The Faithful Dog

There is a legend of a woman who had a faithful dog. This dog was so faithful that the woman could leave her baby with it and go out to attend other matters. She always returned to find the child soundly asleep with the dog faithfully watching over him.

One day, something tragic happened.

The woman as usual, left the baby in the "hands" of this faithful dog and went out shopping. When she returned, she discovered a rather nasty scene. There was a total mess.

The baby's cot was dismantled. His nappies and clothes torn to shreds, with bloodstains all over the bedroom where she had left the child and the dog. Shocked, the woman wailed as she began looking for the baby.

Presently, she saw the faithful dog emerging from the under the bed. It was covered with blood and licking its mouth as if it had just finished a delicious meal. The woman went berserk and assumed that the dog had devoured her baby. Without much thought, she clubbed the dog to death.

But as she continued searching for the "remains" of her child, she beheld another scene.

Close to the bed was her baby who, although lying on the bare floor, was safe. And under the bed, the carcass of a jackal torn to pieces in what must have been a fierce battle between it and the dog which was now dead.

Then reality hit the woman, who now began to understand what took place in her absence. The dog fought to protect the baby from the ravenous jackal. It was too late for her now to make amends because in her impatience and anger, she had killed the faithful dog.

Question: How often have we misjudged people and torn them to shreds with harsh words and even with physical assault before we have had time to evaluate the situation? A little patience can drastically reduce major life long errors.

Think about it!

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Life is Precious Handle It With Care

Rajiv, a rich guy, loved fast cars and he did have a few in his possession.

He loved to speed and could not be bothered about breaking speed limits. Many a times he was caught by the cops and speed radars, fined, but still he never bothered until.

One day as he was driving at a very high speed as usual, he saw a cop following him. The cop overtook him finally and asked him to stop and checked his license. He then took out his pad and started Writing, and then handed over the sheet of paper to Rajiv.

How much was this one going to cost?!!!

Wait a minute.

What was this????

Some kind of joke? Certainly not a ticket.

Rajiv began to read:

"Dear Rajiv,
Once upon a time I had a lovely daughter. She was six when killed by a car.
You guessed it - a speeding driver's car.
A fine and three months in jail, and the man was free. Free to hug his three daughters.

I only had one, and I'm going to have to wait until Heaven,before I can ever hug her again.
A thousand times I've tried to forgive that man. A thousand times I thought I had. Maybe I did, but I need to do it again. Even now. Pray for me.And be careful, Rajiv, my son is all I have left."

Rajiv turned around in time to see the cop's car pull away and head down the road.

He watched until it disappeared. A full 15 minutes later, he too, pulled away and drove slowly home, praying for forgiveness and surprised to see his wife and kids when he arrived.

Life is precious. Handle it with care.
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Dificult to Judge

In a small town in India, a person decided to open up his Bar business,which was right opposite to the Temple. The Temple its congregation started a campaign to block the Bar from opening with petitions and prayed daily against his business.
Work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and was about to open a few days later, a strong lightning struck the Bar and it was burnt to the ground.
The temple folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the Bar owner sued the Temple authorities on the grounds that the Temple through its congregation prayers was ultimately responsible for the demise of his bar shop, either through direct or indirect actions or means.
In its reply to the court, the temple vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection that their prayers were reasons to the bar shop's demise.
As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hearing and commented:
I don't know how I'm going to decide this case, but it appears from thepaperwork,
'we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and we have an entire temple and its devotees that doesn't.'
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Loving Parents..Love them BACK

An 80 year old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45 years old highly educated son. Suddenly a crow perched on their window.

The Father asked his Son,What is this?

The Son replied It is a crow.

After a few minutes, the Father asked his Son the 2nd time, What is this?

The Son said Father, I have just now told you It's a crow.

After a little while, the old Father again asked his Son the 3rd time,

What is this?

At this time some ex-pression of irritation was felt in the Son's tone when he said to his Father with a rebuff. It's a crow, a crow.

A little after, the Father again asked his Son t he 4th time, What is this?

This time the Son shouted at his Father, Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again, although I have told you so many times IT IS A CROW. Are you not able to understand this?

A little later the Father went to his room and came back with an old tattered diary, which he had maintained since his Son was born. On opening a page, he asked his Son to read that page. When the son read it, the following words were written in the diary :-

Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow was sitting on the window. My Son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a Crow. I hugged him lovingly each time h e asked me the same question again and again for 23 times. I did not at all feel irritated I rather felt affection for my innocent child.

While the little child asked him 23 times What is this, the Father had felt no irritation in replying to the same question all 23 times and when today the Father asked his Son the same question just 4 times, the Son felt irritated and annoyed.

So..

If your parents attain old age, do not repulse them or look at them as a burden, but speak to them a gracious word, be cool, obedient, humble and kind to them. Be considerate to your parents.From today say this aloud, I want to see my parents happy forever. They have cared for me ever since I was a little child. They have always showered their selfless love on me.

They crossed all mountains and valleys without seeing the storm and heat to make me a person presentable in the society today.

Say a prayer to God, I will serve my old parents in the BEST way. I will say all good and kind words to my dear parents, no matter how they behave.
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Say, enough is enough

It is no longer `cool’ to use the word ‘contentment’ for the simple reason that currently, the constantly heard or read words are aspiration, acquisition, more, and growth. It’s time, therefore to revisit the meaning of contentment.

True contentment does not ask us to end aspiration or advancement, but asks us to appreciate and enjoy what we’ve got before we can focus on getting more. Many, after getting something for which they hankered after, immediately begin a new search for something different; the process never seems to end. At times we even forget why we needed something or someone. Discontent can become an addiction. “Being human,” says philosopher Husserl, “is a characteristic of a being who faces the question: After satisfaction, what?”

Things, people and situations do diminish in charm or utility; you often feel the need for change. It is perhaps not practical to say: “I am content with my typewriter and have no desire for a computer.”

However there seems to be a tendency to be dissatisfied with whatever one has, from possessions and relationships, to one’s city or country. Is the grass really greener on the other side? Unlikely. An untested belief is that the grass is greener on the other side.

There are two dynamics operating here. The locus can be internal; the person in general is restless, unhappy and dissatisfied. Or it is triggered by external factors; one’s discontent is caused by what one sees, desires, or is tempted by.

Contentment was regarded as a sadhana, a spiritual observance, its focus being the mobilisation of one’s own mechanism of resistance to acquiring, intended to help one arrive at a state of needlessness. This is not easy even for sages.

It is helpful to see contentment as a state of being that brings with it a certain measure of wakefulness. This creates a sense of comfort with whatever one has at the moment -- and is a cure for dwelling on what one lacks.

Contentment carries a component of thankfulness. When you go to a pharmacy and realise that there are many medicines you can do without, you feel grateful for your state of health.

Contentment may be described as a place between boredom and greed, between the burdensome and need for the novel. In Sanskrit, contentment is referred to as santosh and better translated as fulfillment, distinguished from ashutosh - one who gets satisfied easily but perhaps also temporarily.

Contentment looks into the essentials, requiring a certain eye that takes time to develop. I would go a step ahead and say it is an art.

In this age of quantity and variety, how else could one find protection against the virus of discontent? Masters across cultures have invited us to observe the beautiful effects of contentment, an invaluable asset that helps us find a positive orientation in life.

Everyone cannot be a mahatma; we could at least try to find contentment in whatever way we can. “To know you have enough is to be rich,” offered Lao-Tzu; and so say the Taoists, Thoreau, Zen masters, and Sufis.

Contentment offers us a method, a particular angle of viewing certain kinds of truths that are better approached and achieved by this path. Contentment does not mean closing your eyes and ears to reality, or shunning the new; it focuses on being discerning, so that we become ‘open-eyed perceivers’.

Where do we draw the line and say ‘enough is enough’ so that we can achieve balance between what we can acquire and what we can use, big or small? The wisdom of life as always, consists in the elimination of non-essentials.


Read more: Say, enough is enough - Speaking Tree - Spirituality - Life & Style - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/spirituality/speaking-tree/Say-enough-is-enough/articleshow/6124150.cms#ixzz0vom24P9F


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Consciousness as guide

There are infinite levels of consciousness; all is consciousness. This play is infinite; the Divine is infinite; the levels are infinite. God is infinite so everything is infinite. We cannot say that there are ten levels, twenty levels: it's infinite.

That's the idea. Life is a journey to the infinite. You can never say that you have already reached it, that this is the end. It is always a beginning.

Time means the distance between two things. Most of the time we are in the past and when we are in the past, we create a distance. So if we want to go out from the time, we must get free of the past. Or maybe we are in the future, and then again we create a distance between the future and ourselves. We wait for the future and we don't live now, in the present.

Time is now, but we create a distance: we are either in the past, or in the future. If we want to get free from time, we must get free from past and future. We have to be always in the present, with the present time in our hands.

If we become servile, we lose our freedom with our way of thinking. If we don't hold on to anything, we are free. If we learn to leave, we will be free.

We hold on and then we say we are not free. Learn to leave fast, never possess, get free from past and future: time will be with you and you will be fully free.

It would be easier to do so by realising the value of life, of existence. We don't know the importance of our lives, and that's why we waste the present moment.

We are always absent from life. We are in the past or future, with memories of the past and fears of the future. This is normal human life, the way of living: always absent from the present.

The power, the joy of the present is so strong, so beautiful and big, that you will not miss your memories. Why do you invoke memories? Because you miss something and when you miss something, you open the album. The power of now, of the present is so great and full that you won't miss anything.

When we live in the present our capacities grow more. Generally, we have memory of the past to enable us to remember the past. When we live in the present we do not need to rely on memory.

The ultimate aim of nature's process of making the human consciousness grow is to give us the realisation, to increase our consciousness. That's the only object of life. All the rest are processes or experiments with or without love, with or without suffering. All the tools of nature are working to make humanity more conscious.

Spirituality means to live with that consciousness. Everything is moving and changing but we are witnesses watching the play, not disturbing it, not interfering, just enjoying.

The Self is a big word. Bring your Self to the front seat so you can direct your own movements. That's why Sri Aurobindo said: “To grow your consciousness, grow your awareness, your understanding, your knowledge. If you exist with consciousness, with good understanding, with knowledge, you are able to give direction to your movements. Then, you can tell your mind where to go.

But now you have no control: if the mind wants this, you go there.”

Life is movement and the movement needs a guide. Consciousness is the guide




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The 10 Very Best Zen Stories

Many teachings from Zen-Buddhism are told in short and delightful stories. They are usually designed to develop the mind and to free it from distortions and so to connect with our spirit.

Some of them are really inspiring and enlightening. It is helpful to the mind to think about them and feel the deeper meaning. Even if it is not possible to grasp them fully, the beauty and simplicity of the message usually gets through to us one way or the other.

The following 10 Zen stories are a selection of the ones which are very popular and people find them most inspiring and really worth to read and shared about. Some may be instantly understood, some others need to be thought through and recognized in oneself.

They are about the following topics: life in the present moment, different perspectives, attachment, resistance, judgment, delusion, beliefs and thought as mental concepts but not truth and unconditional love. Please feel free to post your interpretation or other stories into the comments.

1. A Cup of Tea
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

2. The Burden
Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the road sides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk accross because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to a her lifted her and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.

In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, "Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman ?"

The elder monk answered "yes, brother".

Then the younger monk asks again, "but then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside ?"

The elder monk smiled at him and told him " I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her."

3. Finding a Piece of the Truth
One day Mara, the Evil One, was travelling through the villages of India with his attendants. he saw a man doing walking meditation whose face was lit up on wonder. The man had just discovered something on the ground in front of him. Mara’s attendant asked what that was and Mara replied, "A piece of truth."

"Doesn’t this bother you when someone finds a piece of truth, O Evil One?" his attendant asked. "No," Mara replied. "Right after this, they usually make a belief out of it."

4. The Other Side
One day a young Buddhist on his journey home came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him, he pondered for hours on just how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as he was about to give up his pursuit to continue his journey he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells over to the teacher, "Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river"?

The teacher ponders for a moment looks up and down the river and yells back, "My son, you are on the other side".

5. Is That So?
The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life.

A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child.

This made her parents very angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.

In great anger the parents went to the master. "Is that so?" was all he would say.

When the child was born, the parents brought it to the Hakuin, who now was viewed as a pariah by the whole village. They demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. “Is that so?” Hakuin said calmly as he accepted the child.

A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth – that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fishmarket.

The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back again.

Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: "Is that so?"

6. Maybe
Once upon the time there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.

“Maybe,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.

“Maybe,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

“Maybe,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“Maybe,” said the farmer.

7. Cliffhanger
One day while walking through the wilderness a man stumbled upon a vicious tiger. He ran but soon came to the edge of a high cliff. Desperate to save himself, he climbed down a vine and dangled over the fatal precipice.

As he hung there, two mice appeared from a hole in the cliff and began gnawing on the vine.

Suddenly, he noticed on the vine a plump wild strawberry. He plucked it and popped it in his mouth. It was incredibly delicious!

8. The Blind Men and the Elephant
Several citizens ran into a hot argument about God and different religions, and each one could not agree to a common answer. So they came to the Lord Buddha to find out what exactly God looks like.

The Buddha asked his disciples to get a large magnificent elephant and four blind men. He then brought the four blind to the elephant and told them to find out what the elephant would "look" like.

The first blind men touched the elephant leg and reported that it "looked" like a pillar. The second blind man touched the elephant tummy and said that an elephant was a wall. The third blind man touched the elephant ear and said that it was a piece of cloth. The fourth blind man hold on to the tail and described the elephant as a piece of rope. And all of them ran into a hot argument about the "appearance" of an elephant.

The Buddha asked the citizens: "Each blind man had touched the elephant but each of them gives a different description of the animal. Which answer is right?"

9. Right and Wrong
When Bankei held his seclusion-weeks of meditation, pupils from many parts of Japan came to attend. During one of these gatherings a pupil was caught stealing. The matter was reported to Bankei with the request that the culprit be expelled. Bankei ignored the case.

Later the pupil was caught in a similar act, and again Bankei disregarded the matter. This angered the other pupils, who drew up a petition asking for the dismissal of the thief, stating that otherwise they would leave in a body.

When Bankei had read the petition he called everyone before him. "You are wise brothers," he told them. "You know what is right and what is not right. You may go somewhere else to study if you wish, but this poor brother does not even know right from wrong. Who will teach him if I do not? I am going to keep him here even if all the rest of you leave."

A torrent of tears cleansed the face of the brother who had stolen. All desire to steal had vanished.

10. Nothing Exists
Yamaoka Tesshu, as a young student of Zen, visited one master after another. He called upon Dokuon of Shokoku.

Desiring to show his attainment, he said: "The mind, Buddha, and sentient beings, after all, do not exist. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no realization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and nothing to be received."

Dokuon, who was smoking quietly, said nothing. Suddenly he whacked Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe. This made the youth quite angry.

"If nothing exists," inquired Dokuon, "where did this anger come from?"

Bonus 11. Teaching the Ultimate
In early times in Japan, bamboo-and-paper lanterns were used with candles inside. A blind man, visiting a friend one night, was offered a lantern to carry home with him.

"I do not need a lantern," he said. "Darkness or light is all the same to me."

"I know you do not need a lantern to find your way," his friend replied, "but if you don’t have one, someone else may run into you. So you must take it."

The blind man started off with the lantern and before he had walked very far someone ran squarely into him. "Look out where you are going!" he exclaimed to the stranger. "Can’t you see this lantern?"

"Your candle has burned out, brother," replied the stranger.


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