Keep Jumping

Henry Ford was asked by a journalist, "What is the secret of your success?" Henry Ford was a poor man, born poor, and became the richest man in the world.

Ford replied, "My secret is simple, it is an open secret...I never miss any opportunity!"

The journalist asked him, "It still remains a mystery. Nobody wants to miss an opportunity, even then people go on missing. So please elaborate it with a little detail how you manage. Generally, people become aware of an opportunity only when it is gone, but by that time it is too late."

Henry Ford said, "If you don’t want to miss an opportunity, then just keep jumping. So that, whenever the opportunity comes, you will jump and ride on it. Don't stand and wait; otherwise you will be lost in other thoughts and other things. So, I keep on jumping, and whenever the opportunity comes, I never miss it."

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, most of us always miss. Missing has become our habit in life. Each moment one has to be alert not to miss it. However, we are never there and are somewhere else. Naturally we go on missing.

Most of us think of the moment when it is gone and then we say, "My God, I missed it!"

So Friends, keep jumping!

Law of Mind

It is said, in the heaven there is a tree called 'Kalpataru’ which means the ‘Wish-fulfilling Tree’.

Once a traveller arrived there. He was very tired so he relaxed under the ‘Kalpataru’. After a while, he realized that he was hungry and thought, 'There seems to be nobody around, I could have at least asked for some food....!'

The moment the idea of food touched his mind, suddenly food appeared in front of him. The traveller was so hungry that he simply finished the food without bothering to think about it. Then he started feeling sleepy, so he thought, 'If there could have been a bed here!' ....And immediately the bed appeared.

Now, lying on the bed a thought arose in his mind, 'Oh! I don't see anybody around me, but the food reached me, then this bed came to me. I am sure there are ghosts around me...!'

...Suddenly the ghosts appeared... and he was so afraid that he thought, 'Now these ghosts are going to kill me..!' ....And Yes!! They killed him!

Moral of the Story ...

This is one of the laws of Life. We think and it starts happening. If we think of enemies, we create them; if we think of friends, they are there for us. If we love, we see love all around us and if we hate, hate fills our life.

Friends, whatsoever we go on thinking is being fulfilled by a certain existential law. If one learns to live silently in this world, simply as a nothingness, an emptiness, this world can become a paradise. All the ‘ghosts’ in one’s life will disappear. It requires just a right state of one’s consciousness and everything happens automatically.

In fact, there are various laws playing in our life. One of the laws is of the ‘mind’. With the law of the mind, one goes on creating hell around the self. Thus, friends become enemies and flowers become thorns. Life becomes a burden and one simply suffers as if in hell wherever one lives.

Friends, if one can slip out of this negative mindset, then one can also slip out of this ‘Law of the Mind’, and suddenly one starts living in a totally different world. That different world is God. Without doing anything, everything just starts falling in place....!!

Have a Great Day Friends!

A White Cloud

Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach to the top of Everest, says in his autobiography, 'As I started reaching closer and closer, I had to leave more and more things behind. At the last moment, I had to leave almost everything, because everything became such a burden...!'

Food For Thought ....

Friends, the higher we reach, the more unburdened we need to be. A miser cannot soar high, because he remains clinging to the earth, rooted in the earth. Trees cannot fly and even if they wish to fly, they need to be uprooted.

Life happens only for those who share, who love, who don’t cling to the things, because they remain available, but a miser always misses tremendously.

To cling to a thing is to cling to something which is below us, then how can we soar high? It is as if one is clinging to rocks and trying to fly in the sky, or one is carrying rocks on one’s head and trying to climb the Everest. One has to throw those rocks and only then one will be able to reach, unburdened....! 

Friends, one needs to be like a white cloud ... a wanderer...with no roots anywhere....!

Enjoy the Day Friends!

Moving in the Groove

A great mathematician, Herr Gauss, was keeping vigil while his wife lay ill upstairs. And as time passed, he found himself beginning to ponder a deep problem in mathematics.

