Here’s a formula I can use to improve my life. I imagine that tomorrow is my last day. Knowing this, I ask if yesterday was a day well lived. If I could have done better, I try to make the most of today. Repeat daily.

If you keep your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground, you will become a very tall person.

The force of habit is very strong. If I could just make a few habits good ones, the Force would be with me.

Do not see yourself in the uneven mirror of other people’s perceptions.

If you want to see Heaven, you will have to die yourself.

Look for solitude among the crowd. Look for silence among the screams. Look for serenity among the chaos. Be like the lotus flower, that lives in the swamp yet rises above it.

The Universe only sends weak signals of opportunity. Listen carefully and act early.

The best conversations I can have are with myself. The best work I can do is inner work. But I am too busy talking with everyone around me. And I am too busy working on what matters to others.

If you feel you are fully in control of your life, you aren’t driving fast enough. If you aren’t failing, you aren’t aiming high enough.

The sweeter you want your tea to be, the more sugar you have to put into it.

A student called me for advice on choosing among three excellent job offers. I told her to choose the job that is closest to her passion and furthest from her comfort zone.

We weave the fabric of life with the warp of actions and the weft of relationships.

The only way to walk with you is to walk by your side. If I try to lead or to follow, I walk alone.

Social media has expanded my peripheral circle of acquaintances, but it has shrunk my core circle of friends.

I should click less on “Like” and connect more with those I like.

When you are angry with me, you offer me the gift of negativity. When I react, I accept your gift, and I am obligated to return it. Can we stop this tradition of exchanging gifts?

You said that it was good to see me again. But I am not who I was yesterday. I have laughed. I have cried. I have loved. I have learned. I have grown. Tomorrow will be a new day. And I will be a new me.

Write mindfully. Your words are like ripples on a pond. They will travel farther and touch more people than you know.

Even though the present is but a moment, treat it as eternity. This moment is all there is.

Imagine for a moment what you could lose in an instant. Your health. Your wealth. Your home. Your family. Your job. Your love. Only when we think about what can be taken away from us do we realize how much we have been given.

This morning, I woke up to see snow falling gently in my garden. The decaying leaves and naked trees were covered with a fresh white blanket. Nature was showing me the dance of death and renewal.

I hide behind so many masks. If it is such an effort to be myself, who is the real me?

A camera cannot photograph itself.

Crutches are not legs, lenses are not eyes, assumptions are not facts.

Give without expectations. The Universe will pay you back. Just not how you expect. Or when you expect.

कल मैं रिश्तों के धागों को ले कर बैठा था 
कुछ धागों को ढूंढ रहा था याद करने के लिए 
और कुछ को उधेड़ रहा था भुलाने के लिए

कुछ धागों में गांठें थीं जिन्हें मैं सुलझा रहा था
कुछ कमजोर हो गए थे जिन्हें मैंने ध्यान न दिया था
और कुछ धागे टूट गए थे जिन रिश्तों को मैंने काट दिया था

कुछ नए धागे मिलने लगे जो धीरे-धीरे मेरी ज़िंदगी में आ रहे थे
कुछ धागों को वक्त के साथ सहेजना है 
और कुछ को धीरे-धीरे छोड़ देना है

जैसे-जैसे मेरी ज़िंदगी बढ़ती गई ना जाने वो रिश्तों के धागे किधर गए 
कहां ले गई उन सबकी तक़दीर उनको 
वो सलामत भी हैं कि उनकी डोर कट गई

मैंने ध्यान से देखा अपने धागों को तो पाया कि इनमें कुछ लाल धागे हैं 
जो अलग से दिखते हैं जैसे ऐलान कर रहे हों कि हमको खींचो
जब मैंने लाल धागों को उठाया तो मेरे अंदर से खिंचाव सा लगा 
जैसे कि वो धागे मेरी रूह से जुड़े हों एक अंदरूनी अनसुनी आवाज़ आई 
इन लाल धागों को संभाल के रखना ये तेरे खास प्रेम के रिश्ते हैं

धागे हज़ारों होंगे तेरी दुनिया में पर वो सब कच्चे धागे हैं 
देखने में रंगीन  दिखते हैं पर ज़रूरत के वक्त काम न आएंगे 
जब गिरोगे तो उनको पकड़ न पाओगे 
वो चंद लाल धागे ही तुम्हें सहारा देंगे

मैं अब रिश्तों के धागों का राज़ जान गया हूँ 
अब मैं लाल धागों को आपस में बुन कर एक चादर बना रहा हूँ
ये चादर मुझे सुकून देगी

जब इस दुनिया से अलविदा कहूँगा
तो मेरे शरीर को इस चादर में लपेट देना
यही चादर मेरा कफन बनेगी 
और मेरी विरासत भी।

Threads of Relationships

I sat down one day with the threads of my relationships 
Pulling some closer to remember
Unraveling others to forget.

Some threads had knots that I worked to untangle
Some had weakened because I had neglected them
And some had broken, the ones I had cut away.

Some new threads began to find me
Making their way slowly into my life
Some I must preserve with time
And others I will slowly let go

As my life moved forward, I lost sight of some threads went
Whether they are still well, or whether their thread has been severed

When I looked closely at my threads, I saw that some among them were red
Standing apart from the rest, as if calling out, “Pull us closer.” 
When I picked up those red threads, I felt a tug deep within
As if they were tied to my soul. 
An inner, unheard voice whispered
“Guard these red threads. 
They are your bonds of true love.”

