow humans as I am proud of the achievements of Lincoln. We are all humans. I am as ashamed of the crimes committed by the Taliban as of the Nazi crimes and the crimes against the current Palestinians.

Let us forget the color of our skin altogether. Let our world be our nation and let the huge variety of belief systems be an enriching experience rather than one leading to violence.

I do not know my ancestors. I am sure some of them were really good people and some of them were crooks. If we just go 20 generations back, there are mathematically (2 to the power of twenty) more than a million ancestors. If only 0.1% of them would be crooks, that would still amount to 1000 of your ancestors.

Let us all learn from all history.
- Let the huge crimes committed by people of any race or creed be a lesson for us, never to be repeated.
- Let the wonderful achievements by people of any race or creed be a source of inspiration to all.

Handy

Tonight I was looking at my right hand. It looked wonderfully alive. I could flex all of my fingers and then each finger individually. And then, I thought: a hand that can love, a hand that can give, a hand that can pick up garbage, a hand that can work. I was, for a few moments, so happy to have a hand like that. But then I thought of the hands of my uncle, that were folded on his lap. They were icy cold and by now must be nothing more than dust. I was thinking about the millions and billions of hands that have been and are no more. My hands sooner or later will belong to this category, but while they are still alive, I will use them to give. To give something, to write something, that can help others, that can inspire others. 

Let us all use our hands for the good of the world :) 

The perfect tree

A tree in your garden

A tree in your street

A tree in your park

carries wonderful perfection.

Have you seen it?

Did you notice its perfection?

Did you touch it?

Take a look at it, touch it,

that wonderfully perfect tree,

that is ornamenting your garden,

your street, your park.

Imagine

We tend to be busy often with questions like:
Why is this world going so awfully wrong?
How can the world be that bad?

We may feel helpless:
What can we do?
What is the use?

But,
even if we manage to make a small difference for one person in the world,
we have done something extremely worthy.
If we try every day to make small difference for one person,
how many persons we affect in a year?

And you know what?
Each time we make a small difference for another person,
we make a small difference for ourselves.
That is 365 small differences for ourselves every year!

Can you imagine a world where more people would stop asking: what is wrong? Why?
and they would start asking questions like: what gift can I give to the world today?
And tomorrow? and then again?

Try to imagine, Try to imagine !

Seeking Truth

When I was in my late teens,
I was seeking the Truth.
The Truth with a big, capital T.

While believing or attempting to arrive at the big Truth, is a foolish futile thing,
attempting to get a bit closer to it, even without any hopes of uncovering it completely
tends to put us on an amazing journey !

If we really, in the deepest of our heart and soul, search for Truth,
we quite soon come to an awareness that the Truth is enormously big.
The complexity of the physical world is enormous,
The complexity of the spiritual world is enormously enormous.

As a human we tend to cling to some of our insights some of the things we accepted as truth.
We make it our final truth and the wonderful journey of seeking ends; we tend to become arrogant in our beliefs, thinking we are right and all others are wrong.

A small glimpse of the Truth with capital T
will make anyone understand that we cannot understand that Truth.
This makes us  in a way all wrong in our perception of it.
So be it. Let us accept that no matter how good we are,
no matter how long we went to school or to study holy books,
no matter what, we cannot fully grasp the Truth

I have seen people who consider anyone believing in God
as children clinging to an illusion,
but these same people had no problem believing the big bang theory.
Bing bang originated in the mind of scientists, so even though it makes
minimal sense to any sound thinking mind, so many people blindly accept it.

I truly think there are much bigger questions that should keep us occupied
than the question where we come from or how the world came into existence.
The bigger questions are how we can make this world a better place to live in.
While science has helped us to lead comfortable life
it has not helped us a lot to be more happy.

Whatever it is, my friends, never give up your search for the Truth.

