Category: Life

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The story of the two water pots

This is yet another classical story that has been circulating around and I would like to share with you:

two-pots
A water bearer in India had two large pots, one 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 of the story: Always be grateful even if you don’t see the good things in the bad things immediately. Do not fall in the “compare and despair” trap. Learn about yourself and your qualities.
flower separator
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The boy and the apple tree

In my last trip to Lebanon, a friend of mine gave me a book called “ZeNLP – The Power to Relax” by Murli Menon. I liked the book as it talks about the technique the other teachers and at the same time the book explores different traditions and techniques out there. What I will be sharing in this blog entry and the coming ones are stories that are found in this book. Enjoy the first story.

Continue reading “The boy and the apple tree”

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The story of the two seeds

Here goes another story about taking part in life, risking and trusting:
Two seeds lay side by side in the fertile soil.
The first seed said, “I want to grow! I want to send my roots deep into the soil beneath me, and thrust my sprouts through the earth’s crust above me … I want to unfurl my tender buds like banners to announce the arrival of spring … I want to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and the blessing of the morning dew on my petals!”
And so she grew…
The second seed said, “I am afraid. If I send my roots into the ground below, I don’t know what I will encounter in the dark. If I push my way through the hard soil above me I may damage my delicate sprouts … what if I let my buds open and a snail tries to eat them? And if I were to open my blossoms, a small child may pull me from the ground. No, it is much better for me to wait until it is safe.”
And so she waited…
A yard hen scratching around in the early spring ground for food found the waiting seed and promptly ate it.

Two seeds lay side by side in the fertile soil.The first seed said, “I want to grow! I want to send my roots deep into the soil beneath me, and thrust my sprouts through the earth’s crust above me … I want to unfurl my tender buds like banners to announce the arrival of spring … I want to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and the blessing of the morning dew on my petals!”And so she grew…The second seed said, “I am afraid. If I send my roots into the ground below, I don’t know what I will encounter in the dark. If I push my way through the hard soil above me I may damage my delicate sprouts … what if I let my buds open and a snail tries to eat them? And if I were to open my blossoms, a small child may pull me from the ground. No, it is much better for me to wait until it is safe.”And so she waited…A yard hen scratching around in the early spring ground for food found the waiting seed and promptly ate it.

This story reminds of “The Parable of the Talents” (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-28)

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I have nothing to give you

A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by.

“Spare some change?” mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap.
“I have nothing to give you”, said the stranger, then he asked: “What’s that you are sitting on?”
“Nothing” replied the beggar. “Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.”
“Ever looked inside?” asked the stranger.
“No.” said the beggar, “What’s the point, there’s nothing in there”
“Have a look inside” insisted the stranger.

The beggar managed to prey open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.

Moral of the story: we may spend all our lives looking for the treasure outside and never spare just a minute to look inside.

Origin: “The power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle

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How to be ready for your first 10 days Vipassana Course

meditating-buddhaIf life puts Vipassana in your way and you are considering to take the course, then it is best to read a little about the technique, and how to be prepared mentally and physically so that you can complete the 10-days course.

The purpose of this article is to tell you, from my own experience, what should be known before hand, what mental attitude to adopt, and any other aspects that can help you. It is a bit of a long read, but I think it is worth it especially that you are considering to take this life changing meditation course.

The advises below do not follow any specific order, but all of them are essential points I discovered when I took the course. Continue reading “How to be ready for your first 10 days Vipassana Course”

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The young professor and the old layman

On board of a big ship a simple old man met a young professor and they started to have conversations along the journey. Every night the man came to the professor’s cabin, trying to learn something from the learned man.

On the first night, the professor asked: ‘Old man, do you know what Geology is?’
‘Oh, Professor Sir, I never went to school, I know nothing about Geology. Could you tell me what it is?’ replied the man.
‘Oh, poor old man, you don’t know what geology is. It’s the science of the earth. You’ve wasted a quarter of your life.’ said the professor.
The old man felt so sad, if the professor said that he wasted a quarter of his life than it must be true.

On the second night, the two men met again and the professor asked: ‘Old man, do you know what Oceanology is?’
‘Professor Sir, I am just a simple man, I don’t know that Oceanology is. What is that sir?’ replied the old man.
And the professor said: ‘Oh, poor old man, you don’t know what oceanology is. We are sailing and you don’t know the science of the sea. You’ve wasted half of your life.’ The old man felt so sad, so incredibly sad, he just found out that he wasted half of his life.

