Think Of Others

A man died and St. Peter asked him if he would like to go to heaven or hell. The man asked if he could see both before deciding. St. Peter took him to hell first and the man saw a big hall with a long table, lots of food on it and music playing. He also saw rows of people with pale, sad faces. They looked starved and there was no laughter. And he observed one more thing. Their hands were tied to four-foot forks and knives and they were trying to get the food from the center of the table to put into their mouths. But they couldn't. Then, he went to see heaven. There he saw a big hall with a long table, with lots of food on the table and music playing. He noticed rows of people on both sides of the table with their hands tied to four-foot forks and knives also. But he observed there was something different here. People were laughing and were well-fed and healthy-looking. He noticed that they were feeding one another across the table. The result was happiness, prosperity, enjoyment, and gratification because they were not thinking of themselves alone. The same is true of our lives.

Life is a boomerang

Whether it is our thoughts, actions or behavior, sooner or later they return and with great accuracy. Treat people with respect on your way up because you will be meeting them on your way down. The following story is taken from The Best of Bits & Pieces.

Many years ago two boys were working their way through Stanford University. Their funds got desperately low, and the idea came to them to engage Ignacy Paderewski for a piano recital. They would use the funds to help pay their board and tuition.
The great pianist's manager asked for a guarantee ofÄ$2,000. The guarantee was a lot of money in those days, but the boys agreed and proceeded to promote the concert. They worked hard, only to find that they had grossed only $1,600. After the concert the two boys told the great artist the bad news. They gave him the entire $1,600, along with a promissory note for $400, explaining that they would earn the amount at the earliest possible moment and send the money to him. It looked like the end of their college careers. "No, boys," replied Paderewski, "that won't do." Then, tearing the note in two, he returned the money to them as well. "Now," he told them, "take out of this $1,600 all of your expenses and keep for each of you 10 percent of the balance for your work. Let me have the rest."

The years rolled by. World War I came and went. Paderewski, now premier of Poland, was striving to feed thousands of starving people in his native land. The only person in the world who could help him was Herbert Hoover, who was in charge of the US Food and Relief Bureau. Hoover responded and soon thousands of tons of food were sent to Poland. After the starving people were fed, Paderewski journeyed to Paris to thank Hoover for the relief sent him. "That's all right, Mr. Paderewski ," was Hoover's reply. "Besides, you don't remember it, but you helped me once when I was a student at college, and I was in trouble." It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Goodness has a way of coming back; that is the nature of the beast. One doesn't have to do good with a desire to get back. It just happens automatically.

Worrying and complaining changes nothing

                Those who complain the most, accomplish the least.  It’s always better to attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.  It’s not over if you’ve lost; it’s over when you do nothing but complain about it.  If you believe in something, keep trying.  Don’t let the shadows of the past darken the doorstep of your future.  Spending today complaining about yesterday won’t make tomorrow any brighter.  Take action instead.  Let what you’ve learned improve how you live.  Make a change and never look back.

And regardless of what happens in the long run, remember that true happiness begins to arrive only when you stop complaining about your problems and you start being grateful for all the problems you don’t have.

Be Enthusiastic

Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enthusiasm and success go hand in hand, but enthusiasm comes first. Enthusiasm inspires confidence, raises morale, builds loyalty! and is priceless. Enthusiasm is contagious. You can feel enthusiasm by the way a person talks, walks or shakes hands. Enthusiasm is a habit that one can acquire and practice.

Many decades ago, Charles Schwab, who was earning a salary of a million dollars a year, was asked if he was being paid such a high salary because of his exceptional ability to produce steel. Charles Schwab replied, "I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among the men the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement." 

Live while you are alive. Don't die before you are dead.

 

Enthusiasm and desire are what change mediocrity to excellence. 

Water turns into steam with a difference of only one degree in temperature and steam can move some of the biggest engines in the world. 

 

That is what enthusiasm helps us to do in our lives.

