Attitude matters

A man was selling balloons at a fair in a tribal village. He had balloons of different colors. To attract the attention of people, he would release a gas filled balloon into the air. When children saw the balloon go up, they would jump with joy and rushed to buy one.

The Balloon man was busy in attracting his little customers, when he felt someone pulling his kurta. He turned around and saw a little dark tribal boy asking him, "If you release a black balloon, would that also fly high?"

For a moment the balloon man was taken aback – why is this little boy asking such a question? His eyes fell on the dark skin of the body, and in a flicker of moment, the balloon man realized the matter!

With lot of affection, he moved his hand on the head of the little boy and replied gently, "Son, it is not the color of the balloon; it is what’s inside it that makes it go up!"


So True it is not the color of the balloon that matters, when we look at our life, ultimately it is not how we look, or what colour our skin is, or where we have come from, or status that matters, what is more important is the inner beauty that shines forth in what we believe, what we stand for the values we hold that determines our true character and success.

CHARACTER AND SUCCESS EMERGE FROM ONE’S HEART

“Always take extra care of 3 things in your life: * Promise..* Trust... * Relation... Because they don't make noise when they break...!!! ”

Chinese Zen Story ... Life Lessons

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river.

There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river. The big monk offered to carry her across the river on his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. 'How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?' thought the little monk. But he kept quiet.


The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her. All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation.

Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further; he burst out angrily at the big monk. 'How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty? All your Teachings to me make you a big hypocrite.

The big monk looked surprised and said, 'I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?' [This very old Chinese Zen story reflects the thinking of many people today.

Moral:

We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause us to be bitter or jealous. But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away. We keep on carrying the baggage of the 'pretty lady' with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony. Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of the baggage of the 'pretty lady'. We should let go of the pretty lady immediately after crossing the river that is after the unpleasant event is over. This will immediately remove all our agonies. There is no need to be further hurt by the unpleasant event after it is over.

“In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends"
-John Churton Collins

story .. Become a Lake

Here is a short story to understand the Pain and Gain Principle. Trust this will help us to understand the difference between the two and help us overcome pains in our lives.

The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. "How does it taste?" the Master asked. "Terrible," replied the boy.

The Master then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the guy swirled his handful of salt into the lake, the old man said, "Now drink the water from the lake."

As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the Master asked, "How does it taste?" "Good!" remarked the boy. "Do you taste the salt?" asked the Master. "No," said the young man.

The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said," The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount we taste the 'pain' depends on the container we put it into. Always your mind should be a like a lake but not like a glass”


So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things.....

What is required is to change our paradigm and make a shift in our focus. Too often we are more focused only on the pain, and miss out on the gain.

Stop being a glass. Become a lake! Failure doesn't mean when we fail, but when we don't want to come up again.


"Never design your character like a garden where any one can walk....Design it like the sky where everyone aspire to reach...."

Perseverance, Persistence and Determination Story [Never Give Up in life]

Perseverance, Persistence and Determination Story

(Never Give Up in life........ ..)

In 1867, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told John Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

John Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington Roebling, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington Roebling was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.

“We told them so. Crazy men and their crazy dreams. It's foolish to chase wild visions.”

Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the John Roebling were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington Roebling was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever.

Washington Roebling tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.

It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife Emily.

Washington Roebling touched his wife’s arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.

For 13 years Washington Roebling tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife’s arm, until the bridge was finally completed in 1883. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man's indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances.

It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband Washington Roebling and told the engineers what to do.

Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.

Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realized with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.

Moral : Even the most distant dream can be realized with persistence and determination.

“Learn from mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all”

Never Give Up .. An Inspirational Story)

Amir Taimur, was someone who was so firm and unfaltering in every predicament, that he did not cower from any misfortune. When the reason for this was sought from him, he said:

“Once, having fled from my enemies and seeking refuge in the ruins of a worn down and dilapidated building. I was reflecting over my future when my eyes suddenly fell upon a small and weak Ant, carrying a grain bigger than itself, endeavouring to climb to the top of a wall.”

“Looking carefully and counting accurately, I found that the grain had dropped from its clutches sixty seven times before the Ant finally managed to make it to the top of the wall with it. The spectacle of this effort on the part of the Ant infused within me strength of such great magnitude that I am never able to forget it.”

“I said to myself: O’ Taimur! You are by no means inferior to an Ant. Arise and get back to work. I got up and gathered my resolve till I eventually came to acquire the courage that I now possess.”

Moral: Falling down is not defeat. Defeat is when you refuse to get up...

"People are made to be loved and things are made to be used. But the confusion arises in the world when people are used and things are loved”.

Stroy Reflects Our Lives

There were once 2 brothers who lived on the 80th level. On coming home one day, they realized to their dismay that the lifts were not working and that they have to climb the stairs home.

After struggling to the 20th level, panting and tired, they decided to abandon their bags and come back for them the next day. They left their bags then and climbed on. When they have struggled to the 40th level, the younger brother started to grumble and both of them began to quarrel. They continued to climb the flights of steps, quarreling all the way to the 60th floor.

They then realized that they have only 20 levels more to climb and decided to stop quarreling and continue climbing in peace. They silently climbed on and reached their home at long last. Each stood calmly before the door and waited for the other to open the door

And they realized that the key was in their bags which was left on the 20th floor

This story is reflecting on our life...many of us live under the expectations of our parents, teachers and friends when young. We seldom get to do the things that we really like and love and are under so much pressure and stress so that by the age of 20, we get tired and decided to dump this load.

Being free of the stress and pressure, we work enthusiastically and dream ambitious wishes.

But by the time we reach 40 years old, we start to lose our vision and dreams. We began to feel unsatisfied and start to complain and criticize. We live life as a misery as we are never satisfied. Reaching 60, we realize that we have little left for complaining anymore, and we began to walk the final episode in peace and calmness.

We think that there is nothing left to disappoint us, only to realize that we could not rest in peace because we have an unfulfilled dream ...... a dream we abandoned 60 years ago.

So what is your dream? Follow your dreams, so that you will not live with regrets.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
Albert Einstein

A Note from Student's Diary

A note from Student’s Diary:

During my second month of school, our professor gave us a pop quiz.

I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely, this was some kind of joke.

I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank.

Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say 'hello'."

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also spoke to her, learned her name and said Thanks!


“The hands those serve the humanity are holier than the lips those talk about divinity”