Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Richest Man on Earth

 There was a learned man who, for several years, longed to be shown the way to God. Everyday, he sat apart from men and prayed that he might be brought into contact with a Sage, a Saint, and a Knower of Truth.

 One day, as he sat in prayer, he heard a Voice say, “Go to such and such a place, and you will meet the man who will show you the way to blessedness and bliss!”

 Great was his joy when he heard the words. Forthwith he went to the place indicated by the Voice. He was surprised to find a man, humble, simple, poor, with tattered cloths on his body, his feet soiled with mud. The learned man looked all around him, but found no other man seated there. So, to this man, he said, “Good morning to you!”

Quietly, answered the poor man, “I have never had a bad morning!”

“God give you good luck!” said the learned man.

“I have never had ill-luck!” answered the poor man.

The learned man’s astonishment grew. “May you be happy!” he said to the poor man.

To which the poor man answered, “I have never been unhappy!”

“I am unable to understand,” said the learned man, “Pray explain it all to me.”

“Gladly,” said the poor man. “You wished me a good morning. I have never had a bad morning. For, if I do not get food to eat, I praise God. If it rains or snows, or if the weather is foul, I still praise God. If I am despised and have no human company, I praise God! So I have never had a bad morning, never an evil day.

“You wished me good luck: but I have never had ill-luck. For I always dwell at the Lotus Feet of the Lord: and I know that whatever God sends to me is the very best that can ever happen to me. I cheerfully accept everything that comes to me – health or sickness, prosperity or adversity, joy or sorrow – as a gift from God. I have never had ill-luck.

“You wished me happiness. I have never been unhappy. For the deepest longing of my heart is to live in union with God’s Will, and I have so entirely yielded my will to the Will of God, that what God wills, I will!”

Astonished, the learned man asked, “What if God’s Will should cast you into hell?”

“Cast me into hell!” exclaimed the poor man. “God too loves to do that. But even if He sends me to hell, I should have two arms with which to embrace Him. One is the arm of humility, the other of love. With them I should so embrace Him that He would have to go to hell with me. I would rather be in hell and be with God, than be in heaven and remain away from God!”

The poor man taught that in self-surrender, in utter humility, is the simplest, surest, nearest way to God.

When asked who he was, he answered, “I am a king!”

 He was the very picture of destitution: and yet he felt he was a king! For he had learnt to walk the way of acceptance. He accepted all that came his way and rejoiced in all that happened. He expected nothing: he hoped for nothing: he needed nothing: he lacked nothing.

Was he not the richest of men on earth?

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Perfect Person

A man and his girlfriend were married. It was a large celebration. All of their friends and family came to see the lovely ceremony and to partake of the festivities and celebrations. A wonderful time was had by all.

The bride was gorgeous in her white wedding gown and the groom was very dashing in his black tuxedo. Everyone could tell that the love they had for each other was true. A few months later, the wife comes to the husband with a proposal: "I read in a magazine, a while ago, about how we can strengthen our marriage." she offered ."Each of us will write a list of the things that we find a bit annoying with the other person. Then, we can talk about how we can fix them together and make our lives happier together."

The husband agreed, so each of them went to a separate room in the house and thought of the things that annoyed them about the other. They thought about this question for the rest of the day and wrote down what they came up with.
The next morning, at the breakfast table, they decided that they would go over their lists. "I'll start," offered the wife. She took out her list. It had many items on it enough to fill 3 pages, in fact. As she started reading the list of the little annoyances, she noticed that tears were starting to appear in her husbands eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Nothing" the husband replied, "keep reading your lists." The wife continued to read until she had read all three pages to her husband. She neatly placed her list on the table and folded her hands over top of it.
"Now, you read your list and then we'll talk about the things on both of our lists." She said happily.

The next morning, at the breakfast table, they decided that they would go over their lists.
"I'll start," offered the wife. She took out her list. It had many items on it enough to fill 3 pages, in fact. As she started reading the list of the little annoyances, she noticed that tears were starting to appear in her husbands eyes.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "Nothing" the husband replied, "keep reading your lists."
The wife continued to read until she had read all three pages to her husband. She neatly placed her list on the table and folded her hands over top of it.
"Now, you read your list and then we'll talk about the things on both of our lists." She said happily.

Quietly the husband stated, "I don't have anything on my list. I think that you are perfect the way that you are. I don't want you to change anything for me. You are lovely and wonderful and I wouldn't want to try and change anything about you."
The wife, touched by his honesty and the depth of his love for her and his acceptance of her, turned her head and wep t.
In life, there are enough times when we are disappointed, depressed and annoyed. We don't really have to go looking for them.
We have a wonderful world that is full of beauty, light and promise.
Why waste time in this world looking for the bad, disappointing or annoying when we can look around us, and see the wondrous things before us?

I believe that WE ARE HAPPIEST WHEN we see and praise the good and try our best to forget the bad. Nobody's perfect but we can find perfectness in them to change the way we see them .

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

One Story


Jerry is the manager of a restaurant in America. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs, so they could follow him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood. I always choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I always choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I always choose the positive side of life."

"But it's not always that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Jerry said "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. It's your choice how you live your life."

Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business: left the back door of his restaurant open one morning and was robbed by three armed men. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness slipped off The combination. The robbers panicked and shot him.

Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Want to see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared?" I asked. Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me. I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the Emergency Room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'He's a dead man.' I knew I need to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything." 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead'."Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.

I learned from him that every day you have the choice to either enjoy your life or to hate it. The only thing that is truly yours that no one can control or take from you - is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.