Showing posts with label Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog. Show all posts

Friday, January 15, 2010

A Calendar of Wisdom



This is an almost unknown book by Leo Tolsty of exceptional value and beauty which, despite author’s great desire, has not made it to a bestseller by now.




Unfortunately, Leo Tolstoy is less known for his numerous religious writings, which present a challenging and original point of view.These works have been obviously undervalued.

Путь Жизни (Path of Life or also translated as A Calendar of Wisdom),  by Leo Tolstoy is considered to be his most important contribution to humanity, the work of his life’s last years. Widely read in prerevolutionary Russia, banned and forgotten under Communism; and recently rediscovered to great excitement, A Calendar of Wisdom is a day-by-day guide that illuminates the path of a life worth living with a brightness undimmed by time. Unjustly censored for nearly a century, it deserves to be placed with the few books in our history that will never cease teaching us the essence of what is important in this world.

The reader will notice that Tolstoy anticipated many of the ideas presented in contemporary books on spirituality, such as the observation that our thoughts determine our lives. Tolstoy began to write this book in 1910, the last year of his life, when he was 82 years old. Given that he began the book in January and completed it in October of the same year, one would think the writing went quickly; but it only seems that way. Tolstoy actually had been developing the themes presented in Path of Life for the last thirty years of his life.

In Path of Life Tolstoy defines how to find continuous happiness in life and how to die without fear. In presenting his views, he cites his own ideas and includes many quotations from an eclectic collection of ancient and modern philosophers and religious figures. The choice of quotations is a unique reflection of Tolstoy’s view of life reached through his ‘dialogue’ with the world’s best religious minds. Tolstoy deliberately marshals a chorus of religious thinkers who voice similar religious insights. By identifying religious themes that are consistent over time and from country to country, Tolstoy seeks to prove their eternal verity.


Interesting: Because Tolstoy extensively modified the quotations he cited, the author translated all quotations, even those citing well known American and English authors, such as Emerson, Thoreau, Ruskin, and Carlyle directly from the Russian text without seeking to quote the original wording. Most, but not all, unattributed quotations are Tolstoy’s. Tolstoy deliberately used simple Russian words and comparisons to convey his meaning. He believed that truth must be expressed simply and clearly.

Besides frequent quotations from the New Testament, Path of Life includes excerpts from the sacred texts of major religions, including Chinese, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist writings. His respect for all the world’s religions distinguishes him from many religious teachers whose dogmatic interpretation of their own religion’s sacred texts often leads them to disdain other beliefs and to deny the brotherhood they claim to espouse.

He believed that the only true religion is the one that all humanity can believe in.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

I will order the book in English for my  blog postings, so that I can share with my great readership the pearls of the true Leo Tolstoy… coming soon :)


LOVE,


Sufimessage


Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Ultimate Personal Growth Guide: 100 Best Posts

By Mary Jaksch

Every moment we get a new opportunity to make new decisions and change how we live our life. Here is a selection of the best 100 self-development posts that will inspire you to grow and flourish. They are grouped under the following headings: personal transformation, business and career, happiness, relationship and family, creativity, leadership, spirituality, health and fitness, minimalism, and productivity. (Click on each link, and a short intro will pop up. In order to read the full post, click on the link at the bottom of the popup which says, ‘Continue on to….’)

Personal transformation

  1.  How to Find Your Passion for Anything
  2.  100 Ways to Develop Your Mind
  3.  The Only Way to Become Amazingly Great at Something
  4.  The Slow Secret: How to Make Lasting Changes in Your Life
  5.  The World Needs You to Do What You Love
  6.  Overcome Shyness
  7.  Limiting Yourself: The Key to Success
  8.  How to Develop Intelligence at Any Age
  9.  Triple Your Rate of Failure and You Might Succeed
  10.  How to Improve at Anything
  11.  30 Practical Tips to Make Yourself Indispensable to Others
  12.  The Truth About Visualization and Goal Achievement
  13.  The Life Purpose Lie
  14.  A Short Collection of Unconventional Ideas

