Your Light In The World

Are you aware of the effect and influence you have on others that you meet each day?


Have you stopped to contemplate how your mood, your humor, your attitude, or your frame of mind touches those you meet?


Does your each encounter bring an expression of warmth or indifference in your being? Does your each experience bring fervor and passion or apathy about your way of life?


You do impact the lives of those around you. You do have a scope of persuasion in your living.


Don't you want to create an atmosphere around yourself that will be uplifting and inspiring?

The pace of modern life tends to isolate us from each other, but the contacts you share remain significant. You absorb the energy, attitude, and disposition of those close to you. Some even change, after the briefest encounters. Everything you do or say has the potential to affect the individuals you live, work, and play with.



Be mindful of the impact you might have on another life.
Accept and understand that your attitudes and choices will affect others. So, be graceful and grateful at all times. Seek to be friendly, helpful, and responsive to those in need. Be your very best, for someone is ready to mimic your every move.



A smile can brighten the day of someone walking in gloom.
A simple greeting can enforce the understanding that one is appreciated. Stopping to spend a few moments with someone will earn you respect in their eyes.



A small gesture of kindness could lighten a heavy heart.
Words of approval can increase the confidence of one floundering in doubt. A word of advice could help another see the world in an entirely new light.



Have a kind heart. Be true to yourself.
Keep a positive outlook on things of the world. Remember that God is in control. You are his hands and feet in a cold an embittered world. You can make a difference to others by emulating your Savior.



Project your passion for life, your kindness to others, your love for God and mankind.
Every person you contact within your circle of influence will feel your peace, your caring, and your love. Know this and go out and make this a better world for all of us to live in.



Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

Amazing Duck Story

Something really amazing happened in Downtown Spokane this week and I had to share the story with you. My brother, Joel, is a loan officer at Sterling Bank. He works downtown in a second story office building, overlooking busy Riverside Avenue. Several weeks ago he watched a mother duck choose the cement awning outside his window as the uncanny place to build a nest above the sidewalk. The mallard laid nine eggs in a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched over 10 feet in the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks and Monday afternoon all of her nine ducklings hatched.


Joel worried all night how the mamma duck was going to get those babies safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban environment to take to water, which typically happens in the first 48 hours of a duck hatching. Tuesday morning, Joel came to work and watched the mother duck encourage her babies to the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to jump off!



The mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies above. In his disbelief Joel watched as the first fuzzy newborn toddled to the edge and astonishingly leapt into thin air, crashing onto the cement below. My brother couldn't watch how this might play out. He dashed out of his office and ran down the stairs the sidewalk where the first obedient duckling was stuporing near its mother from the near fatal fall.



Joel looked up. The second duckling was getting ready to jump! He quickly dodged under the awning while the mother duck quacked at him and the babies above. As the second one took the plunge, Joel jumped forward and caught it with his bare hands before it hit the cement. Safe and sound, he set it by the mamma and the other stunned sibling, still recovering from its painful leap.


One by one the babies continued to jump to join their anxious family below. Each time Joel hid under the awning just to reach out in the nick of time as the duckling made its free fall. The downtown sidewalk came to a standstill. Time after time, Joel was able to catch the remaining 7 and set them by their approving mother.


At this point Joel realized the duck family had only made part of its dangerous journey. They had 2 full blocks to walk across traffic, crosswalks, curbs, and pedestrians to get to the closest open water, the Spokane RiverThe onlooking office secretaries then joined in, and hurriedly brought an empty copy paper box to collect the babies.


They carefully corralled them, with the mother's approval, and loaded them up into the white cardboard container. Joel held the box low enough for the mom to see her brood. He then slowly navigated through the downtown streets toward the SpokaneRiver, as the mother waddled behind and kept her babies in sight.


As they reached the river, the mother took over and passed him, jumping into the river and quacking loudly. At the water's edge, the Sterling Bank office staff then tipped the box and helped shepherd the babies toward the water and to their mother after their adventurous ride.


All nine darling ducklings safely made it into the water and paddled up snugly to mamma duck. Joel said the mom swam in circles, looking back toward the beaming bank workers, and proudly quacking as if to say,


"See, we did it! Thanks for all your help!"





Learnings from the story:


Make DECISIONS in life.. however difficult they may appear and then take ACTION. The task or goal may also appear impossible but the mother Duckʼs conviction and belief that she will get help when required. Although all the risk of getting hurt by the fall, getting killed on the busy street, being attacked by other animals were all there.. still life goes on.



The ducklings kind of SURRENDER for the mothers word.. and jump one after the other, having absolute TRUST in her.



Can we also be like the Mother Duck a bold LEADER to make timely DECISONS and take immediate ACTION.


Can we be like these Ducklings having absolute TRUST and BELIEF in our LEADER and just allowing our Leader to steer us to SUCCESS..?




Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

Steer Your Mind to Selfless Service

Steer Your Mind to Selfless Service

Be engaged always in the service of people. The human body is anyway impermanent, so it is better it wears out in service. Constant effort and hard work are absolutely essential. If ten rupees is earned by hard work, we must return a thousand rupees to society through more hard work.


Prayer and worship are not enough. There is no difference between the Creator and His creation. Do you need to show a candle to the sun? Similarly, you do not need to worship God. He is within you and in everybody around you. In service to His creation you establish contact with the Creator. Krishna, even though he was complete in himself, still worked relentlessly.

Arjuna however wanted to run away from the scene. You cannot run away. You have to do your bit. Not always will the situation be to your liking. You may not be able to change it. You can only change your mind, your attitude. If your neighbour makes too much noise, you can complain to the police. If your street is noisy, you can move elsewhere, but if your mind is creating all the chaos, what do you do? Recognise those circumstances we can change and those we have to accept.


