Money Quotes

I get newsletters about different topics everyday. Today, in one of them there was a link with 64 money quotes from famous people. Let me share some with you:

2. "For I don't care too much for money, for money can't buy me love." - The Beatles
5. "Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time." - Jim Rohn

7. "Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort." - Helen Gurley Brown

12. "If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people He gives it to." - Dorothy Parker

27. "A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it." - Bob Hope

33. "Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like." - Will Smith
39. "So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?" - Ayn Rand

40. "Dogs have no money. Isn't that amazing? They're broke their entire lives. But they get through. You know why dogs have no money? .. No Pockets." - Jerry Seinfeld

48. "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." - Oscar Wilde

50. "Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil." - Henry Fielding

52. "Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one." - Benjamin Franklin

54. "The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money." - Thomas Jefferson

55. "Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work." - Robert Orben

57. "Money will buy you a fine dog, but only love can make it wag its tail" - Richard Friedman

61. "Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune." - Jim Rohn

64. "It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy." - George Lorimer

For the complete list click here.

Compassion goes scientific

Have you ever wondered what is the effect of meditation on brain-wave patterns? Do you think it is possible to scientifically measure kindness and compassion and put them in a scientific model?

A research lab called Center For Investigating Healthy Minds, founded by Dr. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, has just received a $50,000 USD from none other than the Dalai Lama to fund the Center's research on kindness and compassion.

If you would like to take a look at the story covered by the NYT click here.

It is undoubtely a challenging quest and I sincerely hope it will succeed.

Vipassana Meditation Course

In reaction to the previous article posted by Rodrigo, I'd like to express my admiration to Ms. K. for the step she is taking, wish her all the best on her journey and I hope that she will find what she is looking for... For those who'd like to find their inner calmness and long-lasting happiness but cannot (or don't want to) leave for such a long time, I'd like to share some information about a ten days Vipassana Meditation course. I haven't attended this course, however I met one man who experienced it and he stated that it was one of the most enriching and helpful experiences of his life.

Vipassana Meditation is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation (more than 2500 years ago), which was taught as a universal remedy for universal ills, as an art of living. "Vipassana" means "to see things as they really are". It is a process of self-purification by self-observation which is described as following: One begins by observing the natural breath to concentrate the mind. Then, with a sharpened awareness, one proceeds to observe the changing nature of body and mind and experiences the universal truths of impermanence, suffering and egolessness. This truth-realization by direct experience results in mental purification.

Courses of Vipassana Meditation are provided by S. N. Goenka or one of his assistant teachers and last ten days. They are held several times a year throughout the whole world (see the schedules here) and are run solely on a donation basis. The money collected after the course is used to facilitate the lessons for future atendees.

Here comes the tough part. There is a code of discipline that everybody needs to follow during the ten day course: You are not allowed to drink alcohol, take drugs, smoke, have sex, use mobile phones or computers, wear provoking clothes or be naked, lie, communicate with other participants, do exercise, read, write, play musical instruments... to summarize, you are not allowed to do anything else than meditate, discuss with the teacher, eat and sleep (but only when you are supposed to do so). The rules are so strict in order to ensure that everybody is fully concentrated on their minds and doesn't get distracted. And the schedule? You wake up at 4 a.m. and meditate basically the whole day untill 9.30 p.m., you only have breaks for eating. Vegetarian food is provided (free), it is not permitted to bring your own food or to fast.

Really extreme, don't you think? No wonder that many people leave the course prematurely. The majority of the attendees go through heavy depressions during the course as the deepest, unconscious "mess" comes up to the surface. However, those who stay till the end manage to get rid of this internal mess and traumas that have been accumulated since they were born and therefore purify their minds. This allowes them to find their inner calmness and long-lasting happiness.

What do you think, is it worth the ten days suffering? Do you know a less painfull but equally (or more) efficient way how to reach the same?

Looking forward to your comments.

Namaste.

