Aren’t You Going to Do Something?

Many years ago, there were two neighboring farmers, Fred and Luke, who lived on the edge of a beautiful old forest.

One morning they woke up to find that many of the trees in the forest had been chopped down.

Fred was outraged and immediately went to his neighbor to express his anger.

“Can you believe this has happened? he yelled, “Who could have done this?”

“I have no idea,” responded Luke calmly.

“Well, I’m going to let everyone know about this travesty, are you coming with me?” Fred asked.

“No thanks,” responded Luke.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” Fred asked.

“I will.” replied his neighbor.

Fred stormed off and went into the local village where he told everyone he met about what had happened.

“Can you believe it?” he asked bewildered townsfolk. “Dozens of trees just cut down and taken away overnight. It’s outrageous!”

Of course, the villagers nodded their heads and showed the appropriate amount of sympathy to the farmer.

“But do you know what the worst thing about this is?” Fred said, “Luke won’t do anything about it. If he was as angry as me, he would be here with me telling everyone as well.”

Fred got home and visited his neighbor again.

“Luke, I’m going to write a letter to the mayor to complain about the trees being chopped down. Are you going to help me?”

“No thanks,” Luke replied.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” Fred demanded.

“I will.”

Fred stormed off to write his letter to the mayor.

The next morning, Fred went back to his neighbor’s house, but there was no answer at the door. Fred looked around the property and eventually found Luke in the clearing where the trees had been felled.

“What are you doing? There are still people who haven’t heard about the trees being cut down.”

“I’m planting new trees,” replied Luke.

“Why?” asked a confused Fred.

“Because complaining won’t bring them back.”

Moral:  Sometimes, life doesn’t always go as planned.  Bad things happen to everyone, sometimes even genuine tragedies.  We’ve become very good as a society at complaining about the injustices that we see. When our expectations aren’t met, we are quick to dismiss someone, update our Facebook status, write an email, or even a blog.  But real change doesn’t happen via the complaints department, it happens through meaningful action.  It happens when we change the question, we ask ourselves when things go wrong from, “Who can I tell?” to “What am I going to do about it?”

The Little Boy with a Slingshot

Once upon a time Sammy and his sister Marie visited their grandparents at their farm. Sammy picked up a slingshot to play with out in the woods.  He practiced in the woods but he could never hit the target.  Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for the lunch.  As he was walking back he saw Grandma’s pet duck.

Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly which hit the duck square in the head and killed it. He was shocked and grieved. In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the pile of woods.  Marie had seen it all from the window but she said nothing. After lunch, the next day Grandma said, “Marie, let’s wash the dishes.”  Marie said, “But Grandma, Sammy told me he wanted to help in the kitchen.”

Then she whispered to Sammy, “Remember the duck?” Sammy got nervous knowing his sister knew about the duck and if he doesn’t obey, she might tell his grandparents about it.  So without saying anything, he did the dishes.

Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing but Grandma said, “I’m sorry but I need Marie to help make supper.”  Marie just smiled and said, “Well that’s all right because Sammy told me he wanted to help.”

She whispered again to Sammy, “Remember the duck?”  So Marie went fishing and Sammy stayed to help.  After several days of Marie taking advantage of Sammy, he finally couldn’t stand it any longer.  He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the duck.

Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug, and said, “Sweetheart, I know. I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing but because I love you, I forgave you.  I was just wondering how long you would let Marie take advantage of you.”

Moral: Always confess your mistakes. It will take away a load of guilt from your heart which will boost your conscience and no one will take advantage of your secret mistakes! Accept your mistake, apologize and seek forgiveness politely.

Be Mindful of Your Thoughts

Once upon a time, there was a brave traveler who was on a mission to travel to every corner of the world. On his journey, he saw everything there was to see and experienced more than most people could imagine. As our brave traveler came to the last place on earth he had not visited yet he remembered all the people who told him that he should give up because it was something that was never done before. But in all of his years traveling around the world, he formulated a mantra he kept repeating to himself: “With a positive mindset you will always find a way. Just be mindful of your thoughts and everything will be ok.”

As he was walking and contemplating where he would like to settle after his journey would end, he noticed a beautiful big tree with a lot of shade where he could rest. So he went to the tree, lied down, and took a nap. But when he woke up he was about to learn that this was no ordinary tree. This tree was special, it was a “wish-fulfilling” tree.

As our brave traveler opened his eyes and felt very hungry and wished he could have something to eat. Suddenly, a tasty dish appeared before him. He looked at the dish a bit surprised but decided to eat it anyway “food is food” thinking to himself.

After he ate the food, another thought came to his mind, “How nice it would be if I had something to drink now…” Right then, a fine bottle of wine appeared in front of him. Lying in the shade of the tree, calmly drinking the delicious wine, enjoying the pleasant cool breeze, the traveler began to wonder, “What’s going on? Where is all this coming from? Could it be that some ghosts are playing tricks on me? And behold, ghosts instantly appeared before his very eyes. They were hideous and cruel, just as he imagined they should be. “Oh my god, they will kill me,” he thought to himself. And as the tree read his thought it made it happen… they killed him. As the brave traveler was dying, he was in disbelief and wondered why has this happened to him. Suddenly the tree spoke to the young traveler, “Dear traveler, once you have stepped in my shade, I have heard every wish and thought you had. And as you saw I made each of them come true. If you cannot bear the consequences, I suggest you should be more mindful of your thoughts.”

Moral: By being mindful of your thoughts you can control your unconscious actions. If you are not careful about what you think and say to people, you may pay the consequences of your thoughts.

