Meaning of real Generosity

Curtsy: http://TheInspirationalStories.com

Mahatma Gandhi went from city to city, village to village collecting funds for the Charkha Sangh. During one of his tours he addressed a meeting in Orissa.

After his speech a poor old woman got up. She was bent with age, her hair was grey and her clothes were in tatters. The volunteers tried to stop her, but she fought her way to the place where Gandhi was sitting.

"I must see him," she insisted and going up to Gandhi touched his feet. Then from the folds of her sari she brought out a copper coin and placed it at his feet.

Gandhi picked up the copper coin and put it away carefully. The Charkha Sangh funds were under the charge of Jamnalal Bajaj. He asked Gandhi for the coin but Gandhi refused.

"I keep cheques worth thousands of rupees for the Charkha Sangh," Jamnalal Bajaj said laughingly "yet you won't trust me with a copper coin."

"This copper coin is worth much more than those thousands," Gandhi said.

"If a man has several lakhs and he gives away a thousand or two, it doesn't mean much. But this coin was perhaps all that the poor woman possessed. She gave me all she had. That was very generous of her. What a great sacrifice she made. That is why I value this copper coin more than thousands of rupees."

Justice must be for both sides

Author unknown, received in mail box

An Indonesian judge by the name of Marzuki was sitting in judgment of an old lady who pleaded guilty of stealing some tapioca from a plantation.

In her defense, she admitted to the judge that she was indeed guilty of the crime because she was poor and her son was sick while her grandchild was hungry.

The plantation manager insisted that she be punished as a deterrent to others.

The judge going through the documents then looked up and said to the old lady, “I’m sorry but I cannot make any exception to the law and you must be punished.”

The old lady was fined Rupaiyah. 1 million (USD 100) and if she could not pay the fine then she will be jailed for 2 and a half years as demanded by the law. She wept as she could not pay the fine.

The judge then took off his hat and put in Rupaiyah. 1 million into the hat and said, “In the name of justice, I fine all who are in the court Rp. 50 thousand (USD 5.50) as dwellers of this city for letting a child starve until her grandmother has to steal to feed her grandchild. The registrar will now collect the fines from all present.”

The court managed to collect Rp 3.5 million (USD 350) whereby once the fine was paid off, the rest was given to the old lady … including the fine collected from the plantation manager.

“Justice cannot be for one side alone; but must be for both sides” Eleanor Roosevelt

Forgive your enemies

A master enquired his favourite student about his spiritual progress.

The student replied that he was managing to devote every moment of his day to God.

'Now all you need to do is to forgive your enemies.'

The young man was shocked: 'But I don't need to! I'm not angry with my enemies nor do I hate them!'

'Do you think God is angry with you or hates you?'

'Of course not!'

'And yet you still ask Him for His forgiveness, don't you? Do the same with your enemies, even if you don't hate them. By forgiving someone, you are washing and perfuming your own soul. Forgiveness is not something we do for other people. We do it for ourselves so that we progress further.'

Life is game, play it

A young man said to the abbot of a monastery: ‘I would really like to become a monk, but I have learned nothing of importance in my life. My father only taught me how to play chess, and that does not lead to enlightenment. And besides, I was told that all games are sinful.'

'They can be sinful, but they can also be a diversion, and perhaps this monastery needs a little of both,' came the reply.

The abbot called for a chessboard and summoned a monk to play with the young man.

However, before the game began, he added: ‘We may need diversion, but we cannot have everyone playing chess all the time. We will have only the best players here. If our monk loses, he will leave the monastery, thus creating an opening for you.'

The abbot was deadly serious. The young man played an aggressive game, but then he noticed the saintly look in the monk's eyes, and from then on, he began to play deliberately badly.

He decided that he would rather lose because he felt that the monk could prove far more useful to the world than him.

Suddenly, the abbot overturned the chessboard onto the floor.
'You learned far more than you were taught,' he said.
'You have the powers of concentration necessary to win and you are capable of fighting for what you want, but you also have compassion and the ability to sacrifice yourself for a noble cause. You have shown yourself capable of balancing discipline and mercy; welcome to our monastery!'

Celebrate the gifts you have been given

Adapted from http://cathytaughinbaugh.com/fathers-story-addiction-and-a-promise-for-the-future/  Excerpts from David Cooke’s book, Behind the Dumpster. 

It is the story of a father, who after eighteen months of living with the hurt, pain, confusion, and chaos caused by his son’s heroin addiction, realized that every day the son enabled his addiction related life it was destroying his..

His health, his business, his relationships and his psyche were systematically falling apart as a result of his commitment to save his son even though the son wasn’t ready, interested in, or willing to do it for himself. It took him a long time to come to the realization there was nothing he could do to save his son until, or unless, he was willing to commit to saving himself, first.

So, what did he do?

Please welcome David Cooke! In his own words…

“In an ironic and twisted way, my son’s addiction, as painful as it has been for me, is also the gift that completely changed my life.

Three years ago I embarked on an adventure that completely changed my life for the better. On this definitive morning I began a new journey in a quest to reclaim my life and define a new path for success despite this adversity in my life.

