But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. "
Lord Robert Baden-Powell, Founder of Scouting and World Chief Scout, died in Kenya on 8 January 1941 at the age of 83. Soldiers and Scouts escorted the coffin to a simple grave at Nyeri, within sight of Mount Kenya. This message to all Scouts was found among his papers after he died.
Dear Scouts,
If you have ever seen the play Peter Pan you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid that possibly when the time came for him to die he might not have time to get it off his chest. It is much the same with me, and so, although I am not at this moment dying, I shall be doing so one of these days and I want to send you a parting word of goodbye.
Remember, it is the last you will ever hear from me, so think it over.
I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have as happy a life too.
I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so can enjoy life when you are a man.
Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.
But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. ‘Be Prepared’ in this way, to live happy and to die happy – stick to your Scout promise always – even after you have ceased to be a boy – and God help you to do it.
Your Friend,
Baden-Powell
Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.
It never is as good as it can be done. Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.
The Law of Process teaches us not only to break a journey into shorter sections but also to appreciate each step as if it were an end in itself Every step becomes a small success in itself; that way, we succeed many times, not just when we reach our final goal. What we learn on the journey may turn out to be more important than reaching the destination. For example. If we spend twenty years learning to paint portraits and then all our paintings are destroyed, we have still gained inner qualities on the road to our goal, including an ability to see with different eyes and better appreciate the beauty in every face.
Have you ever believed in the existence of things? Is not everything an illusion? There is no truth except in its relation, that is to say, the fashion in which we perceive the objects.”
Thus the practice of enlightenment is not about positive thinking, grandiose beliefs, or denying your interior reality (which can be chaotic at times). The practice has nothing to do with how you feel or the thoughts passing through your mind. It is about what action you bring into the world. You have learned that love is an action; that happiness is an action; that courage is an action; that peace is an action; that service is an action. So is enlightenment. Declaring yourself enlightened will no more make you so than declaring yourself to be a pineapple. Saying or believing you are enlightened does not make it so. Practicing enlightenment, living it, makes it so.