A king got pricked by a thorn when he was out hunting. He was furious and ordered that his entire kingdom be carpeted. His ministers were in a fix. Wherefrom would they get so many rolls of carpet? A senior minister offered the suggestion that the king wear shoes and thankfully the king appreciated him. Similarly, we too should be able to change our attitude, we cannot expect the world to change.


How can we change our attitude? For that, mind control is important. Our mind is like an old car that stops only after colliding against some object, for its brakes don’t work well. Modern cars come to a standstill the moment you apply the power brakes. The mind is like a supermarket with many thoughts. In a supermarket we do not buy everything and anything. We take only that which we want. Similarly, we should let only some thoughts develop and let the others disappear.


The mind is like an elephant. An elephant, along its path, keeps plucking, tearing at any branch or leaves that come its way. But when the mahout keeps it on track, it is focused and walks a straight path. To still the mind and to have its remote control in our hands, we need meditation.


However, people meditate, do japa while their mind is travelling elsewhere. To steer the mind you need to be aware, to be mindful. If someone were pointing a gun at you, how conscious you would be of yourself ! It is that kind of alertness or awareness that we should have all the time. If we are close to fire, how careful would we be!

That is how careful we should be with every moment of our life. The mind is like water, it is always turning downwards weighed down by our many desires and worldly aspirations. Water always flows downwards. But look at fire, it always leaps upwards. If you put fire under water, it sends water also upwards in the form of steam. We should be like that. Our mind should be able to be light and alert.




Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

Words of Wisdom Of the Day # 289

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It can not be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

~ Gautama Buddha

Words of Wisdom Of the Day # 289

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It can not be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

~ Gautama Buddha

Words of Wisdom Of the Day # 288

You should examine yourself daily. If you find faults, you should correct them. When you find none, you should try even harder.

~Israel Zangwill

Words of Wisdom Of the Day # 288

You should examine yourself daily. If you find faults, you should correct them. When you find none, you should try even harder.

~Israel Zangwill

Reaching for higher ground

What is spirituality, or, rabbaniyat, to use the Quranic term? It is the elevation of the human condition to a plane where the mind is focused on the higher, non-material realities of a godly existence.

The one who gives all his attention to worldly things and who centers his attention on mere appearances is regarded as being material-minded. Conversely, one who rises above material things or appearances, who finds his focus of interest in non-material things, is regarded as being spiritual or godly. The latter is one who follows the injunction of the Quran: ‘Be devoted servants of God’ (3:79). That is, one who lives a God-oriented life.

Spirituality can answer the questions, ‘Who am I? What is the purpose of my life? What is the creation plan of the Creator?’ A seeker is able to find true spirituality by finding rational answers to such questions, whereby he receives spirituality at the mind or thinking level. True spirituality is based on contemplation and reflection, it is an intellectual activity. When the seeker discovers the truth, his life enters a new phase -- that is, building his personality according to spiritual principles. This intellectual journey is two-fold, one is to solve the riddle of why human beings undergo negative experiences in this world and the other is to offer positive solutions. It addresses the paradox of human beings having been given the freedom to make their own moral choices, and their frequent misuse of this freedom -- a course of action which causes them to repeatedly face situations in which people do each other harm; losses are incurred because others’ injustice; severe provocations are suffered because of untoward experiences. At such times spirituality helps us to convert negativity into positivity.

Rabbaniyat provides us with the right philosophy of life. It is a guide book, leading us out of the darkness of ignorance, and ushering us into the light of reality. Spirituality is our helpful companion in times of difficulty. It saves us from succumbing to adversity. It is the art of crisis management, from which we derive intellectual inspiration when in need. Everyone is in need of spirituality, whether rich or poor, powerful or powerless. Spirituality provides a man with a starting point for life. Anyone who is deprives of spirituality will also be deprived of this starting point.

The spiritual path enables us to see things that remain invisible to the physical eye. It enables us to learn lessons from the past and see the future in the present. It is the source of human progress.

Repeatedly, we find occasions in life, when we feel helpless. It is when we feel that life has become rudderless and without direction, that a spiritual savior holds out hope, as a source of courage and conviction.

How is that one who seeks out the divine and who treads the path of enquiry is able to acquire superlative human qualities? The answer is that the ends of a seeker and what he seeks are inseparable from God who is the source of all goodness. God is thus the source of inspiration for everyone.

Spirituality produces God-oriented thinking in him. His life thus becomes a God-oriented life. This is what makes a spiritual person unassailable. A spiritual person enters into such profound communion with God that he becomes very powerful indeed


Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

ACRES OF DIAMONDS

ACRES OF DIAMONDS

There was a farmer in Africa who was happy and content. He was happy because he was content. He was content because he was happy. One day a wise man came to him and told him about the glory of diamonds and the power that goes along with them. The wise man said, "If you had a diamond the size of your thumb, you could have your own city. If you had a diamond the size of your fist, you could probably own your own country." And then he went away. That night the farmer couldn't sleep. He was unhappy and he was discontent. He was unhappy because he was discontent and discontent because he was unhappy.


The next morning he made arrangements to sell off his farm, took care of his family and went in search of diamonds. He looked all over Africa and couldn't find any. He looked all through Europe and couldn't find any. When he got to Spain, he was emotionally, physically and financially broke. He got so disheartened that he threw himself into the Barcelona River and committed suicide.
Back home, the person who had bought his farm was watering the camels at a stream that ran through the farm. Across the stream, the rays of the morning sun hit a stone and made it sparkle like a rainbow. He thought it would look good on the mantle piece. He picked up the stone and put it in the living room. That afternoon the wise man came and saw the stone sparkling. He asked, "Is Hafiz back?" The new owner said, "No, why do you ask?" The wise man said, "Because that is a diamond. I recognize one when I see one." The man said, no, that's just a stone I picked up from the stream. Come, I'll show you. There are many more." They went and picked some samples and sent them for analysis. Sure enough, the stones were diamonds. They found that the farm was indeed covered with acres and acres of diamonds.*


There are five morals:
1. When our attitude is right, we realize that we are all walking on acres and acres of diamonds.
• Opportunity is always under our feet. We don't have to go anywhere. All we need to do is recognize it.
2. The grass on the other side always looks greener.
3. While we are dyeing the grass on the other side, there are others who are dyeing the grass on our side. They would be happy to trade places with us.
4. When people don't know how to recognize oppor¬tunity, they complain of noise when it knocks.
5. The same opportunity never knocks twice. The next one may be better or worse, but it is never the same one



Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

The Rose Within

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully and before it blossomed, he examined it.

He saw the bud that would soon blossom, but noticed thorns upon the stem and he thought, "How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns? Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and just before it was ready to bloom... it died.

So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The God-like qualities planted in us at birth, grow amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects.

We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns of another, and find the rose within them.

This is one of the characteristic of love... to look at a person, know their true faults and accepting that person into your life... all the while recognizing the nobility in their soul. Help others to realize they can overcome their faults. If we show them the "rose" within themselves, they will conquer their thorns. Only then will they blossom many times over.


Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

Trees That Wood

Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, "Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the beauty."

Then the second tree said, "Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull."

Finally the third tree said, "I want to grow to be the tallest and straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will always remember me."

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, "This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter" ... and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.

At the second tree a woodsman said, "This looks like a strong tree, I should be able to sell it to the shipyard." The second tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.

When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the woodsmen said, "I don't need anything special from my tree so I'll take this one", and he cut it down.

When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for. The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end. The third tree was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark. The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams.

Then one day, a man and woman came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time. Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn't think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and he stood and said "Peace" and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the King of Kings in its boat.

Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it.

The moral of this story is that when things don't seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, He will give you great gifts. Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined. We don't always know what God's plans are for us. We just know that His ways are not our ways, but His ways are always best.



Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

How to Make Sure You Don’t Exist

How to Make Sure You Don’t Exist

 

If you look up in the sky during the day, you see the Sun. That becomes the most dominant in your experience. In the night, if you look up, the stars become very dominant in your experience, but both the Sun and the stars — in fact, the Sun happens to be a star, too — look like puny little things when compared to the immense vastness of the sky.

Generally, though, the sky is never in your conscious perception. So, true existence can be likened to the vastness of the sky. The Sun, the stars, you and me, are all just small happenings, very brief happenings, really.

Today, science is telling you that even the Sun has a lifespan. Eventually, it will burn itself out. As you are burning your life out, similarly, the Sun is burning his life out, too. Your normal temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit; the Sun’s normal temperature is some 98 million degrees, but he also has a lifespan and, one day, he will exist no longer.

So whatever you see as physical existence is just a small happening. The true existence is the vastness, the emptiness that is there, the space.

What you call a person is just like a bubble. This bubble doesn’t have any substance of its own. The air was there, all around. It just created a shell around itself, so suddenly it has a different quality of its own. There are thick bubbles, there are thin bubbles, there are strong bubbles, there are weak bubbles, big, small, just like people. Just like every other creature too, but when the bubble bursts, the substance that is inside the bubble, where is it? The air has reclaimed it; the atmosphere has reclaimed it.

Similarly, a bubble is formed in the form of an etheric body, in the form of a pranic body, a mental body and a physical body. The physical body we can shoot down any moment we want to. It is within our power to just cut the physical body in two if we want to, but the other bodies we are not able to cut. Only what you call as existence, only that can do it.

What you are calling the spiritual process is just that. It is a deeper way of ensuring you don’t exist anymore. This is not about killing the physical body. You are trying to destroy the very fundamentals of creating the body within you. You are trying to destroy the very fundamental structure over which a body can form. The physical body is possible only because of the necessary karmic substances that are there in the form of etheric, pranic and mental bodies.

So you are trying to destroy that through the spiritual process. With your awareness, practices, love, and with your devotion, all you are trying to do is destroy the possibility of taking on another body, destroy the very foundation over which the physical body can happen.

Or, in other words, we are trying to take away the possibility of you going through the recycling bin over and over again. A mother’s womb is only a recycling bag. Again and again... we’re going through the same process. So we want to take that away.

By developing spiritual awareness and discipline, everyone of us becomes capable of achieving a higher consciousness. For this, we need to look within and begin the process of inner engineering. By cultivating a loving detachment, we can facilitate the achieving of a state of non-existence.

Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

Emotions - Travel Light

Emotions - Travel Light

Drop the baggage of the ego-self and travel unfettered and free in the journey of life.

Less luggage, more comfort is something that all travelers know to be true. It is particularly true when we deal with the journey of life. Not just in a physical sense (we know only too well what it means to be trim and fit), but in a much deeper psychological sense.

In that sense, we are always traveling, and each of us carries a fair amount of baggage. It is only rarely that we feel freed of all mental baggage, and are able to glide about freely and joyfully, like birds in the sky.

For most, "success" is all about adding more weight to who we think we are, or more accurately, to what others think of us. Indeed, the individual sense of who I am is often entirely governed by my relative importance in the prevailing value system of society. That is why we often end up doing, acquiring and becoming things that are viewed as being desirable and respectable by people around us.

The sense of "who I am" is, for the vast majority of us, derived from the total value of my possessions, as assigned by society. My psychological baggage is centered on that notion, and along with it, all my remembered past and imagined future. In fact, I am that baggage. From that perspective, traveling light does not sound all that great, for who wants to be a "nobody"?

The spiritually awakened person is one who knows that he or she truly is a "nobody", and is willing to be so. Such a person knows that the only real hindrance to enlightened living is precisely this false notion of oneself, this narrow and total identification with the ego-self, and its appendages. Let go of the baggage of the ego-self, and be free!

Let go and be free! How simple! Yet, how difficult it is in actual practice! Especially when we cling to the baggage so tenaciously, and so unconsciously. Dropping the baggage of one's ego-self and thereby discovering real freedom is the most absorbing task that a spiritual aspirant can have in life. All that is required is continual awareness, awareness of the clinging, and a letting go of the attachments that bind one.

People have serious difficulty in understanding that attachments are the root cause of human suffering. Until that understanding dawns, clearly and sharply, the clinging will continue, and so will suffering. The understanding is initially painful, but it is a passing pain, as in a surgical operation. Truth can be very bitter, when one has been deluding oneself all of one's life.

The way of awareness may appear to be radically different from conventional religious pursuits, such as the path of devotion or of selfless action. However, the dropping of the baggage of the ego-self is common to all spiritual paths. This is why the essence of all religions is said to be the same. Without the surrender of the ego-self, bhakti is a far cry from bhakti yoga, and without the dissolution of the notion of "doership", karma is a far cry from karma yoga.

People are afraid of "letting go". This is understandable; until one discovers the liberation that follows the "letting go", one will resist surrender. Indeed, all of us have glimpsed this liberating experience at some point or other in our lives, especially in our early childhood. It is an experience of joy, a sense of oneness and affinity towards everything. It is characterized by an absence of resistance to the natural "flow" of life. It is a state of peace and harmony, bereft of distraction and worry. In it, there is no sense of time. It is, in summary, a truly wonderful state, accessible to all who are able to "let go".

The underlying nature of consciousness seems to be a state of quiet joy that does not have an opposite. It is qualitatively quite different from the happiness derived from the activity of the ego-self, such as winning an award. The ego-pleasure that emanates from an enhanced sense of self-importance (more baggage) is what most of us crave for, but it is an outcome of delusion, and will inevitably bring in its wake its painful opposite, ego-pain.

The joyous experience of the "flow" state, unencumbered by baggage, can be felt not only when one is in a state of "meditation", apparently doing no work, but also in the thick of apparently intense activity. Any skilled worker or talented artiste or sportsman will testify to this. Such activity turns out to be "perfect" when one is fully focussed on the task at hand, with a relaxed concentration and without any distraction. One allows the universal energy to express itself through one's medium, without interference, and without any motive of profit or worry about the outcome. In fact, interferences by the ego-self only serve to contaminate the perfection in the work. Chuang Tzu, the great Taoist sage, wonderfully captures this truth in the following verse.

When an archer shoots for nothing, he has all his skill.

If he shoots for a brass buckle,

he is already nervous.

If he shoots for a prize of gold,

he goes blind,

Or sees two targets -

he is out of his mind!

His skill has not changed,

but the prize divides him.

He thinks more of winning

than of shooting,

And the need to win

drains him of power.

To summarize, the first thing that needs to be clearly understood is that the baggage of the ego-self is the only obstruction to true freedom and joyous living. Driven by the ways of the world, our normal tendency is to add to that baggage, rather than to lighten the load. The problem stems not from "successes" in life, but from the false notion that "I am the doer" that accompanies these achievements, and from clinging to attachments.

Through continual awareness and meditative practice, however, we discover the art of traveling light, and becoming one with the flow of life. With this, we truly discover a sense of joyous freedom and connectedness with the universe!

Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

Are you Garbage Collector................................

Don't be a garbage collector. Have you heard the phrase I can forgive but I can't forget?

When a person refuses to forgive, he is locking doors that some day he might need to open. When we hold grudges and harbor resentment, who are we hurting the most? Ourselves.

Jim and Jerry were childhood friends but for whatever reasons, the relationship fell apart and they hadn't spoken for 25 years. Jerry was on his deathbed and didn't want to enter eternity with a heavy heart. So he called Jim, apologized and said, "Let's forgive each other and be done for the past." Jim thought it was a good idea and decided to visit

Jerry at the hospital.

They caught up on 25 years, patched up their differences and spent a couple of hours together. As Jim was leaving, Jerry shouted from behind, "Jim, just in case I don't die; remember, this forgiveness doesn't count." Life is too short to hold grudges. It is not worth it.

Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

A POUND OF BUTTER

A POUND OF BUTTER

There was a farmer who sold a pound of butter to the baker. One day the baker decided

to weigh the butter to see if he was getting a pound and he found that he was not. This angered him and he took the farmer to court. The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure. The farmer replied, amour Honor, I am primitive. I don't have a proper measure, but I do have a scale." The judge asked, "Then how do you weigh the butter?" The farmer replied "Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker." What is the moral of the story? We get back in life what we give to others.

Whenever you take an action, ask yourself this question: Am I giving fair value for the wages or money I hope to make?

Honesty and dishonesty become a habit. Some people practice dishonesty and can lie with a straight face. Others lie so much that they don't even know what the truth is anymore. But who are they deceiving? Themselves--- more than anyone else.

Honesty can be put across gently. Some people take pride in being brutally honest. It seems they are getting a bigger kick out of the brutality than the honesty. Choice of words and tact are important.

Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

Tiger and Fox

A fox who lived in the deep forest of long ago had lost its front legs. No one knew how: perhaps escaping from a trap. A man who lived on the edge of the forest , seeing the fox from time to time, wondered how in the world it managed to get its food. One day when the fox was not far from him he had to hide himself quickly because a tiger was approaching. The tiger had fresh game in its claws. Lying down on the ground, it ate its fill, leaving the rest for the fox.

Again the next day the great Provider of this world sent provisions to the fox by this same tiger. The man began to think: "If this fox is taken care of in this mysterious way, its food sent by some unseen Higher Power, why don't I just rest in a corner and have my daily meal provided for me?"




Because he had a lot of faith, he let the days pass, waiting for food. Nothing happened. He just went on losing weight and strength until he was nearly a skeleton. Close to losing consciousness, he heard a Voice which said: "O you, who have mistaken the way, see now the Truth! You should have followed the example of that tiger instead of imitating the disabled fox."




Reflection Questions

In what ways do you feel like the disabled fox?
In what ways do you feel like the tiger?
Who is the "Voice" in this story?
Is it okay for the disabled fox to continue living, or would it be better off either dead or never alive in the first place?
Are there any people in your life who are like the disabled fox, but you wish they were more like the tiger?




"Theory is great if you like to learn about why it works, yet theory won't get you results. Action will."
– Gary Evans


Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

Grammar for Life

Live in active voice, not the passive.
Think more about what you make happen than what happens to you.

Live in the indicative mood rather than subjective.
Be concerned with things as they are rather than as they might be.

Live in the present tense facing the duty at hand.
Without regret for the past or worry for the future.

Live in the first person, Criticizing yourself rather than finding fault with others.

Live in singular number, caring more for the approval of your own conscience than for the applause of the crowd.

And if you want a verb to conjugate, you cannot do better than to take a verb "to love."

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Money and Illusory Sense of Security

Money gives us a sense of freedom and ownership. We feel that with money, we can own anything or put a price tag on anybody’s services.

Ownership of something means total control of its existence from beginning to end. When we pay for a piece of land, we feel that we own it, although the land continues to exist even after the owner is long gone. How can you own something that outlives you?

Money also gives the idea that you are powerful and independent, blinding you to the fact that we live in a world of interdependence. We depend on farmers, cooks, drivers and the services of so many other people around us. Even an expert surgeon cannot operate on himself; he depends on others.

Why are most rich people arrogant? Because of the feeling of independence that money brings. The awareness of dependence, on the other hand, makes one humble. The basic human tenet of humility is taken away by this false feeling of independence.

Today, we have gone to the extent of measuring people in terms of their net worth on the money scale — “so-and-so is worth five hundred million” etc. Can money reflect the worth of a person? Calling someone a millionaire or a billionaire is not a compliment. You cannot assign a monetary value to human life.

When people lack faith in divinity, in their own abilities and in the goodness of society, they suffer from a deep sense of insecurity. Then, all that appears to provide security is money. Some among the wealthy feel insecure in relationships — they don’t know whether their friends are truly their friends or are interested in their fortune. For a while, money can provide an illusory sense of security.

Wealth is attained through one’s skills and abilities, inheritance or through corrupt means. Each means of attaining wealth brings with it its own consequences. The very motive for corruption is peace and happiness. Yet peace and happiness remain elusive when the means are corrupt.

 

Due to the illusory notions of independence, ownership and security that it brings, money is considered a part of maya: miyate anaya iti maya means “that which can be measured is maya”. Hence everything in the world that can be measured is considered maya, money being one such measure. Human values are eroded when you try to put a price tag on all that cannot be measured, like love, truth, wisdom and life itself.

On the other hand, there are those who criticise money and blame it for all the ills of society. There are some others who even consider it as evil. Not only does possessing money bring arrogance, rejecting it does, too. Some people who renounce money take pride in their poverty just to draw attention and sympathy.

However, the ancient sages never denigrated money or maya. In fact, they honoured it as a part of the divine and thereby transcended the grip of its illusion. They knew the secret that when you reject or hate something you can never transcend it.

They honoured wealth as Goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Narayana. She is born out of Yoga (yogaje yoga sambhute). It is Yoga that transforms the bad karma and brings out latent skills and talents. It also brings up ashtasiddhis — the eight perfections, and nava nidhis — the nine wealths.

It is this wisdom of Yoga that transforms one from arrogance to self-confidence, from meekness to humility, from the burden of dependence to the realisation of interdependence, from craving for freedom to the recognition of unbounded-ness, from a limited ownership to oneness with the whole

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Shout

'Why do we shout in anger?' A saint asked his disciples, 'Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?'

His disciples thought for a while, one of them said, 'Because we lose our calm, we shout for that.'

'But, why do you shout when the other person is just next to you?' asked the saint. 'Isn't it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you're angry?'

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the saint.

Finally he explained, 'When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance.'

Then the saint asked, 'What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small...'

The saint continued, 'When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two

people are when they love each other.

'MORAL' said the saint: 'When you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other more, else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return!'

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Courage Character Commitment

Courage will get you through the door; character will keep you there. Some people are courageous enough, but their lack of character eventually causes them to self-destruct. You have to have character. D. L. Moody said character is what you are in the dark. Philip Brooks said character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in life s smaller moments. I agree with that. It is made by the day-by-day decisions that you make of the small things. That s what really forms your character.

Character is the one thing we make in this world and take with us into the next.

The circumstances amid which you live determine your reputation. The truth you believe determines your character.

Reputation is what you re supposed to be; character is what you are.

Reputation is what you have when you come to a new community; character is what you have when you go away.

Reputation is made in a moment; character is built in a lifetime.

Reputation grows like a mushroom; character grows like an oak.

