changing the world

We always feel that we are perfect & 0thers should be corrected..It is like cleaning the mirror instead of cleaning our face".

The world is a mirror. When someone is nasty to you, it is really just a reflection of your own nasty self, so if you want a nasty person to change, look for the nasty aspects of yourself, so  there  is  no  point  in  cleaning  the  Mirror. !!

I Do remember reading Mother Teresa quote It goes something like this:

“If everyone cleaned their own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.”

What does this say to you? To me, it says that we can only change ourselves, and our first priority should be changing our ways and beliefs, cleaning our own doorsteps. Always We want others to change,   we  expect world  to  change as per  our   specification but  somehow it isn't a very exciting prospect when it comes to changing ourselves. Remember this, it’s not the world that needs to change, it’s ourselves, our perspective  towards  LIFE and focussing on  making a difference in the  world matters  a  lot

This desire to change the world all sounds very heroic and noble and grand. But is it possible? Is it really possible to change the world,?, I don’t think it’s possible to change the world. We  need  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  fact that there’s a difference between changing the world, and making a difference in the world, I believe you can do one but you can’t do the other .I think it is possible to make a difference in the world, perhaps to a small handful of the world’s population..

Let me explain with a famous Zen  story which you might have heard already

 A Elderly man was walking along the beach, admiring the beautiful view. As he walked, he noticed that a large group of starfishes had been washed ashore by the receding tide, and they were struggling to get back to the water. The man was saddened by this turn of events, but accepted that there was nothing he could do to change anything.

The man walked on, continuing to notice the large numbers of helpless starfishes, until he saw another man in the distance standing at the water’s edge amongst the starfishes. Curious, the elderly man walked over to him, wandering what he was up to.

As he got closer, the elderly man could see that the younger man was picking up starfishes, one by one, and throwing them back out into the sea. Astonished, the elderly man got close enough for the other man to hear him, and then he called out.

“Hey! What on earth are you doing?”

The younger man turned to him and smiled, then turned back to the sea, still continuing his duty of picking up and throwing starfishes.

“I’m helping these starfishes get back into the ocean.”

The elderly man couldn’t believe it, why was this man wasting his time throwing starfishes back? There were thousands of them here, it would take him days! He voiced his thoughts.

“Why are you throwing them back? There’s thousands of them here, it’ll take you forever! How can you possibly hope to make a difference to these starfishes?”

Remaining calm, the younger man continued his duty without looking at the elderly man. Just as he threw another starfish back into the ocean, he replied.

“I made a difference to that one.”

The moral of the story sums up my point about wanting to make a difference. We can make a difference to individuals, even to groups of people. A rare few of us may even influence whole communities and societies. But to change the world outright? To throw thousands of Starfish no its  quite  difficult

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.and the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.

One  of  the  other things  I  learned  over  a  period  of  time  is  accepting  people  as  they  are  with  all  their  flaws   after all  we  are  all  human beings and  prone  to  make  mistake

“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however,

I think it’s important to remember that we are all human and prone to make mistakes. Holding people to unreasonable standards will only create more unnecessary conflicts in your world

“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”

There is pretty much always something good in people. And things that may not be so good. But you can choose what things to focus on. And if you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive instead  of trying  to  change  them  Completely

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy