Care

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. 

The winner was:

A four-year-old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry.' 

How not to hate

Some of these nuggets are just too good not to share. This is such an amazing analysis of one of the most basic of human emotions. Something that we often find hard to deal with. And here, the solution is so simple and yet effective. But to implement it needs the strength of the inner faculties and that is why the need for sadhana. The sadhana enables us to hang on to knowledge in the situations, and that's why saadhna and knowledge go hand in hand.

Arosa, (Switzerland), May 10, (Sunday): It is easy to tell someone not to hate. How not to hate? Why does hatred come? Because you think that they are the cause of our misery. That is why problem, pain, and loss arise. When you get a glimpse of consciousness deep inside, the Self is in everyone, taking care of all events. It is I who is playing that role. Me, in that person. Hatred disappears from the world around you. One who sees the being in oneself and oneself in all beings is like a director, he plans the roles. So he does not hate the villain. Your approach to events and personalities changes. We are like rag dolls. There is one consciousness in all.
It is not only humans, all elements are part of that consciousness. Whether water vapor, ice or water, all are One. All five elements are nothing. All are a part of that something that is nothing. This is the heart sutra by Buddha. So all is nothing.

- An excerpt from HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's commentary on the Isha Vasya Upanishad

 

The wrong principles

Once their lived a boy called Pappu. One day he stole a book from one of his classmates. Instead of punishing him his mother well appreciated him. She said, "That was so clever my boy". As he grew older and older Pappu came to be known as the village thief. One day the police caught him and he was ordered to be hanged. The day of his execution arrived, and his mother was beating her hands in her chest and was crying. Pappu saw his mother crying in the crowd. He pleaded to the securities to allow him to speak his last words to his mother in her ear. Then his mother showed his ear to Pappu so that he can speak. Pappu then bit his mother's ear. Many of the people came and pushed him back and asked him if she was his mother or not. Then he replied, " that lady is my mother, because of her I am going to be hanged now. When I was small I did mischief, without punishing me she encouraged me to do it again and again. I was an unnatural child and so my mother".

Solve the issue

An Arab sheik was getting along in years and he felt that it was time to name one of his sons his successor. He had three sons, who were triplets. He loved them all equally and did not know which of them to choose as a successor. So he sent them off to a distant land and promised that the one who would come back with the most useful learning would get the birthright. The three went off to distant lands; attended universities and visited exotic places. The first brother invented magic glasses with which he could see any place he wished to see on earth. The second perfected a magic carpet on which he sat and zoomed to any part of the earth in five minutes. The third son invented a medicine that could cure any sickness. After some years the three came together for a birthday party and explained what they had found. The first son looked through his magic glasses and saw his father dying. The second invited the other two to hop onto his magic carpet and within five minutes they were at their father's side. There the third son took out his magic medicine and cured his father at once. Now the sheik was more confused than ever, since it took the work of all three of them to save his life.... 

Now, whom would the sheik award succession? 

Religion - which is best?

Down at the local coffee shop, two farmers were arguing about the validity of their respective religions. A third farmer listened fro a while and then observed out loud: "I've been bringing' my wheat here to this same mill for over forty years. Now, there be two roads that lead up to the mill. Never once, friends, has he miller asked me which road I take.
He just asks: 'Is your wheat good?'"

Salt lake

Story of Salt lake

The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it.

"How does it taste?" the Master asked.

"Awful," spat the apprentice.

The Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake.

The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake,

The old man said, "Now drink from the lake."

As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the Master asked, "How does it taste?"

"Good!" remarked the apprentice. "Do you taste the salt?" asked the Master. "No," said the young man.

The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said,

"The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less.

The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount we taste the 'pain' depends on the container we put it into.

So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things .....

Stop being a glass. Become a lake!"