The wife was going to die, the doctors said that this is going to be the last night, he was keeping vigil .... but the mind started moving in its old pattern. He started thinking about a mathematical problem. That was the last night in this world for his wife, but his mind was creating a screen of mathematics. He had completely forgotten about the wife; he had moved, he had gone far away on his own journey. Finally, he drew pen and paper to himself and began to draw diagrams.

A servant approached him and said deferentially, “Sir, your wife is dying....”

Gauss, never looking up, said, 'Yes, yes. But ask her to wait till I'm through...!”

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, most of us have grooves in our mind and we keep moving in the same grooves again and again and again. Even the great minds are as much unconscious as most of us are. As far as consciousness is concerned, great, small, and mediocre, all sail in the same boat. Even the greatest mind lives under chloroform.

Friends, one should be more alert, more aware and try to collect oneself together. Whatsoever one does, it should be done consciously, so that, the consciousness goes on accumulating, which transforms in to a reservoir of Life - energy.

Live a Meaningful Day ...Today & Every Day, Friends !

Non-Essentials!

Once Mulla Nasruddin visited one of his friends. Mulla was looking quite worried. After a brief silence he asked his friend, 'Ah, poor Mr. Jones! Did you hear what happened to him?”

Mulla’s friend  responded, “No, I am not aware! What happened to Mr. Jones?”

Mulla replied, “He tripped at the top of the stairs, fell down the entire flight, banged his head and died!'

Shocked, his friend said, 'Died?'

'Yes, died,' Mulla repeated with emphasis, '...and broke his glasses too ...!'

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, the immature mind is always interested more in glasses than in life and death. Immature mind is more interested in things and objects.

Such a mind remains interested in that which is worthless and non-essential. One should understand that, things can only be used, or at the most these can become a decoration in life, but things cannot replace or substitute or become life itself....! Friends, one should be more kind, loving and caring in life...!!

Have a Nice Day Friends!

Clinging is Distrust!

It is said that every evening, Mohammed ‘Paigamber’ used to distribute whatsoever he had collected during the day. He would not save even a single penny for the next day. He used to say, “The same source that had given to me today, would give me tomorrow as well. If it has happened today, why should I show 'untrust' about tomorrow? So, why save?”

However, when Mohammed was dying and was very ill, his wife was quite worried. She thought, may be in the middle of the night she may have to call a doctor or may require some life saving medicine. Therefore, that evening she saved five dinars with her, although she was quite afraid.

At about midnight, Mohammed opened his eyes and said, 'I feel a certain distrust around me. It seems something has been saved.'

The wife was quite afraid and replied, 'I am sorry, but thinking that some urgent help may be needed in the night, I have saved only five dinars.'

Mohammed immediately said, 'Please go and give it to somebody.'

She said, 'In the middle of the night, who will be there?'

Mohammed said, 'Please listen to me. Let me die peacefully, otherwise I will feel guilty against my God. I will feel ashamed that, at the last moment I died in deep distrust. So please go and give away that money!'

The wife went out, unbelieving of course, and she saw a beggar standing at the corner. She gave away those five dinars to him. When she returned, Mohammed said, 'Look, ‘He’ manages everything well. So, even when we need something, a donor will be standing outside the door, so don't be worried.'

It is said that, Mohammed pulled up his blanket and died in peace, totally relaxed.....!

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, clinging indicates that we don't trust life. Clinging to anything shows distrust.

Even in our relationship, if we cling to our near and dear ones, that simply shows that we don't trust. We always keep preparing for tomorrow, because we are afraid, insecure and hence keep making arrangements for the support.

Friends, if we can really love and trust ‘him’, that is more than enough for this life.

Have a Blissful Day, Today & Every Day Friends!

OSHO on Total Acceptance!

Beautiful Words of OSHO ….

“….The most fundamental thing to be remembered is that, life is dialectical. It exists through duality, it is a rhythm between opposites.

You cannot be happy forever, otherwise happiness will lose all its meaning. 

You cannot be in harmony forever, otherwise you will become unaware of the harmony. 

Harmony has to be followed by discord again and again, and happiness has to be followed by unhappiness. Every pleasure has its own pain, and every pain has its own pleasure. Unless one understands this duality of existence, one remains in unnecessary misery.