I knew you would come

There were two childhood buddies who went through school and college and even joined the army together. War broke out and they were fighting in the same unit. One night they were ambushed. Bullets were flying all over and out of the darkness came a voice, "Harry, please come and help me." Harry immediately recognized the voice of his childhood buddy, Bill. He asked the captain if he could go. The captain said, "No, I can't let you go, I am already short-handed and I cannot afford to lose one more person. Besides, the way Bill sounds he is not going to make it." Harry kept quiet. Again the voice came, "Harry, please come and help me." Harry sat quietly because the captain had refused earlier. Again and again the voice came. Harry couldn't contain himself any longer and told the captain, "Captain, this is my childhood buddy. I have to go and help." The captain reluctantly let him go. Harry crawled through the darkness and dragged Bill back into the trench. They found that Bill was dead. Now the captain got angry and shouted at Harry, "Didn't I tell you he was not going to make it? He is dead, you could have been killed and I could have lost a hand. That was a mistake." Harry replied, "Captain, I did the right thing. When I reached Bill he was still alive and his last words were 'Harry, I knew you would come.

Good relationships are hard to find and once developed should be nurtured. We are often told: Live your dream. But you cannot live your dream at the expense of others. People who do so are unscrupulous. We need to make personal sacrifices for our family, friends, and those we care about and who depend on us.

Forgive and Forget

When a person refuses to forgive, he is locking doors that some day he might need to open. When we hold grudges and harbor resentment, who are we hurting the most? Ourselves.

Jim and Jerry were childhood friends but for whatever reasons, the relationship fell apart and they hadn't spoken for 25 years. Jerry was on his deathbed and didn't want to enter eternity with a heavy heart. So he called Jim, apologized and said, "Let's forgive each other and be done for the past." Jim thought it was a good idea and decided to visit Jerry at the hospital. They caught up on 25 years, patched up their differences and spent a couple of hours together. As Jim was leaving, Jerry shouted from behind, "Jim, just in case I don't die; remember, this forgiveness doesn't count." Life is too short to hold grudges. It is not worth it.

While it is not worth holding grudges, it doesn't make sense to be bitten time and again. It is well said, "You cheat me once, shame on you; you cheat me twice, shame on me."

John Kennedy once said, "Forgive the other person but don't forget their name." I am sure that his message was that one should not get cheated twice.

spoken words can't be retrieved

A farmer insulted his neighbor. Realizing his mistake, he went to the preacher to ask for forgiveness. The preacher told him to take a bag of feathers and drop them in the center of town. The farmer did as he was told. Then the preacher asked him to go and collect the feathers and put them back in the bag. The farmer tried but couldn't as the feathers had all blown away. When he returned with the empty bag, the preacher said, "The same thing is true about your words. You dropped them rather easily but you cannot retrieve them, so be very careful in choosing your words."

A pound of butter

There was a farmer who sold a pound of butter to the baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting a pound and he found that he was not. This angered him and he took the farmer to court. The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure. The farmer replied, amour Honor, I am primitive. I don't have a proper measure, but I do have a scale." The judge asked, "Then how do you weigh the butter?" The farmer replied "Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker."

What is the moral of the story? We get back in life what we give to others. Whenever you take an action, ask yourself this question: Am I giving fair value for the wages or money I hope to make? Honesty and dishonesty become a habit. Some people practice dishonesty and can lie with a straight face. Others lie so much that they don't even know what the truth is anymore. But who are they deceiving? Themselves

Create Your Own ‘Vessel of Change’ by Shifting Your Words

           Words are nothing but the twisting and manipulations of their proprietor and they hold the power to squeeze tears from the hardest hearts or brighten the smile on the saddest face on earth. Words can inflame hope or evoke devastation; heal wounds or deepen the scars. Likewise, if manipulated deftly, Words are innocent, neutral, naive, precise but their reverberations are comprehensive, profound and infinite that embolden and enlighten our spirit and heighten the most empowering emotions. Words can be equally aggressive, and chaotic that erect the bridge across your incomprehension and frivolity towards the things around that make you a prisoner, perforate your skin, wriggle around your limbs, pollute your blood and maneuver your thoughts. The fine conscience of minute distinctions and delicate nuances of meaning of WORDS and TERMS are the entrance to the infinite wisdom of controlling your whole system of ‘Reactions and Responses’ towards situations.

