English Recordings

6. Endure what cannot be cured

This is the best way to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Every day we face numerous inconveniences, ailments, irritations and accidents that are beyond our control. We must learn to endure them cheerfully thinking, "God will it so, so be it". God's logic is beyond our comprehension. Believe it and you will gain in patience, in inner strength, in will power.

7. Do not bite more than you can chew

This maxim should be always remembered. We often tend to take more responsibilities than we are capable to carry out. This is done to satisfy our ego. Know your limitations. Spend your free time on prayers, introspection and meditation. This will reduce those thoughts in your mind, which make you restless. Fewer the thoughts, greater is the peace of mind.

8. Meditate regularly

Meditation makes the mind thoughtless. This is the highest state of peace of mind. Try and experience it. If you meditate earnestly for half an hour every day, you will tend to become calm during the remaining twenty-three and a half hours. Your mind will not be disturbed as much as before. This will increase your efficiency and you will turn out more work in less time.

3. Do not crave for recognition

This world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without selfish motive. They may praise you today because you are rich and have power but no sooner you are powerless, they will forget your achievement and start criticizing you.

Moreover, no one is perfect. Then why do you value the words of praise of another mortal like you? Why do you crave for recognition? Believe in yourself. People's praises do not last long. Do your duties ethically and sincerely and leave the rest to God.

4. Do not be jealous

We all have experienced how jealousy can disturb our peace of mind. You know you work harder than your colleagues in the office but they get promotions, you do not. You started a business several years ago but you are not as successful as your neighbor whose business is only one year old. Should you be jealous? No, remember everybody's life is shaped by his previous Karma that has now become his destiny. If you are destined to be rich, not all the world can stop you. If you are not so destined, no one can help you either. Nothing will be gained by blaming others for your misfortune. Jealousy will not get you anywhere, but will only give you restlessness.

5. Change yourself according to the environment

If you try to change the environment single handedly, the chances are you may fail. Instead, change yourself to suit the environment. As you do this, even the environment, which has remained unfriendly for you, will mysteriously appear to be congenial and harmonious.

Peace of mind is the most sought after 'commodity' in human life. It appears that most of us are in a state of perpetual restlessness. On analyzing the causes of this restlessness, I have ventured to find for myself ten solutions that need to be followed religiously if we are serious about achieving perfect peace of mind.

1. Do not interfere in others' business

Most of us create our own problems by interfering too often in others' affairs. We do so because somehow we have convinced ourselves that our way is the best way, our logic is the perfect logic, and those who do not conform to our thinking must be criticized and steered to the right direction, our direction.

This kind of attitude on our part denies the existence of individuality and consequently the existence of God, for God has created each one of us in a unique way. No two human beings can think or act in exactly the same way. All men or women act the way they do because they are prompted to do so by the Divine within them. There is God to look after everything. Why are you bothered? Mind your own business and you will have your peace.

2. Forget and forgive

This is the most powerful aid to peace of mind. We often nurture ill feeling inside our heart for the person who insults or harms us. We forget that the insult or injury was done to us once but by nourishing the grievance we go on excavating the wound forever. Therefore it is essential that we cultivate the art of forgiving and forgetting. Believe in the justice of God and the doctrine of Karma. Let Him judge the act of the one who insulted you. Life is too short to waste in such trifles. Forget, forgive, and march on.

