Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness

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Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness episodes

October 04, 2018 The Dalai Lama on Life, Religion & Education | Inspiration
Listen to episode 306 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Dalai Lama on Life, Religion, and Education. Tibetan Buddhism.
Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, brought to you by the kind financial support of our patrons. Learn how you can support our work, and gain access to full transcripts, by visiting LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you.
Today’s reading was edited and adapted from the writings and talks of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.
“Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive. I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others. I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”
“Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay.”
“Time passes unhindered. When we make mistakes, we cannot turn the clock back and try again. All we can do is use the present well.”
“We can never obtain peace in the outer world, until we make peace with ourselves.”
“There is a saying in Tibet: ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’”
“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.”
“No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.”
“To remain indifferent to the challenges we face is indefensible. If the goal is noble, whether or not it is realized within our lifetime is largely irrelevant. What we must do therefore is to strive, and persevere, and never give up.”
“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation.”
“The true hero is one who conquers their own anger and hatred…..In our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess.”
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15 min
September 18, 2018 Albert Einstein: Thoughts on Science, Religion & Life
Listen to episode 301 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Albert Einstein: Thoughts on Science, Religion & Life. Edited and adapted from the writings of Albert Einstein.
Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. If you are having trouble sleeping, try our Living Hour sleep meditations, which combine the relaxing sounds of the ocean or rain with a binaural beat track and 50 positive affirmations to send you off into a deep and rejuvenating sleep. Learn more by visiting LivingHour.org/ocean. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from the writings of Albert Einstein.
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us the universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
“There are only two ways to live your life: one as though nothing is a miracle, and the other as though everything is a miracle.”
“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge — for knowledge is limited, while imagination encircles the world.”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when we contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if we try merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.”
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
“Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty. Never regard study as duty but as a wonderful opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty, in the realm of the spirit, for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community — to which your later work belongs.”
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether they are the garbage man or the president of the university.”
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13 min
September 04, 2018 C.S. Lewis: Quotes & Wisdom | Inspiration
Listen to episode 297 of the Inspirational Living podcast: C.S. Lewis: Inspirational Quotes & Wisdom. Edited and adapted from the works of C.S. Lewis.
Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living Podcast, brought to you by the kind financial support of listeners like you. To learn how you can become a patron, please visit LivingHour.org/patron. Thank you. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from the works of C.S. Lewis.
“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest… No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond… Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
“We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road. In that case, the person who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”
“Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”
“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make a person a more clever devil… The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
“Even in literature and art, no person who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring a whit how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”
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14 min
August 28, 2018 How to Break Bad Habits | Henry Thomas Hamblin
Listen to episode 295 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Break Bad Habits | Character Building. Edited and adapted from the book Within You is the Power by Henry Thomas Hamblin.
Inspirational Podcast Transcript: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, brought to by the generous financial support of listeners like you. If you would like to give back to our podcast in the way of a donation, please visit LivingHour.org/donate. Your donation will help ensure the continuation of our podcast for years to come. Thank you.
Today’s reading was edited and adapted from Within You is the Power by Henry Thomas Hamblin, published in 1920.
Character building is the greatest object in life. It has been said that character is the only thing we can take with us when we depart this life. That is perfectly true, therefore the object of all religion, mental training, and spiritual development should be the building of character.
A religion that does not build up character is worthless. Those who think that they can slide through life, who make no effort to improve their character, and through believing in a certain creed can miraculously become perfect, simply by dying, are deceiving themselves.
We do not become "perfect" — that is, a person of strong and perfect character — either by believing in a creed or through dying, but by attainment. God helps those who help themselves, and those people who will not strive after better things cut themselves off from all the great and wonderful possibilities of spiritual attainment.
Before, however, thinking about such lofty things as entering the Path of Attainment — and modeling ourselves after the Divine Image — the average person may wish to know how to overcome those bad habits and weaknesses of character which are keeping you down in life, and, possibly, undermining your health.
Most people are conscious of some wrong habits that ought to be overcome, and weaknesses of character which should be eradicated. Possibly they have fought against their habits or weaknesses for years, prayed until they are tired of praying, made innumerable attempts at turning over a new leaf, yet all in vain — for they are as firmly struggling as ever.
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18 min
June 26, 2018 How to Cultivate Courage | Mastering Fear & Anxiety
Listen to episode 277 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Cultivate Courage | Mastering Fear & Anxiety. Edited and adapted from “Thoughts Are Things” by Prentice Mulford.
Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: COURAGE and presence of mind mean the same thing — for presence of mind implies command of mind. Cowardice and lack of mental control also mean about the same thing — for cowardice is rooted in hurry, the habit of hurry or lack of repose.
All degrees of success are based on courage — mental or physical. All degrees of failure are based on timidity. You can cultivate courage and increase it at every minute and hour of the day.
You can have the satisfaction of knowing that in everything you do, you have accomplished two things — namely, the doing of the thing itself and (by the manner of its doing), adding eternally to yourself another atom of the quality of courage. You can do this by the cultivation of deliberation — deliberation of speech, of walk, of writing, of eating — deliberation in everything.
There is always a bit of fear when there is a bit of hurry. When you hurry to the airport, you are in fear that you may be left behind, and with that comes fear of other possibilities resulting from that. When you hurry to work, or a meeting, or an appointment, you are in fear of some negative consequence of not being on time....
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18 min
May 24, 2018 Literary Life Lessons from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Listen to episode 268 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Literary Life Lessons from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Edited and adapted from The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe.
Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. I’d like to thank all of you who’ve taken the time to subscribe to our YouTube channel. I’m only about 45 people short of my goal of 1000 subscribers by the end of the month.
So, if you would like to help me out and subscribe, please visit LivingHour.org/youtube. Or simply go to YouTube, search for the Inspirational Living podcast, and click the subscribe button. Thank you.
Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe. Translated by T. Bailey Saunders, and published in 1906.
THERE is nothing worth thinking but it has been thought before; we must only try to think it again. In the works of humankind, as in those of nature, it is really the motive which is chiefly worth our attention.
How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, but only by doing. Try to do your duty, and you will know at once what you are worth. But what is your duty? The claims of the day.
Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are. If I know what your business is, I know what can be made of you.
Every person must think after their own fashion — for on your own path you find a truth, or a kind of truth, which helps you through life. But you must not give yourself free rein; you must control yourself. Mere naked instinct does not become you. Unbridled activity, of whatever kind, leads at last to bankruptcy.
In Botany there is a species of plants called Incomplete; and just in the same way, it can be said that there are people who are incomplete and imperfect. They are those whose desires and struggles are out of proportion to their actions and achievements. The most insignificant person can be complete if they work within the limits of their capacities (innate or acquired). But even fine talents can be obscured and destroyed by lack of this indispensable requirement of symmetry.
It is only men and women of practical ability, knowing their powers and using them with moderation and prudence, who will be successful in worldly affairs. It is a great error to take yourself for more than you are — or for less than you are worth.