Poetry

Poetry

The stirrings into the most beautiful and colorful veils
of the soul and the heart, slowly exposing that
amazing imagination that loves and inspires

Poetry

The forest so marvelously fresh and exquisitely attractive
Angelic smells of wet branches and soft leafy soil
A forest you really want to get lost in for hours and hours.

Poetry

Let's get lost in poetry tonight.
Just read and read tree after tree
path after path, imagination after imagination
poem after poem

Poetry

Let's get lost in it tonight
A wonderful place to start:
http://aufiezophypoems.blogspot.my/?view=timeslide


(Complete collection )

The response

        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to loving persons
        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to kind persons
        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to good persons
        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to wicked persons
        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to evil persons
        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to hateful persons


Evil and harmful behavior are the result of ignorance,
the result of weakness.

So if a weak and ignorant person displays some evil or harmful behavior in front of you,
do you want to show off that you are equally weak and ignorant and that you can descend
to their level of behavior?

Surely not!

Let us answer hatred with love
evil with goodness
harm with kindness

To answer harm with harm is like supporting an endless chain of violence;
it is like kicking a seriously suffering soul in pain and ignorance;
it is like pushing a severely crippled being down a flight of stairs.

To answer hatred with hatred is like putting oil on a fire;
is like endorsing a person full of hatred that he is right,
that his behavior is worthy of being followed and copied.

To answer evil with evil is like engaging in a contest
a contest on who is the most ignorant of the two,
who is the weakest and most stupid?


Answering hatred, evil and harm
with love, goodness and kindness
is keeping our own values high!
It is like helping the weak in the weakest of their weak moments
helping the ignorant in their most ignorant phase of their life.

The hateful, evil and harming people are suffering
they need help.

        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to loving persons
        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to kind persons
        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to good persons
        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to wicked persons
        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to evil persons
        Love and kindness and goodness are the right response to loving persons






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Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way.
The link is http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/
If you have time, please take also a look at the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

Old versus new

It is time to wake up.
It is high time to awaken.


Knowing about the existence of water
and all its wonderful cleaning properties
Knowing about water,
and all properties to alleviate thirst
and to nourish all our cells in our body
Adoring water and praising water,
Observing water standing in a bottle on your table
will not clean your body, will not nourish you.
We have to bathe in it, wash ourselves in it,
we have to drink it, internalize it.

So is it with the love of our God.
We may know about it, talk about it every day,
it may sit in the book on our shelves or our night table
We may observe it and look at it,
but as long as we do not experience it, feel it
bathe in it, it will not cleanse our souls,
As long as we do not internalize it, drink it,
it will not still our spiritual hunger.
We have to make it quiet in our life, from time to time
and think truly with our mind, heart and soul
about that goodness, that immense endless love of our God.

Open up for it, let ourselves be immersed in it.
and share all the good feelings and wisdom with the world around us
share all the inspiration, love, harmony and peace that comes with it.
It will make us humble, grateful. It is the greatest gift we can receive.
Just try to experience the love of our God.
All we need to do is make it quiet, quiet outside,
quiet inside, quiet in our mind, forgive everyone and everything,
so it will become quiet in our heart and our soul.
and bathe in, drink the love of our God.

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim,
is just what that means; it is 114x repeated in the Quran.
The love of our Creator is It is also the cornerstone of Christianity.
It is fundamental in every reasonable faith in the world.

Keep knowing about it,
but make the jump to feeling it as well
Only knowing about it, is the old way.
Feeling it is the new way!

 (Metaphors used above were inspired by a talk by Michael Beckwith)

Morning

The morning hours were whispering and nudging me softly
to wake up and do some work. My half awake mind and
my ever alert soul, could see the beauty of the breaking day
and a thankful heart was fully in love with the universe.

A small hunger pang made me get up and head to breakfast
The aroma of coffee and a delicious slice of full grain bread
A piece of French toast with sugar and a sunny side up egg.
All too soon a second filling of coffee was inside my cup.

