This collection of beautiful quotes that will inspire you to awaken your curiosity about the mystery of life is excerpted from “ONE”, a book by Masami Sato, the founder of Buy1GIVE which is a global giving organisation sharing the joy of giving. The quotes in this first edition include topics that are profoundly related to our everyday lives, such as mystery, judgment and connection. This article is the first part of the 3 “ONE Book Life-Changing Quotes Series”.

On transforming judgment

“Judgment often has very little relation to reality.”

“Actions and words don’t always accurately reflect who we are. Every single one of us has had the experience of wanting to undo what we did or said.”

On the mystery of life

“It’s very, very clear that we don’t need to know all of the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of life to keep living on this planet.”

“There are so many things we don’t understand in life. In spite of that lack of understanding though, we often enjoy experiencing those things.”

“Seeing is important but trying to figure out everything isn’t necessary.”

“The scientists are not here to reveal the ‘truth’ because we are here to seek it forever. They are actually here to complicate the game (of life) so that we can have more questions and enjoy the game longer.”

Connection

“Connection is the core of everything. That’s what life is. Connection.”

“Every single thing we do is to satisfy the need for connection.”

“We cannot feel unhappy when we are feeling totally connected. It’s impossible!”

“We are designed to constantly seek ways to connect to each other and to a greater purpose.”

“‘solutions’ coming from fear and doubt may not be the most effective ways. We end up feeling more and more disconnected from each other.”

“We can only truly celebrate the victory with others when we win together. Then we feel connected.”

“This is the game called ONE. The aim of the game is to ‘connect’! We keep connecting until we all become ONE.

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As humans, many of us have longings for all kinds of things. And of course, theories of economics inform us that while requirements are unlimited, resources remain limited. This provokes us to think, the more the range of resources that we have, the more the longing that we will be able to fulfill. That is why we tend to defend our resources. We feel that dividing it between others or giving the resources away will reduce the amount we can retain to get what we ourselves want. This is the basic game of success and failure that is being acted out.

Is this true, then?

What if the answer turns out to be “no”? What if it in fact contradicts the secret of attaining more? What if the secret of attaining more is in itself simple – by giving more?

A person can get a thing by the simple act of giving. In the same way that he can get eggs by breeding chicks. In the most simple way. Naturally. Spontaneously. And it is a fully satisfying joyful sensation.

First of all, let us begin with some analogy to explain things.

Chicken and Egg: the Cosmic Circle of Life

Many a philosopher has come out with this question from the beginning of time, “Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?”

The answer to this riddle is simple. It actually does not matter which came first, as both eggs and chicks are already here. Still, if we want to get better results, we can choose to start somewhere.

Giving and Receiving: the Circle of Joy

What if we asked a different question? “Which comes first, giving or receiving?”

Again, for better results, we have to begin somewhere. Giving away things to others is definitely far simpler than attempting to get it first!

What happens if we are trying to get it first?

If we want to have something, naturally we try to get it. And we try to hold on to it after getting it. This is very natural to do-it makes sense intellectually.

But the real results of ‘trying to get’ are often not abundance and real long-term rewards.

For example, hoping to see others happy is not at all about deriving joy from them, or manipulating them to become happy. It is about how much happiness we can give them and thereby share with them. Full stop.

So how do we start to get what we desire?

From the other end of the circle – by giving generously!

When we start giving before we even have what we hope to get – that which we dream of – we are sending out a powerful message to ourselves which tells us, ‘there is enough, and more will come.’ It allows us to sense the joy today – the joy of giving.

All that is required of us is to give out the love in abundance to others. It would somehow come back to us. Giving love is the only way to be completely loved. When we recognize others for the big things they do and great credentials they have, again it would come back to us. Others accept us because we accept them.

In the same manner, if we want to have plenty in our life materially, financially, and mentally, we have to share in full measure with others, what we want.

Some people may choose to give materially by giving their time. Others would choose to give financially by giving their wealth. Those who give much more (like time, wealth, kindness, affection, principles etc.) have more of all these because it is the balance. And balance is the law of nature.

