The Farmer's Wife

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package... "What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. 

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning.  "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"  

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said,  "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it." 

The mouse turned to the goat and told him "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"  The goat sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it. "

The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"  The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse.  I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose. But wish you well; be assured you are in my prayers "

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap-- alone. 

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound  of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was  caught.   In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.  The snake bit the farmer's wife. 

The farmer rushed her to the hospital  and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard  for the soup's main ingredient.  But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her  around the clock. To feed them, the farmer  butchered the goat.  The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. 

So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat  for all of them. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in 
the wall with great sadness. 


So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, Remember that when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.  We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another  and make an extra effort to encourage one another because directly or indirectly we might have to suffer!!!

Put Mind at Ease

One day, Buddha was walking from one town to another with a few of his followers.

While they were traveling, they happened to pass by a lake. They stopped to rest there and Buddha asked one of his disciples to get him some water from the lake.

A disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake.

As a result, the water became very muddy. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!”

So he came back and told Buddha, ”The water in the lake is very muddy. I don’t think it is suitable to drink.”

After a while, Buddha again asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water.

The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the mud had settled down and the water was clean so he collected some in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water then looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be and the mud settled down on its own. It is also the same with your mind. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time and it will settle down on its own.”

The Talking Bird

There is an old story about a fellow who lived alone and went to a pet store to buy a parrot. He thought the bird might fill some of his lonely hours. The very next day, however, he came back to complain, "That bird doesn't talk."

The store owner asked if he had a mirror in its cage, and the man said he didn't. "Oh, parrots love mirrors," he explained. "When he sees his reflection in the mirror, he'll just start talking away." So he sold him a birdcage mirror.

The bird owner was back the next day to gripe that his parrot still hadn't said a word. "That's very peculiar," allowed the pet expert. "How about a swing? Birds really love these little swings, and a happy parrot is a talkative parrot." So the man bought a swing, took it home, and installed it in the cage.

But he was back the next day with the same story. "Does he have a ladder to climb?" the salesman asked. "That just has to be the problem. Once he has a ladder, he'll probably talk your ear off!" So the fellow bought a ladder.

The man was back at the pet store when it opened the next day. From the look on his face, the owner knew something was wrong. "Didn't your parrot like the ladder?" he asked. His repeat customer looked up and said, "The parrot died."

"I'm so sorry," the stunned businessman said. "Did he ever say anything?"

"Well, yes. He finally talked just before he died. In a weak little voice, he asked me, "Don't they sell any bird seed at that pet store?'"

Some of us have mistakenly thought that happiness consists of lining our cages with toys, gadgets, and other stuff. Excessive consumption has become the hallmark of our life. "Whoever has the most toys wins" seems to be the likely candidate to be the bumper sticker for an entire culture. But is it so?

There is a spiritual hunger in the human heart that can't be satisfied by seeing one's own image reflected back in vanity mirrors, playing with our grown-up toys, or climbing the corporate ladder. Our hearts need real nourishment.The love of family and friends,relationships over the pursuit of more things, personal integrity, a secure connection to God --these are the things that feed the soul.

Have you chosen a life course that leads to a destination that matters?

A pretty Chinese lady

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river.

There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river.

The big monk offered to carry her across the river on his back to which the lady accepted.

The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk and was thinking "How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?" But he kept quiet.

The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her.

All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder.

But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation.

Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk. "How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty?"

All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite.

The big monk looked surprised and said, "I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?"

Moral: This very old Chinese Zen story reflects the thinking of many people today. We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us angry. But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away. 

There is no point in remaining hurt by the unpleasant event after it is over. Learn to move on in life...

The Dog in the Well

In old times, there was a village having only one well for drinking water.

One day a dog fell down in the well and died. The water became filthy and undrinkable. 

The worried villagers went to the old wise man for advice.

They were told to take 100 buckets of water from the well so that clean water come to the surface of the well.

The villagers took 100 buckets but water status was same. They went to the wise man again. He suggested to take another 100 buckets.

The villagers did the same but to no avail. They villagers tried third time to take another 100 buckets as per the advice from the wise man but water was still impure.