Your reputation is learned in an hour. Your character does not come to light for a year.

A single newspaper report gives you your reputation; a life of toil gives you your character.

Reputation makes you rich or makes you poor; character makes you happy or makes you miserable.

Reputation is what men say about you on your tombstone; character is what angels say about you before the throne of God.

Your character is what God knows you to be; your reputation is what men think you are.

Here is a good test of character. Ask yourself:

If you were an employer seeking to hire an efficient, honest, and competent employee, would you hire yourself at your salary?

If you had to live with someone just like yourself for the rest of your life, would you look forward to it as a wonderful opportunity and privilege? It will tell you a little bit about your character.

If there are rats in the cellar, you can find it out by bursting in upon them suddenly because the rats don t have time to hide. He said the sudden intrusion doesn t create the rats. It just reveals the fact that there are rats in the cellar. He said, If you want to find out what a man s character is like, catch him off guard. The sudden intrusion, the sudden offense when you catch a person off guard and they respond and react, it s a real revelation of what s in the cellar of their life.

Sow a thought, reap an act;

Sow an act, reap a habit;

Sow a habit, reap a character;

Sow a character, reap a destiny.

Your character is formed by the daily decisions that you make. My character is formed by the daily decisions that I make. You must have courage, but you have to have character to undergird your courage.

When the Spanish explorer, Hernando Cortez, landed in Vera Cruz, Mexico in 1519, he was committed to conquering and seizing Mexico s vast treasures. He was so committed that when he arrived, he burned his entire fleet of eleven ships, and left no means of returning home. There stood all of his soldiers, all of his troops, and all of the people that he had brought with him from Spain. They looked out on the harbor, and the ships were on fire. They had no way of retreat, and no way of getting out. The only way then was forward. That is commitment. Sometimes in life you have to burn your ships

The point is this: What is it that you know in your heart is right? The course of action that you believe you should be on? You are going to have to be committed to it. Sometimes you have to stay the course through misunderstanding. You have to stay the course through boredom, through loneliness, through attack, through ridicule, through abasement, through times of blessing, through times of fatigue. You have to stay. And I m telling you, if you will stay the course for what you know is right, it will eventually pay off if you will stay committed. It s through commitment that the snail reached the ark. You have to stay committed. You need courage, you need character, but you need commitment.

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I KNEW YOU WOULD COME.................Friends Always DO.......

I KNEW YOU WOULD COME

There were two childhood buddies who went through school and college and even joined the army together. War broke out and they were fighting in the same unit. One night they were ambushed. Bullets were flying all over and out of the darkness came a voice, "Harry, please come and help me." Harry immediately recognized the voice of his childhood buddy, Bill. He asked the captain if he could go. The captain said, "No, I can't let you go, I am already short-handed and I cannot afford to lose one more person. Besides, the way Bill sounds he is not going to make it." Harry kept quiet. Again the voice came, "Harry, please come and help me." Harry sat quietly because the captain had refused earlier. Again and again the voice came. Harry couldn't contain himself any longer and told the captain, "Captain, this is my childhood buddy. I have to go and help." The captain reluctantly let him go. Harry crawled through the darkness and dragged Bill back into the trench. They found that Bill was dead. Now the captain got angry and shouted at Harry, "Didn't I tell you he was not going to make it? He is dead, you could have been killed and I could have lost a hand. That was a mistake." Harry replied, "Captain, I did the right thing. When I reached Bill he was still alive and his last words were 'Harry, I knew you would come."'

Good relationships are hard to find and once developed should be nurtured.

We are often told: Live your dream. But you cannot live your dream at the expense of others. People who do so are unscrupulous. We need to make personal sacrifices for our family, friends, and those we care about and who depend on us.

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A pretty sure method of losing friends is to strive to improve them. Do all your uplift work with your enemies. -Crane

I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom. -Thomas Carlyle

Perhaps the world's second worst crime is boredom. The first is being a bore. -Sir Cecil Beaton

Climb On!

Climb on! Do not despond,
Though from each summit gained,
There stretch forth heights beyond--
Ideals not attained.
Life's task is but to climb,
Unheeding toil and tire,
Our failure is not crime
If we but still aspire.

-James T. White

It is aspiration that counts, not realization; pursuit, not achievement; quest, no conquest. -Beatrice Harraden

Dealing With Anger and Insult

The Buddha Explained How To Handle Insult And Maintain Compassion.

One day Buddha was walking through a village.

A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him. "You have no right teaching others," he shouted. "You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake."

Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead he asked the young man "Tell me, if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong?"

The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, "It would belong to me, because I bought the gift."

The Buddha smiled and said, "That is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you have done is hurt yourself."

"If you want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and become loving instead. When you hate others, you yourself become unhappy. But when you love others, everyone is happy."

The young man listened closely to these wise words of the Buddha. "You are right, o Enlightened One, "he said. "Please teach me the path of love. I wish to become your follower."

The Buddha answered kindly, "Of course. I teach anyone who truly wants to learn. Come with me."

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Death, the Greatest Enigma of Existence

Death, the Greatest Enigma of Existence


What is the greatest mystery of existence? It is not life, it is not love — it is death. Science tries to understand life; hence it remains partial. Life is only a part of the total mystery — a very tiny, superficial part. It has no depth, and so science, too, remains superficial.

Life is finite, momentary. It is a breeze, it comes and goes... It does not abide. Hence science knows only the partial truth. What it knows is true, but it is not the whole truth. Love is midway. It is exactly in the middle of life and death. Love is far more mysterious than life itself, because it has life in it and something more; it is life plus death. And only those who are ready to die will know the life of love. Those who are afraid to die will never enter the mystery of love.

