Buddha's wife

                                                 

When I heard the story of Gautam Buddha, my question was always about his wife and son that he left behind...

this write-up by Vikram Bhattacharya touches that part of the story 

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He left her in the middle of the night. 

When she heard the news she was devastated. Yet, she did not complain but her life lost all meaning. The only reason for her to live now was her son. She wanted him to grow up to be a man that the world would look up to. 

                                                 

Her friends and relatives came around and asked her to forget about the man who had left her and start life again. They asked her to marry again but she refused. She was young and beautiful and suitors queued up outside her door, but she refused each one of them. 
As the years went by she turned into a shell of her former self. She ate only one meal a day, did not care about how she looked, hardly slept the long nights and focused only on her son.

Then one fine day he came back!
He stood in front of her and she could hardly remember him as the man who had left her. “They call you the Buddha now?” she asked him gently. “I hear they do,” he answered in a calm fashion. “What does it mean?” she further inquired. “I think it means the enlightened one, a knower,” he informed. 

She smiled and then a silence.
“I suppose we have both learned something. Your lessons will make the world richer in spirit, but my lesson will unfortunately, remain largely unknown,” she reflected deeply.

“And what lesson is that?” he probed.
Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears, 

“That a woman alone does not need anyone to complete her. She is complete on her own.”...

Dedicated to all women on karva chauth.

Shared by Rashid Falak.

Maria's new hat.

                                     

Maria lived with her mother in a small apartment in a city. She was an average woman; not too young or old, not too short or tall; not particularly beautiful or ugly.
She worked as a secretary at a large company, and her life was pretty much boring and mundane. No one paid her any attention.

One morning, on her way to work, Maria saw that a new hat shop had opened down the street.

In a spurt of curiosity, she walked in. There were ladies trying on hats. Maria too tried on a few until she found one she liked. She put it on and it looked nice!

A little girl with her mom noticed her "Mommy, look how pretty that woman looks with the hat on!" The mother said: "Ma'am, I must say, this hat looks wonderful on you!" Another buyer also came to look: "Ma'am, you look lovely with that hat on!" Maria went to the mirror. She looked at herself and for the first time in her adult life, liked what she saw.

Smiling, she went to the counter and bought the hat. As she walked outside a new world revealed itself to her. She never before noticed the colors of the flowers
or the scent of the fresh air. The sound of the cars and the people were like a harmonious melody. She walked as if drifting on a cloud with a song in her heart.

When she passed by the coffee shop, one of the young handsome men called out to her "Hey darling, looking good! Are you new here? Can I buy you a cup of coffee? "She smiled shyly and kept walking; floating on her cloud. When she got to the office, the doorman opened the door and wished her a good morning. Never before had he even noticed her!

The people in the elevator asked her the floor she needed and pressed the button for her.
The people at the office, as if seeing her for the first time, flattered her on how lovely she looked today.
The manager asked her out to lunch to talk about how she felt at work!

When this magical workday was over she took a cab home instead of the bus. As soon as she put her hand up 2 taxis stopped!
She took the first one and thought about the miraculous day she had had and how her life changed thanks to the new hat!

When she got home, her mom opened the door. The sight of Maria took her breath away!
"Maria," she said surprised "How beautiful you look! Your eyes are all lit up like when you were a little girl! "

"Yes, mother." Said Maria "It's all thanks to my new hat, I had a marvelous day!"

"Maria!" said her mother "What hat??" Maria panicked. She touched her head and saw that the hat that changed her life was not there.
She didn't remember taking it off in the cab or at lunch, nor at the office.

She thought back to the store where she had bought it. She remembered painfully now how she’d put it on the counter to get her purse out to pay and how she had forgotten the hat right there. Then she had walked out to the street. Hat-less yet glowing!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

It wasn't the hat that freed Maria, it was the quality of her thoughts!

Our thoughts can enslave us into a horrible bondage or liberate us towards sweet freedom: to be, do, or have anything we wish for!!!


Story shared by Sharda Rao

Spirituality and Wroldliness. OSHO:

Guilt creates the trouble, not the world.

And there is no division between the world and spiritualism. But the division is in the guilt.

So that guilt has to be dropped.

Not that you have to bring spirituality and the world together; they are together. There is no way to separate them.

You have to understand your guilt and drop it, otherwise guilt always creates schizophrenia.

That effort to bring spirituality and the world together is, from the very beginning, wrong. You have to understand your guilt.

The very categorization is wrong because then division starts.

Once you label something as spiritual, suddenly you have condemned the world.

When you say something is worldly, the division has come in.

There is no need.

If you enjoy food, if you enjoy the sunshine, if you enjoy the flowers and you enjoy meditation and prayer, in fact, it is all one enjoyment.

It does not matter that it is food or flowers or friends or prayer or meditation. It is one phenomenon -- enjoyment. It is joy.

There is no need to divide it because objects of joy are different -- they are immaterial.

The essential thing is that you have joy and delight.

You don't divide when you see the moon in the night and you enjoy it and then one day you see a child smiling and you enjoy.

Which is spiritual and which is material? You see a flower opening and something opens in you and you delight in it.

The food is being cooked and the flavour comes and suddenly there is joy in it. Which is spiritual and which is worldly?

If you ask me, I will say that joy is spiritual and the incapacity to enjoy, to celebrate, is worldly.

~ OSHO

From a message shared by Karen D'Souza