    Business and Career

  15.  10 Answers You Should Know Before Your Job Interview
  16.  20 Tips that Got Me an IT Promotion
  17.  How to Start Freelancing Without Quitting Your Job
  18.  How to Lose Your Fear of Being Fired
  19.  How to Motivate Others
  20.  How to Make Lots of Money During a Recession
  21.  Man’s (Career) Search for Meaning
  22.  3 Areas You Must Invest in During a Recession
  23.  Fear of Flying: Facing the Fear of Success
  24.  10 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Job
  25.  Dead Man Working
  26.  Scaling Simplicity-Driven Entrepreneurship
  27.  Why I hope the Free Brigade is Wrong
  28.  The Business of Forgiveness
  29.  The Best Decline Letter of All-Time: Edmund Wilson
  30.  A 12 Step Strategy to Refit Your Blog to the Social Web in 2010

    Happiness

  31.  Why It’s Important to “Identify the Problem” (It’s Harder than It Sounds).
  32.  The Biggest Myth — It’s Selfish To Try to Be Happier.
  33.  How to Find Authentic Happiness
  34.  Happiness and positive thinking…good for you and good for your health
  35.  The 7 Habits of Highly Happy People
  36.  How to be Happier With What You Have
  37.  10 Instant Tips to be Happier Now
  38.  The Only Guide to Happiness You’ll Ever Need
  39.  Income Distribution Versus Happiness

    Relationship and Family

  40.  5 Tips for Getting a Little Kid to Take No For an Answer
  41.  Match Makers Intuition
  42.  How to Instill the Love of Reading in Your Child or Yourself
  43.  How to Inspire Kids to Save the World
  44.  What are Kids Doing on Facebook, MySpace, and Other Social Networking Sites?
  45.  5 Strategies to Manage Your Family Chores Permanently
  46.  10 Qualities of Tea-cup Parenting: Are Your Kids Too Fragile?
  47.  50 Ways to be Romantic
  48.  Things to Consider Before Getting Married
  49.  Understanding Family Relationship Problems
  50.  Home Fires – I Will Carry You
  51.  Your Ideal Family: How to Make it a Reality

    Creativity

  52.  Story-Based Design
  53. How to Touch Your Creative Soul: A Zen Perspective
  54.  50 Questions that Will Free Your Mind
  55.  How to Write Remarkably Creative Content
  56.  Feeling Stuck? Try This
  57.  Unleash Your Energy: 5 Ways to Recharge Your Mind, Spirit, and Productivity
  58.  Re-Potting with Resources: What Would You Make?
  59.  The Little but Useful Guide to Creativity

    Leadership

  60.  Interception of Entropy
  61.  6 Key Lessons in Life from a 140-Year Old Man
  62.  Leadership and the Magnetic Draw of Authenticity
  63.  Challenging Convention
  64.  The Joy of Quitting
  65.  Nine Leadership Development Strategies
  66.  Six Social Media Trends in 2010
  67.  Stephen Covey on His Morning Routine, Blogs, Technology, GTD and The Secret

    Spirituality

  68.  Sitting Quietly, Doing Something
  69.  What is Natural Spirituality?
  70.  Survive and Thrive: How to Transform Anxiety into Inspiration
  71.  How to Start Meditating: 10 Important Tips
  72.  For the Time Being
  73.  The Courage to Live Consciously
  74.  Living a Life of Integrity

    Health and Fitness

  75.  How to Build Muscle Mass Guide
  76.  100 Beginner Running Tips
  77.  Why Healthy Nutrition is Important – and Why Not
  78.  How Many Calories Do You Need to Eat Per Day?
  79.  A Single Principle to Declutter Your Health
  80.  The 7 Essential Rules to Optimum Health Weight Loss
  81.  7 Steps to Sustainable Healthy Eating Habits
  82.  Relax Like a Pro: 5 Steps to Hacking Your Sleep
  83.  How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise

    Minimalism

  84.  How to Let Go of Possessions
  85.  7 Quick Meals that are Faster Than Pizza Delivery
  86.  The Simple Life
  87.  El Bocadillo: The Definitive Minimalist Sandwich
  88.  Creating a Minimalist Workspace
  89.  The Minimalist Pinciple: Omit Needless Things
  90.   Living on a Small Footprint
  91.  10 Unclutting Things to do Every Day
  92.  Minimalist Fun: The 100 Things Challenge
  93.  A Guide to Self-Reliance Minimalism
  94. Productivity

  95.  Scoring 100% in Time Management
  96.  33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity
  97.  Priorities
  98.  What Matters Now
  99.  Polyphasic Sleep
  100.  10 Benefits of Rising Early and How to do It.
  101.  Productivity and Organizing Insights Found in Lean Systems

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Happiness Blogs