Remind oneself of the rules of the game.

Rule one: never hope to get anything in return when a thing is given.

When we have the conviction that giving has got as its inherent part, ‘getting’ something back, we become upset when do not see the return immediately. We may even feel a slight dissatisfaction towards the receiver of our gift. And surely, nurturing a bad feeling for someone is not a proper thing to do! So we can experience the real happiness of giving when we are doing something with the knowledge that we are doing it only for ourselves – we are doing it for our own happiness!

Losing to win, giving to get..

In the beginning it may appear that we are the losers. Still, at some level we realize that receiving things without giving anything is not a realistic life pattern. We have always been aware of it. That is the reason why giving away a part of their income has been a pattern with many well known people. And they have not done it openly, so it was not done to make themselves popular. It was just the way they wanted it to be.

Just take a look around. ‘Simple’ forms of life on the earth do it routinely. The bumblebees fertilize the flowers in return for the honey they take from them and ensure that the flowers bloom profusely. Habitually. That is the rule. They do not do it consciously. That is why they maintain nature’s balance, without even trying.

Giving is just being who we are, it is just like having; not greater or lesser. No difficulty, no conditions attached, just releasing oneself.

The essence of getting more can be stated in two steps: Give first, and do not expect to get anything in return.

When we let go and give generously, what we want will be delivered to us. Naturally.

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This beautiful collection of unique quotes is sure to inspire you to live a simple life full of miracles and joy is excerpted from ONE, a book by Masami Sato. The quotes in this series include topics that are profoundly related to our lives, such as mastering things, simplicity, honesty, imagination, magic, and problems. This article is the final on in the three part series – “ONE Book Life-Changing Quotes Series”.

Mastery

“Friends share with us what they think and feel. Teachers teach us what to do and how to do it. Coaches ask us who we want to be. Mentors show us who we can be. Masters show us who we really are.”

“When something more effective and easy comes along, we let go of the harder way very quickly without being ‘taught’.”

“When something more effective and easy comes along, we let go of the harder way very quickly without being ‘taught’.”

“(Children) learn by playing and become the masters of the game. And they do it just by having fun.”

On honesty

“When we held back our feelings and said things only to please others, often we ended up upsetting someone later.”

“There is no such thing as an unbreakable promise for the future.”

On imagination

“Because in our imagination, we can do anything.”

On magic

“Miracles are not accidents. We create them through our choices.”

Power of problems

“There are always reasons for everything to exist in this world. And so-called ‘problems’ and ‘issues’ only exist for us to see something beyond, so that we get to experience the next, positive transformation.”

“There are always reasons for everything to exist in this world. And so-called ‘problems’ and ‘issues’ only exist for us to see something beyond, so that we get to experience the next, positive transformation.”

On simplicity

“Maybe it’s actually all very simple. No worries-tomorrow is just another day!”

“Maybe it’s actually all very simple. No worries-tomorrow is just another day!

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Why is it that many of us, (actually, most of us) now and then feel some sort of a barren sensation in our lives? It is like being ravenous. When we eat, we are satiated and become slightly indifferent to food. But after some time, we once again feel like having food. Then suddenly we are drawn again to the aroma and picture of food. We can also feel strange pangs of hunger when we are not actually craving for food – just after having eaten something. Some of us have a craving all the time.

Constant emotional hunger is not the most pleasant thing to have. Then, how can we live our lives to the fullest? How can we be more satisfied permanently?

Maybe the answer is straightforward: just live our lives fully. The word ‘full’ holds the meaning of entirety. Then the secret to live a life in entirety is only to live it fully.

Let’s start to look at one example of this ‘wholeness’ with something awfully close to our heart-our stomach.

Whole Food VS Part Food

We have heard the term ‘whole food’. They say that eating whole food is the key to the health and wellness we seek. Then why is whole food so much better than ‘half food’?

