Eight worldly Concerns

There was a well-known scholar who practiced Buddhism and befriended a chan master. Thinking that he had made great stride in his cultivation, he wrote a poem and asked his attendant to deliver it to the master who lived across the river. The master opened the letter and read the short poem aloud:

"Unmoved by the eight worldly winds,
  Serenely I sit on the purplish gold terrace."

A smile broke up on the lips of the master. Picking up an ink brush, he scribbled the word "fart" across the letter and asked that it be delivered back to the scholar. 

 Imagesource

The scholar was upset and went across the river right away to reprimand the master for being rude. The master laughed as he said, "You said you are no longer moved by the eight worldly winds and yet with just one 'fart', you ran across the river like a rat!"
 

Eight worldly winds : Gain and loss, honor and disgrace, praise and blame, happiness and pain.

Sariputta and his Mother

Sariputta was the Buddha's top disciple. His wisdom and ability to teach was said to be second only to the Buddha. 

Sariputta died before the Buddha. A few months before his death, he bade his last farewell to the Buddha (all Enlightened Ones know when they're dying) and told him that he wanted to go home to repay his mother's kindness. The Buddha answered, "I understand". 

Sariputta's mother was Sari. (The word Sariputta means "Sari's son"). She was very upset that her son became a monk. She much rather that he lived a lay life. So after he entered monkhood, she refused to talk to him. 

When Sari heard that her son was returning, she was overjoyed. But when she saw him and realized that he was still a monk, she refused to see him or talk to him. Sariputta's mother was a staunch brahman and hostile to the Buddha's Teaching and his followers.

As days went by, Sariputta became weaker and weaker. Still, his mother refused to talk to him.

It was said that on the night before Sariputta's Final Nirvana (ie death), gods came to his room by the truckloads to pay their final respect. According to the scriptures, Sariputta was not only a famous teacher of men, he was also a teacher of gods. All these gods come to say goodbye to their teacher.

It was said that the glorious lumination of the gods brightened up the whole room. Sari was awoken by the bright light and came to see what the commotion was. When she witness all these gods paying respects to her son (instead of the other way round!), she realized that her son was no ordinary monk after all. Only then did she talk to him. 

 Image source

Sariputta's last act before his death was to teach his mother the Four Noble Truths. Learning thus, mum became a Stream- Winner. Sariputta had thus repayed his mother's kindness and he passed away. 

One reason I found this story so interesting is that, hey, even Enlightened Ones sometimes have problems with their parents

Each of us has our own unique flaws

A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master's house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you." "Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?" "I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said. 

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path." Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure. The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."

Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. As I like to think of it, if it hadn't been for the crackpots in my life, it would have been pretty boring and not so interesting. Thank you, all my crackpot friends.

Be careful what you Speak

A group of #frogs were hopping contentedly through the woods, going about their #froggy business, when two of them fell into a deep pit. All of the other #frogs gathered around the pit to see what could be done to help their companions. When they saw how deep the pit was, the rest of the dismayed group agreed that it was hopeless and told the two frogs in the pit that they should prepare themselves for their fate, because they were as good as dead.

Unwilling to accept this terrible fate, the two frogs began to jump with all of their might. Some of the frogs shouted into the pit that it was hopeless, and that the two frogs wouldn't be in that situation if they had been more careful, more obedient to the froggy rules, and more responsible. The other frogs continued sorrowfully shouting that they should save their energy and give up, since they were already as good as dead. The two frogs continued jumping as hard as they could, and after several hours of desperate effort were quite weary.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to the calls of his fellows. Spent and disheartened, he quietly resolved himself to his fate, lay down at the bottom of the pit, and died as the others looked on in helpless grief. The other frog continued to jump with every ounce of energy he had, although his body was wracked with pain and he was completely exhausted. His companions began anew, yelling for him to accept his fate, stop the pain and just die. The weary frog jumped harder and harder and - wonder of wonders! Finally leapt so high that he sprang from the pit.

Amazed, the other frogs celebrated his miraculous freedom and then gathering around him asked, "Why did you continue jumping when we told you it was impossible?" Reading their lips, the astonished frog explained to them that he was deaf, and that when he saw their gestures and shouting, he thought they were cheering him on. What he had perceived as encouragement inspired him to try harder and to succeed against all odds.

This simple ‪#‎Inspiringstory‬ contains a powerful lesson. The book of Proverbs says, "There is death and life in the power of the tongue." Your destructive words can cause deep wounds; they may be the weapons that destroy someone's desire to continue trying - or even their life. Your destructive, careless word can diminish someone in the eyes of others, destroy their influence and have a lasting impact on the way others respond to them. Your encouraging words can lift someone up and help them make it through the day.



Be careful what you say. Speak life to (and about) those who cross your path. There is enormous power in words. If you have ‪#‎words‬ of ‪#‎kindness‬, ‪#‎praise‬ or ‪#‎encouragement‬ - speak them now to, and about, others. Listen to your heart and respond. Someone, somewhere, is waiting for your words...

