Never lose your Faith in Him

Author Unknown

There was once a man who was ship-wrecked and stranded on an island. Every day he prayed asking God to send someone to rescue him, but to his disappointment, no one ever came.

Months passed and this man learned how to survive on the island. During this time, he accumulated things from the island and stored them in a hut that he constructed.

One day after hunting for food and returning back to his hut, much to his dismay he saw that his hut was on fire along with everything else he owned!

All of his possessions were going up in smoke! The only thing he had left were the clothes on his back. Initially he was in shock, and then he was consumed with anger and rage!

In his fury he threw a fist into the air and began cursing God and yelling, “God, how could you let this happen to me? I’ve been praying everyday for months about being rescued and no one has come, and now everything that I have is on fire! How could you do to this to me! Why did you let this happen?”

Later the man was on his hands and knees weeping heavily when he happened to look up and catch sight of a ship coming in his direction.

The man was rescued and as they were heading back to civilization the man asked the captain, “How were you able to find me?”

The captain responded, “We were voyaging across the ocean when we noticed on the horizon a column of smoke going up. We decided to go check it out and when we did, that’s when we found you!” 

My thoughts:

God has perfect timing. Never early, never late. You need to have a lot of patience and above all faith. But when you are answered you'll realize that its worth the wait. 

Master the Ego

Once there lived a big poisonous snake in a field near a village. It used to bite anybody who dared enter the field and so nobody went there.

One day a Saint came to the village. Villagers told him not to go to the field where the snake lived. But since the detour would cost him a lot of time the Saint decided to go through the field anyway. 

Soon the snake approached him with the intention to bite, but as he neared he was overpowered by the spiritual energy of the Saint. 

When the Saint saw him he advised the snake not to bite anybody and the snake agreed.

After a few months the Saint was on his way back and he decided to check on the snake. When he found him he was shocked to see his state. He was all beaten up and nearly dead. Since the snake had stopped biting, the village boys had thrown stones at it and nearly killed him.

The Saint told the snake, “Look, I told you not to bite, but who told you not to hiss?”

The moral of the story for us is that we are surrounded by egoistic people and though we should give up biting let us not stop hissing.

My thoughts: 

“How to get rid of ego as dictator and turn it into messenger and servant and scout, to be in your service, is the trick,” says Joseph Campbell. Most of us who have not learnt to tame the ego, follows it wherever it leads us. Taming the ego is a skill that requires practice. Techniques like meditation, breathing, etc dissolve the ego. As we grow out of our ego we should learn to use it as a tool without allowing it to control our lives. Remember to use the tamed ego for productive purposes. The secret lies in hissing without biting. 

Practice makes it perfect

A Zen story

A rich man, fond of felines, asked a famous Zen ink painter to draw him a cat. The master agreed and asked the man to come back in three months.

When the man returned, he was put off again and again, until a year had passed.

After a year, finally, at the man’s request, the master drew out a brush, and, with grace and ease, in a single fluid motion, drew a picture of a cat – the most marvelous image the man had ever seen.

He was astonished; then he grew angry. “That drawing took you only thirty seconds! Why did you make me wait a year?” he demanded.

Without a word, the master opened up a cabinet, and out fell thousands of drawings of cats.

Progress takes time. Those who make it look easy have worked hard over time.

My comments:
Growing up, we all have heard the expression “practice makes it perfect” from our teachers and elders at home. Doing something over and over again is the only way to learn to do it well. If I practice dancing, I'll be the perfect dancer. If I practice guitar, I'll play guitar perfectly. If I practice driving, I'll drive to perfection. It simply deduces that every time you make a mistake while practicing, you have to try to repair it and improve on it. That’s called smart practice. Ultimately it’s the level of smart practice that brings out the best in you.

True Happiness

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coiffed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home one day.

Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, the nurse provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room …. just wait.”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged, it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away, just for this time in my life.”

She went on to explain, “Old age is like a bank account, you withdraw from what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing.”

And with a smile, she said: “Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

· Free your heart from hatred.

· Free your mind from worries.

· Live simply.

· Give more.

· Expect less

My thoughts:

At what stage does one really start aging? What is the yardstick? Becoming grandparents? Crossing 50? Or 60? Start greying? Well, the Government policy decides the retiring age as 60, meaning that at 60 you have become old enough not to come to work. Does one really become old at 60? Isn’t it a myth that after 60, there is nothing you can do anymore? Some feel that old age is always synonymous with general sickness and health problems. Certainly growing old brings some changes, some inabilities in the body. Like forgetfulness. But that doesn’t mean it’s a serious problem. Who doesn’t forget? And growing old has its own fun.

Endurance and Hard work

Once a king had announced that anyone who wanted the post of personal assistant must meet him.

Many people gathered in the palace. The king led them to a pond and said, "Whoever will empty this pond's water with this pot will be chosen for the post. But remember, there is a hole in the pot."

Many left without a single try. They said, "The king has already chosen someone else. Let's go."

But one man kept filling the pot with pond water patiently. But always within few moments, the water poured on the ground completely. He never gave up and kept trying persistently.

At last the pond became empty. The man found a diamond ring in the empty pond and he gave it to the king.

At this the king said, "This ring is a reward for your endurance and hard work. You are fit for the job."

Message:
1. Tough times don’t last; tough people do
2. Life is just repeated attempts at trying to do better
3. Endurance is patience concentrated

Covering up a mistake

A funny incident by unknown author

A man was sitting in the living room one day when his cat dragged in a little "gift" in its mouth - a dead animal of some sort.