Sophie started skating when she was three years old, on the pond behind her house. Now Sophie is eight years old. She dreams of becoming a professional ice skater, but she knows there will be many years of hard work ahead.
Sophie watches ice skating on television, but most of all she likes going to ice skating showes. There she gets to see the skating up close. She claps hard for performers and can't wait for the day when the applause is for her.
Sophie takes lessons five mornings and three afternoons a week. Her morning class begins at five o'clock! When she arrives, some of her friends are already warming up. She says hello to Mr.Simon, the coach.
Everyone is dressed warmly. The ice rink can be very cold, so the skaters wear layers of clothing that they take off as they warm up. Skaters choose clothes that are easy to move in but still fit close to the body.
Sophie's skates are already broken in. When they were new, they felt stiff and hurt her feet. She had to put guards over the blades and walk around her house to soften the leather.
Sophie can lace up her skates quickly. But when she was first learning, it took a long time to do it correctly.
Mr.Simon begins the morning class with the basics. Young skaters do these skills over and over again. Learning to get up from a fall gracefully is always important.
Basics include different ways to stop as well as different ways to move. Some basics are practiced both forward and backward, or with just the right foot and just the left foot.
After basics, Sophie's class practices figures. Figures are difficult, but they help the students learn to glide with control. Everyone takes turns skating on the ice, using all four edges.
Then they do basic eights, which are skated in two circles that make the shape of an eight. "It's good we skate eights, and not fours," Pamela says and they all laugh, even Mr. Simon.At seven A.M., class is over and everyone leaves for school.
After school, Sophie returns to the rink for a private lesson in free skating. She does her jumps, spins, and footwork over and over again.
As her musles get stronger, she will jump higher, spin faster, and move with more control.
Sophie wants every move to be perfect. But she's been skating long enough to know that sometimes she will fall. When it happens, she tries not to be hard on herself.
Sophie takes ballet lessons two afternoons a week. Some of her friends from ice skating class are in her ballet class are in her ballet classs, too!
Ballet helps them be more flexible and graceful on the ice.
Competiting is Sophie's favorite part of ice skating. A big competition is coming up in three weeks. In her afternoon class, Sophie runs through her short program with Ms.Wilkinm the choreographer.
She tries on her costumes and decides on the purple one. "This brought me good luck last competition," she says, and does a super jump.
Sophie is exicited to skate her long program. She agrees with Ms.Wilkin on the bright green costume. It matches the happy music. "I won't have to remember to smile," Sophie says. "This program is so much fun!"
It is time to go home. Before they leave the stadium,Sophie and her mom stop and watch Nick lift his partner high in the air. Sophie applauds. Suddenly Nick skates over and scoops up Sophie and lifts her high in the air, too. "I'm flying!" she shouts.
After dinner, Sophie cleans and dries her skates. She sits with her dog, Henry, and does her homewok. It's nice to be home after a long day.
"Get your skates, Sophie!" Let's go out to the pond!" her brother calls a little later. But Sophie is already asleep.

The story takes place in Providence, Rhode Island in 2003. Anna Fitzgerald's older sister, Kate, suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia, a blood and bone marrow cancer. Anna was conceived as a savior sibling, in order to harvest blood from her umbilical cord to use in treatments to help save Kate's life. Although the treatment was initially successful, Kate relapsed; ever since, Anna, the only compatible family member, has been used as a donor for any other bodily substance needed to treat Kate, who continues to swing between remission and relapse as she grows up.
Anna is usually willing to donate whatever Kate needs, but when she is 13, she is told that she will have to donate one of her kidneys. The surgery required for both Kate and Anna would be major; it is not guaranteed to work, as the stress of the operation may well kill Kate anyway; and the loss of a kidney could have a serious impact on Anna's life. Anna petitions for medical emancipation with the help of lawyer Campbell Alexander, so that she will be able to make her own decisions regarding her medical treatment and the donation of her kidney.

5- Breakfast. Rise early and you actually have time for breakfast. I’m told it’s one of the most important meals of the day. Without breakfast, your body is running on fumes until you are so hungry at lunchtime that you eat whatever unhealthy thing you can find. The fattier and sugarier, the betterier. But eat breakfast, and you are sated until later. Plus, eating breakfast while reading my book and drinking my coffee in the quiet of the morning is eminently more enjoyable than scarfing something down on the way to work, or at your desk.

6- Exercise. There are other times to exercise besides the early morning, of course, but I’ve found that while exercising right after work is also very enjoyable, it’s also liable to be canceled because of other things that come up. Morning exercise is virtually never canceled.

7- Productivity. Mornings, for me at least, are the most productive time of day. I like to do some writing in the morning, when there are no distractions, before I check my email or blog stats. I get so much more done by starting on my work in the morning. Then, when evening rolls around, I have no work that I need to do, and I can spend it with family.

