Thursday, December 4, 2014

10 Life Lessons from Albert Einstein

( ): my commentary on each lesson

1. Follow Your Curiosity: “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
(Curiosity is the insight or intuition which arises from the deep inside of subconscious. It is different from intelligence or thought created by brain.)

2. Perseverance is Priceless: “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
(Perseverance or patience helps us keep calm mind by avoiding creation of new negative actions such as counterattack and revenge. It can be mastered only through the difficult relation with enemies.)

3. Focus on the Present: “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
(This exactly means mindfulness in Buddhism. The wonder of life is only available in the here and the now; not in the past and the future. Doing just one thing at a time is better, though.)

4. Imagination is Powerful: “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
(Imagination is created by brain and is illusory. Attachment creates too much positive image and anger creates too much negative image through mental projection. Therefore, we can't see the reality.)

5. Make Mistakes: “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
(Wisdom or insight can be attained only through real experience, by making a lot of mistakes. We can learn through reading and listening but its fruit is nothing but the knowledge. Knowledge in brain is very different from wisdom in subconscious.)

6. Live in the Moment: “I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.”
(The past is gone and the future has not yet to come. Wandering in the past and in the future is the waste of time and energy and is rather harmful. We can be alive only in the present moment.)

7. Create Value: “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
(Value added means positive actions which bring benefits. Material value like money, power and fame has a limit, but spiritual value like love and compassion has no limitation.)

8. Don’t Be Repetitive: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
(Repeating the same thing does not provide you many lessons. Various experiences will be more helpful for the person to grow.)
  
9. Knowledge Comes From Experience: “Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”
(The real knowledge is the wisdom based on actual experiences. Knowledge obtained through reading and listening is nothing but the memory of brain which will disappear.)

10. Learn the Rules and Then Play Better: “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
(The most important rule in life is the ultimate truth of interdependence. If we really understand it, we will never separate ourselves from others.)

Cf. http://www.virtuesforlife.com/10-great-life-lessons-from-albert-einstein/
      http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/
      http://www.alberteinstein.info/
      http://www.purposefairy.com/70257/31-life-changing-lessons-learn-albert-einstein/
      http://theunboundedspirit.com/25-life-lessons-from-albert-einstein/