Tuesday, January 5, 2016

As you deeply think so it shall happen

yat bhaavam tat bhavati  यत्भावं  तत्  भवति 
In her personal journal as well as in her short stories, Katherine Mansfield showed a special interest in exploring the psychological underpinnings of much human conduct.  

   "Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently,
    but life itself would come to be different.
    Life would undergo a change of appearance because
    we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude."

   "If you wish to live, you must first attend your own funeral."

In this observation, Mansfield recommends that -- no matter what our current age -- we imagine our own death.  The basic idea is to think about who will show up at our funeral, and what will be said about us in the eulogies.  It's an old idea, but a good one, and most recently suggested by Stephen R. Covey in his book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" (1989).  His Second Habit is called "Begin with the End in Mind

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