A whole grain for example has a life. So, if you soak the whole grain in water, drain the next day and leave for a few days, it sprouts. It has a life of its own. When we eat such food, our body absorbs the full live nutrients. It has all the properties to cleanse, heal and nurture different body cells.

As in the example of a grain, most conventional dining includes having whole creatures as well. Having entire fresh fish used to be more popular than taking a portion of fish and throwing the balance away. It was ditto for poultry and also for vegetables.

‘Half food’ sometimes has more sweetness and flavour but not much other nutrition. We like its taste, but we could develop a long-term illness if we only ate ‘half food’ every day of our life.

So, to make up for the missing half, we began to take nutritional supplements. We have been trying and researching for pretty long to find the perfect equilibrium. It gets more and more difficult as we slice the food up, add preservatives and transport, and even try to supplement with other parts coming from various sources, places and seasons. Some of the nutrients are not even from natural resources. They are synthetically generated. After it is tested and analysed, it is approved for man’s consumption. But however hard we try, we cannot merge the ‘bits’ from different sources to make it alive.

Part Life-’Sweetness’ of Life

So, if we looked at our life now, part of what we are doing can be like eating the ‘half food’. Just savouring the sweetness of life but throwing away the real nourishing part. And if we soaked our ‘half life’ in water with other bits and left it in the sunlight, could it shoot and grow into a beautiful whole life?

Whole food is not (as some people seem to believe) of a bland taste. In fact it tastes better if cooked properly. But as requirement is low, it is more costly. It is in reality more cost-effective in the long term though, as we will have to pay less as medical costs later on. When more people will start having it, it would automatically become less expensive as it is a simple food with less processing cost and waste.

Our life is very similar. When we only value the ‘sugariness’, and cast out the rest as litter because we don’t perceive its value, we may be throwing out the most important portion. And what we jettison could have the biggest power for the endorsement of our life and our financial health. It also takes more strength and resources to cast it out. Better still, that which is thrown away comes free.

So, what is that we are not looking at?

Picture a life where we didn’t in fact believe that we were lacking anything there.

The secret is right there. The secret of a whole life.

Entire Life-The Complete Life

When it is ‘full’, it does not matter how big the full is. It can spread out all at once. It can still have within it all the components to uphold itself as a complete living thing. Once it develops to a given size, it can continue to live without some portions of it. Like plants can remain alive after birds feed on a little of it or trees survive even after losing their leaves. But if we ignore the equilibrium for a pretty long time, finally it can lead to a deadly disproportion. Then it might become too difficult to revert to normalcy.

We do not have to revert to Stone Age to find entirety. Entirety exists in the current. All we should do is watch intimately; watch intimately enough to actually see.

When we start seeing our life as a whole and stop throwing away what nourishes our life the most, we start feeling more and more fulfilled without looking for ‘things’ to fill holes and dents of our life. Everything finally falls into place. We now understand the mechanism of our world in a very different way.

Yes, it is now time to find out how we can create (and see) this balance, continuously and sustainably.

The actual sustaining element of our life is what makes us feel joyful deep down. It is like that component of food that makes our body strong in the long-term. Emotions we feel in our everyday life are the real solution to our permanent happiness. And there are emotions that make us feel more absolute.

The smiles we see when we give acknowledgements to others. The joy we feel when we give gifts to others. The love we feel when we see our children being happy. The inspirations we receive when we feel our life is full of meaning

Let us internalize these moments of our life totally and relish the flavour of our entire life. Then we will perceive how it is not so imperative to constantly fill our heart (and tummy!) with physical indulgences – those types of things that only increase our cravings afterwards.

We can actually feel this joy, gratitude and love in order to experience the life as a whole at any moment regardless of the situations. It is not about what we see, what we hear or what we do that complete our life as a whole. It is about what we ‘choose to’ feel about our life.

Yes, our life in fact is already whole.

When we begin acting based on this awareness, we can have real mastery over the balance creation – lasting physical wellbeing, riches, nourishing bond and joy.

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