The world is like a mirror

Three different stories pointing fingers in the same direction--The world we see is a reflection of our own inner selves.

Story 1

One day a class teacher asked her students to write on a piece of paper the name of the person whom they disliked most.
The students got busy. One student asked the teacher, “Ma’am when I don’t dislike anybody, whose name would I write?”
By that time other students finished writing and the teacher started checking the names.
She checked all the names and to her surprise could not find the name of this student in any of the chits she checked!

Story 2

One day, Lord Krishna told Yudhishtra to take a census of all evil people in the kingdom and told Duryodhana to take census of all good people in the kingdom.
Duryodhana came back and reported that there is no single good person in the kingdom. According to him, there was so much evil in the so called sages, hermits and other good Samaritans.
Yudhishtra came back and reported that there is not a single evil person in the kingdom. According to him all were good including the murderers and robbers.

Story 3:

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. One look at it and she realised the monetary worth of the stone
The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone & asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation.
The traveler left, rejoicing his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.
“I’ve been thinking,” He said, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious: Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.”

If we are good to others, they would respond in the same manner. 

 

Be masters of mouths, not slaves of words

There was an old man who spread rumours about his neighbour that he was a thief. And the young man was arrested.

Days later the young man was proven innocent. After been released from the jail, he sued the old man for defamation.

In court, the old man told the judge, “They were just comments. Didn’t mean to harm anyone.”

The judge told the old man, “Write all the things you said on a piece of paper.” The old man wrote.

The judge asked him to cut them into pieces. The old man did.

The judge then said, “On the way home, throw the pieces of paper out. Come back tomorrow to hear the sentence.”

The next day, the judge told the old man, “Before hearing the sentence, please go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday."

The old said, “How can I do that? The wind must’ve spread them and I wouldn’t know where to find them.”

The judge then replied, "The same way, simple comments may destroy the honour of a man to such an extent that one is not able to fix it. If you can’t speak well of someone, rather don’t say anything.”

Lets all be masters of our mouths and not slaves of our words.

Purity of heart and mind

As told by Sogyal Rinpoche in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

On this auspicious day of Buddha Purnima, a story dedicated to the Buddha

At the time of Buddha, there lived an old beggar woman called "Relying on Joy". She used to watch the kings, princes, and people making offerings to Buddha and his disciples, and there was nothing she would have liked more than to be able to do the same.

So she went out begging, but at the end of a whole day all she had was one small coin. She took it to the oil-merchant to try to buy some oil. He told her that she could not possibly buy anything with so little. But when he heard that she wanted it to make an offering to Buddha, he took pity on her and gave her the oil she wanted. She took it to the monastery, where she lit a lamp.

She placed it before Buddha, and made this wish: "I have nothing to offer but this tiny lamp. But through this offering, in the future may I be blessed with the lamp of wisdom. May I free all beings from their darkness. May I purify all their obstructions, and lead them to enlightenment."

That night the oil in all the other lamps went out. But the beggar woman's lamp was still burning at dawn, when Buddha's disciple Maudgalyayana came to collect all the lamps. When he saw that one was still alight, full of oil and with a new wick, he thought, "There's no reason why this lamp should still be burning in the day time," and he tried to blow it out. But it kept on burning. He tried to snuff it out with his fingers, but it stayed alight. He tried to smother it with his robe, but still it burned on.

The Buddha had been watching all along, and said, "Maudgalyayana, do you want to put out that lamp? You cannot. You cannot even move it, let alone put it out. If you were to pour the water from all ocean over this lamp, it still wouldn't go out. The water in all the rivers and the lakes of the world could not extinguish it. Why not? Because this lamp was offered with devotion and with purity of heart and mind. And that motivation has made it of tremendous benefit."

When Buddha had said this, the beggar woman approached him, and he made a prophesy that in the future she would become a perfect buddha, called "Light of the Lamp."

So it is our motivation, good or bad, that determines the fruit of our actions.

Inward look is more important

A disciple who loved and admired his teacher decided to observe his behavior minutely, believing that if he did everything that his teacher did, then he would also acquire his teacher's wisdom.

The teacher always wore white, and so his disciple did the same.

The teacher was a vegetarian, and so his disciple stopped eating meat and replaced it with a diet of vegetables and herbs.

The teacher was an austere man, and so the disciple decided to devote himself to self-sacrifice and started sleeping on a straw mattress.

After some time, the teacher noticed these changes in his disciple's behavior and asked him why.

‘I am climbing the steps of initiation,' came the reply. ‘The white of my clothes shows the simplicity of my search, the vegetarian food purifies my body, and the lack of comfort makes me think only of spiritual things.'

Smiling, the teacher took him to a field where a horse was grazing.

‘You have spent all this time looking outside yourself, which is what matters least,' he said. 'Do you see that creature there? He has white skin, eats only grass and sleeps in a stable on a straw bed. Do you think he has the face of a saint or will one day become a real teacher?'

Your thoughts affect the food you cook

Adapted from Chinna Katha by Sri Sathya Sai Baba

There lived in Mallur, Mysore State, and a pious Brahmin who was a great scholar. He had an equally pious wife. He was always intent on Puja and Japa Dhyana and was known far and wide for his virtuous character.

One day, a sanyasin called Nityananda came to his door seeking alms; so, he was happy beyond measure. He invited the monk to take dinner with him the next day so that he might honor him with due hospitality. He hung green festoons over his doors and made elaborate arrangements for the reception. But, at the eleventh hour, physical impurity rendered his wife unfit to prepare food for the honored guest or for any one else.

A neighbor volunteered to cook the meal and she was brought in and introduced into the kitchen. Everything went off well and all were as happy as they could be, under the circumstances.

Only, the sanyasin was wrong during meals by an overpowering desire to steal the silver cup, which the host had placed near the plate. In spite of his best efforts, the evil idea won and the sanyasin hurried to his abode with the cup hidden in the folds of his robe.

He could not sleep that night, for his conscience pricked him so. He felt he had brought disgrace on his Guru and on the Rishis whom he invoked by the mantras he recited. He could not wait until he ran back into the Brahmin’s house and, falling at his feet, restored the article with tears of repentance trickling down his cheeks.

Everyone wondered how such a saint could stoop so low. Then someone suggested it might the person who cooked it transmit the fault to the food he ate.

And when they examined the history of the neighbor thy found that she was an irrepressible thief! The thieving tendency had, by subtle contact, affected the food she prepared.

This is the reason why Spiritual aspirants were advised to live on fruits and tubers only, when they reach a certain stage of spiritual achievement. To purify the mind and the intellect for the correct reflection of the truth, the first caution is in regard to food. In fact, this is a very serious matter for everyone.