My body felt satisfied, my soul and heart and mind were too.
I sent a loving message to my wife and sons and i was ready
for a day with lots of work, lots of thoughts, lots of love.
Quite a long time ago, I wrote a senryu/haiku about the morning:

My God, let it be

that the morning hours' glory

stays 'till night with me  

 

Back to a simple belief

When I was small, one evening, my auntie and me were sitting in front of the front window of our house. it had been a hot day and now the skies were quite dark with one huge grey dark cloud. My auntie had the newspaper on her lab and was reading about the story of a thief who had been captured by the police in the act of stealing. 
I remember so clearly asking myself, how can it be? Why not everyone is just good and happy? Why for goodness sake do people decide they want to go stealing?

Growing up, my simple goodness suffered confrontation with a real world. I got to understand why people were stealing, why the world was not as good as it was supposed to be. My ideals suffered with it and my belief in a world that was intrinsically good was crumbling. 

Now in the (early😉) autumn of my life, I seem to move back to my belief that soon the world will be uniformly good. Now I see that we were made in such a way that true peace of mind and true happiness lies so strongly and so permanently fixed in selfless altruism. Anyone performing a random kind act without the expectation of getting something back from that person, can confirm the great feelings that random kindness, selflessly done, bring. 
So the most selfish thing, one can do, the most logical thing one can do in order to feel good, is to render selfless service. Attempting happiness through other means seems only to fail time after time. Sure enough, we need our primary needs (like hunger, thirst and need of a stable relationship) to be fulfilled; we need a certain level of comfort; but then it is only madness to go and seek happiness and peace of mind in more and more, or in crazy senseless partying, or in acquiring stupid levels of power over others.
If we reach a critical  number of people, understanding this truth, soon the number of people needing to fight  in order to get primary needs met and to reach a certain level of comfort will tumble and the exponential growth of the group, understanding what brings true peace of mind, will soon engulf the world as a giant wave of kindness. 

Join the group who understand today. No one will ever regret joining early.
Sincere selfless kindness....  a joy, a happiness, a giant peace of mind.  


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way.
If you share, please mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

Big

Big-hearted people have no time to criticize others.
They have so much positive news,
that all the negative news about others seems a mere waste of time.

There are truly so many truly nice things happening in the world
so many beautiful things in nature,
so much love and charity among humans
so many honesty and peace loving women and men,
so much of wonderful things we can do,
so many words that can inspire and help others
so many poems, so may fantastic arts,
so much positivity,
that focus on the petty mistakes of others becomes absurd
that focus on our petty differences becomes absurd
that focus on negativity becomes truly absurd...

Plus

A small poem:

In our wide wonderful planet
Cruelties and sadness are abound
Greed and hatred, name it
you can find it all around
We have enough of all of these
No need to spread this type of news

The thing that is not enough
Is loving kindness, simply love
So if you see or do an act of love
don't be shy just spread the word
Write more about what is not enough
and make this a little better world 

Dear friends,
If you feel the need to talk with your friends about a real bad thing,
think for a while how much negativity is already circulating in this world,
in the media, in the conversations all over the world.
If you can choose a positive note instead, please do so.
We do not have enough positivity,
We have an excess of negativity.
Please my friends, find a positive message today,
share it in writing, share it in pictures, share in all your talk.
Find many positive messages today and
share them in writing, in pictures and your talk


   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

The sea...

Music of rolling waves

enters my hungry heart

striking a chord of harmony

The notes roll up and down,

and a wondrous breeze of love

inspires my mind and soul

My ears filled with beauty,
my being lightly afloat
in God's Glory

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

The optimist

I tend to be a bit optimistic, compared to my friends.
My friends who are more pessimistic claim to be more realistic.
I came across the next quote from Ralph Waldo Trine.
I liked it.

"The optimist is right. The pessimist is right. The one differs from the other as the light from the dark. Yet both are right. Each is right from their own particular point of view, and this point of view is the determining factor in the life of each. It determines as to whether it is a life of power or of impotence, of peace or of pain, of success or of failure.

