A Precious Human Life

What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.

(Colette)

-1-

Every day, 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.

(The Dalai Lama)

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive -

to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love! (Marcus Aurelius)

Do not tire of crying out with the joy of being alive

and you will hear no other cries. (Tuareg proverb)

Nothing has to happen for me to feel good!

I feel good because I'm alive! Life is a gift, and I revel in it. (Tony Robbins)

-2-

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color,

bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked – as I am surprising often – why I bother to get up in the mornings.

(Richard Dawkins)

Isn’t it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed,

eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be part of it?

(Richard Dawkins)

Where does poetry live? In the overpowering felt splendor every sane mind knows

when it realizes - our life dance is only for a few magic seconds, from the heart saying, shouting, “I am so damn alive!”

(Hafiz)

-3-

There is a joy, and it is the joy of existence — not what is happening in existence.

They are two different things. There is the joy of existence, and then there is the joy of what is

happening in existence. What is happening in existence we try to control and manipulate.

Sometimes things go our way. Sometimes they don't. But then there is another joy.

That joy has been there through all the years of your life, waiting to be discovered.

And that joy will be there for as long as you live. It is the simple, simple joy of being alive.

(Prem Rawat)

If we are not happy and joyous at this season, for what other season shall we wait and

for what other time shall we look? (Abdul-Baha)

-4-

Two young monks were discussing their favorite seasons when Master Wu-men happen to walk by. “Master Wu-men, what is

your favorite season?” asked one monk. Wu-men replied, “Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool

breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.”

To be alive, to able to see, to walk…it’s all a miracle. I have adapted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle.

(Arthur Rubinstein)

To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy… is to set our own conditions to the events of each day.

To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

You are the bird of happiness in the magic of existence! (Rumi)

-5-

One of my aims is to feel good about myself, which is all mental, all about attitude. You just have to let go of perfectionism

and keep focusing on the next moment because if you don’t, you’re going to miss out on something. You have to

stay present every second. (Ellen DeGeneres)

Saying no to negativity also means not being around negative people. Negative people deplete your energy. Surround yourself

with love and nourishment and do not allow the creation of negativity in your environment.

(Deepak Chopra)

Remember this – that very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all in your way of thinking.

(Marcus Aurelius)

Life is a series of choices and sometimes your only choice is what your attitude will be.

(Shantideva)

-6-

It is our way of seeing the world that determines the nature of our feelings.

(Thich Nhat Hanh)

I am always content with what happens; for I know that what God chooses is better than what I choose.

(Epictetus)

Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner

voice which says, “This is the real me,” and when you have found that attitude, follow it.

(William James)

Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare the truth thou hast, that all may share; be bold, proclaim it everywhere:

They only live who dare. (Voltaire)

What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.

(Colette)

-7-

We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey

toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else

in life so wonderful, so worthwhile. (Earl Nightingale)

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you

deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won.

It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours. (Ayn Rand)

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

(Robert Frost)

-8-

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you

happy. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch

which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on

to future generations. (George Bernard Shaw)

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

(Teihard de Chardin)

-9-

People who return from near death experiences tell us that in the seeming closing moments of their earthly lives

they learned that the most important thing we can do while we are here is to learn to love.

(Raymond A. Moody, Jr.)

Valdaro, Italy; 5,000 - 6,000 years ago

If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to,

no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must

discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth.

(Mitsugi Saotome)

-10-

The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness.

(William Wordsworth)

Fashion your life as a garland of beautiful deeds. (Buddha)

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.

If you want to be happy, practice compassion. (The Dalai Lama)

When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and

says, yes, this is how I ought to feel. (Rabbi Harold Kushner)

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.

If I can ease one life the aching, or cool one pain, or help one fainting robin unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain. (Emily Dickinson)

-11-

A turtle lives in the ocean and every 100 years he comes up for air. If that turtle was to rise for air and by chance put his head through a bucket that was floating on the surface it would be extremely rare. Attaining a precious human rebirth is even rarer than that.

