A Story of Two Horses

Follow the Link Below:-----------------------

https://life-is-unlimited.blogspot.com/2015/05/two-horses-author-unknown.html

What is Our Worth - A real good Story

What is Our Worth

Michael Jordan was an African-American man, born in 1963, in the slums of Brooklyn, New York.

He had four brothers and his father's wages were not sufficient to provide for the whole family.
He grew up in a poor neighborhood which was full of discrimination, to the point where he could not see any hope for the future.

When he was 13 years old, his father gave him a piece of used clothing and asked: "What do you think the value of this outfit would be?"

Jordan replied, "Maybe one dollar."

His father asked, "Can you sell it for two dollars? If you can sell it, it would mean that you are a big help
to your father and mother. "

Jordan nodded his head, "I'll try, but no guarantee that I'll be successful."

Jordan carefully washed the clothes clean. Because they didn't have an iron, to smoothen out clothes, he ..... [click on read more]

Giver's Gain

A Story from Indian Epic:

Giver's Gain

Once Krishna and Arjuna were walking towards a village. Arjuna was pestering Krishna, asking him why Karna should be considered an unparallelled Donor & not him ?

Krishna, turned two mountains into gold. 

Then said,  "Arjuna, distribute these two gold mountains among villagers, but you must donate every bit of it ". 

Arjuna went into the village, and proclaimed he was going to donate gold to every villager, and asked them to gather near the mountain. The villagers sang his praises and .....[Click on 'Read More' ]]

Happiness :)

[Courtesy: Source not known to me]

This story is about a beautiful, expensively dressed lady who complained to her psychiatrist that she felt that her whole life was empty, it had no meaning.

So, the lady went to visit a counselor to seek out happiness.

The counselor called over the old lady who cleaned the office floors.

The counselor then said to the rich lady "I'm going to ask Mary here to tell u how she found happiness. All I want u to do is listen to her."

So the old lady put down her broom and sat on a chair and told her story: ..... [[Click on 'Read More' \/]]

Lessons from Three Ships around Titanic

*There were three ships which were nearby when the Titanic sunk !*

One of them was known as the -*Sampson*. It was 7 miles away from the Titanic and they saw the white flares signaling danger, but because the crew had been hunting seals illegally and didn't want to be caught, they turned and went the opposite direction away from the Titanic. This ship represents many people like us, who are so busy looking inward at our own lives that we can't recognize when someone else is in need.

The next ship was the -*Californian*. This ship was only 14 miles away from the Titanic, but they were surrounded by ice fields and the captain looked out and saw the white flares, but because the conditions weren't favorable and it was dark, he decided to go back to bed and wait until morning. The crew tried to convince themselves that nothing was happening. This ship represents those of us who often say – "I can't do anything now. The conditions aren't right for it and so we wait until conditions are perfect before going out."

The last ship was the - *Carpathia* This ship was actually headed in a *opposite* direction 58 miles away from the Titanic when they heard the distress cries over the radio. The captain of this ship knelt down, prayed to God for direction and then turned the ship around and went full steam ahead through the ice fields. *This was the ship that saved the 705 survivors of the Titanic*
                 
*-ANALOGY -*
Obstacles and reasons to avoid responsibility shall always be there, But those who accept it always find a place in the hearts of the world, always to be remembered for of good they do.

12 LIFE LESSONS FROM A MAN WHO HAS SEEN 12000 DEATHS

(Some one informed that, this post has been originally posted on  Project Fuel: http://projectfuel.in/blog/ )

12 LIFE LESSONS FROM A MAN WHO HAS SEEN 12000 DEATHS

Life's Lessons

Rooted in the hearts of many Hindus is the belief that if you breathe your last in Kashi (Varanasi) you attain what is popularly known as ‘Kashi Labh’ or ‘the fruit of Kashi’—moksh or “release from the cycle of rebirth impelled by the law of karma”.

Kashi Labh Mukti Bhawan in Varanasi is one of the three guesthouses in the city where people check in to die. The other two are Mumukshu Bhawan and Ganga Labh Bhawan. Established in 1908, Mukti Bhawan is well-known within the city and outside.