The optimist has the power of seeing things in their entirety and in their right relations. The pessimist looks from a limited and a one-sided point of view. The one has their understanding illuminated by wisdom, the understanding of the other is darkened by ignorance. Each is building their world from within, and the result of the building are determined by the point of view of each The optimist, by their superior wisdom and insight, is making their own heaven, and in the degree that they make their own heaven are helping to make one for all the world beside. The pessimist, by virtue of their limitations, are making their own hell, and in the degree that they make their own hell are they helping to make one for all mankind."


Initially I wanted to quote only the first paragraph and then elaborate a bit, but the second paragraph of the author is so good, that not much elaboration is needed.

Let us choose optimism :)
Look forward to your comments.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

It's an art!

When I ask young people (my students, my sons, my nephews or nieces).
what was the best experience they had during that day or week, they seem
quite often to have a hard time coming up with something.

I think we have not been good at teaching our young ones the art of reflection.
Just thinking back about what we did, who we were what made us feel good
and what made us not feel too good, is so important; at least that is what I think.

If we practice systematically the art of reflection
we may make daily small improvements to our life.
If every day we improve a small little bit,
what does this mean over a year?

Let us start today, the art of reflection
It's an art!
The more we do it, the better we become at it...

Forest of gratitude

In the shadow of the tree

Of endless grace and amazing mercy

Lies a magic acorn filled with gratitude

Spouting fast into a giant oak of awe

Exploding into a forest of kindness

Filled with wonderful paths colored with love.

Let us all get lost in this forest of gratitude

Leaving behind and never return

To the barren cities of greed.

My other poems can be found via this link

I have also a page with inspirational quotes

Enjoy! 

Flow...

Completely getting absorbed in something.
Have you had that feeling?

Seeing something of such great beauty, that it is as if you get completely absorbed by it?
Doing something that is so nice and worthy, that it is as if you get completely absorbed by it?
Hearing a piece of music that is so majestic, that it is as if you get completely absorbed by it?

What a feeling!

I think that the more we strive to be unconditionally loving to all people and to the world,
the more often we can see so many things and situations that mesmerize us and
give us this state of flow, of feeling completely absorbed by beauty.

Working in my garden this morning, i stopped for awhile and had such moment of flow.
The sun was playing such a wonderful game of light that I felt like being in a state of flow,
a state of extreme awe and gratitude, a magical moment of amazing beauty.
Please my friends, go out in nature with a loving heart.
Allow yourself to be amazed...

Human

No matter how good our intentions,
we are all human at any time.

I have written a lot about kindness and my belief in a kindness revolution.
Today, I had quite a stressful day and lost my temper not once but twice.

Luckily nobody saw both events but even those seeing one of the events,
may say, is that the strong writer and "preacher" of kindness?

I think these are real lesson in humility.
We believe in values and principles,
but being human, we cannot live up to them all the time.

Does this mean we should not write or talk about them?
I think we should not judge anybody when they are not kind or loving.
None of us is always kind and loving since we are simply humans.

However, if we are silent about our beliefs and values,
all the negativity in the world will go without any bit of balance.
So i choose not to feel too guilty about losing my temper on and off
even though I try so very hard not to get angry at any time.
Let us talk and write a lot about kindness and the values we believe in;
it may make us stronger in the practice of these principles and values.
At the same time let's be humble, do not judge others and accept our own limitations

Lots of wishes for love and peace to all of you (and for myself too 😌😊😏 ).

Hans

The story of why

Today I want to share a small story, I was writing in poem format in January 2012.
I enjoyed reading it again today, and that is why I share it here with you:

There was once a one-year old boy
He was playing with a knife as a toy
He was having a real great time
How nicely did his lovely knife shine

Then came the father, got the surprise of his life.
As fast as he could, he took away the dangerous knife
The boy felt treated unfair and started to cry
His pleasure ended abruptly, he didn't know why

His tiny mind was not developed enough
to understand that it was his father's love
that was the reason why the knife was taken away
No way he'd understand what happened that day

It is also impossible for any of us to understand
the why of a tsunami or sudden death of a friend
we can go as deep as we can, we can try
but we never will reach the true answer to why.

