4 Wise Elders: On What to Do With Challenges (Heroic +1 #1,403)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last plus one we talked about Yogananda's advice on what to do when we face tough times. As you may recall, the wise guru encouraged us to think of every trial as a pickaxe with which to dig into the soil of your consciousness and release the fountain of spiritual strength that lies within me. Exploding head emoji. How about you? Yogananda's wisdom and the idea of not complaining every time it gets hard makes me think of Rumi and some of his poetic wisdom on fearlessness. From our notes on Rumi Daylight, in which Rumi tells us, and I quote, this discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away. Note. I often repeat that to myself when I'm going through challenging times. I'll throw that wisdom into the old brain along with this roomy gem. He tells us, if you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished? And that's today's plus one. Are you facing any challenges? Of course. You are all caps. You're a human and B a human committed to living heroically perfect. The question is, what thoughts are you allowing to permeate your mind? Here's to keeping Yogananda and Rumi in mind. And while you're at it, how about keeping this Aurelius gem in mind as well? The great philosopher emperor tells us, your mind will be like its habitual thoughts for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as for example, where life is possible at all, a right life is possible, by the way. Fun fact. Anytime I think of Rumi, I think of a little philosophical pilgrimage I made when I was a young man with considerably more hair. After selling my first business, I became a philosopher, a lover of wisdom. And I read a lot and and traveled a bit. As part of that I studied Socrates in Athens, Jesus in Jerusalem, Rumi in Konya, Turkey, and Aurelius near the Danube in Hungary. So to make sure all those wise elders are represented, how about we soak up some parallel wisdom from Socrates and Jesus to send us on our way today? In Discover the Power within youn, one of Oprah's all time favorite books by the way. Check out the notes. Eric Butterworth tells us, and I quote, the admonition to go the second mile relates to the right of the Roman soldiers in Jesus time to compel subject peoples to carry their burdens for one mile it was the imposition of despotism. But the subject people could do nothing about it. Jesus indicates an uncommon sense way of doing something about it. They could break their bonds of enslavement by doing what was demanded of them as if they really enjoyed doing it. And that doesn't make sense, does it? When you go the second mile, give more to your work, are more thoughtful and kind to people, become a joyous giver and a gracious receiver. Suddenly life takes on new meaning. On the second mile, you find true happiness, true friends, real satisfaction in living, and probably a larger paycheck too. Now that is a pretty powerful way to deal with challenging things, huh? Then there's Socrates. Plato has him tell us in one of his dialogues, I desire only to know the truth and to live as well as I can, and to the utmost of my power. I exhort all other people to do the same. I exhort you to also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life and greater than every other earthly conflict. Amen. Here's to bringing a pickaxe to our challenges. As we burn away the dross, soak our minds in right thoughts, go the extra mile and joyfully engage in the great combat of life. Day one. All in. Let's go, hero.