The Blind Man and the Elephant

Somewhere in India, several citizens got into a heated argument about God and different religions, and each one could not agree on a common answer. So they went to Buddha and asked, “ what exactly does God look like?”  The Buddha asked his disciples to get a large magnificent elephant and four blind men. He then brought the four blind men over to the elephant and told them to tell me what they think the elephant would “look” like.

The first blind man touched the elephant leg and reported that it “looked” like a pillar. The second blind man touched the elephant's stomach and said that the elephant was a wall. The third blind man touched the elephant’s ear and said that it was a piece of cloth. The fourth blind man held the elephant by the tail and described the elephant as a piece of rope. Then all the blind men got into a heated argument about the “appearance” of an elephant.

The Buddha asked the citizens: “Each blind man had touched the elephant but each of them gives a different description of the animal. Which answer is right?”

MORAL:  There may be some truth to what someone says. Sometimes we can see that truth and sometimes not… because they may have different perspective which we may not agree with. So, rather than arguing like the blind men, we should respect the other person’s point of view. Osho once said, if you say your truth, it’s really just YOUR truth.  Everyone has their truth based on how they see the world. But there is universal truth.  The one truth that you can feel is right, that you just know is true. Understanding this allows us to live in harmony with the people of different thinking.

What Is In My Cup? (by Thich Nat Hanh)

You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere.

Why did you spill the coffee?

“Well because someone bumped into me, of course!”

Wrong answer.

You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.

Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea.

Whatever is inside the cup, is what will spill out.

Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It’s easy to fake it until you get rattled.

So we have to ask ourselves…” what’s in my cup?”

The Mousetrap

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head, and said "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized but said "I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose." So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house - like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many! people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

MORAL: The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember: when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another. Each of us is a vital thread in another person's tapestry.

1

What Really Matters in Life?

A vacationing American businessman standing on the pier of a quaint coastal fishing village in southern Mexico watched as a small boat with just one young Mexican fisherman pulled into the dock. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. Enjoying the warmth of the early afternoon sun, the American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish. "How long did it take you to catch them?" the American casually asked. "Oh, a few hours," the Mexican fisherman replied.

"Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" the American businessman then asked. The Mexican warmly replied, "With this, I have more than enough to meet my family's needs." The businessman then became serious, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

Responding with a smile, the Mexican fisherman answered, "I sleep late, play with my children, watch ball games, and take a siesta with my wife. Sometimes in the evenings I take a stroll into the village to see my friends, play the guitar, sing a few songs..."

The American businessman impatiently interrupted, “You can start by fishing several hours longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra money, you can buy a bigger boat. With the additional income that larger boat will bring, you can buy a second boat, then a third one, and so on, until you have an entire fleet of fishing boats and become rich like me."

"And then what, señor?" asked the fisherman.

The businessman boasted, "Then you could happily retire with all the money you've made. You could move to a quaint coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, play with your grandchildren, watch ball games, and take a siesta with your wife. You could stroll to the village in the evenings where you could play the guitar and sing with your friends all you want."

The fisherman said, “what do you think I am doing right now!”

Moral: Know what really matters in life, and you may find that it is already much closer than you think.

Nails In the Fence

A long time ago there was a boy. He was smart, talented, and handsome. However, he was very selfish and his temper was so difficult, that nobody wanted to be friends with him. Often he got angry and said various hurtful things to people around him.

The boy‘s parents were very concerned about his bad temper. They considered what they could do and one day the father had an idea. He called his son and gave him a hammer and a bag of nails. The father said: „Every time you get angry, take a nail and drive into that old fence as hard as you can.”

The fence was very tough and the hammer was heavy, nevertheless, the boy was so furious that during the very first day he has driven 37 nails.

Day after day, week after week, the number of nails was gradually decreasing. After some time, the boy started to understand that holding his temper is easier than driving nails into the fence.

One day the boy didn‘t need a hammer and nails anymore as he learned to hold his temper perfectly. So he came to his father and told him about his achievement. “Now every time, when you hold your temper all day long, pull out one nail“.

Much time has passed. At last, the boy could be proud of himself as all the nails were gone. When he came to his father and told about this, he offered to come and take a careful look at the fence. „You did a good job, my son, but pay your attention to the holes that left from the nails. The fence will never be the same. The same happens when you say hurtful things to people, as your words leave scars in their hearts like those holes in the fence. Remember, we need to treat everyone with compassion, love, and respect, because it doesn‘t matter that you say you are sorry, the scars will not disappear.

Heart of Gratitude

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said :  ' I am blind, please help.'  There were only a few coins in the hat.  A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write? "
The man said, " I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
I wrote : ' Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.'

Moral:  Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

Why We Shout In Anger

A monk and his disciples were walking down to the river to take bath. There he found a family on the banks shouting at each other in anger.

After seeing this, the monk turned towards his disciples, smiled and asked, “Tell me Why do people Shout at Each other?”

The disciples thought for a while and then one of them said, “it’s because we lose our calm.”

The monk smiled and said, “Why does a person shout at another person who is right next to him? That person can tell the other person he is angry with in soft voice.” 

The disciples gave many other answers but not any of these answers could satisfy monk.

When they finished, the monk took a moment and said, “When two people get angry at each other, their Hearts are miles apart. To cover that distance they need to shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the bigger the distance, the louder they have to shout.”

 “What happens when people love each other? They don’t shout at each other, they talk softly, because their hearts are very close. The distance is very small.”

Finally the monk said, “When they love each other even more, what happens? They don’t even speak, they just whisper and when they love even more, they just look at each other and understand. This is how two people are close to each other when they love each other.”

Moral:  When you argue don’t let your Heart get Distant. Don’t say words that create even more distance or else one day there will be so much distance that you will not be able to find the path to return to.