Accept the total, with all its agonies and all its ecstasies. Don’t hanker for the impossible; don’t desire that there should be only ecstasy and no agony in life….!”

Zen: Conscious Shock !

                                               

A Zen Master used to call out loudly every morning, 'Bokuju, where are you?' Bokuju was his own name.

Then he would answer, 'Yes sir? I am here!'

He would then say, 'Bokuju remember, another day is given to you. Be aware and alert and don't be foolish!'

He would respond saying, 'Yes sir, I will try my best.' ....


In fact, there was nobody else there! 

His disciples even started thinking Bokuji had gone mad. But, he was playing a mono-drama.
                                            

Food For Thought ....

Friends, this can be a wonderful cure for the negative emotions such as, anger, anxiety, hurt, upset, etc.

One can wake up oneself by calling one’s own name and then replying, “Yes sir, I am here!” 
One will definitely feel the difference. The moment one calls himself, there is a ‘Conscious Shock’, a sudden jerk. The continuous flow of thinking is interrupted and the negative emotions disappear or get diluted. And ...at least for a single moment one will have a glimpse beyond the clouds. 

Once one knows that, when one becomes alert, negative emotions disappear. One will come to a deep understanding of one’s own self and also about the mechanism of one’s inner working.

Friends, it is always quite easy when somebody else is led and we are the leader. But when we are both, the situation is natural, not arbitrary, and of course it is more complicated. A simple & wonderful technique to bring oneself to the present moment!

Have a Great Day Friends! 

Mrs. Sangeeta Hegde

The missing watch

There once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost his watch in the
barn. It was no ordinary watch because it had sentimental value for him.
After searching high and low among the hay for a long while; he gave up and
enlisted the help of a group of children playing outside the barn.

He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded.

Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around
the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch. Just when the
farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to
him and asked to be given another chance.

The farmer looked at him and thought, "Why not? After all, this kid looks
sincere enough."

So the farmer sent the little boy back in the barn. After a while the little
boy came out with the watch in his hand! The farmer was both happy and
surprised and so he asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had
failed.

The boy replied, "I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the
silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that
direction."

Moral: A peaceful mind can think better than a worked up mind.

Allow a few minutes of silence to your mind every day, and see, how sharply it helps you to set your life the way you expect it to be...!

 

The Dead Mouse

Once a crow was flying with a dead mouse in its beak and many other birds were chasing the crow.

The crow was very much worried and thought, 'I am not doing anything wrong to them, I am just carrying my dead mouse. Why are they all after me?'

Slowly, all the birds chasing the crow started hitting it hard. In the conflict and the struggle, the crow opened its beak and the mouse dropped down. Immediately, all the other birds left the crow and flew towards the mouse. They all forgot about the crow.

Now, the relieved crow sat upon a tree and brooded in peace, “Oh! The birds were not against me. In fact, they were also on the same trip ....they were after the mouse!”

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, if we think that, people are hurting us, we must be carrying a dead mouse! We should drop it and then should sit on the tree or under the tree and brood. Suddenly, we will see that the people have forgotten about us, now they are not concerned.

In fact, others are never concerned about us, unless we are carrying a dead mouse. Friends, our ego is the dead mouse....!

Have a Great Day Friends!! 

Fragrance of Compassion!

One of the most beautiful stories in Zen is about a Zen master who asked, one winter night, to be allowed to stay in a temple. He was shivering because the night was very cold and there was a heavy snow fall outside. Of course, the temple priest sympathized and allowed him to stay in the temple for one night.

In the middle of the night the priest suddenly heard a noise, so he came running. But he could not believe his eyes. The monk was sitting around a fire which was lit by burning one of the wooden statues of Buddha in that temple. There were many such wooden Buddha statues in the temple.

The shocked priest asked, 'What are you doing? How can you burn the Buddha statue?'

The Master replied, 'I was shivering due to cold, hence I had to burn it.'

The priest said, 'You seem to be mad! You have burnt Buddha!”

