25 Spiritual Lessons

Post written by Sofo

There are many lessons we can learn during the course of our lives that can help us overcome our problems and live in contentment.

In this post I would like to share some of the greatest such lessons I have learned. For this reason I have compiled a list of 25 spiritual lessons that I find of utmost importance that anyone should try to understand and always keep in mind:

1. Never let anyone’s behavior tell you what to do. You are a free being and responsible for your actions.
2. We are all connected. If you help another being, you are helping yourself. If you hurt another being, you are bound to hurt yourself.
3. Don’t be afraid of painful experiences. Pain is neither good nor bad in itself, but we can deal with it in good and bad ways.
4. When you drop all desires and expectations about how people should be, you will never feel deceived or hurt again.
5. All fears ultimately come down to the fear of death. Unless you become familiar with the idea of death, you will never be able to truly live care-free.
6. You cannot know more about another person than you can know about yourself. And the more you get to know yourself, the better you will understand others.
7. True love can never be hurt, because it gives without asking anything in return. So even if love is unseen or rejected by those at whom it is directed, it keeps on being what it is.
8. Pleasure and pain are two aspects of the same coin. You can never have one without the other.
9. By treating the symptom you won’t cure the disease. Instead, try to get rid of the root-cause.
10. There is no God higher than Truth.
11. Don’t focus you attention on what people say or do. Rather, seek to find out their motive for speaking and acting the way they do (this also applies to yourself).
12. Speak the truth, no matter what the consequences. Being honest is the only way to be at peace with yourself and others.
13. Possessions can possess you. Let go of your attachments to your belongings.
14. We all come to this world alone and leave this world alone. Don’t be afraid to be experience aloneness, because only in this way will you be able to confront yourself as you truly are.
15. Never submit yourself to any relationship. True friendship can flower only under the sun of mutual respect.
16. When you lose a friend, don’t hurry to replace him with another one. Instead, find the space to examine your heartache.
17. Sometimes your enemies can help you more than your friends. Enemies are always willing to point out to the negative aspects of yourself.
18. Gratification does not mean contentment. Gratification comes and goes, contentment stays with you forever.
19. Don’t mistake desire for love. Desire is a passionate fire, love is calm breeze.
20. Everyone is motivated either by fear or by love. Choose to be motivated by love.
21. Seek to change yourself, not the world. Unless you embody the change you  want to see in the world, the world will remain the same for you.
22. Don’t try to escape from unpleasant experiences with others. See this as an opportunity to better understand people, instead of projecting your own images on them.
23. There is no knowledge other than self-knowledge. Unless what you get to know transforms yourself, it cannot be called true knowledge.
24. Your beliefs shape your perceptions, just like sunglasses color what you see.
25. Don’t imitate others. Create your own path and walk on it.