Nourishing our spirit

I would like to share a message I got a few days ago from a friend of mine. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do and that you find it inspiring. I will not post her email out of respect for her privacy but if I get her permission I will post the address.

September 13 at 2:44pm
Dear amazing beings,

This message is to let you know that I will be disactivating my FB account for some time (not sure how long) because I am voluntarily choosing to loosen up a little bit my attachments.. It's not easy to do that but I believe (and experienced) that inner calmness and long-lasting happiness comes from loving others (and the world) freely and without clinging. Desiring or needing specific pleasures in our life is what causes harm to our emotional being because when we don't get what we want, we usually suffer (or at least I do:).

As a result, I decided to leave NYC for some time and move to a meditation retreat center where I will volunteer, do some work practice, meditate a little bit, and just be.. mindful.. The program is initially for 3 months, afterwards let's see if we will extend my stay. That said, although Facebook is obviously a great way how to connect with people when you are away, it can also be quite distracting. And because I do feel weak from time to time about my own spiritual path, seeing you doing a lot of fun stuff might make me desire too much to be with you (wherever you are:)

Deciding to come to the center, there were two things that were difficult to give up - my life in NYC with all my friends and my plans for short-term future. However, I strongly feel that taking some time for "nourishing our spirit" is an investment for our whole life - establishing a foundation of mindfulness through our spiritual practice (whatever the path is) is something you will never loose or regret. Personally, mindfulness helps me to be aware of my emotions, thoughts, and.. the present moment!:) To quote one of my favorite authors, Thich Nhat Hahn:

“The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment. Practicing conscious breathing, being aware of each thought or action, we are fully alive in the present moment. Channeling our energies toward being aware of what is going on in the present moment, we discover peace and happiness that are available right now. The well is within us.”

Honestly, sometimes it's not easy to "be mindful" and that's why I decided to surround myself with an environment that will help me strengthen this practice by allowing me to learn more about myself. Since I would like to focus my future career on helping others, I want to establish really healthy mental well-being to be able to serve the world in the best way I could.

Sooooo, the purpose of this long message is: to let you know what I'm doing with my life, why I'm leaving FB, and.. if you want to connect with me, to give you my email (if you don't have it already) so that I can hear also about your life, your journey, your desires, or your weaknesses:)

My email ***** so please write me, even if just a few lines, I will be happy that you are thinking of me:)I'm sending you a lot of love.. Let's pray together for clarity of mind in whatever we are doing..

K***

Fisherman, Model and Yoga Teacher

Yesterday, I was watching a very good talk show. Among the invitees, there was a fisherman (a very special one as you will see), a top model and a yoga teacher. All three have a very interesting history.

The first guy invited was a son of a very famous composer and was supposed to become one as well or at least to dedicate himself to music, but one day he revolted to his father's will, left the music academy, his country and became kind of a fisherman. He spent years in different parts of the world including Amazonia and visited places of the Earth that were never visited by a white man before. He was living with jungle tribes and of course, he was hunting fish. He owns many world records because he managed to capture (and let free again) a high number of fish that were several meters long and looked like prahistoric creatures. He filmed some of his journeys for National Geographic as well and was a guest of Jay Leno's talk show as one of a few foreign invitees in the history of the show. Btw, I've learned a very interesting recipe from him (unfortunately not suitable for vegatarians): Cover big jungle worms in the stinky mud where everybody wash their feet, and let it dry in the hot sun. You get tasty crisps... well, not so badly tasting crisps, at the end you have to eat something to survive... ;-)

The second guest was a vary famous top model that left her small home town at the age of 15 and went to a casting directly to Paris because she wanted to be a top model. She presented herself there with a dress that her sister sewed for her (so you can imagine LOL). And she has made it. Nowadays, she belongs to the most famous world top models. Although she is not the youngest one anymore, she still looks gorgeous... she is pregnant, very happy with her new husband and still successfully working as a model.

