"The first step to negotiating our karma is by choosing to behave in a better way. And the best way to do that is to provide ourselves with conditions that support our decisions.
If you want to stop drinking alcohol, the first step is to stop going to the bar.
You may think that spending time with drug-using friends is okay; you aren't doing drugs, so what's the harm? But being with them puts you in certain conditions. It's like the example we gave of fire: if the elements that create it are brought together, only certain results can come of it. It is a law: if you place certain things together, then there will be definite results. So, if you spend time with peaceful, serene people, it will have an effect on you. And if you spend time in bars, it will have an effect on you. This is unavoidable."
"If thou canst not make thine own self what thou desireth, how shalt thou be able to fashion another to thine own liking. We are ready to see others made perfect, and yet we do not amend our own shortcomings."
—Thomas à Kempis
"The first step to negotiating our karma is by choosing to behave in a better way. And the best way to do that is to provide ourselves with conditions that support our decisions.
If you want to stop drinking alcohol, the first step is to stop going to the bar.
You may think that spending time with drug-using friends is okay; you aren't doing drugs, so what's the harm? But being with them puts you in certain conditions. It's like the example we gave of fire: if the elements that create it are brought together, only certain results can come of it. It is a law: if you place certain things together, then there will be definite results. So, if you spend time with peaceful, serene people, it will have an effect on you. And if you spend time in bars, it will have an effect on you. This is unavoidable."
"If thou canst not make thine own self what thou desireth, how shalt thou be able to fashion another to thine own liking. We are ready to see others made perfect, and yet we do not amend our own shortcomings."
—Thomas à Kempis
Books for Prisons