The wise said, How come the whole well is polluted even removing this much considerable amount of water. Did you remove the dog body prior to taking 300 buckets of water?

The villagers said, "no sir, you only advised us to take water out, not the dog body !!!"

Reflection:

Several times in life we try to resolve our problems without considering the root cause of the problems. We believe that we are resolving the problem whereas in actual we are working on the side effects of problem not the problem itself.

We don't see the big picture to understand the root of the issue.  We take advice from our well wishers but do not use our brain to think logically to analyze the advice and then decide, instead, we start acting blindly on the solutions suggested by others.

It's All Good

I heard the story told recently about a king in Africa who had a close friend that he grew up with. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"

One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!". To which the king replied, "No, this is NOT good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took them to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.

As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So untying the king they sent him on his way.

As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. "You were right" he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. "And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this."

"No," his friend replied, "this is good!"

"What do you mean, 'this is good'! How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year."

"If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you."

The Family Goes to Village

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the village with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Oh yeah,” said the son.

“So, tell me, what you learned from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered:
“I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”

Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.

Appreciate every single thing you have God has blessed you with, especially your sincere friends!


“Life is too short and friends are too few.”

Try Something Different

Most people are stuck right where they are. The reason they're stuck,
however, isn't usually due to circumstances, incompetence, or lack of
opportunity, but a simple unwillingness to change, to try new things.
   
We can make smaller, inner changes on a day-to-day, moment to moment
basis - changes in our attitude, reactions, and expectations. I'm talking
about being willing to take new risks, and face old fears.

Over and over again I hear people saying things like "I've always done
things that way" or "That's just the type of person I am." These things are
said as if they are carved in stone. It is amazing what you can learn by
simply opening your mind and trying new things.

 Starting today, tell yourself that you are going to do something, however
small, a little differently. Perhaps you can be more friendly to the people
you work with. Maybe it's not too late to overcome your fear of asking
others to help you, or for their advice whoever you are, whatever you do,
there is always something you can do a little differently.

 You may find that you love the tiny changes you make and that you can open
exciting new doors by making relatively small adjustments. If you're okay
with the changes, you might want to try some other changes as well.

9 self-created rules in order to stray positive and live a stress free life

1-      I must develop the power of not looking back in the past to read the old chapters of life again and again because I cannot go back to my past to fix things. Whatever has happened has happened. Now is the time to review the lessons learnt once and then focus on to improve my present and future.  

2-      I have to stay away from negative souls which means I have to avoid spending time with people doing backbiting, criticizing, cursing, complaining, conspiring, corrupting and complicating.

3-      I have to stop judging others for their actions. I must mind my own business instead of interpreting their actions and commenting in negative way. Thinking and speaking about others pollutes my thoughts and steals my peace of mind.
4-      I must develop the habit of gratitude. Which means that at the end of each day I must refresh the fact that I am better than billions of the people of the world. Being healthy, not in debt, sleeping on the bed, eating 3 times a day and using internet are the great blessings billions of people don’t enjoy. People possessing high level of gratitude strengthen positive powerful thoughts.  
5-      I must spend time in reading good books, visiting websites on positivity, liking Facebook pages containing quotes and reading inspirational stories on daily basis. This will help remove negative impurities from my personality and empower my positive personality trait.

 

6-      I must stop being explosive and reactive to people and situations. I must stay positive about other’s feelings and respect their opinions because every soul is unique in thinking so I should avoid imposing my thoughts to others. I must confess the fact that I can be wrong at times so understanding other’s perspective be being empathic is very important for me to avoid building stress reducing my self-positivity-index.

7-      I must be positive about my circumstances even if they are not so good. I have to understand the fact that time does not stop so I have to start taking the necessary actions to expedite the change process. One thousand plans cannot be equal to the power of one great step taken right now!!!
8-      I must of focus on spiritual awakening acts such as a) frequent attacks of smiling, loss of ability in conflicts, loss of ability to judging others, ability to react to things as they happen instead of living in fears and so on.  

 

9-      I must focus on improving the quality of my thoughts because quality of thoughts determine the level of peace of mind.