Bhairav Nath Shukla has been the Manager of Mukti Bhawan for 44 years. He has seen the rich and the poor take refuge in the guesthouse in their final days as they await death and hope to find peace. Shukla hopes with and for them.

 He sits on the wooden bench in the courtyard, against the red brick wall and shares with me 12 recurring life lessons from the 12000 deaths he has witnessed in his experience as the manager of Mukti Bhawan: READ ON .....[[Click on "Read More below]]

Anger & Response

As the carpenter went home after shutting down his workshop, a black poisonous cobra entered his workshop.

The cobra was hungry & hoped to find its supper lurking somewhere within. It slithered from one end to another & finally bumped into an axe & got very slightly injured.

In anger & revenge,  the snake bit the axe with full force. What could a bite do to a metallic axe? Instead the cobra 's mouth started bleeding.

Out of fury & arrogance, the cobra tried it's best to strangle & kill the object that was causing it pain by wrapping itself around the axe.

The next day when the carpenter opened the workshop, he found a dead cobra wrapped around the axe blades. The cobra didn't die because of someone else's fault but faced these consequences merely because of it's own anger &  wrath.
   
Sometimes when angry, we try to cause harm to others but as the time passes by, we realise that we have caused more harm to ourselves.

For a happy life, it's best we should ignore & overlook things, people, incidents, affairs & matters.

It is not necessary that we show a reaction to everything. Step back & ask urself if the matter is really worth responding to .

People that show no inclination to change, are best handled with silence & prayer.

Small Tourch Light

Hello (not so) Little Friend,

I am sure it must be a matter of great pride and joy for you and your families that you have achieved a major ane significant milestone in your academic careeR.

With the opportunities that you would have got to reach to this stage, you would have been probably the best placed to perform, BUT, these provide only a strong platform. And as we know, from the analogy of drama theatre, that the best stage do not assure best performance. It's an actor herself who has to finally perform. So it's a pleased that you made the 'platform' proud by your performance.

As they say, there is no better motivator than Success. And we are sure you would be motivated .....

Picture your Future

Very Interesting and Practical.
(Please click on Link)

 http://youtu.be/4vl6wCiUZYc

A Duck or An Eagle !

 I was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing I noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for me.

He handed me a laminated card and said: 'I'm Wasu, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'

Taken aback, I read the card. It said: Wasu's Mission Statement:
To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew me away. Especially when I noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wasu said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.'

I said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.'

Wasu smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, lassi, water and orange juice.'

Almost stuttering, I said, 'I'll take a Lassi.'

Handing me my drink, Wasu said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have .....

The 8 Monkeys

The 8 Monkeys

(This is reportedly based on an actual experiment conducted in the U.K.)

Put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.

Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable. Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up. Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.

One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious. But undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder.

All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why.

However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder.

A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempts to ...

Marvan Atapatu Inspiring Life Story

An amazing story on Marvan Attapattu Srilankan Cricketer.

It’s a story that Harsha Bhogle, India’s most loved cricket commentator, loves to tell, over and over again. Making his debut in Test cricket for Sri Lanka, Marvan scored a duck in his first innings. And again, in his second innings.

They dropped him. So he went back to the nets for more practice. More first-class cricket. More runs. Waiting for that elusive call. And after twenty-one months, he got a second chance.

This time, he tried harder. His scores: 0 in the first innings, 1 in the second Dropped again, he went back to the grind. And scored tonnes of runs in first-class cricket. Runs that seemed inadequate to erase the painful memories of the Test failures. Well, seventeen months later, opportunity knocked yet again. Marvan got to bat in both innings of the Test. His scores: 0 and 0. Phew!

Back to the grind. Would the selectors ever give him another chance? They said ...

HTTPS://www.facebook.com/gpjglobal

You may like to go through the following link
And may also forward the same to like minded people looking forward to informative post which are clean and clever.

HTTPS://www.facebook.com/gpjglobal

Practice Without Integration is a Waste by Krishna Das

Practice Without Integration is a Waste
by Krishna Das
(Courtesy: http://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=972)

[Listen to Audio!]