Just our human mind's capacity is far too small
for us to understand the ultimate reason of all
I believe a supreme reason exists for everything
Sometimes we just have to accept what is happening…

Aufie Zophy

PS: I have written quite a number of poems under the pen name Aufie Zophy.

Please click on the name below the poem, to see more poems. 

Feel free to share my poems in any positive way: no copyright, no need for permission; 

I just expect you to mention the author's name (Aufie Zophy) under the poem :)

 

6 mistakes of mankind

While regular reflection may lead to inspiration and creativity, there are always times where inspiration is not coming as during other times. These are the times we can stand on the shoulders of the giants of the past.

I think Marcus Tullius Cicero was definitely one of these giants. I recently read some of his works and the most striking quotable part is perhaps his list of 6 mistakes of humankind. More than 2000 years ago, Cicero identified the following common mistakes, humans made:

“Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;
Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;
Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;
Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;
Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;
Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.” 

Wow, what a great insight in human nature.
Why, 2000 years later, we still make these mistakes so often?

 

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Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

At our fingertips!

In the last two decades, amazing things have truly happened. Quite suddenly almost all wisdom and philosophy from the past 2 to 3 millennia became available at the fingertips of anyone with access to the internet. When even as recent as 25 years ago, I read some reference on one of the old Greeks or other philosopher, I sometimes intended to buy or borrow one of their works on my next visit to the bookstore or library, but most often or almost always the intention got forgotten or did not materialize for other reasons. Now, if we read, for example, something about Demosthenes, we can google his name, find his whole speeches and very often also very well written summaries of their work.

Not only have these works become available at our fingertips, also there seems to be a wave of interest in them, generated by popular most often freely available educational website such TED-X, TED ed, Socratica, or popular media outlets.

Educational websites are so useful. Not only for philosophy but just about anything else too. Just yesterday I read something about a black hole and I immediately found a video on the topic, raising my understanding from almost zero to perhaps anywhere between 1 and 30%.

I do think wisdom and understanding of many things and with that increase in knowledge, understanding and wisdom will come tolerance and love, kindness and harmony. They are about to snowball into a wonderful world


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Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.
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The 12 virtues

   Friendliness                    Charity
Truthfulness              Courage            Temperance
      Patience      Magnanimity        Wittiness 
Proper ambition            Modesty
Magnificence               Righteous indignation


 12 virtues, here they are.

Aristotle was writing about these virtues more than 300BC. He was an apprentice from Plato and thus was in a unique position as a philosopher himself to be exposed to the teachings of two of the greatest philosophers, Plato and Socrates. Below, I give a little bit of background about Socrates and Plato. Bur first about these virtues. Aristotle had a very wise view on happiness and saw the habit of practicing virtues as a highway to happiness. I think today we need his vision more than ever.
He saw the virtues as a mean between the two extremes of excess and deficiency. The next table (source Spark Notes ) will help you understand what he means:

Sphere of action of feeling	Excess	Mean	Deficiency
Fear and Confidence	Rashness	Courage	Cowardice
Pleasure and Pain	Licentiousness	Temperance	Insensibility
Getting and Spending (minor)	Prodigality	Charity	Illiberality
Getting and Spending (major)	Vulgarity	Magnificence	Pettiness
Honor and Dishonor (minor)	Ambition	Proper Ambition	Unambitiousness
Honor and Dishonor (major)	Vanity	Magnanimity	Pusillanimity
Anger	Irascibility	Patience	Lack of Spirit
Self-expression	Boastfulness	Truthfulness	Understatement
Conversation	Buffoonery	Wittiness	Boorishness
Social Conduct	Obsequiousness or Flattery	Friendliness	Cantankerousness
Shame	Shyness	Modesty	Shamelessness
Indignation	Envy	Righteous indignation	Malicious enjoyment