Time management

Imagine there is a bank, which credits your account each morning with Rs 86,400, carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day.

What would you do? Draw out every pence, of course!

 Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is Time.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.
Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow."

Therefore, there is never not enough time or too much time. Time management is decided by us alone and nobody else. It is never the case of us not having enough time to do things, but the case of whether we want to do it.

God Himself supports His true Worshiper

Once a king in India went to #GuruNanak Dev Ji and asked, “O Guru! As you told us that God Himself supports His true #worshiper,  but #God has so many apostles, why does He support His devotees Himself? Why does not He send His apostles to help the devotees?” As he said this, his own son who was playing at the bank of a nearby river slipped in the river. The king did not waited for a second and jumped in the river right after his son to save his child.

After saving his child he returned to the Guru. The Guru asked, “My dear friend, you were sitting here with me a minute ago and why did you jump in the river?” King explained that his son had slipped in the river and he went to save him. Then the Guru asked, “Dear friend, you have so many servants then why did you jumped in the river by yourself? Why did not you send you servants to save him?” The King said, “When it come to my son. I do not want to take any chances and would do anything it takes to protect him. I love my son very much and I do not want to lose him at any cost.”

Then ‪#‎GuruNanakdev‬ Ji said, “My dear friend, God loves His devotees the same way as you love your son. That is why he Himself saves His true worshipper.”

Sharpen Your Mind

Woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work. The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”

Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring
15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.

“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”

Reflection:

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy that ever.

Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”? There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to read etc.

We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

Author: Stephen Covey
From: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Father and Son Flying Kite

Father is flying a kite. His son is watching him carefully. After some time son says "Dad. Because of the string the kite is not able to go any further higher." Hearing this, the father smiles and breaks the string.

The kite goes higher after breaking of the thread and then shortly after that it comes and falls on the ground. The child is very dejected and sad.

The father sits next to him and calmly explains:

"Son, in life we reach a certain level of prosperity and then we feel that there are certain things in our life that are not letting us grow any further like Home, Family, Culture, Friendship etc. We feel we want to be free from those strings which we believe are stopping us from going higher."

"But, remember son. Going higher is easier than staying at the higher level."

"And friends, family and culture etc are the things that will help us stay stable at the high heights that we have achieved. If we try to break away from those strings our condition will be similar to the kite."

Moral

"Never go away from culture, family, friends and relationships as they help keep us stable while you are flying high."

Your thoughts are your Karma!

A King was touring his Kingdom on his elephant.  Suddenly he stopped in front of a shop in the market and said to his minister, "I don';t know why, but I want to hang the owner of this shop." The minister was shocked. But before he could ask the king why, the king had moved on. 

The next day, the minister went to that shop dressed as one of the locals to see the shopkeeper. He casually asked him how his business was faring. The shopkeeper, a sandalwood merchant, reported sadly that he had hardly any customer. People would come to his shop, smell the sandalwood and then go away. They would even praise the quality of the sandalwood but rarely buy anything. His only hope was that the king would die soon. Then there would be a huge demand for sandalwood for performing his last rites. As he was the only sandalwood merchant around, he was sure the king';s death would mean a windfall.

The minister now understood why the king had stopped in front of this shop and expressed a desire to kill the shopkeeper. Perhaps, the shopkeeper';s negative thought vibration had subtly affected the king, who had, in turn, felt the same kind of negative thought arising within.

The minister; a noble man, pondered over the matter for a while. Without revealing who he was or what had happened the day before, he expressed a desire to buy some sandalwood. The shopkeeper was pleased. He wrapped the sandalwood and handed it over to the minister.

When the minister returned to the palace, he went straight to the court where the king was seated and reported that the sandalwood merchant had a gift for him. The king was surprised. When he opened the package, he was pleasantly surprised by the fine golden color of the sandalwood and its agreeable fragrance. Pleased, he sent some gold coins to the sandalwood merchant. The king also felt sorry in his heart that he had harbored unbecoming thoughts of killing the shopkeeper.

When the shopkeeper received the gold coins from the king, he was astounded. He began to proclaim the virtues of the king who had, through the gold coins, saved him from the brink of poverty. After some time, he recalled the morbid thoughts he had felt towards the king, and repented for having entertained such negative thoughts for his own personal goal.

If we have a good and kind thought for another person, that positive thought will come back to us in a favorable way. But if we harbor evil thoughts, those thoughts will come back to us as retribution.

"What is Karma?" asked Swami Many replied, "our words, our deeds, our feelings, our actions......"
Swami shook his head and said "Your thoughts are your Karma!"

Be a light unto yourself - Appo deepo bhava !!

Buddha's last words to his disciples were: APPA DEEPO BHAVA -- be a light unto yourself.
When he was dying, naturally thousands of disciples had gathered and they started crying and weeping. The master was leaving, it was natural, and the master had lived with them for forty-two years and they had loved the man, they had loved his vibe. He was one of the most beautiful men who has ever walked on the earth. Not only was he spiritually beautiful, physically he was also one of the most beautiful men.