I once met Roshi Philip Kapleau, the author of The Three Pillars of Zen. He was one of the first Westerners to go to Japan and do intense practice there. He was suffering from very advanced Parkinson's disease and had terrible physical discomfort, along with the involuntary spasms that come from the disease. One thing he said to me really stuck. As he was sitting there, writhing, he looked into my eyes and said with great intensity, "It doesn't matter how much practice you do. If you don't bring it into your daily life, it is all a waste." The power of this statement came from the depths of his realization and his daily battle with Parkinson's, and it shot straight into my heart.

We don't want to walk around afraid. We don't want to walk around feeling hurt and separate. We don't want to continue carrying around all the feelings of betrayal and pain that we've experienced in all of the relationships of our lives. No matter how much meditation, chanting, yoga poses, or any other practice we do, it's very hard to remove the fears that come up in our daily lives and the feeling of being isolated from the rest of the world. But the result of a true spiritual practice ultimately must be the lessening of that fear and isolation. We can't be judging ourselves if we're really singing or offering ourselves or someone else lovingkindness. These are the moments we're taking energy away from unconscious programs that run all the time in our heads about how small we are or how unworthy we are of love and affection.

We have a lot to worry about in our daily lives, a lot of stress. We move very fast and often get lost in the unconscious flow of our days. We can't control the things outside of us. We can't make people act the way we want them to act. We can't even make ourselves act the way we want to act! The good news is that our feeling of unworthiness, our self-judgment, is just stuff; it's not who we are. Stuff comes and stuff goes. What doesn't come and go is who we really are and what we really are. To experience this, we need a spiritual practice.

When we are doing a practice and begin to experience lighter states of being, we start to recognize that being greedy, fearful, jealous, angry, pushy, and manipulative in our relationships actually hurts. When we're stuck in one of those heavy states - which for most of us is all we've known - who suffers more than we do? Nobody. We may feel righteous about our heaviness and think that somebody else caused our suffering, but we're the ones who are burning! At these moments, it's very hard to practice. For example, if I'm really upset about something, it's very hard to sit down and chant. Sometimes I have to burn for a while until I can begin to let go and return to my practice.

-- Krishna Das, excerpted from Chants of a Lifetime

Seeing Fully by Ajahn Brahm

Seeing Fully - by Ajahn Brahm
(Courtesy: http://www.awakin.org/read/audio.php?op=play&tid=1003)

[Listen to Audio!]

We were poor monks who needed buildings. We couldn't afford to employ a builder — the materials were expensive enough. So I had to learn how to build: how to prepare the foundations, lay concrete and bricks, erect the roof, put in the plumbing — the whole lot. I had been a theoretical physicist and high-school teacher in lay life, not used to working with my hands. After a few years, I became quite skilled at building.


Being a monk, I had patience and as much time as I needed. I made sure every single brick was perfect, no matter how long it took. Eventually, I completed my first brick wall and ...

Gandhi's 10 Rules for Changing the World (Courtesy: http://www.dailygood.org)

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems. --Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's 10 Rules for Changing the World

--by Henrik Edberg,
(Courtesy: http://www.dailygood.org/story/466/gandhi-s-10-rules-for-changing-the-world-henrik-edberg/)
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.”

“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”

Mahatma Gandhi needs no long introduction. Everyone knows about the man who lead the Indian people to independence from British rule in 1947.

So let’s just move on to some of my favourite tips from Mahatma Gandhi.

1. Change yourself.
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”

If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now ... ... ...

The Dalai Lama: Why I Laugh - by The Dalai Lama

Courtessy : http://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/14467be4720d4db2
The Dalai Lama: Why I Laugh
by The Dalai Lama

[Listen to Audio!]

I have been confronted with many difficulties throughout the course of my life, and my country is going through a critical period. But I laugh often, and my laughter is contagious. When people ask me how I find the strength to laugh now, I reply that I am a professional laugher. [...]

The life of exile is an unfortunate life, but I have always tried to cultivate a happy state of mind, appreciating the opportunities this existence without a settled home, far from all protocol, has offered me. This way I have been able to preserve my inner peace.

