I want to share profound insights gained while speaking to a gathering the other day. These truths may challenge your perspective on life.
True Value
True happiness manifests differently than most expect. Consider who is truly valued:
- Those who recognize their spirituality is lacking while pursuing wealth – understanding that material success and social status aren’t the path to happiness or fulfillment – they will find true fulfillment
- Those who mourn – who feel deeply and acknowledge suffering rather than turning away from it – they will find true comfort
- The humble – those who lift others up instead of promoting themselves – they will find admiration
- Those who hunger for justice – who work tirelessly to peacefully right wrongs rather than accepting the status quo – they will find fairness
- The merciful – who choose to understand others over judgment of them, knowing we all fall short – they will receive mercy
- Those with authentic integrity – who do right because it is right, not for recognition or reward – they will be truly rewarded
- The peacemakers – who bridge divides and heal conflicts rather than inflaming them – they will be respected as society’s true pillars in time
- Those persecuted for doing the right thing – who stand firm for factual truth despite opposition to it and threats from the powerful – they will be rewarded beyond measure
When others mock you, persecute you, and speak falsely against you because you seek to live a truly good and spiritual life, be happy about it. Your rewards will be real and tangible. Remember, all those who spoke truth to power before you faced the same.
Essence and Light
You are like clean water to a thirsty world. But if water becomes contaminated, it loses its value. Like pure water that sustains and nourishes, your presence should make the world better.
You should become the light of the world. Any city built on a hill cannot be hidden because of the lights. No one lights a flashlight to place it under a pillow. Instead, they hold it to illuminate the path or the room. Your actions should serve as a light for others, not through preaching, but through living with peace and genuine integrity.
Be an example for others. When they witness you helping people in need, they will recognize it and do the same. This is how to truly be a good person.
Living with Purpose
You may think the goal is to abolish old principles (including old religious principles) of “living well”. I don’t want to destroy them, but I do believe that living this life well, will fulfill their true purpose. Rather than blindly follow rituals seek to be truly good. Just as the construction of a building needs a blueprint, these principles guide the building of a truly meaningful life.
On Anger and Relationships
You’ve heard it said that killing is wrong. But I tell you that harboring anger is equally destructive. If you’re carrying resentment toward someone, stop what you’re doing and make it right. Resolution matters more than ritual.
You have probably heard the old saying “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die”, these words couldn’t be more true. Anger follows you, and makes you unhappy, people today are addicted to it. Deal with conflicts quickly, before they grow into something worse. It’s better to resolve a small disagreement today than have them escalate.
On Integrity
Make your words mean something. Don’t make elaborate promises or sworn statements. Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no. Anything beyond this comes from a place of dishonesty.
When people trust your word completely, you don’t need to add extra assurances. Your consistent truthfulness speaks louder than any promise you could make or “I swear” you could offer.
On Breaking the Cycle
You’ve heard people say “an eye for an eye.” But that is escalation and will result in them taking your leg tomorrow. Break the cycle of escalation and retaliation. If someone wrongs you, don’t retaliate, don’t escalate it.
If someone demands your time, give it freely. If someone needs help, provide it. When someone treats you as an enemy, respond with genuine goodwill. Anyone can be kind to friends – real character shows in how you treat those who oppose you. Your integrity shouldn’t depend on how others treat you.
On Authentic Goodness
When you help others, don’t broadcast it. Those who showcase their generosity seek publicity and praise, these are shallow and temporary. True giving happens quietly – help others because it’s right, not for recognition.
On The Burden of Wealth
The endless pursuit of wealth is a trap that few escape. Those who accumulate great riches often find themselves imprisoned by them. It’s like trying to carry water in your hand – the tighter you grip it, the more slips through your fingers.
The wealthy often believe their success comes from their wisdom, yet their wealth can blind them to life’s deeper truths. They build bigger houses but find less peace within them. They secure their futures but lose sleep over protecting their assets. They gain the world’s respect but lose their inner happiness.
True prosperity isn’t measured by what you own, but by what owns you. Those with the least material possessions are often the most free to live authentically. The more you own, the more you must manage, maintain, and protect – until your possessions possess you.
Ask yourself: Are you accumulating wealth to live more fulfilling life today, or living less to accumulate wealth? The truth is, beyond meeting basic needs, more possessions rarely lead to more fulfillment and happiness. Those who chase wealth are like people dying of thirst while carrying gold – they have everything except what they truly need.
It is more likely that a pig will fly, than a rich person will be truly happy. You can’t serve both good principles and the pursuit of wealth – one will always take precedence. Look at nature: birds don’t worry about their next meal, yet they thrive. Flowers don’t stress about their appearance, yet they’re beautiful. Worry won’t add an hour to your life or solve tomorrow’s problems.
Focus on what truly matters. Address today’s challenges; tomorrow will bring its own. Do not focus on money or wealth focus on happiness and being a good person. When you prioritize doing what’s right, everything else falls into place.
On Judgment
Before criticizing others’ flaws, examine your own. It’s absurd to point out how someone else lives or acts when you’re shouting hate at strangers. Fix yourself, stop trying to fix others.
On Seeking and Finding
Keep asking, keep seeking, keep learning, keep growing. Those who persist will find real answers to happiness. If someone asks you for bread, you wouldn’t give them a stone. If imperfect people know how to give good gifts, imagine how much good comes to those who earnestly seek to be good people.
The Two Paths
There are two paths in life: the easy way that many travel, leading to emptiness, and the challenging path that few choose, leading to fulfillment. Choose wisely.
True Character
Judge people by their actions, not their words. A healthy tree produces good fruit; a toxic tree produces bad fruit. You’ll know people’s true nature by the results of their actions, not their claims.
Building on Solid Ground
Anyone who hears these principles and lives by them is like someone who builds their house on bedrock. When storms come – and they will – the house stands firm. But those who hear and ignore these teachings build on sand. When life’s storms hit, everything collapses.
The Essential Truth
Everything I’ve shared comes down to this: Treat others as you wish to be treated. This simple principle contains all the wisdom you need. It’s not complicated, but it is challenging.
Some will hear these words and nod in agreement, then continue living as before. They build their lives in a swamp that it will sink into. But those who truly understand and live by the principles of being a truly decent and good person to others build their lives on bedrock that will stand. When life’s storms come – and they will come to everyone – those built on sand will not have support, while those on bedrock will have what they need to get through it.
The choice is yours: just hear these words, or do your best to live them.
TheGrayJedi 