8- Goal time. Got goals? Well, you should. And there’s no better time to review them and plan for them and do your goal tasks than first thing. You should have one goal that you want to accomplish this week. And every morning, you should decide what one thing you can do today to move yourself further towards that goal. And then, if possible, do that first thing in the morning.

9- Commute. No one likes rush-hour traffic, except for Big Oil. Commute early, and the traffic is much lighter, and you get to work faster, and thus save yourself more time. Or better yet, commute by bike. (Or even better yet, work from home.)

10- Appointments. It’s much easier to make those early appointments on time if you get up early. Showing up late for those appointments is a bad signal to the person you’re meeting. Showing up early will impress them. Plus, you get time to prepare.
_________________________________________
Post written by Leo Babauta
http://zenhabits.net

How to Become an Early Riser

Don’t make drastic changes. Start slowly, by waking just 15-30 minutes earlier than usual. Get used to this for a few days. Then cut back another 15 minutes. Do this gradually until you get to your goal time.

Allow yourself to sleep earlier. You might be used to staying up late, perhaps watching TV or surfing the Internet. But if you continue this habit, while trying to get up earlier, sooner or later one is going to give. And if it is the early rising that gives, then you will crash and sleep late and have to start over. I suggest going to bed earlier, even if you don’t think you’ll sleep, and read while in bed. If you’re really tired, you just might fall asleep much sooner than you think.

Put your alarm clock far from your bed. If it’s right next to your bed, you’ll shut it off or hit snooze. Never hit snooze. If it’s far from your bed, you have to get up out of bed to shut it off. By then, you’re up. Now you just have to stay up.

Go out of the bedroom as soon as you shut off the alarm. Don’t allow yourself to rationalize going back to bed. Just force yourself to go out of the room. My habit is to stumble into the bathroom and go pee. By the time I’ve done that, and flushed the toilet and washed my hands and looked at my ugly mug in the mirror, I’m awake enough to face the day.

Do not rationalize. If you allow your brain to talk you out of getting up early, you’ll never do it. Don’t make getting back in bed an option.

Have a good reason. Set something to do early in the morning that’s important. This reason will motivate you to get up. I like to write in the morning, so that’s my reason. Also, when I’m done with that, I like to read all of your comments!

Make waking up early a reward. Yes, it might seem at first that you’re forcing yourself to do something hard, but if you make it pleasurable, soon you will look forward to waking up early. A good reward is to make a hot cup of coffee or tea and read a book. Other rewards might be a tasty treat for breakfast (smoothies! yum!) or watching the sunrise, or meditating. Find something that’s pleasurable for you, and allow yourself to do it as part of your morning routine.

Take advantage of all that extra time. Don’t wake up an hour or two early just to read your blogs, unless that’s a major goal of yours. Don’t wake up early and waste that extra time. Get a jump start on your day! I like to use that time to get a head start on preparing my kids’ lunches, on planning for the rest of the day (when I set my MITs), on exercising or meditating, and on reading. By the time 6:30 rolls around, I’ve done more than many people do the entire day.
_________________________________________
Post written by Leo Babauta.
http://zenhabits.net

10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It.

Recently, reader Rob asked me about my habit of waking at 4:30 a.m. each day, and asked me to write about the health benefits of rising early, which I thought was an excellent question. Unfortunately, there are none, that I know of.
However, there are a ton of other great benefits.
Now, let me first say that if you are a night owl, and that works for you, I think that’s great. There’s no reason to change, especially if you’re happy with it. But for me, switching from being a night owl to an early riser (and yes, it is possible) has been a godsend. It has helped me in so many ways that I’d never go back. Here are just a few:

1- Greet the day. I love being able to get up, and greet a wonderful new day. I suggest creating a morning ritual that includes saying thanks for your blessings. I’m inspired by the Dalai Lama, who said, ” Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’ “

2- Amazing start. I used to start my day by jumping out of bed, late as usual, and rushing to get myself and the kids ready, and rushing to drop them to school and come in to work late. I would walk into work, looking rumpled and barely awake, grumpy and behind everyone else. Not a great start to your day. Now, I have a renewing morning ritual, I’ve gotten so much done before 8 a.m., my kids are early and so am I, and by the time everyone else gets in to work, I’ve already gotten a head start. There is no better way to start off your day than to wake early, in my experience.