If we are content just to think that compassion, rationality, and patience are good, that is not actually enough to develop these qualities. Difficulties provide the occasion to put them into practice. Who can make such occasions arise? Certainly not our friends, but rather our enemies, for they are the ones who pose the most problems. So that we truly want to progress on the path, we must regard our enemies as our best teachers.

For whoever holds love and compassion in high esteem, the practice of tolerance is essential, and it requires an enemy. We must be grateful to our enemies, then, because they help us best engender a serene mind! Anger and hatred are the real enemies that we must confront and defeat, not the “enemies” who appear from time to time in our lives.

Of course it is natural and right that we all want to have friends. I often say jokingly that a truly selfish person must be altruistic! You have to take care of others, of their well-being, by helping them and serving them, to have even more friends and make more smiles blossom. The result? When you yourself need help, you will find all you need! On the other hand, if you neglect others’ happiness, you will be the loser in the long run. Is friendship born of arguments, anger, jealousy, and unbridled competition? I don’t think so. Only affection produces authentic friends. […]

As for me, I always want more friends. I love smiles, and my wish is to see more smiles, real smiles, for there are many kinds—sarcastic, artificial, or diplomatic. Some smiles don’t arouse any satisfaction, and some even engender suspicion or fear. An authentic smile, though, arouses an authentic feeling of freshness, and I think the smile belongs only to human beings. If we want those smiles, we must create the reasons that make them appear.

-- The Dalai Lama, in an excerpt from his book "My Spiritual Journey"

Living In The Age of Distraction - --by Margaret Wheatley

Living In The Age of Distraction -by Margaret Wheatley

 COURTESY: http://www.dailygood.org/story/449/living-in-the-age-of-distraction-margaret-wheatley/

“Sit, be still, and listen, because you're drunk and we're at the edge of the roof. --Jalaluddin Rumi”

For years I assumed that the Titanic tragedy was a result of human arrogance, the belief in the indestructibility of the newest, largest, fastest, fanciest ship of all time. But actually the Titanic went down because of distraction. Other ships had been warning about the iceberg-filled waters for days, but the Titanic’s captain changed course only slightly and did nothing to slow the ship’s speed. When the radio operator received a call from a ship that was surrounded by ice—this was less than an hour before the collision—he responded, “Shut up, shut up, I’m busy.” By the time lookouts spotted the iceberg ahead, it was too late to slow the Titanic’s momentum.  

Although overused, the Titanic is a chillingly accurate metaphor ... ...

Dada - Dadi ni Vidya Parab - Deepak and Manjari Buch

Given below is the details of grass root work being taken up by Shree Deepakbhai  and Manjariben Buch. Looking at the same, if you wish, you may like to vote for them, on following link

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/heroes/

(if the link doesn't open directly, please copy the same in the browser address line)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deepak and Manjari Buch
Nominated for : Empowering the poor.

Initiative - Teaching poor children for free

After more than three decades in office, Deepak Buch retired in style from his deputy manager’s post in Gujarat State Finance Corporation in 2005. But ‘what’s next?’ wasn’t bothering Buch and his better half Manjariben as the couple had long back decided to dedicate the post-retirement period to society. Their quest for the right cause soon found an answer in “securing the future of the poor but bright students”.

“I was speaking to my domestic help. His financial condition wasn’t good and it was affecting his children’s future for want of exposure and proper guidance. And it took us no time to decide that we want to help children of lower economic strata,” says Buch, 67.

On the Rath Yatra day in 2005, the elderly launched their free coaching centre and out of ... ... ...

DEMENTIA - TIPS TO DELAY OR AVOID

 *DEMENTIA - TIPS TO DELAY OR AVOID *      
        
Most of us start worrying about dementia after retirement - and that may be too little, too late. 

Experts say that if you really want to ward off dementia, you need to start taking care of your brain in your 30s and 40s - or even earlier.

"More and more research is suggesting that lifestyle is very important to your brain's health," says Dr. Paul Nussbaum, a neuropsychologist and an adjunct associate professor at the ... ... ...