Applied Wisdom

Wisdom Anecdote

I read the following two anecdotes in Huston Smith's classic work - The World's Religions.

He wrote them when discussing Confuius' attempt to instil stories and legends of moral quality witin the fabric of society.

#1 - The King asked: "What would you say of the person who is liked by all his fellow townsmen?"..... "That is not sufficient", was the reply. "What is better is that the good among his fellow townsmen like him, and the bad hate him".

#2 - The Master said: "The well bred are dignified but not pompous, the ill bred are pompous bt not dignified.

 

 

Greatness measured in principle not in possessions

I came across the following mention of Gandhi in Huston Smith's 

50th edition of "The World's  Religions".

It is inspiring to imagine want you can do when you dedicate your life to a vrtuous cause.

 " Gandhi's name became, in the midlle of the twnetieth century, the counterpoise to those of Stalin and Hitler.  The achievement for which the world credited this man, was:

• the British withdrawal from India in peace
• he renamed India's untouchables  harijan, "God's people, and raised them to human stature.

And in doing so he provided the nonviolent strategy as well as the insppiration for Martin Luther King Jr's civil rights movement in the USA."

Gandi was a man who weighed less than a hundred pounds and whose worldy possessions when he died were worth less than two dollars.

Some words of wisdom from a great man:

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."