(Buddhist)

Life as a human is rare. Why? All impermanent phenomena are dependent upon causes and conditions, and this human physical life-support system that is potentially so effective requires high-

quality causes. What are these causes? A human lifetime requires pure moral activity in a former life. Beyond this, a human lifetime

during which transformative practice can be achieved requires prior engagement in virtues such as charity and patience, and these

virtuous acts themselves need to be consciously aimed toward attaining the time and qualities needed for religious practice.

(The Dalai Lama)

Why would I waste this attainment of such a good life! When I act as though it is insignificant, I deceive myself.

What could be more foolish than this! (Tsongkhara)

-12-

Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered,

and that my life is fleeing away. (Psalm 39:4)

What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

(James 4:14)

Though it seems a harmless gauge of time, a day, to those who fathom its form, is a saw steadily cutting

the tree of life. (Tirukkural)

No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow.

(Euripides)

You are living amidst the causes of death like a lamp standing in a strong breeze.

(Nagarjuna)

-13-

Life is but a fleeting reflection on the mirror of existence. Permanence exists not, and if your heart speaks otherwise,

it lies to you. Impermanence is the essence of life, and this very truth sets us free. Life is precious, life is fleeting.

Live well. (Shihan Kenneth Tang)

All I know of life and myself is that we are just a midair flight

of golden wine between His Pitcher and His Cup. (Hafiz)

Death is a favor to us, but our scales have lost their balance. The impermanence of the body should give us great clarity,

deepening the wonder in our senses and eyes of this mysterious existence we share and

are surely just traveling through. (Hafiz)

Your life was a test, but you let it go by without a thought.

It’s ever-passing, slowly vanishes before you know it. (Rabia)

-14-

In a man's life, his time is but a moment, his being a mere flux, his senses a dim glimpse, his body food for the worms, and his soul a restless eddy … The things of the body

pass like a flowing stream; life is a brief sojourn, and one's mark in this world is soon forgotten.

(Marcus Aurelius)

You live on earth for a few short years which you call an incarnation, and then you leave your body

as an outworn dress and go for refreshment to your true home in the spirit.

(White Eagle)

Today me, tomorrow you. (Inscription on a burial plot)

-15-

The ship you are riding on, look where it is heading: Your body’s port is the graveyard. Realizing the destiny of each

clay bowl tossed into the sky with no one to catch it I finally accepted the Beloved’s kind offer

to enroll in His sublime course of Spirit Love. (Hafiz)

How confusing the beams from memory’s lamp are; one day a bachelor, the next a grampa. What is the secret of the

trick? How did I get so old so quick? (Ogden Nash)

-16-

Before we know it our life is finished and it is time to die. If we lack the foundation of a stable practice, we go to death helplessly, in fear and anguish.

(Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche)

The spiritually enlightened choose freely to devote themselves to the work of the next world; the foolish choose freely

the work of this. (Rumi)

The greatest use of life

is to spend it for something that will outlast it. (William James)

The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive - perhaps for some purpose

which we ought to re-examine. (Mignon McLaughlin)

It were better to live one single day in the pursuit of understanding

and meditation, than to live a hundred years in ignorance and restraint.

(Buddha)

-17-

Little by little God takes away human beauty: little by little the sapling withers. Go recite,

“To whomever we give a length of days, we also cause them to decline.”

Seek the spirit; don’t set your heart on bones! (Rumi)

The hour which gives us life begins to take it away. (Seneca)

Death is like an arrow that is already in flight, and your life lasts only until it reaches you.

(Hermes Trismegistus)

As soon as a man comes to life, he is immediately old enough to die.

(Der Ackermann aus Bohmen)

-18-

When we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us,

we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion

for all beings. (Sogyal Rinpoche)

O ye that move! We too were like you once,

enjoying life to the full. But alas! Now we are a handful of dust beneath this stone.

(Tombstone inscription)

No university will teach you how to live so that when the time of dying comes, you can say:

“I lived well, I do not need to live again.” (Nisargadatta)

The only journey is the journey within.

(Rainer Maria Rilke)

-19-

We say that the hour of death cannot be forecast, but when we say this we imagine that hour as placed in an obscure and distant future. It never occurs to us that it has any connection with the day already begun or that death could arrive this same

afternoon, this afternoon which is so certain and which has every hour filled in advance.