The Master looked in the fire, which was slowly disappearing. Then he poked the fire with a stick and started searching in the ashes.

The priest asked, 'What are you searching now?'

The Master said, 'I am looking for the Buddha’s bones!”

Now the priest was very angry and shouted, 'You are certainly mad. It was a wooden Buddha. How can you find bones in it?'

The monk said calmly, 'The night is very long and it is getting even colder, why not bring two more Buddhas?'

Of course, he had to be thrown out of the temple immediately. This man was dangerous.

When he was being thrown out he said, 'What are you doing throwing a live Buddha out ....?”

....In the morning, when the priest went out, he was surprised to see the Master sitting with a few flowers in his hand, worshipping a milestone. The priest approached him and asked, 'Now, what are you doing? Worshipping a milestone?'

The Master smiled and replied, 'Whenever there is a prayer time, I create my Buddhas, because Buddhas are all around. And this milestone is as good as your wooden Buddhas inside!' He further said, “For a wooden Buddha, a live Buddha has been suffering so much that, I had to show some compassion. Even if Buddha would have been alive today, I am sure, he would have done the same thing. He would have himself given all those wooden statues to me to save me from that severe cold ....!'

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, it is a question of attitude. When one looks around with Divinity, everything becomes Divine.

Understanding is different from just following blindly. When one understands, one is not bound by rules, one’s consciousness responds to every moment, hence whatsoever one does becomes right. A man of understanding has compassion not only for others, but also for himself. Such a being simply understands that there is no separation and everything including oneself is Divine.

To live out of deep understanding is compassion. When the flower of awareness blossoms, compassion goes on spreading. Friends, Meditation is the flower and compassion is its fragrance....!

Have a Meaningful & Blissful Day Friends!

THIS IS LIFE!!!

When there is no friend,

When life is on the dead end,

When world is not a paradise,

When your confidence dies,

Tell yourself - Go on, THIS IS LIFE!

When things don't go right,

When there is no ray of light,

And it is too hard to survive,

Tell yourself - Go on, THIS IS LIFE!

When there is competition to face,

When you are lagging behind in the race,

When you've lost faith in God,

When you're betrayed by a fraud,

Tell yourself - Go on, THIS IS LIFE!

When others don't respect you,

When you're not amongst the admirable few,

When for a question, you can't find a solution,

When all you're sure about, is confusion,

Tell yourself - Go on, THIS IS LIFE!

When your destination is miles apart,

When you don't know where to start,

When all you see around is pain,

When your hardwork is in vain,

Tell yourself - Go on, THIS IS LIFE!

Even though all this happens

just have faith in self & face life with a smile,

Things will surely change one day

Because as said "THIS IS LIFE .

From an email sent by Sanjeev Thube

Closer to the Whole!!

An American scientist once visited the offices of the great Nobel prize-winning physicist, Niels Bohr, in Copenhagen, and was amazed to find that over his desk was a horseshoe, securely nailed to the wall with the open end up in the approved manner, so it would catch the good luck and not let it spill out.

The American said with a nervous laugh, 'Surely you don't believe that, the horseshoe will bring you good luck, do you, Professor Bohr? After all, as a level-headed scientist....'

Bohr chuckled, 'I believe in no such thing, my good friend, not at all. I am scarcely likely to believe in such foolish nonsense. However, I am told that a horseshoe will bring you good luck whether you believe in it or not....!'

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, if we try to look a little deeper in to ourselves, just underneath our logic we can see fresh waters of intuition and trust, flowing. Therefore, one needs to become more and more feminine, more and more loving, surrendering, trusting, more and more closer to the Whole. One should not try to be an island, but should become part of the continent.

Although one may attain power and riches, one misses the life ...because deep down, the feminine mind continues. Unless one falls back to the feminine and surrenders, unless one’s resistance and struggle becomes a surrender, one will not know what real life is, and what celebration of life means ...!

Have a Great Day Friends!

Belief and Trust!

Lady Lewis was once appointed as an ambassador to Italy, by the United States of America. She was a recently converted Catholic, and, of course, was very enthusiastic. Whosoever she met, she would try and make him a Catholic.

