Rules for being human

When you were born, you didn't come with an owner's manual; these guidelines make life work better.

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's the only thing you
are sure to keep for the rest of your life.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called
"Life on Planet Earth". Every person or incident is the Universal Teacher.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation.
"Failures" are as much a part of the process as "success."

4. A lesson is repeated until learned. It is presented to you in various forms until
you learn it: then you can go on to the next lesson.

5. If you don't learn easy lessons, they get harder. External problems are a precise
reflection of your internal state. When you clear inner obstructions, your
outside world changes. Pain is how the universe gets your attention.

6. You will know you've learned a lesson when your actions change. Wisdom is
practice. A little of something is better than a lot of nothing.

7. "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" becomes a "here" you will
simply obtain another "there" that again looks better than "here."

8. Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another
unless it reflects something you love or hate in yourself.

9. Your life is up to you. Life provides the canvas; you do the painting. Take
charge of your life, or someone else will.

10.You always get what you want. Your subconscious rightfully determines what
energies, experiences, and people you attract; therefore, the only foolproof way
to know what you want is to see what you have. There are no victims, only
students.

11.There is no right or wrong, but there are consequences. Moralizing doesn't help.
Judgments only hold the patterns in place. Just do your best.

12.Your answers lie inside you. Children need guidance from others; as we mature,
we trust our hearts, where the Laws of Spirit are written. You know more than you
have heard or read or been told. All you need to do is to look, listen, and trust.

13.You will forget all this.

14.You can remember any time you wish.

The Tame Tiger

A religious teacher and his student were walking from one village to another, when they suddenly heard a roar behind them. Turning their gaze in the direction of the roar, they saw a big tiger following them.

The first thing the student wanted to do was to run away, but as he had been studying and practising self-discipline, he was able to halt himself, and waited to see what his teacher was going to do.
"What shall we do, Master?" asked the student.

The teacher looked at the student and answered calmly: "There are several choices. We can fill our minds with fear, so that we become unable to move and let the tiger do with us whatever pleases it."
"We can faint. We can run away, but then it will run after us. We can fight with it, but physically it is stronger than us."
"We can pray to God to save us. We can influence the tiger with the power of our mind, if our concentration is strong enough."
"We can send it love. We can also concentrate and meditate on our inner power and on the fact that we are one with the entire universe, including the tiger, and in this way influence its soul."
"What do you choose?"
"You are the Master. You tell me what to do. We haven't much time," responded the student.

The master turned his gaze fearlessly towards the tiger, emptied his mind from all thoughts, and entered a kind of trance.In his consciousness he embraced everything in the universe, including the tiger. The tiger became one with him in consciousness.

Meanwhile the student started to shiver with fear. The tiger was already quite close, ready to make a leap at them. He was amazed at how his teacher could stay so calm and detached in the face of danger.

After a while, the tiger lowered his head and tail and went away. The student asked his teacher in astonishment, "What did you do?"
"Nothing. I just cleared all thoughts from my mind and united myself in spirit with the tiger. We became united in peace on the spiritual level.The tiger sensed inner calmness, peace, and unity and felt no threat or need to express violence, and so walked away."

All things in the universe have a language. It is not they who must learn to speak, it is we.

The Two Headed Bird

There once lived a bird with two heads. Each of the head takes rest while the other stay awake and stay on guard. One of the head was very fond of sleeping, therefore it was often that the other head had to stay awake and on guard. When it is time for meal, the waking head would wake the sleepy head to eat together, then after eating, the sleepy head will continue to sleep again. The waking head also did not mind the situation.


One day the waking head says, "Hey, i am tired and want to sleep, so you will be the one on guard!" When the waking head was deep in his sleep, suddenly through the gust of wind, a fresh juicy fruit rolled down up from above towards the two-headed bird. Seeing that the waking head had slept very soundly, the sleepy head felt hestitation to wake him up, the sleeping head thought, even though if he eat the fruit alone, the waking head would also enjoy it.

Finally, the sleepy head had finished eating the fresh juicy fruit. Suddenly the waking head woke up from his sleep and, "Eeeekh! What food have you eaten? Why did the burp have good smell?" So the sleepy head replied, "A very juicy fruit. I hestitated disturbing your sleep, so i ate it alone." The waking head seemed irritated and said, "For such a tasty fruit, why did not you wake me up to enjoy it together? Fine, one day i shall revenge on this!"