3- Quietude. No kids yelling, no babies crying, no soccer balls, no cars, no television noise. The early morning hours are so peaceful, so quiet. It’s my favorite time of day. I truly enjoy that time of peace, that time to myself, when I can think, when I can read, when I can breathe.

4- Sunrise. People who wake late miss one of the greatest feats of nature, repeated in full stereovision each and every day — the rise of the sun. I love how the day slowly gets brighter, when the midnight blue turns to lighter blue, when the brilliant colors start to seep into the sky, when nature is painted in incredible colors. I like doing my early morning run during this time, and I look up at the sky as I run and say to the world, “What a glorious day!” Really. I really do that. Corny, I know.

________________________________________
Post written by Leo Babauta.
http://zenhabits.net

OK !\I’m beginning my cute mouse story about that hot summer night!———-。That year, we had a very hot summer. One day, I arrived at HangZhou trail station by myself. After getting off (leaving) the train, the first thing I needed/wanted to do was look for a place to stay.-[[The first thing I needed to do was to look for my lodging.]So, I went directly to HangZhou University, and asked if they have a empty room for a foreign student.That staff showed me was a room with twin beds and air conditioning; it was not bad.
During this hot summer vocation, foreign students went on a trip or went back to their homeland, [They try to take advantage of this hot summer vocation .]therefore, I guessed (or Naturally, ) there were some vacant(empty?) rooms.
As for me, the foreign student`s dormitory room is not only cheaper than a hotel,but also more safer than a cheap Chinese style inn( ‘旅馆 ‘or ‘招待所’。)., so I was satisfied.
During the daytime, I was excited about wandering around the entire downtown area.When I came back to my room at night, I washed away all the dirt and sweat I accumulated(모이다, 쌓이다, 축적되다) from wandering town.
Then, I turned the air conditioner on.(even though, it was old and loud, but it was a faithful air conditioner that was working very hard.~~♪) When I was laying on the bed, reading and writing something, I suddenly felt strange. I felt like someone was there with me.Who?Who was here?I looked at here and there, right and left, all around, but no one was there. (There was no one or thing there.)Just only there`s one empty bed at my bed`s right side.So I tried to write again, but I could not get rid of that feeling.Who?
What on earth is he/she?At that moment someone passed by my side very fast.So I kept looking around whole room with glaring eyes.
Aaa ~~~K！！！！！UhooKKK～～～！！！！！！！I found it－－－－－！！！was him?her?I didn`t know he or she?
But it’s certain that there’s pudgy buttocks in front of me.His pudgy and big buttocks were exposed under the bed.Oh~~yeah !pudgy! pudgy !! ! It was not a petite buttocks, never! NOT AT ALL!!~ I guess ~~He came to visit me (Sleeping Beauty?)? or not?
If not he also needed that empty clean/comfortable bed with air conditioner?OK, then after? I don`t need tell you~~One worker/staff came and checked around the room and finally concluded that “There is not a mouse here, maybe you saw wrong. There is not a mouse hole anywhere.”
hahaha~~ So?There was nothing I could do.＾＾That summer night I had slept with a pudgy mouse.How was it?When I think back (about?) anything, it is coming up to me with beautiful/ sweet.(When I think about the mouse, I remember it was a beautiful and sweet mouse.) I miss that one month journey that I went on my first backpacking trip in China just by myself。bye~~, everybody! Have a good dream!
Oh, If you meet a mouse that summer night sleep with me, please tell him I said hello ~~—~♬~♪~

(Aug 20th 2011 16:11)(Aug 20th 2011 16:11 ) Just a moment ago, I saw the follOwing video news on a web site.
The subject is “미국을 울린 경찰관의 ’1달러 선행’…추모 열기”.
If I try to translate it into English, it means ” A police OFFICER`S one dollar good deed (Video news)”
If you click the following link, you can see that video.
If you are interested in Korean, you should take a look.
It`s a news video with Korean subtitles, so you can read and also listen Korean at the same time.
This is a news video about a policeman who gave a dollars' worth of snack to a boy, 3 minutes before getting shot by a suspicious man.