When she went to Italy as the ambassador, she went to meet the Pope. A long discussion followed, which continued on and on. A press reporter slipped closer and closer, just to hear what was going on. The Pope had never given so much time to anybody, and the discussion seemed to be very heated and hot. Something was going on. When the Pope was talking for so long to the ambassador of the richest and the strongest nation in the world, there has to be some news....

Just to overhear, the reporter moved closer and closer and he could hear only one sentence.... The Pope was saying in a faltering English, 'Lady, you don't understand me. I am already a Catholic...!'

....So, she was trying to convert the Pope!

Moral of the Story .....

Friends, belief is in ignorance. If one knows, one knows. If one doesn’t know, one should know that one doesn’t know. The plain belief can only deceive us. The belief can create an atmosphere in one’s mind, so that, without knowing one starts thinking that one knows. The more strongly one says one believes totally, the more one is afraid of the doubt within oneself.

Belief is just repressing doubt; it is a desire. Doubt comes first and only then the belief enters. And to suppress the doubt, one catches hold of a belief. Trust is when doubt disappears. Trust is innocent.

Friends, belief is of the head; trust is of the heart.

Have a Wonderful Day Friends !!

Being Blissful!!

Once Mulla Nasruddin’s friend visited him. Mulla and his friend were standing near the closed window and discussing over a topic. There were some washed clothes hanging outside for drying in the neighbouring house.

Mulla looked at the clothes and said, 'Our neighbours are very dirty. Just look at their clothes!'

Mulla’s friend looked outside carefully, then moved closer to the window and said, 'My dear friend, those clothes are not dirty. In fact, your window glass is dirty. It is covered with dust.'

Mulla’s friend opened the windows and both of them saw that, those clothes were really clean and bright.

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, Life is tremendously beautiful and divine. One should feel a reverence for it, one should feel like worshipping it. When we say 'Life is God' we mean that life is not ordinary. It is extraordinary. There is tremendous potential. One only needs to clean and open one’s eyes.

When one is blissful, some divine energy can be experienced in everything we see around. One can then see God in the flowers, in the stones and in the stars. One only needs to plant a seed, a song, a star. Wherever such a person goes, he is in the temple. A blissful being carries his temple around him. It is a climate, it is his own inner juice overflowing in life.

Friends, God is nothing but a being which has realized, reached and fulfilled.....!

Have a Meaningful Day Friends !

Remain a Learner!

A foreign diplomat was unable to speak English. So, when the lunch bell rang at the United Nations Assembly, he stood behind a man at the food counter and carefully heard him order ‘apple-pie and coffee’. He also ordered ‘apple-pie and coffee’. Then for the next two weeks he kept ordering apple-pie and coffee.

Finally he was fed up and decided to try something else. So, he listened attentively while another man ordered a ‘ham sandwich’.

'Ham sandwich' he said to the counterman.

'White or rye?' the counterman asked.

'Ham sandwich' the diplomat repeated.

'White or rye?' the counterman asked again.

'Ham sandwich' the diplomat repeated.

The counterman grew very angry. 'Look, Mac' he roared shaking his fist under the diplomat's nose, 'do you want it on white or rye?'

'Apple-pie and coffee' answered the diplomat.

Moral of the Story .....

Friends, we are efficient with the old, but are awkward with a new. With the new, we need to learn from ABC, so we start feeling ignorant. With the old, we are knowledgeable. We can do it mechanically, no awareness is needed.  But with the new we need to be alert and aware, otherwise everything may go wrong.

The old becomes mechanical, but with the new there is fear. It is very difficult to teach new tricks even to an old dog. It will repeat only the old tricks again and again, the tricks which it knows.

However Friends, when we live with the old, we don't live at all. Only with the new is life. Life has to be fresh. One should therefore, remain a learner and never become a knower. One should remain open, never become closed. One should remain ignorant and go on throwing the knowledge that accumulates.

Each day, each moment, one should free oneself from all that one has been knowing and become a child once again. Friends, to become innocent like a child, is the way to live and to live abundantly.

Have a Meaningful Day Friends!!