A Gift for My Daughter

A Gift for My Daughter

by Harry Browne (June 17, 1933 - March 1, 2006)

(This article was originally published as a syndicated newspaper column, dedicated to my 9-year-old daughter.)

December 25, 1966

http://harrybrowne.org/articles/GiftDaughter.htm

People who gave their souls away

A few men, fighting each other, do not make a war. A hundred, five hundred, ten thousand men, fighting each other, make at most a riot. Only a government can make war. So long as any large group of persons, anywhere on this earth, believes the ancient superstition that some Authority is responsible for their welfare, they will set up some image of that Authority and try to obey it. And the result will be poverty and war.

Discovery of Freedom by Rose Wilder Lane, 1886-1968

http://mises.org/books/discovery.pdf

Majority of the People

July 9, 2006 Email from Darren - a friend

The majority of men and women are ignorant, full of prejudice, and greed. A few are power hungry. Mix them up and you have government.

No law empowering the government would have passed without the majority being foolish. It is through greed and stupidity that men have given government the power to take away their liberty, albeit only gradually in the so called developed countries.

Change the term government by "the majority of the people" and you get the picture.

Don't Invite the Devil

If you really want to cure a pressing social problem, take steps outside the realm of government. If you don't see how you can convince people to help you succeed in a non-governmental endeavor, how can you expect to control politicians who care nothing for your desires?

And if you really want to make a noticeable difference, if you really want to improve life, do something for yourself or your family today. That's where you have real control, that's where you don't need to rely on politicians — or anyone else — and you can make sure the results are as you intend.

Government doesn't work.

http://www.harrybrowne.org/articles/PrinciplesOfGovernment.htm

Religions are nothing but messages of Freedom. It is humans who set traps for themselves and suffer.

Sin versus Error

It is essential that error be not confused with sin, and it is this distinction that makes salvation possible. For error can be corrected, and the wrong made right. But sin, were it possible, would be irreversible. The belief in sin is necessarily based on the firm conviction that minds, not bodies, can attack. And thus the mind is guilty, and will forever so remain unless a mind not part of it can give it absolution. Sin calls for punishment as error for correction, and the belief that punishment is correction is clearly insane.

Sin is not an error, for sin entails an arrogance which the idea of error lacks. To sin would be to violate reality, and to succeed. Sin is the proclamation that attack is real and guilt is justified. Sin is the grand illusion underlying all the ego's grandiosity.

A Course in Miracles http://acim.home.att.net/text-19-02.html

Stop everything! Viva Brasil!

STOP ALL WARS!

LET'S WATCH SOCCER.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/scp_v3/viewer/index.php?pid=16891&rn=458044&ch=458046&lang=enf

PERFECTLY IMPERFECT

Listening to my 87 years old father and his young 65 years old ex-colleague talking about the evolvement of different textile machineries in their days. I come to realize that imperfection is our perfect world. All humans did and will do is to keep on improving but never reach perfection.

What has always made the state a hell

on earth has been precisely that man

has tried to make it his heaven.

------- F. Holderlin

Imperfect as it is, as we see in others is actually in us. As imperfect as who we are, it is so perfect.

Prayer to God

Q. "When did you realize that you were God?"

A. "While praying. I realized I was talking to myself."

Change only takes place through action, not through

meditation and prayer. ---The Dali Lama.

Let your child smile

In today's world, people love children. At a school concert, it is the grade one's side acts during the performance which brought smiles to all parents' hearts.

Innocence triumphs over achievements. People overlook the child in themselves. It is their own innocence that is awakening to. It is their own child in their hearts that is smiling. If you still remember what innocence is, that child is still in you.

Love that child? Love the children? Love that child in you instead! Let your innocence emerge again and bring smiles to yourself and others.

See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil.

The evil you see, hear and speak is in you. Those evil deeds and evil words are in you. In order to define what evil is, you must first store in you the evil you define.

The evil you see, hear and speak of is not in others. The evil is only reflected through others as you see, hear and speak of.

Free Your Own Children

¤ ¤ ¤

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you.

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love, but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls.

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but see not to make them like you.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be gladness.

-------Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

¤ ¤ ¤

Imagination

Most of our imagination never come true. When my daughter didn't show up past the instructed time, I started to imagine negative scenarios happening to her, drugs, sex, alcohol, accidents, etc. The thoughts become so intense that one can actually convince oneself that they are real. But an hour later, she shows up, safe and sound! All those illusions by imagination were never 'REAL'.

Life goes on with these kind of imagination, building illusions which mostly are negative and 'UNREAL'. And this kind of imagination brings negativity to the person imagining. Unable to realize the examples of 'true facts', the person stores negativity in himself from consciously into subconsciously. The result is negative consequences in life.

There is another kind of imagination, the ones one put into action. An imagination becomes a reality actively. This is creativity. It not only make a positive influence to the creator, it mostly will impact others in an inspired way.

We have all done this in our lives. Be it cooking a meal, pursuing a project, rearranging furnitures, planning a celebration, ......etc. They bring nothing but satisfaction, without doubts, regrets! There is always feeling of accomplishment.

If one has to imagine and since imagination can be untrue or unreal, why not imagine something good. A good example is in the movie "Life Is Beautiful", an unforgettable fable that proves love, family and imagination conquer all. IMDB comment , "Life is really beautiful as you watch Guido's relentless efforts to make a lovely exciting experience of the concentration camp to his son. You get exhausted just watching him going through his painful day and yet you smile as he speaks to his son and makes him laugh. ........"

We all wish we had a father like Mr. Benigni. But, in fact, we can be our own Benigni. A Benigni to our child in us by imagining good things instead of bad. Since our imagination may not come true anyway, why not fill our lives with good illusions instead of bad ones. We can make our own life beautiful by our imagination.

I wish you a beautiful life.