You may have thousands of threads, but most are fragile.
They may seem colorful, but in moments of need they will not help.
When you fall, you cannot grasp them.
Only those few red threads will give you support.

Now I understand the secret of my threads. 
I am weaving the red threads together into a blanket 
This blanket will bring me solace.

When I bid farewell to this world
Wrap my body in this blanket. 
It will be my shroud
And my legacy.

When we visit a place of worship, we offer flowers as a symbol of our devotion. We take great care to bring fresh and fragrant flowers. We want our offering to be as pristine as possible. We would never offer wilted flowers in a temple or a church.

And yet, we offer wilted flowers every day. The wilted flowers are our own selves. We wait to offer ourselves until our body has become frail, our mind has decayed, our age has advanced, and our energies have been spent. We give God the leftovers.

As the Ninth Sikh Master, Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, reminds us in Salok Mahala 9 (Ang 1426, Sri Guru Granth Sahib):

ਤਰਨਾਪੋ ਇਉ ਹੀ ਗਇਓ ਲੀਓ ਜਰਾ ਤਨੁ ਜੀਤਿ ॥ ਕਹੁ ਨਾਨਕ ਭਜੁ ਹਰਿ ਮਨਾ ਅਉਧ ਜਾਤੁ ਹੈ ਬੀਤਿ ॥੩॥

tarnāpo iu hī gaïo līo jarā tanu jīti. kahu nānak bhaju hari manā aüdh jātu hai bīti. ॥3॥

Your youth has passed away like this, and old age has overtaken your body. Says Nanak, meditate upon the Lord, O mind; your life is fleeting away.

ਬਿਰਧਿ ਭਇਓ ਸੂਝੈ ਨਹੀ ਕਾਲੁ ਪਹੂਚਿਓ ਆਨਿ ॥ ਕਹੁ ਨਾਨਕ ਨਰ ਬਾਵਰੇ ਕਿਉ ਨ ਭਜੈ ਭਗਵਾਨੁ ॥੪॥

biradhi bhaio sūjhai nahī kālu pahūchio āni. kahu nānak nar bāvare kiu na bhajai bhagavānu. ॥4॥

You have grown old, and still you do not understand that death is overtaking you. Says Nanak, O bewildered man! Why do you not remember God?

We rarely seed, weed, and feed the garden of spirituality when we are young and full of energy. We tell ourselves that there will always be tomorrow, when our material pursuits have been completed and we can finally find the time and energy for meditation and philanthropy. We keep kicking the can down the road, not realizing that this road of life may end at any time. We may never reach that tomorrow when we slow down to give thanks to the Universe and to pursue a higher purpose than day-to-day material existence.

My wife made an interesting observation about our vacations. She noted that it takes several days to orient ourselves to a new place: figuring out the roads, the places to eat, the places to shop. Just when we seem to have figured things out, it is time to leave. We rarely have time to enjoy the benefits of what we have learned. It is the same with life. By the time we have figured out what it is all about, it is time for us to depart this Earth. We leave with regrets about what we should have done and who we could have become.

Don’t wait for the flowers to wilt. Don’t put off that fitness regime, that healthy eating plan, that visit to the temple, that charitable cause you wanted to pursue, that spiritual work you have always wanted to do. Use your energy and your time when they are abundant. Don’t wait until you are old, infirm, and too sick to actualize your purpose. You are the freshest and most fragrant flower at this moment. You will only lose this freshness and fragrance as time advances. Today is the day.

My students will forget most of the concepts I teach them. But they will remember how I taught them to think about the concepts.

Knowledge is putting stuff in. Wisdom is taking stuff out. Know the difference.

I asked a wise man: when will I get the answers to my questions? His response: the moment you stop focusing on the questions.

A gardener grafts new shoots on old roots to make great fruit. Stay rooted in timeless wisdom but keep growing with timely knowledge.

Seek out different people. Watch weird TV shows. Read strange books. Visit unsung places. Sameness is stasis.

If your bowl is empty, it will always keep filling. If your bowl is full, it will always overflow.

I was struggling to understand a concept. So I taught it to my students. To teach something is to truly know it yourself.

If you believe you have nothing more to learn, you won’t.

Don’t focus so much on winning that you forget to enjoy the game.

Success teaches me very little. If my boat never rocked, I would think the ocean was only a surface.

I searched the world for answers to my questions. Little did I know that the answers were always within me. I am like the musk deer, who spends its life searching the forest for the scent that lives deep within its own body.

You came with nothing. You will leave with nothing. Build your Karmic assets. I believe you can take these with you.

Temporary! Temporary! Temporary! This too shall pass.

When there was I, You were invisible. When there is You, I has disappeared.

Whenever I feel important and immortal, I remind myself that I am an insignificant speck of life destined to exist for an infinitesimal moment.

The wave thinks it rises above the ocean. It does not realize that it is the ocean. It arises from the ocean, and it will return to the ocean.

My scriptures and my elders are deep wells of wisdom to drink from. So why do I keep trying to quench my thirst in the shallow pool of my own experiences?

When you close the doors of perception, you open the window into the soul.