Personal growth paradox: A new program may not be better April 11, 2018
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in personal development ideas.Tags: achieving goals, inspiration, life, personal development ideas, personal growth program, philosophy, psychology, self-actualization, self-awareness, writing
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In our personal development journey, we will discover an unending parade of new self-improvement books published every year, and it raises the question of whether we are too often seeking the newest idea, switching to the latest shiny object in the self-actualization world instead of focusing on solidifying and developing our current personal programs which we probably have not yet fully explored.
I was struck by this possibility on reading the following promotional blurb on the cover of the book The Happiness Equation: “Dale Carnegie was last century. Steven Covey was last decade. Neil Pasricha is what’s now.”
It’s possible that we often seem to be eager for what’s new in self-actualization because we are looking for quick solutions and subconsciously want to avoid the difficult internal work of sticking with a program.
Seth Godin has written:
“Too often we get trapped believing we need:
Certainty
Quick answers
A guarantee”
Something to think about before we turn to yet another personal growth program and waste our time by starting all over again.
Dennis Mellersh
Personal growth: Wisdom perfection and the world of illusion February 21, 2018
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Personal Development Potential.Tags: Buddhism, inspiration, Lama Surya Das, life, personal growth program, philosophy, Prajna Paramita Sutras, Prajnaparamtia, psychology, self-actualization, writing
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Our earnest efforts at achieving self-realization notwithstanding, most of us can tend to get wound pretty tight with the daily stress quotient the world doles out, and when this happens, , we might want to remember that keeping things in perspective should be a part of our personal development programs.
Advice which is easier to give than to take.
Some philosophical and/or spiritual systems such as Buddhism use comparisons to help show us how fleeting the external world and its stressors are.
Consider the Eight Similes of Illusion from the Prajnaparamita Sutras , as cited in Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World, written by Lama Surya Das (1)
The Radiant Buddha said:
Regard the fleeting world like this:
Like stars fading and vanishing at dawn,
like bubbles on a fast-moving stream,
like morning dewdrops evaporating on blades
of grass,
like a candle flickering in a strong wind,
echoes, mirages, and phantoms, hallucinations,
and like a dream
A note from Wikipedia
“The word prajnaparamita combines the Sanskrit words prajna “wisdom” with paramita” perfection”. Prajnaparamita is a central concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism and is generally associated with the doctrine of emptiness (Shunyata) or ‘lack of Svabhava’ (essence) and the works of Nagarjuna. Its practice and understanding are taken to be indispensable elements of the Bodhisattva path.”
(1) Published by Broadway Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, New York, 1997
—Dennis Mellersh
Personal Development Ideas 