On the third night, still eager to learn, the old man came to the professor’s cabin and was asked: ‘Old man, do you know what Meteorology is?’
‘Professor Sir, you know I am just a simple man, I don’t know that Meteorology is.’ reply the old man.
‘Oh, poor old man, you don’t know what geology is; you also don’t know what oceanology is. And now you don’t know what meteorology is. It’s the science of the sky and the weather. You’ve wasted three quarter of your life,’ said the professor.
The old man felt so sad, so incredibly sad, he just found out that he wasted three quarter of his life.

On the fourth night, the old man ran into the professor and start asking: ‘Professor Sir, Professor Sir, do you know swimmology?’
‘Old man, I know a lot of things, but I’ve never heard of swimmology. What is that?’ replied the professor.
‘Do you know how to swim, Sir?’ Asked the old man.
‘To swim? I didn’t have time to learn how to swim; I was busy learning other things. I can’t swim,’ said the professor.
‘Oh poor professor, you’ve wasted all of your life. If you had known swimmology, you could have swim to the shore because the ship is sinking now.’ said the old man.

Origin: Dhamma 10 days discourse by S.N Goenka

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Oh that’s very good! … No! It’s not!

so joe the old farmer, was sitting outside his farm, with a sad look on his face; them sam, his neighbor, comes and asks joe what’s the matter:

sam: joe, you look sad, what’s up?
joe: we had one horse that helped us alot, but now it ran away
sam: oh, that is so so sad, …poor joe
joe: no it isn’t sad!
sam: what? your only horse ran away and it is not sad?
joe: no, it is good! the horse ran away, but returned with 3 other horses!
sam: that is great!!!
joe: no, that is bad!!! ;(
sam: you now have 3 + 1 horses, you can do more work now
joe: true i have 3 horse more, but one day my elder son was mounting one of the horses, and that horse went wild and my son broke his leg!
sam: oh! how sad!
joe: no it isn’t!
sam: what?! your son with a broken leg? and it is not sad?!
joe: no it is not sad! last week, the military was recruiting young boys; when they saw my boy’s broken leg, they did not enlist him!
sam: oh that’s great!!!
joe: no it isn’t!
sam: ……..

and it goes on…..

do you love the story? what do you think happened next? what did they talk about, write me!

origin: Hans DeJong, Silva Method

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Trying to be nice

I found myself saying internally “..but I was trying to be nice…” and that made me wonder: “am I not nice in the first place?” 😉

It turns out there is nothing as “trying to be nice” there is either you’re nice by your nature and how you act, or you’re not nice. Anything in between can be superficial, acting and not natural, and that does not work for whatever purpose you were “trying to be nice” for.

Bottom line: don’t try to be nice, just be as you are.

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The Law of Jante

I was reading Paulo Coelho’s blog and he mentioned “The Law of Jante”

As Google is our first best friend, Wikipedia is our second best friend, so here’s the Law of Jante:

There are ten different rules in the law, but they are all variations on a single theme and are usually referred to as a homogeneous unit: Don’t think you’re anyone special or that you’re better than us.
The ten rules are:

  1. Don’t think that you are special.
  2. Don’t think that you are of the same standing as us.
  3. Don’t think that you are smarter than us.
  4. Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.
  5. Don’t think that you know more than us.
  6. Don’t think that you are more important than us.
  7. Don’t think that you are good at anything.
  8. Don’t laugh at us.
  9. Don’t think that anyone cares about you.
  10. Don’t think that you can teach us anything.

I love this law, since it puts an end to our ego and selfishness, and tells us that we are not better than anyone else, and we should be humble.

By knowing we are not special, that does not mean we are not really special, it just means that we don’t have to act special and show off in front of others.

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Some dreams that can become true

Hello Reader,

How does it feel when you wake up in the morning after having a dream showing your best friend dying and you had the chance to sit with him/her and say goodbye before he/she part you the next day?

I know it is a sad feeling, how you cannot afford loosing such dear person to you….you may forcefully wake yourself up from the dream…Alternatively, you may allow your being to express the sad emotions and let tears flow from your eyes and start the process of self healing and release.

But why are we really that sad?

Perhaps because we are loosing something? Continue reading “Some dreams that can become true”

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Peace

Peace, Peace, Peace…everybody talks about peace….This is not yet another thought to talk about “peace” as you’ve read about it in the news, or heard it from an idealist or a politician.
This thought is to share with you a moment of experienced peace, a moment where I got to realize how peace can exist and be found.

Lately, I’ve been greatful and appreciate my meetings with people from all sort of backgrounds. Be that a garbage collector, the concierge, the taxi driver, the small child of your neighbor, or even a person that you’ve known for years but see him/her in a different way.

I came to understand that peace with others can be perceived only when peace with yourself is achieved. The reason I say perceived and not created is simply because peace is already there, but you can’t see it when you are not in peace.

