How Young Are You?

Once Gautam Buddha was having a meeting with one of the most intelligent emperors of those days. Just in the middle of their dialogue an old monk, about seventy years old, entered to touch Buddha’s feet. The monk asked the emperor to forgive him because he was interfering in their conversation.

The monk told the Buddha, "I have been ordered to go to the nearby village. I cannot go without touching the feet of my master. Soon there will be sunset and we are not allowed to travel during night. Since your discussion was going on and on, I had to disturb you. Please forgive me."

Gautam Buddha asked the monk, "How old are you?"

Although the emperor was very much puzzled at this question, the old monk replied, "Forgive me master, I am quite late. I am only four years old!"  Now, the emperor was even more puzzled, because he could see that, the monk was more than seventy years old.

The Buddha looked at the confused emperor and said, "He took sannyas only four years ago and that is his real birth. The first birth is only an opportunity for the second birth. If the second birth does not happen then the first birth is meaningless!”

Moral of the Story …

Friends, this story is quite meaningful! In fact, four years is a long time, even a minute of awareness is equal to eternity. Most of us simply vegetate, we do not live or do not come in contact with the living waters of life. Most of us only grow old, never grow up.

Between our birth and death there is only a horizontal line, no peaks of delight, no peaks of ecstasy, no depths of love, peace and silence. It is just a horizontal, flat routine from the cradle to the grave. Most of us just come and go. Friends, how many of us have the gratitude towards numerous blessing of life? How many of us think that, "Existence has chosen me and not anybody else in my place. Without me existence will be little incomplete. I never deserved it, but this life is a sheer gift for me given out of the abundance of existence."

Friends, life without awareness is like a signature on water, which goes on disappearing. Moments of awareness are immensely significant and it does not require time, it requires only depth. Each such moment filled with a deep contentment, a profound silence, a joyful dance, an eternity of rejoicing, a fragrance that is not of this world, not of time and space but belongs to the beyond. 

Nothing can be more important than to come in contact with the immortal, timeless, deathless source of life. Friends, to be with the master is the indirect way to be in touch with the godliness of existence….!

Have a Blissful Day Friends!

Stones & Butter !

In Buddha’s days, Priests of a certain religion used to charge money for a ritual prayer that promised to release a dead person’s soul from hell, so that he could go to heaven. At one point in the prayer they struck an urn full of stones with a ritual hammer. According to their teaching, if the urn broke and the stones were released, it was a sign that the soul was also released. (Of course, the brittle clay could not withstand the blow of the heavy metal hammer).

Once a young man, distraught over his father’s death, went to the Buddha, believing that the Buddha's teaching was a newer, greater form of religion, and asked him for a ritual which would release his father’s soul. The Buddha told him to obtain two of the ritual urns from the priests, and fill one with butter and the other with stones. The young man, believing he was about to get a more powerful ritual, was very happy and did as the Buddha asked him to do.

When the young man returned, the Buddha told him to place the urns carefully in the river, so that the rim of the urn was just below the surface. Then he instructed him to recite the usual prayer of the priests, and strike both urns under the water with the hammer, at the usual point in the prayer, then come back and describe what happened. The young man, very excited to be the first person to be given this wonderful new ritual, more effective than the old, did exactly as he was told.

On his return, the Buddha asked him to describe what he saw. The young man replied, "I saw nothing unusual. When I smashed the urns, the stones sank to the bottom of the river and the butter was washed away on the surface of the river."

The Buddha said, "Now please ask your priests to pray that the butter should sink and the stones should float to the surface!"

The young man, shocked by the obvious ridiculousness of the Buddha’s request said, "...But no matter how much the priests pray, the stones will never float and the butter will not sink."

   

The Buddha smiled and replied, "Exactly so. It is the same with your father. Whatever good, kind, caring actions he has done during his life time will make him rise towards the heaven, and whatever bad, cruel, selfish actions he has done will make him sink towards the hell. And remember, there is not a thing that all the prayers and rituals of the priests can do to alter even a tiny part of the results of his actions! ..."

Moral of the Story ...

Friends, a man wandering in immense darkness, groping his way, clings to anything that gives a little hope, a little light.

Certainly each action has its result, but not somewhere far away in a future life. The action and the result are continuous, they are part of one process. What begins in sowing the seed, grows, and one day the one seed has become thousands of seeds. That's what we call our crop. It is the same seed which has exploded into thousands of seeds.

Friends, nothing can be done about the past, but much can be done about the future. To change the future is to change everything. If we start changing our ways of life, our ways of awareness and when we start understanding the laws of life... the fundamental laws, the law of karma ...whatsoever we do, we will have to reap.

No death is intervening, no afterlife is needed, it is just a continuum....!!

Have a Great Day Friends !

Butter & Stones. Buddhist Story

In Buddha’s days, Priests of a certain religion used to charge money for a ritual prayer that promised to release a dead person’s soul from hell, so that he could go to heaven. At one point in the prayer they struck an urn full of stones with a ritual hammer. According to their teaching, if the urn broke and the stones were released, it was a sign that the soul was also released. (Of course, the brittle clay could not withstand the blow of the heavy metal hammer).

Once a young man, distraught over his father’s death, went to the Buddha, believing that the Buddha's teaching was a newer, greater form of religion, and asked him for a ritual which would release his father’s soul. The Buddha told him to obtain two of the ritual urns from the priests, and fill one with butter and the other with stones. The young man, believing he was about to get a more powerful ritual, was very happy and did as the Buddha asked him to do.

When the young man returned, the Buddha told him to place the urns carefully in the river, so that the rim of the urn was just below the surface. Then he instructed him to recite the usual prayer of the priests, and strike both urns under the water with the hammer, at the usual point in the prayer, then come back and describe what happened. The young man, very excited to be the first person to be given this wonderful new ritual, more effective than the old, did exactly as he was told.

On his return, the Buddha asked him to describe what he saw. The young man replied, "I saw nothing unusual. When I smashed the urns, the stones sank to the bottom of the river and the butter was washed away on the surface of the river."

The Buddha said, "Now please ask your priests to pray that the butter should sink and the stones should float to the surface!"

The young man, shocked by the obvious ridiculousness of the Buddha’s request said, "...But no matter how much the priests pray, the stones will never float and the butter will not sink."

   

The Buddha smiled and replied, "Exactly so. It is the same with your father. Whatever good, kind, caring actions he has done during his life time will make him rise towards the heaven, and whatever bad, cruel, selfish actions he has done will make him sink towards the hell. And remember, there is not a thing that all the prayers and rituals of the priests can do to alter even a tiny part of the results of his actions! ..."

Moral of the Story ...

Friends, a man wandering in immense darkness, groping his way, clings to anything that gives a little hope, a little light.

Certainly each action has its result, but not somewhere far away in a future life. The action and the result are continuous, they are part of one process. What begins in sowing the seed, grows, and one day the one seed has become thousands of seeds. That's what we call our crop. It is the same seed which has exploded into thousands of seeds.

Friends, nothing can be done about the past, but much can be done about the future. To change the future is to change everything. If we start changing our ways of life, our ways of awareness and when we start understanding the laws of life... the fundamental laws, the law of karma ...whatsoever we do, we will have to reap.

No death is intervening, no afterlife is needed, it is just a continuum....!!

Have a Great Day Friends !