The third invitee was a guy that spent ten years in a prison in India (FYI, for smuggling more then two kg of hashish. =D ) He stated that in the prison, you can go or down (heroin, AIDS,...) or up (educate yourself, use the time for your personal growth). He chose the second option, started to read books and saint writings and volunteered to teach yoga in the prison. Soon, he became very famous in the country as he was the only one foreign yoga teacher in India who was moreover teaching in a prison. He said something interesting and very true: That the leader is simply the one who gets up first and does the thing.

As you can see, these people have very different lifes, very rich and unusual experiences. It has been very inspiring for me to listen to their life stories. What do they have in common? All of them did something unusual and "big" in their lifes. They decided to follow their "internal voice" or how you want to call it and do what they wanted to do, no matter how crazy their idea seemed to be to other people and no matter what circumstances they were facing. They became very successful and reached their happiness.

We always have a choice and we are always free to do anything we want in our lifes in order to feel good and fulfilled.

Namaste.

Nutrition data

If youre wondering whether you are eating right, getting enough protein, vitamins, carbohydrates ect. then check out this webpage: www.nutritiondata.com
Especially for vegetarians it could be useful to check if your diet is sustainable or not.
It has the most extensive list of any food items I have seen online. You enter the food you ate on a list, find it, and it gives you the caloric content of what you ate along with the nutrition information. It also has a "better choices" option you can click on so that if you want something healthier or something less caloric, it would recommend you something.
It also ranges food in a parametre of "optimal health", "fulness factor", and whether it is good for weight loss or weight gain.

again: www.nutritiondata.com

New contributors!!

I am quite sure you have seen that the blog is getting richer. Not only we are welcoming more visitors but also we are getting more writers!


Luisenko as a first post chose to write about personal awareness. Katrine is delighting us with some delicious recipes and Petra has been writting about different topics.

With this post I would like to thank Luisenko, Katrine and Petra for their valuable contributions and you for reading and keeping this blog alive!

On the other hand, on behalf of the current contributors I would like to encourage you to make comments and/or suggestions and to invite your friends and family to our blog. It is extremely important for us not only to get visitors but mostly to get feedback from you! We would like to know if you have found our posts useful, funny, interesting or even dumb. Moreover, if you would like to become an active contributor please drop us a line to info@harmonicworld.org and we can sort it out. I cannot stress this enough: this blog is as ours as it is yours and the more contributors we get the better!

By the way, have you noticed that at the bottom there is a Flag Counter? We've got over 600 visits from lots of countries but we are still behind our goal, so please join our effort!

From our hearts to yours.

Nut pudding

Nuts is a good source of protein for vegetarians.

You'll need:
-6 ounces of almonds and 6 ounces of walnuts
Whites of 4 eggs
4 ounces of bread crumbs
salt
pepper

Grind the nuts two or three times through a good nut mill or in a food processor;
Add the bread crumbs.
Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, add the flavoring, and mix all well together.
Bake for 40 min in the oven at 180 degrees celsius
Lovely!

If you are lost, go to the nearest lamp

When you need to call for help but you are not able to identify where in Prague you are, just go to the nearest lamp in the street.

Does this sound weird to you?

It probably does... =D

But it works.

How is it possible?

On each lamp in the street, you will find a label with a unique number, usually at eye-level. This system of labels allows the rescuer (155 ambulance, 150 firemen, 158 police or 112 European emergency call) to allocate the caller with accuracy of a couple of meters! This system works also for example in Liberec, Ceska Lipa, Most, Hradec Kralove or Kostelec nad Cernymi lesy.

A similar system is used also at railway crossings in the Czech Republic so if your car gets stuck on the tracks, don't panic and immediately look for a white label that is pasted at the back of the sign "railway crossing", on the railway cross or at the back of the traffic lights. Then call 112. If you manage to do this quickly, you have a high chance to prevent a collision with the train.

I deeply hope that you will never need to look for the label, however, it is definitely useful to know this, just in case.

Namaste.