If you are angry, you tend to see people as your enemies. If you are greedy and selfish, you get to see people as those who want to rob you and abuse you. If you are sad, you get to see people as those who want to nag you and bother you. But if you are in peace with yourself, you will get to see everyone peaceful only because you have this perception in your heart.

What has changed? Nothing has changed, the angry person is still angry, the selfish person you meet, is still selfish, what changed is YOU.

A call for peace is something you achieve within, and then the world will change.

You’re not asked to become a saint, to take a slap on both your cheeks, you are simply asked to accept people as they are without any mask of preconception and only then you get to see past the mask that all people are wearing.

Peace upon you dear reader.

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On being oneself

Hi,

Moments of solitude make you reflect, gives you a time, a certain mental pause to look around and see.

I came to realize how hard it is to be oneself, to be your true self.

You may think are your acting on your own, but have you really look inside to see if you are trying to be like someone else, trying to please others, trying to impress someone?

Have you ever evaluated the amount of hidden stress you put inside every time you’re not really being yourself?

I don’t have much to offer now, because I am not myself neither, so much work need to be done to remove all the peels and get to the core of myself.

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Movie: Together

I watched today a Chinese drama movie called “Together”. It is the story of a boy who is a talented violinist who’s looking for success with the help of his father. What’s so moving about the story is that the boy’s father is not his real father, instead the boy was picked up by him from a train station along with the violin that was laying next to him.

The story evolves as how the father went to China’s capital to find a good teacher for his son, and how the events lead to unveil to the son the truth about his babyhood.

It is a moving story and movie, hope you enjoy it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Together_(2002_film)

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Gold Wrapping Paper

Today I received this chain letter, usually I delete chain letters, but this one had a moral.
Oh by the way, I truncated the part where the chain letter usually asks you to forward this to your friends and such. So here we go:

Gold Wrapping Paper

I received this from a friend who had a choice to make. It said that I had a choice to make too.

I’ve chosen. Now it’s your turn to choose.

The story goes that some time ago a mother punished her five year old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and she became even more upset when the child used the gold paper to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her mother the next morning and then said,
“This is for you, Momma.”

The mother was embarrassed by her earlier over reaction, but her anger flared again when she opened
the box and found it was empty. She spoke to her daughter in a harsh manner.

“Don’t you know, young lady, when you give someone a present there’s supposed to be something
inside the package?”

She had tears in her eyes and said, “Oh, Momma, it’s not empty! I blew kisses into it until it was full.”

The mother was crushed. She fell on her knees and put her arms around her little girl, and she begged her forgiveness for her thoughtless anger.

An accident took the life of the child only a short time later, and it is told that the mother kept that gold
box by her bed for all the years of her life.

Whenever she was discouraged or
faced difficult problems she would open the box
and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us, as human beings, have been given a Golden box filled with unconditional love
and kisses from our children, family, friends
and GOD. There is no more precious
possession anyone could hold.

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Beautiful Skin

It has been a long time I didn’t write my thoughts, however this “Beautiful Skin” thought always comes to my mind, and this time it conspired with my fingers, eyes and mind and managed to get me write it.
Oh, who’s “me” if not the mind, eyes, fingers, legs…. ? 😛

Beautiful skin?

You see a person and you get attracted to that person. Have you ever considered yourself being only attrated to hir (Leary’s gender-unspecific term) skin?

How funny it is when our genes, which work on the subtlest level, fire up chemicals of admiration when they spot a healthy match. To add to what evolutionists say, we don’t get attracted to “ugly” people because we perceive them as unhealthy and carry unfit genes.

I come to look at it differently, when my system spots a match, a moral/humanistic versus genes/instinct argument arises:
Genes: That person’s ugly, keep away from me
Moral: Why judge by the appearance? What do I know beyond the skin of that person?

In these days, which controls which? The genes control the moral, or the moral controls the genes? Or there’s a mechanism in between balancing the two and what is it?

Those who have public speaking phobias are advised to envision the audience naked (in fact, that’s what an instructor once told us in a public speaking course), thus they gain relative confidence by mentally lowering the audience’s. Similarliy, when the “Beautiful Skin” argument arrises, always remember that beneath this beautiful skin lies a mass of raw flesh and a thick skeleton.

Let your instinct cool down and be open to more than “skinny” opportunities.

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Remote Relatives

Oh Remote Relatives….I got some relatives living outside, some here, some there, some in Honolulu and some In Zimbabwe.

But hey, I am not talking about them. I am talking about something like that:

“I know that that that that man told me is a lie.”

🙂 Perplexed? it is simple to understand, it talks about that, and how that that is a lie, don’t you approve with that? 😛