(Marcel Proust)

In the evening do not expect to live till morning, and in the morning do not expect evening. Prepare as long as you

are in good health for sickness, and so long as you are alive for death.

(Imam Nawawi)

-20-

In this human body you can go back to your home and in no other. You are fortunate you have the human body.

What you can do here in a short time, cannot be done in the other world, higher planes, in ten times as long.

(Sant Kirpal Singh)

The worm is in the root of the body’s tree; travelers, it is late! Life’s sun is going to set. During these brief days that you have

strength, be quick and spare no effort of your wings. (Rumi)

What takes months to do here,

there (higher planes) takes years to do. (Sant Kirpal Singh)

-21-

To know the sweetness of the Infinite within us, that is the cause, the reason, the purpose,

the only purpose of our being. (Nicholas of Cusa)

Sri Ma Anandamayi

He is born to no purpose, who,

having the rare privilege of human birth, is unable to realize God in this life.

(Ramakrishna)

This life is for the purpose of ending our coming back into this world

(Hazur Baba Sawan Singh)

-22-

There are too many things in this world to be learned, and life is too short to learn everything, so we should complete that

which we have begun rather than dabbling in many things. (Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey)

The fact is, it seems, that the most you can hope is to be a little less, in the end, the creature you were

in the beginning, and the middle. (Samuel Beckett)

-23-

The ancient masters slept without dreams and woke up without worries. Their food was plain. Their breath came from deep

inside them. They didn’t cling to life, weren’t anxious about death. They emerged without desire and reentered without resistance.

They came easily; they went easily. They didn’t forget where they were from; they didn’t ask where they were going. They took

everything as it came, gladly, and walked into death without fear. They accepted life as a gift, and they handed it back gratefully.

(Chuang-Tzu)

There is no enlightenment outside of daily life. (Thich Nhat Hanh)

-24-

Since this body of complete leisure and opportunity was very difficult to get, and once obtained will be very difficult to have

again, make it meaningful by striving at practice. (Atisha)

In your old age you will complete for the glory of God the tower of your soul that you began to build

in the golden days of your youth. (Mother Teresa)

Preparation for old age should begin not later than one's teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly

become filled on retirement. (Arthur E. Morgan)

I am old enough to see how little I have done in so much time,

and how much I have to do in so little. (Kaye-Smith)

If you have peace of mind, contentment,

old age is no unbearable burden. Without that, both youth and age are painful.

(Sophocles)

-25-

For the ignorant, old age is winter; for the learned, old age is the harvest.

(Yiddish saying)

Old age takes away from us what we have inherited and gives us what we have earned.

(Gerald Brenan)

This world is swept away by aging, by illness, by death. For one swept on by aging no shelters exist. Keeping sight of

this danger in death, do meritorious deeds that bring bliss. Make merit while alive.

(Buddha)

-26-

One can savor sights and sounds more deeply when one gets really old. It may be the last time you see a sunset, a tree, the snow, or know winter. The sea, a lake, all become as in

childhood, magical and a great wonder: then seen for the first time, now perhaps for the last. Music, bird songs, the wind,

the waves: One listens to tones with deeper delight and appreciation.

(Helen Newaring)

I've never known any human being, high or humble, who ever regretted, when nearing life's end, having done kindly deeds. But I have known more than one millionaire who became

haunted by the realization that they had led selfish lives. (B. C. Forbes)

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any

reward. Your life will never be the same again. (Og Mandino)

-27-

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

(Marcus Aurelius)

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism;

the way you play it is free will. (Jawaharlal Nehru)

-28-

I do not intend to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death.

There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior

there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy. (Mark Twain)

I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. You can find it in a simple act of

kindness toward someone who needs help. There is no mistaking love. You feel it in your heart. It is the common fiber of life, the flame that heals our soul, energizes our spirit and supplies passion

to our lives. It is our connection to God and to each other. (Elizabeth Kubler-Ross)

Death plucks my ear and says, “Live - I am coming.”

(Virgil)

May your soul be happy; journey joyfully.

(Rumi)

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