Art explores the world of love. Hence art is far truer than science, and it goes deeper than science. The vision of the artist contains much more than scientific knowledge can ever contain, although the way of art is totally different from the way of science. It has to be different. Science can be objective because it is peripheral. Art cannot be absolutely objective; it is 50% objective, 50% subjective. It cannot be free from the observer.

Religion is concerned basically with death. Death contains all: life, love, and something more. Death is the culmination of all, the crescendo, the highest peak. Life is the base, death is the peak — love is somewhere in between.

The mystic tries to explore the mystery of death. In the process, he comes to know what life is, what love is. Those are not his goals. His goal is to penetrate death, because there seems to be nothing more mysterious than death. Love has some mystery because of death, and life also has some mystery because of death.

If death disappears there will be no mystery in life. That’s why a dead thing has no mystery in it, a corpse has no mystery in it, because it cannot die anymore. You think it has no mystery because life has disappeared? No, it has no mystery because now it cannot die anymore. Death has disappeared, and with death automatically life disappears. Life is only one of the ways of death’s expression.

Religion is founded in the search into death, and to understand death is to understand all. To experience death is to experience all, because in the experience of death, you not only experience life at its highest, love at its deepest; in experiencing death you enter into the divine. Death is the door to the divine. Death is the name of the door of God’s temple. The meditator dies voluntarily.

The mystic dies voluntarily — before the actual death. He dies in meditation. Lovers know a little bit of it because 50% of love is death. That’s why love is very close to meditation. Lovers know something of meditativeness; unawares they have stumbled upon it. They know silence, stillness, timelessness. But they have stumbled upon it — it has not been their basic search.

The mystic dies continuously and remains as fresh as dewdrops or lotus leaves in the early morning sun. His freshness, his youth, his timelessness, depend on the art of dying. And then when actual death comes he has nothing to fear, because he has known this death thousands of times. He is thrilled, enchanted; he dances! Joyously he wants to die. So he dies without becoming unconscious, and he knows the total secret of death. Knowing it, he has the master key that can unlock all doors. He has the key that can open the door of God




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Words of Wisdom Of the Day # 287

Nirvana is not the blowing out of the candle. It is the extinguishing of the flame because day is come.

~Rabindranath Tagore

Words of Wisdom Of the Day # 287

Nirvana is not the blowing out of the candle. It is the extinguishing of the flame because day is come.

~Rabindranath Tagore

Joy of Meditation

When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place. In the still mind, in the depths of meditation, the eternal Self reveals itself.

Bhagavad Gita

Health, a light body, freedom from cravings, a glowing skin, sonorous voice, fragrance of body: these signs indicate progress in the practice of meditation.

Shvetashvatara Upanishad

Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance.

Gautama Buddha

When a seeker merges in the beatitude of samadhi, he does not perceive time and space or name and form, the offspring of maya.

Ramakrishna

Don't seek experiences in meditation. The path to God is not a circus.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Cry Within. Meditate within. Dive within. Your inner achievements will far outweigh your outer imperfections.

Sri Chinmoy

Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit.

Jeremy Taylor

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Phenomenon of death

What is death? We don't know.

Death has always been referred to as something bad, dark, and scary, something that is not to be spoken about, but something that will come to each one of us. But right now, no one wants to really talk about it. Death is an event which almost everyone on this earth fears deeply. In a way, our fears are perhaps justified, for we have seen people suffering before their death, and we have seen people who have been left behind by the dead in grief and turmoil. We have seen that death is something permanent, something that is irreversible, and as yet, no one has ever been able to crack the mystery called death, nor has anyone been able to come back after death, to tell us what happens after one dies.

So, what is death? We really don't know. And when we don't know, we are scared. In our heart of hearts, when we see someone dying, possibly we are seeing our own death. Even seeing the funeral procession of an unknown person is enough to make the strongest amongst us cringe and worry. Any death around us immediately brings to focus the fact that life is transient, impermanent, and eventually everything that is born has to die.

Knowing this, our mind seeks refuge in our favourite philosophies or beliefs, religious or otherwise. While someone believes he will go to heaven, another believes that he will be re-born to a better life, perhaps. Some place their trust in karma and destiny. Most of us believe that if we do good deeds, think good thoughts and pray to God, we will be spared the agony of old age, disease and death, and will be taken care of, after death. In spite of all our beliefs, however, most of us know that we really don't know what death is, or what will happen to us.

When death is so mysterious, inexplicable, strange and unknown, it can become something akin to an adventure. Any adventure, expedition or mission, whether into the wilderness, to the South Pole or into space, is thrilling because we are getting into something that is unknown. In a similar way, instead of being scared of our impending deaths, instead of resorting to all sorts of measures to cover and hide these fears, one can try and look at death as something that is both inevitable and also as something that is mysterious, something which no living being knows about. Yes, it does mean that our life, our activities, our relations, our assets - everything that belongs to us here, will not be with us. But instead of worrying and getting scared, can we not accept the inevitability of death, like we would enter into a new adventure? Since we have complete power over what we think and what we believe, why not think and believe that death is going to be the biggest adventure, that we would have ever experienced? Irrespective of what death may actually be, if we could simply take it as given, we will at least live our life here without fear and stress. And that itself will make us live our life so fully and completely that when death comes, we will hopefully have no regrets, no unfulfilled desires, no complaints, and will be willing to accept it happily and with peace.

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Logic of letting go

When we are children, and someone tells us to ‘let go,’ it is usually in reference to something material, and when we let go, we can either feel empty, as if we are being deprived of something, or we can feel full, knowing that we have allowed someone to have that something, and s/he must really need it.

