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' \/]]

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.

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 .....

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

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 ... ... ...

POSITIVE EFFECTS OF METITATION (Thro TED)

HERE is the link, http://blog.ted.com/2013/01/11/4-scientific-studies-on-how-meditation-can-affect-your-heart-brain-and-creativity/

AND HERE is the text (For hyperlinks, please go through above link to TED)

Many people have tried to sell me on the idea of meditating. Sometimes I try it, and have an incredible, refreshing experience. But usually, as I close my eyes and focus on my breathing, while I know that I’m supposed to be letting all thoughts go, more and more fly through my mind. Soon I have a laundry-list of “to-dos” in my head … and then my legs fall asleep. It’s all downhill from there.


Today’s TED Talk, however, might actually ... ... ...

Mind - Adi Shankara charya

Amazing true story by Adi Shankaracharya ji  to explain the relationship of our mind & our Super Emotional Garbage !!!
Adi Sankara was walking through the market place with his disciples. They saw a man dragging a cow by a rope. Sankara told the man to wait and asked his disciples to surround them. “I am going to teach you something” and continued...
“Tell me who is bound to whom? Is the cow bound to this man or the man is bound to the cow?
The disciples said without hesitation “Of course the cow is bound to the man!. The man is the master. He is holding the rope. The cow has to follow him wherever he goes. The man is the master and the cow is the slave.”
“Now watch this”, said Sankara and took a pair of scissors from his bag and cut the rope. The cow ran away from the master and the man ran after his cow. “Look, what is happening”, said Sankara.
“Do you see who the Master is? The cow is not at all interested in this man. The cow in fact, is trying to escape from this man.” This is the case with our mind.
Like the cow, all the non-sense that we carry inside is not interested in us. We are interested in it, we are keeping it together somehow or the other. We are going crazy trying to keep it all together under our control.
 The moment we lose interest in all the garbage filled in our head, and the moment we understand the futility of it, it will start to disappear. Like the cow, it will escape and disappear.”
We can allow disappearing of all the unwanted things from our mind and feel relaxed.

Success & Successful People

Success in life is more than: Winning accolades for your work, getting rich & famous or having more than others.

It is about making a difference, creating an impact & fulfilling your inherent desire to create. 

Successful people:

1. Listen to the voice that encourages them to take challenges. 

2. Create an impact by bringing a change in people’s life.

3. Are passionately involved in their work. 

4. Stand by their principles even in challenging times.

5. Have the perseverance to achieve their goals & never quit. 

6. Remain a student forever & try to master their work.

7. Have an unwavering faith that what they are doing is right. 

8. Take risks to achieve their dreams.

9. Have a strong reason for what they set to do.

SELF-CONFIDENCE

SELF-CONFIDENCE 
[ Courtesy: http://attitude-for-life.blogspot.in/2011_05_01_archive.html]

The business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy. 

Suddenly an old man appeared before him. 

"I can see that something is troubling you," he said. 

After listening to the executive's woes, the old man said, "I believe I can help you." 

He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and ... ... ...[click on READ MORE below]

Be Right or Be Kind? - Sow love to melt away anger - by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer (Courtesy)

• Be Right or Be Kind?

  Sow love to melt away anger.
  
  Saying no to resentment gives us peace.
  
  THE 79TH VERSE of the Tao Te Ching, which has been especially helpful to me personally, can be called “Living Without Resentment.” We’re asked to change the way we ....
  

7 PRINCIPLES OF EAGLES

7 PRINCIPLES OF EAGLES
 

PRINCIPLE 1
Eagles fly alone at high altitude and not with sparrows or other small birds. No other bird can get to the height of the eagle. Stay away from sparrows and ravens.
Eagles fly with Eagles

PRINCIPLE 2
Eagles have strong vision. They have the ability to focus on something up to five kilometers away. When an eagle sites his prey, he narrows his focus on it and set out to .........

Legacy of an Humble Man - Bai Fangli : બાઈ ફાંગલી

In 1987, a 74-year old rickshaw puller by the name of Bai Fangli came back to his hometown planning to retire from his backbreaking job. There, he saw children working in the fields, because they were too poor to afford school fees.

Bai returned to .........

How to Become Famous - By Robin Sharma

How to Become Famous

By Robin Sharma
Author of the #1 International Bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title”

Hope you’re excellent. I wrote today’s message with one idea in mind: to help accelerate your expertise.

So you become BIW (Best in the World within your field)….and just maybe the best there ever was (think “The Michelangelo of Manufacturing” or the “Federer of Finance” or the “Einstein of Entrepreneurs”).

My obsession is to help you reach this lofty realm. So you get your largest dreams done. And make the world better for the mastery you share…

I hope you can feel my passion, sense my faith in you and .........

Seven Paths to a Meaningful Life --by Philip Zimbardo

It is better to have a meaningful life and make a difference than to merely have a long life. --Bryant H. McGill

Seven Paths to a Meaningful Life

--by Philip Zimbardo, 

syndicated from Greater Good, Jul 25, 2013

 

Seven Paths to a Meaningful Life

The following is adapted from a commencement address Philip G. Zimbardo delivered at the University of Puget Sound earlier this month. Dr. Zimbardo, a giant in the field of social psychology, is now a professor at Palo Alto University, a professor emeritus at Stanford University, and the president of the Heroic Imagination Project. In the text of his talk below, we have embedded links to research supporting his advice to graduates.

As I now complete my 55th year of teaching psychology, I am ever more grateful for the unique opportunity we teachers each have to learn from and share in ......