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19 min
May 15, 2018 A Brahmin Guide for Living a Noble Life | Brahman Wisdom
Listen to episode 265 of the Inspirational Living podcast: A Brahmin Guide for Living a Noble Life. Edited and adapted from The Economy of Human Life, translated from an ancient Brahmin manuscript by Robert Dodsley.
Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. With high school and university graduations upon us, you may be looking for the perfect graduation gift. Share a lifetime’s worth of wisdom by giving the new graduate our books of timeless inspirational life lessons—available now in both heirloom hardcover and e-book. Purchase your copies today by visiting our website InspirationalLifeLessons.com. Thank you.
Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Economy of Human Life, translated from an ancient Brahmin Manuscript by Robert Dodsley, published in 1839.
COMMUNE with yourself and consider for what reason you were made. Contemplate your powers, your wants, and your connections — so that you shall discover the duties of life, and be directed in all your ways.
Proceed not to speak or to act before you have weighed your words, and examined the tendency of every step you will take. By doing so, disgrace shall fly far from you, and in your house, shame shall be a stranger; repentance shall not visit you; nor sorrow dwell upon your cheek.
The thoughtless person speaks at random. They are entangled in the foolishness of their own words. They are like the person who runs in haste and leaps over a fence, only to fall into a pit on the other side, which they did not see — for they plunge suddenly into any action, not having considered the consequences.
Hearken therefore unto the voice of Consideration. Her words are the words of wisdom, and her paths shall lead you to truth and safety.