Few weeks have passed, "Today you may rest, let me be on the guard!" said the waking head. Suddenly there came again another fruit blown by the wind towards the two-headed bird. But he was aware that the fruit was of a poisonous kind, an evil thought sparked in his mind, "I shall eat this fruit. Even if it kills, let us both die!" With heart full of hatred he consumed the poisonous fruit!

When we harm others, we are actually harming ourselves too, for in deeper reality, we are not separated and is one. Harming oneself also means harming others too!!

Cliff of the Lily

Once,somewhere near a deep isolated cliff, a very young lily flower sprouted out of the earth. But it was still very young at its age that it looked just like an ordinary weed. Regardless of so, the young sprout was confident that one day it will turn into a beautiful eye-captivating lily flower.

However, the weeds around it laugh at the lily. Even the birds and the insects advised the lily to stop dreaming itself becoming such a beautiful flower. They said, "Let's say that you can blossom out into a beautiful lily flower, but as you are located in this isolated cliff, nobody would come and admire your beauty." Upon hearing those, the lily just kept quiet at them. Instead it made the lily become more determined to make better use of the ground water and the sun ray to grow further.

Finally, in a morning of a spring, the lily had its first blossom growing. The lily flower was very happy that its effort was not in vain and it motivated the lily and it boosted its self-confidence. The lily said to itself, "I shall blossom into a beautiful lily flower. My duty as a flower is to blossom and to flower. Regardless of whether there will be people there to enjoy my existence or not, i must blossom and flower according to my true nature as a lily flower."

Day by day, time passed. Finally, the lily flower blossomed and from it spread a very fragrant smell. Now the beauty of its white flower can be seen perfectly. Since then, the weeds, birds and insects did not dare anymore to make fun of it.

The lily itself kept on growing and strengthening its roots and stalks that just in matter of several yaers the cliff was covered with a field of white lily flowers. The isolated cliff then had became a very beautiful lily garden. The place which was before quiet had become destinations of many people who came to see it. From the nearby towns and villages, people come to enjoy the sight of the beautiful lily flowers. Now, the people named the place, "Cliff of the Lily"....

The Gold Ring

The young man was climbing the hill, slowly a step at a time. His bowed head seemed to indicate that something was bothering him. Perhaps he was lonely, or discouraged. He was coming to seek guidance from the wise man that lived on the hill on the outskirts of town.

Entering the counselor’s house, the young man found him reading, deep in thought.
“Excuse me, sir,” he said hesitantly.
The old man lifted his eyes. Timidly, with a courteous bow and a voice of desperation, the young man said, “I have come seeing your help … sir.”

After a short pause, he continued, “I have dreams that I believe I can achieve, but no one thinks I have the ability to reach them. People see little value in me.”
The old man continued his reading. After a while, he said, “Before I can give you any counsel, I need your help. Are you willing?” Somewhat disappointed for having his own needs ignored, the young man nevertheless responded, “I will try, sir.”

The wise man stood up. Stretching himself a bit, he said, “I may need to pay a large debt in the future, for which I will need money. Here is my gold ring. Take it to the market and find out how much I can get for it, but don’t settle for anything less than five gold coins. There is my horse. Go!”

The young man held onto the ring tightly and upon reaching the market place, went from stall to stall, offering it in exchange for cash. The fruit seller ignored him. The clothes merchant told him that he was not interested. The farmer selling chickens continued to bargain with a customer and waved him away. Finally, the young man reached the pig seller’s stall. After examining the ring for a while in his dirty hand, he said with a covetous smirk, “Tell the owner that I man be willing to give him five bronze coins for this.”

“I fulfilled your assignment, sir,” said the young man upon his return. “No one in the market is willing to give five gold coins for your beautiful ring.”
“That’s fine,” responded the wise man. Now we know how little the market people value this ring. Go to the jeweler in town and show it to him.”

When the jeweler saw the gold ring, he quickly stood up and used a silk handkerchief to hold it carefully. Bring it under a lamp, he examined it in detail with a magnifying glass.“A masterpiece,” he said softly. “If the owner if the ring is in hurry, I will buy it for 10 gold coins myself. But if he gives me time to bring out all its beauty, I shall find a wealthy customer willing to pay at least 20 gold coins for it.”

The wise man listened attentively to the report the happy young man brought back and then told him, “Don’t let the ignorant tell you the value of something they know nothing about. Listen only to the appraisal of the skilled specialist, the one who can recognize the true value of a master artist’s work.” And with a smile, the wise man placed the golden ring back on his finger and waved the young man good-bye.