I committed to riding my bicycle for at least one hour a day for one hundred consecutive days. Though I did not know where this would lead me, the focused commitment associated with this challenge took me on a new path and a different mindset that ended up being exactly the transformational journey I needed in my life.

From that very first ride, I found inspiration, energy, and opportunity in distancing myself from my son’s addiction. Though the pain and the hurt never really went away – it never does – I discovered a sense of confidence, clarity, and purpose for MY existence in those early morning meditational rides.

When I returned from that first ride, I was inspired by this thought that I came to me on that very first morning bike ride. 'No matter how dark the present appears, I live for the promise of the future, celebrating the opportunities created through my passion and my gifts.'

This is how I live and celebrate my life, in my daily recovery from my son’s addiction. Though I still suffer from the pain and the hurt of the struggles my son faces in his addiction, it does not define who I am, what I have been called to do, or the gifts I have been given to accomplish it.

Today, I celebrate my son’s one hundred and fiftieth day of recovery. I pray that it lasts long after I am gone and I hope that he stays on this path of progress and opportunity.

In the meantime, I am celebrating over eleven hundred days of my own recovery – the day I regained control over my life and gave myself the opportunity of strength, courage, joy, and peace in the face of those things that trouble and pain me most.

My advice to parents who are suffering, hurting, and lamenting the experiences of addiction in their lives and in their family is to find your recovery.

Your ability to live your life, celebrate the gifts you have been given, and to find peace in the chaos gives you the strength, clarity, and purpose to endure and grow.

Hopefully your child will find their way back to you where you will celebrate your ability to be there for them.

If you allow their addiction to destroy you, there is nothing left for them to hang on to when they need you.

The best gift you can give, besides your unconditional love, is to be strong for them when they are present and stronger for yourself when they are not!”

Negative desires

A disciple said to his teacher: 'I have spent a large part of my day thinking things I should not think, desiring things I should not desire, and making plans I should not make.'

The teacher invited his disciple to go for a walk with him in a forest near his house.

On the way, he pointed to a plant and asked if the disciple knew what it was.

'It's deadly nightshade,' said the disciple. 'The leaves can kill you if you eat them.'

'But they cannot kill you if you merely look at them. In exactly the same way, negative desires are entirely harmless unless you give in to them.'

Worry is a fatal disease

By Author unknown

Death was walking toward a city one morning, and a man asked, "What are you going to do and where are you going?"

"I'm going to take 100 people by evening," Death replied.

"That"s horrible!" the man said.

"That's the way it is," Death said, "That's what I do."

The man hurried to warn everyone he could, about Death's plan.

As evening fell, the man realized 1000 people had died.

He met Death again. "You told me you were going to take only 100 people," the man said. "Why did 1,000 die?"

“I kept my word,” Death responded, "I only took 100 people. Worry took the others.”

Worry is, and always will be, a fatal disease of the heart, for it signals the end of faith.

Release the regrets of yesterday, refuse the fears of tomorrow and receive instead, the peace of today.

Do not allow worries and work pressures inside your home. Once you enter your home, simply let go and let God take over.

Live this way and be eternally blessed.

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?'

Do not be affected by Pride

A group of wise men met together to discuss why God had left creating man until the final & sixth day.

‘He wanted to get the Universe sorted out first so that we could have all its marvels at our disposal,' said one.

'He wanted to experiment with animals first so that he wouldn't make the same mistakes when he created us,' argued another.

A wise Jew turned up at the meeting.

He was told the subject of discussion: 'In your opinion why did God create man only on the final day?'

'Very simple,' said the wise man. 'So that whenever we were afflicted by pride, we could reflect that, in the Divine scheme, even a mere mosquito had priority over us.'

Four types of men

From Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

MEN may be divided into four classes:
1. the ever-free,
2. the seekers after liberation,
3. the liberated and
4. those bound by the fetters of the world.

1. Suppose a net has been cast into a lake to catch fish. Some fish are so clever that they are never caught in the net. They are like the ever-free. Among the ever-free we may count sages like Narada. They live in the world for the good of others, to teach men spiritual truths.

2. But most of the fish are entangled in the net. Some of them try to free themselves from it, and they are like those who seek liberation. The seekers after liberation want to free themselves from attachment to the world. Some of them succeed and others do not.

3. A very few fish do jump out of the net, making a big splash in the water. Then the fishermen shout, 'Look! There goes a big one!' They are like the Liberated. The liberated souls, such as the Sadhus and Mahatmas, are not entangled in the world, in woman and gold. Their minds are free from worldliness. Besides they always meditate on the Lotus Feet of God.

4. But most of the fish caught in the net cannot escape, nor do they make any effort to get out. On the contrary, they burrow into the mud with the net in their mouths and lie there quietly, thinking, 'We need not fear any more; we are quite safe here.' But the poor things do not know that the fishermen will drag them out with the net. These are like the men bound to the world. Those in bondage are sunk in worldliness and are forgetful of God. Not even by mistake do they think of God.