Taking a closer look, he was dismayed to recognize the dead animal to be a bunny that belonged to a little girl who lived next door. Her name was Bonny.

He felt terrible, believing his cat had killed Bonny's bunny.

The quick-thinking man came up with a plan. Removing from the cat's mouth the dead animal, which by now was a dirty mess, he put it in the kitchen sink. With a little warm water and some shampoo, he tried to clean up the dead bunny as best he could. Then he took a hair dryer (a "hare dryer" actually) and blow-dried the bunny until it looked pretty good.

Finally, he took the dead bunny out to the neighbor's rabbit hutch and placed it back in the cage. He kind of fluffed him up so that he looked very natural there in his little box.

The next morning, he looked out the window and noticed a crowd of people gathered around the rabbit hutch. Everyone seemed to be talking and pointing. He decided to go over and act like any normal curious neighbor and find out what was going on.

When he got there, Bonny's mother told him, "You won't believe what has happened! It's a miracle! Bonny's bunny passed away a few days ago, and we buried that little bunny right over there..."

When we get caught doing something wrong, we may attempt to cover it up with a lie. But just like Bonny's bunny, the result is never what we expect. We end up looking foolish. We would have been better off admitting we were wrong and accepting the consequences.

You can learn great things from your mistakes when you aren’t busy denying them.

Meaning of sharing

Zen Story

A rich man came to a temple with ten thousand gold coins. That is quite a huge amount for that part of the world. He was going to gift that to the temple. The priest accepted it as if it was nothing.

The man became disturbed. He said, “Do you know these are ten thousand gold coins?”

The priest looked at him.

The man said again, “Ten thousand golden coins is a big amount, even to me. I am a very rich man, but that amount is very big.”

The priest said, “You have said it in so many words and I have heard it as many times too. Do you think I am deaf?”

It was obvious that the man was just expecting only ‘thanks’ and nothing more.

The priest said, “What do you want? What are you really expecting? Are you asking for some appreciation? Are you asking that I should be thankful to you?”

The man said, “At least that much can be expected.”

So the priest said, “Take your gold coins back. Or, if you want to give them to this temple, you will have to be thankful to me that I accepted.”

On the temple it is written even still… that the giver should be thankful; only then is it sharing.

When somebody accepts our gift, it means they accept US through that gift. This is such a great feeling because they could have easily rejected it as there was no compulsion to accept it.

That’s why the giver should be thankful. Then it becomes a sharing.

When a ‘thank you’ is demanded or expected in return, it becomes a bargain.

How do you respond to adversity?

Author Unknown

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and in the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then he laded the coffee out and placed it in a mug.

Turning to her, he asked: "Darling, what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. 

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

She humbly asked. "What does it mean, father?"

He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" he asked his daughter, "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?" 

Become What You Want to Be

Author: Unknown

Let me tell you about a little girl who was born into a very poor family in a shack in the Backwoods of Tennessee. She was the 20th of 22 children, prematurely born and frail. Her survival was doubtful. When she was four years old she had double pneumonia and scarlet fever - a deadly combination that left her with a paralyzed and useless left leg. She had to wear an iron leg brace. Yet she was fortunate in having a mother who encouraged her.

Well, this mother told her little girl, who was very bright, that despite the brace and leg, she could do whatever she wanted to do with her life. She told her that all she needed to do was to have faith, persistence, courage and an indomitable spirit.

So at nine years of age, the little girl removed the leg brace, and she took the step the doctors told her she would never take normally. In four years, she developed a rhytmic stride, which was a medical wonder. Then this girl got the notion, the incredible notion, that she would like to be the world's greatest woman runner. Now, what could she mean - be a runner with a leg like that?

At age 13, she entered a race. She came in last - way, way last. She entered every race in high school, and in every race she came in last. Everyone begged her to quit! 

However, one day, she came in next to last. And then there came a day when she won a race. From then on, Wilma Rudolph won every race that she entered.

Wilma went to Tennessee State University, where she met a coach named Ed Temple. Coach Temple saw the indomitable spirit of the girl, that she was a believer and that she had great natural talent. He trained her so well that she went to the Olympic Games.

There she was pitted against the greatest woman runner of the day, a German girl named Jutta Heine. Nobody had ever beaten Jutta. But in the 100-meter dash, Wilma Rudolph won. She beat Jutta again in the 200-meters. Now Wilma had two Olimpic gold medals.

Finally came the 400-meter relay. It would be Wilma against Jutta once again. The first two runners on Wilma's team made perfect handoffs with the baton. But when the third runner handed the baton to Wilma, she was so excited she dropped it, and Wilma saw Jutta taking off down the track. It was impossible that anybody could catch this fleet and nimble girl. But Wilma did just that! 

Wilma Rudolph had earned three Olympic gold medals. 

The Weight of Resentment

Author Unknown

A teacher once told each of her students to bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes to school. For every person they refuse to forgive in their life's experience, they chose a potato, wrote on it the name and date, and put it in the plastic bag. Some of their bags were quite heavy.

They were then told to carry this bag with them everywhere for one week, putting it beside their bed at night, on the car seat when driving, next to their desk at work.

The hassle of lugging this around with them made it clear what a weight they were carrying, and how they had to pay attention to it all the time to not forget and keep leaving it in embarrassing places.

Naturally, the condition of the potatoes deteriorated to a nasty smelly slime. Beyond a point, the students had to discard the smelly bag of rotten potatoes.

This was a great metaphor for the price we pay for keeping our pain and heavy negativity!

Too often we think of forgiveness as a gift to the other person, BUT it clearly is for ourselves!