If we are busy with virtues, by reading about them, thinking about them, we tend to practice them more. I remember many years ago, I read an essay on politeness. I am a believer in politeness, since my very young years. But somehow in the week following the reading of the essay, I noticed that I was more polite than usual. The reading of the essay had brought politeness from the deep depths of my mind, right to the surface. Things sitting on the surface tend to guide our actions and words in a better way than if they sit somewhere deep within. :)

So let us reminisce, let us think about all virtues on a regular basis. Keep them at the surface. Happiness will never be far away :)

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Now here a bit of background about Socrates and Plato:

Socrates was born to working class parents.
He worked as a laborer and entered the army on three occasions.
It was only when he retired that he started doing what he was best at, what he became so famous for: teaching. He studied wise men in Athens and noticed that they knew a lot but they were not aware that there were many things they did not know either. Socrates was aware that many things he did not know and pointed out through dialogues and questioning that so many who thought they knew, actually did not know. This turned the elite and politicians angry and he was seen as a threat to them, so they trumped up charges against him when he was 70 years. He was convicted and willingly took the punishment of drinking poison, while there were plenty of opportunities to escape.

Plato was a son of two aristocrats. He was a disciple of Socrates and after Socrates death he was so disgusted with politics that he went to study not only philosophy but also sciences. He wrote many books on Socrates (Socrates had not written anything himself). He founded the academy, which some call the first European University. All this happened more than 2300 years ago.

Aristotle studied and taught at the academy of Plato for 20 years. He was a prominent teacher but there were differences in thoughts between him and Plato.The 12 virtues were written about, by Aristotle in his book called the Nicomachean ethics (his father and son were named both Nikomachus). He considered virtues the mean between deficiency and excess.

The path

The path!

This morning, at 6.30 AM, I could see that the very early morning skies carried the potential to erupt into a wonderful sunrise. I walked down the path of my garden. Step by step I reached the front gate and there I was in a beautiful place facing an amazing sky.

Sometimes I wish in life it would be a bit like this too. We wake up, see exactly where to go and what to do and end up in the most beautiful place thinkable. But life is a bit more complex.

However, it is still worth waking up on time and take a brief look into the future with all potential paths we can walk that day. Try to guess which one will bring us to the nicest place, not so much the nicest place physically, but the nicest place emotionally, mentally, spiritually. I think believers, ask the help of our Creator to find that most beautiful path. But you do not have to be a believer to take the time to think and plan our day in the best way.

I think the place we arrive at the end of the day is usually in bed or just before bedtime in a relaxing chair, either doing some reading, some computering or watching TV. If we take also at night a few minutes of our time, to look back at the path we took and how much true joy it brought us, we will enjoy the beautiful things not only once but twice.

Doing the evening or nighttime reflection, it usually are the smiles we could bring on the faces of other people that create most beauty beauty in our mind, in our heart and in our soul. It usually are the small kindness, the small random acts of love, that make us inside joyful.

Thinking about that path in our life, that path we took and the path we will take tomorrow or later today, can make so much difference in the true joy we experience. :)😉😃




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Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

Matter

A small app on my phone tells me I have made 6000 steps today.

How many steps really mattered?

Perhaps my little morning walk did matter.

These small walks may contribute so much to my health.

Maybe just a bit to my physical health because the walks are really small

But much more perhaps to my mental and emotional health.

The deep breaths of morning sun filled air

A few poetic thoughts crossing my mind.

The joy of the greenery and the scanty flowers along my path.

Did anything else matter a lot today?

I hope I managed to inspire my students today.
I did enjoy the session myself. I really hope they did too.

But maybe some of my grumpiness has mattered in the wrong way too.

I somehow feel that

The more of our actions mattered in a positive way,

The happier we are and the more peace of mind we experience.





 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.