The Salt Puppet

Once upon a time there was a puppet made of salt who had traveled a long time through dry and desert places until one evening he came upon a sea which he had never before seen and didn't know what it was.

The puppet asked the sea: "What are you?"
"I am the sea" it replied.
"But" the puppet insisted "What is the sea".
"I am".
"I don't understand" said the puppet made of salt.
"I want very much to understand what I can do to know you!"
The sea replied "That's easy, touch me!"

The salt puppet timidly touched the sea with the tip of his toes. At that moment he realized that the sea began to make itself perceptible, but at the same time he noticed the tips of his toes had disappeared.
"What have you done to me?” he cried to the sea.
"You have given a little yourself to understand me" the sea replied.

Slowly the salt puppet began to walk into the sea with great solemnity as though he were about to perform the most important act of his life. The further he moved along, the more he dissolved but at the same time he had the impression that he knew more and more about the sea.

Again and again the puppet asked "What is the sea?" until the wave covered him completely. Finally, when he got completely dissolved and got one with the water, he exclaimed, "The sea is me "

A Priest & A Lad

There was once a lad who had been scholastic study abroad for a very long time before returning to his hometown. Upon his return, he asked his parents to find any teacher, or priest or anybody that would be capable of answering 3 of his questions.

At last, his parents found the man.
Lad: Who are you? And would you be able to answer my questions?
Priest: I am a servant of God and through His Will, I shall answer your questions
Lad: Are you sure? Even proffesors can't answer my questions
Priest: I shall do my best on answering them
Lad: I have 3 questions
1. If God exist, show him to me
2. What is it that is called Fate?
3. If Devil is created out of fire, then why is it that they are banished in hellish fire? It would not hurt them i suppose, since they are of the same element.
Has God ever think that far?

All of a sudden, the priest slapped the lad very hard.
Lad: Why are you angry at me?
Priest: I am not angry at all...that is my answer to three of your questions
Lad: I don't get it
Priest: How does the slap feel?
Lad: Of course it is painful
Priest: So you do believe that pain exist?
Lad: Yes
Priest: Show the pain to me
Lad: I can't
Priest: That is my answer to your first question. All of us can feel God presence without seeing him.
Priest: Did you dream of being slapped by me last night? Have you ever thought that you would get a slap from me today? That's what I call fate
Priest: What is the hand that I used to slap you made of?
Lad: Skin
Priest: What is your cheek made of?
Lad: Skin
Priest: But you feel pain don't you? Even if devils are made of fire and hell is of fire, if it is of God's desire, then Hell would be hell for devils.

The Toy Car

It was a merry afternoon at the hall. Oh, one could see that a toy-car race was being held, and the final round is a few minutes away. There were only four participants left and each of them proudly exhibit their own made toy-car. And so it was in fact that the rule of the game, the toy-car had to be one's own handmade.

Among the players, were one child whose toy-car wasn't in any way looking marvelous nor special in its look, though surprisingly he was one of the four boys who made it so far to the final round. Compared to his other players, his toy-car was the least magnificent and imperfect. Some of the audience doubted the toy-car capability to race against the other three.

Yes, it was true, the toy car looks pretty dull. With simple wood materials and few blinking lamps on its top, the toy car doesn't appear so interesting as compared to the other lavishly decorated toy-cars. Even so, the owner was less proud with his toy car, since it was original of his own creation.

Every kid got his car ready on the start line, and at the slightest signal from the jury, they pushed the toy-car as fast as they can. They pushed and pushed, ran and ran along with the car as fast as they could, and at the end, surprisingly, the kid with the least magnificent looking toy car got his toy car touching the finish line first among other players.

The champion was then asked by the organizer before receiving his award, "Hey champion kid, I saw you praying before the final round started, you must have prayed deeply to God that you may win this tournament, didn't you?" The champion was silent for a moment, then replied, "No sir, that was not what I prayed, I thought it was not fair to ask for God to help me defeating the other players. I only prayed that God help me not to cry if I lose." After a few moments of silence by the audience, the hall was then filled with applauses from the audience.

How often do we pray that our wish may be granted? But do we realize that sometimes our wishes are just the opposite of what the others may pray for? If God exist in the conventional sense, then does God side on one but not the other? For example, if we pray for a win that benefit us, at that same time, one party or more would be disadvantaged. Then would it be appropriate for us to be joyful of it while on the other hand the other person might be suffering and disappointed?

There are many things more important than just winning or losing. Wouldn't it be better for us if we pray for us to be accepting of whatever the results may be? Be it a defeat or a win, we can still choose to be happy.