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19 min
May 10, 2018 Gautama Buddha | Inspirational Siddhartha Quotes
Listen to episode 264 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Gautama Buddha | Inspirational Quotes. Edited and adapted from words and thoughts attributed to Gautama Buddha.
Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, brought to you by the generous financial support of listeners like you. Gain access to our exclusive series on spiritual growth by becoming our patron today. Learn more about the series Our Sunday Talks by visiting LivingHour.org/Sunday. Thank you.
Today’s reading has been edited and adapted from words and thoughts attributed to Gautama Buddha.
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
“Three things cannot hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth.”
“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”
“To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.”
“To insist on a spiritual practice that served you in the past is to carry the raft on your back after you have crossed the river.”
“Even as a solid rock is unshaken by the wind, so are the wise unshaken by praise or blame.”
“I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.”
“‎Imagine that every person in the world is enlightened but you. They are all your teachers, each doing just the right things to help you learn perfect patience, perfect wisdom, perfect compassion.”
“Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.”
"Be a lamp unto yourself. Work out your liberation with diligence.”
“A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”

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14 min
February 06, 2018 Carl Jung on Life, God & Religion | Psychotherapy
Listen to episode 237 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Carl Jung on Life, God & Religion. Edited and adapted from the work of Carl Jung.
Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Visit our lifestyle brand BookofZen.com to shop for inspirational fashion and gifts. Proceeds help support the production of our podcast. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.
“The decisive question for humanity is: Are we related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of our lives. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid fixing our interests upon futilities and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance. The more we lay stress on false possessions, and the less sensitivity we have for what is essential, the less satisfying is our life. We feel limited because we have limited aims, and the result is envy and jealousy. If we understand, and feel, that here in this life we already have a link with the infinite, our desires and attitudes change.”
“An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become…..You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.”
“There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness…..As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”

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14 min
February 01, 2018 How to Live a Good Life | Lubbock, Seneca, Epictetus
Listen to episode 236 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Live a Good Life | Lubbock, Seneca, Epictetus. Edited and adapted from edited and adapted from The Use of Life by Sir John Lubbock.
Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. To gain access to the full transcripts of our more than 200 podcasts, please become our monthly patron for less than the price of your favorite Latte. Learn more at LivingHour.org/patron. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from The Use of Life by Sir John Lubbock, published in 1894.
The most important thing to learn in life, is how to live. There is nothing people are so anxious to keep as life, and nothing they take so little pains to keep well. This is no simple matter. "Life is short. Art is long. Opportunity fleeting. Experiment uncertain, and Judgment difficult,'' says Hippocrates.
Happiness and success in life do not depend on our circumstances, but on ourselves. More people have ruined themselves than have ever been destroyed by others: more houses and cities have perished at the hands of men, than storms or earthquakes have ever destroyed."
There are two sorts of ruin; one is the work of time, the other of humankind. Of all ruins, the ruins of humanity are the saddest, and our worst enemy, as Seneca said, is the one in our breast. Providence does not create evil, but gives liberty, and if we misuse it we are sure to suffer, but have only ourselves to blame."
I am sometimes accused of being optimistic. But I have never ignored or denied the troubles and sorrows of life: I have never said that we all are happy, only that we might be so; and that if we aren’t, the fault is generally our own: that most of us throw away more happiness than we enjoy. And this makes it all the more melancholy. In other words, "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been."

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18 min

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