Buddha was one of the most beautiful expressions physically too, really a lotus flower. And they had all loved him. They had renounced everything and risked everything for this man and now he was leaving. They started crying. One can understand their crying and their weeping and their tears.
But Buddha said, "Stop! Stop all this nonsense! Why are you crying? What difference is it going to make? I was not your light, you have to be your own light. And," Buddha said to them, "it may be a blessing in the form of a curse, because when I am gone you will try to find yourselves. While I was here you were more interested in me; although I was insisting: Go in! you were focused on me. Now I will not be here, you are bound to go inside."

And that's exactly what happened: many people became enlightened after Buddha died. When they were asked, "Why did so many people become enlightened when Buddha died?" they all said, "Now we understand what he meant, that in the form of a curse it is a blessing -- because once you have seen a Buddha and he is gone there is nothing worth seeing outside. So we closed our eyes.

"We have seen all that was the most worth seeing: we have seen the most beautiful person. What else is there? There is nothing worth hearing, worth seeing. We closed our eyes, we turned inwards and because Buddha was not there anymore we heard his words for the first time. When he was here we were able to postpone, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We were so much enchanted by his personality, by his charisma. Once he was gone we had to fall back upon our own selves. Maybe that was his last device."

OSHO

Contentment means: Look at what you have!

Lao Tzu says, ”No one can insult me because I don’t want respect.” This is what receiving respect is.

Lao Tzu says, ”No one can defeat me because I have dropped the very idea of winning. How can you defeat me? You can only defeat one who wants to win.” It is a strange fact.

In this world those who do not desire respect receive it. Those who do not want success get it, because those who do not want success already accept that they are successful: what more success do you want? You are already honored by the being within you: what more do you want? Existence has already given you respect by giving birth to you: who else’s respect do you want? Existence has given you enough glory. It gave you life. It has blessed you with eyes – open them and see these green trees, the flowers, the birds. It has given you ears – listen to music, to the splashing of a water fall. It has given awareness so you can become a buddha: what more do you want? You have already been honored. Existence has certified you: who are you asking, like a beggar, for a certificate? Those who beg a certificate from you?

It is a very hilarious situation, two beggars face to face begging from each other. How can you get anything? Both are beggars. From who are you asking respect? Who are you standing in front of? You are insulting yourself this way. And the insult will deepen.

Contentment means: Look at what you have!

OSHO

I say my prayers when it’s calm

There is an Inspirational story of about a sea captain who in his retirement skippered a boat taking day-trippers to Shetland Islands.

On one trip, the boat was full of young people.They laughed at the old captain when they saw him say a prayer before sailing out, because the day was fine and the sea was calm.

However they weren’t long at sea when a storm suddenly blew up and the boat began to pitch violently. The terrified passengers came to the captain and asked him to join them in prayer.

But he replied, “I say my prayers when it’s calm. When it’s rough I attend to my ship!”

Is there a lesson for us, here?

If we cannot seek God in quiet moments of our lives, we are not likely to find Him when trouble strikes. We are more likely to panic. But if we have learnt to seek Him and trust Him in quiet moments, then most certainly we will find Him when the going gets rough.

Fate is in Our Own Hands

Once upon a time, there was a general who was leading his army into battle against an enemy ten times the size of his own.

Along the way to the battle field, the troops stopped by a small temple to pray for victory.

The general held up a coin and told his troops, “I am going to implore the gods to help us crush our enemy. If this coin lands with the heads on top, we’ll win. If it’s tails, we’ll lose. Our fate is in the hands of the gods. Let’s pray wholeheartedly.”

After a short prayer, the general tossed the coin. It landed with the heads on top. The troops were overjoyed and went into the battle with high spirit.

Just as predicted, the smaller army won the battle. The soldiers were exalted, “It’s good to have the gods on our side! No one can change what they have determined.”

“Really?” The general show them the coin—both sides of it were heads.

The Last Wishes of Alexander The Great

On his death bed, Alexander summoned his army generals and told them his three ultimate wishes:

1. The best doctors should carry his coffin...
2. The wealth he has accumulated (money, gold, precious stones) should be scattered along the procession to the cemetery...
3. His hands should be let loose, so they hang outside the coffin for all to see!!

One of his generals who was surprised by these unusual requests asked Alexander to explain.
Here is what Alexander the Great had to say:

1. "I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate that in the face of death, even the best doctors in the world have no power to heal .."
2. "I want the road to be covered with my treasure so that everybody sees that material wealth acquired on earth, will stay on earth..."
3. "I want my hands to swing in the wind, so that people understand that we come to this world empty handed and we leave this world empty handed after the most precious treasure of all is exhausted, and that is: TIME.

We do not take to our grave any material wealth. TIME is our most precious treasure because it is LIMITED. We can produce more wealth, but we cannot produce more TIME.