As adults, letting go can still leave us feeling empty or full. Both feelings may occur simultaneously. Ultimately , letting go will allow us to feel free, unburdened, healed, happy, even joyous . I intend to address how we can reach these ultimate feelings.

The concept of letting go is very complex. For the sake of this discussion, i will divide the various aspects of letting go into three categories:
1) physical,

 2) psychological, and

3) spiritual.

When i discuss the physical realm, i am talking about anything tangible, whether it is our bodies or our environment. Our environment can often be cluttered, so purging of much of this stuff can be truly liberating.

Our bodies may not please us, so we can choose to let go of extra weight. We can choose to let go of bad habits and addictions. We can choose to free ourselves of the indiscriminate materialism and consumerism that requires constantly acquiring more and more of anything.

Moving from the physical to the psychological, we move to the why of those items that we could let go of physically. For example, why do we have all of the stuff that needs to be purged? What has caused the rampant materialism that has allowed us to fill up our lives with objects and beings? I almost wrote ‘inanimate,’ but there are those who fill up their lives with pets and children and casual acquaintances rather than real relationships.

All such acquisitional behaviour is symptomatic of a psychological need that longs to be filled, but which should be purged. The same is true of other unpleasant emotions, like anger, fear, jealousy /envy, even hate; when a psychological need exists, it causes these emotions to manifest in an attempt to satisfy that need. Guess what?

The very same is true for any bad habits and addictions we want to let go of; while there may be a biochemical component to these, they also are indicative of some sort of need or self-perceived deficiency or pain that, in turn, is symptomatic of needing to spiritually let go.

Truthfully, one could argue that if one lets go and purges at the physical and psychological levels, spiritual level purges and progress will automatically follow. Instead of dealing with those two arguments, i am going to run to one common expression: Let Go; Let God.

When we consider the spiritual level, by definition we are dealing with the Divine by whatever name we wish to call Him. Also, by definition, we are exiting the scientific arena that forms the foundation of most of my work, and moving into the realm of faith, which happens to form the foundation for the remainder of my work.

Most spiritual advisors argue that happiness and joy are the natural state of our souls. Therefore, if these are not what we feel, what must be purged from the spiritual realm?

Because every single major faith has reincarnation as one of its major tenets, and the purpose of reincarnation is for the spirit to achieve a higher state. Ridding ourselves of karma is the ultimate purge!

Now that we have seen the different levels of letting go and purging, how do we begin the process? Try beginning with just one small step in one aspect of your everyday life. Identify something that you don't need, and let go of it. Perhaps it will be your décor?

Even though i embrace much of Mies van der Rohe’s ‘Less is More’ philosophy, one does not have let go of an overall personal style that you might enjoy more in order to simplify and streamline your life. However, it may help to examine “Why” you have a particular décor, and whether it might merit letting go in order to have a more lifeenhancing physical environment. Mostly, this is about just getting rid of accumulated material items that aren’t needed any more.

Think about the motivations you have for selecting a career, a hobby, a car, a house, even a spouse. Are those motivations from your own internal dreams and drive, or are there some external pressures? This is moving beyond the realm of everyday activity , and into the realm of special activity ; these special events are most often psychological in nature.

Remember, though, that there are many ways to get an education, so temper all external pressures with your internal dream. Loosen the influence of external pressures, learn what your choices are, listen to your own internal dream, and then let go of what isn’t part of that internal dream.

Now that you have identified your internal dream, what is holding you back from achieving your greatness? Money? Fear? Inhibitions? Overwhelming anger? Frustration? Laziness? Whatever it is, you must start to let go of what is holding you back.

For instance, i have a beautiful relative who is very intelligent and artistically talented; she once told me that her dream was to write children’s books. When i asked her why she didn’t ‘just do it,’ she said she was afraid of failing. I urged her to let go of her fear of failure, but that fear had its hooks in too deep.

Once you start letting go of what you don’t need, and loving all, you will have fewer blocks in your spiritual Path! As you begin to ‘Let go,’ you automatically begin ‘Letting In.’ Both are processes, so please don’t expect overnight success. Start small, and change will occur incrementally.

Let go of the need for perfection and the physical, psychological and spiritual baggage that embodies . Let in the goal of self-improvement throughout your life. Let in Love. We are all works in progress. Make a pact with yourself to show just a little more love every day. Let in the Divine.

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Psychology of the Classroom

A psychology professor at the University of Miami knew his students expected a terrifyingly long final exam.

To play with their minds a little (what do you expect from a psychology professor?) he only put ONE question on the final exam.

He watched the reactions of the students as they all opened the exams and saw the one question. Initially they all looked relieved, but as the difficulty of the question began to sink in, those relieved faces sagged to confusion and consternation.

All, that is, except for one student.

He read the question, tapped his pencil into his palm a few times, then jotted something down on the test paper.

He walked up to the professor, handed him the final, and walked out.
The professor blinked in surprise, looked at what the student wrote, and smiled.

The professor wrote "100%" on the top of that student's test.

*

*

*

*

*

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The question: What is courage?
The student's answer: This is.

You will not get the better definition of the courage .



In the end .. think about this

We think that open and close are opposite 2 each other, but very few in the world know that the one with whom we are close is the one with whom we are very open.


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Story with a Good Moral

A kindergarten teacher has decided to let her class play a game.

The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes.

Each potato will be given a name of a person that the child hates,

So the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.

So when the day came, every child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had 2 potatoes; some 3 while some up to 5 potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they go (even to the toilet) for 1 week.

Days after days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After 1 week, the children were relieved because the game had finally ended....

The teacher asked: "How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for 1 week?". The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.

Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. The teacher said: "This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime???"

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