             ‘Reactions and Responses’ towards WORDS create the man of success or certainly destroy him from the very derivation. Our unbridled dedication towards actions are initiated, inspired and influenced by the ‘selection of words’. A successful man chooses the words from the abundance of heart and rich tapestry of magnificent experience in the presence of witness.

            Linguists say that our personalities are shaped by words and we should now realize that we are the creatures of our perception and belief system that are actually formed by WORDS; therefore, choose the words that make you feel emotionally charged and psychologically transformational.

Let’s pick up some Words to experience how we feel:

‘Kindness’ stimulates warming feelings and reminds the world of ‘generosity’, ‘tenderness’, ‘bliss’, ‘integrity’ where hatred evaporates and aliens transmutes into trusting friends. Associate yourself with some greatest humanitarians such as Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Oskar Schindler who transformed the world with their universal benevolence and appreciative heart. Ultimately it passes an impeccable positive sentiment to contribute in creating the world a place of an eternal bliss.

‘Hatred’, an emotionally reversed atmosphere of kindness, incorporates negative sensation that glitters irresistibly in words like ‘revenge’, ‘sadness’, ‘abhorrence’, ‘cruelty’, ‘selfishness’, ‘jealous’, ‘hostility’, ‘war’ and ‘destruction’. It conjures up different things of what you have personal disregards for ‘I hate my job most’, ‘I hate my look’ or ‘I hate being in my disposition’, it reminds you of being a victim of hatred, or hatred advocators – Hitlar, who instilled the lust for war in German people by his disempowering words, Saddam Hussein, who promoted hostility in Iraqi citizens by his powerfully persuasive words. It infuriates you and numbs your other senses except prominent resonance – ‘hatred’.

How about ‘Cheerfulness’? – the personal SUN of happiness for enduring the darkness and synonymous feelings of ‘blithe’, ‘kinetic’, ‘energetic’, ‘buoyant’, ‘vivacious’ and ‘optimistic’ that stand as the solid wall against any destructive force to pierce you through. it summons the happiest moments of your life and leads you to the sea of delight.

‘Rage’ is a destructive energy, seeping out of your mind that is visibly protruded in words like ‘clenched-teeth’, ‘anger’, ‘furious’, ‘rampage’, and ‘vehemence’ which hosts the ‘wresting of wrath and violence’ within and snatches the self-controlling power to handle the circumstances wisely and peacefully. Ultimately you suffer the penalty of your own creation ‘Rage’.

Can you feel how instantaneously the intensity of your emotions can be altered by shifting your vocabulary? Light-hearted, quiet and spiritual person carry the weightiest words to be still in the ‘peak state of happiness’.

A Smile is a Curve that Sets Everything Straight

“A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside.”- Denis Waitley

A smile can be best defined as “the universal language that speaks of compassion, the positive countenance that cures the wounding of grimace, the most exclusive curve that brightens the spiritual vivacity and lightens some heavier parts of the heart, and the source of joy in the hardest hours of grief and surmounting troubles. A smile is the most dominant antidote to stress and a powerful therapy that sends the message to body – ‘Life is wonderful and live it with utmost joy till the end’.

I really wonder what makes Kids to smile approximately 400 times a day; whereas adults average only 15 times a day. What happens to us that gradually decreases the number of smiles as we grow older? Scientists say, “it takes 26 muscles to smile while 62 muscles to frown.” Why do we still emphasize on frowning? Research shows that the person who smiles often lives an average of 7 years longer than those who seldom conjure a customary smile. Smile wards off stress, depression and sickness because of the release of endorphins (natural painkiller) and serotonin associated with the smile. Smile gives the sense of relaxation, triggers positive feelings of vitality and resilience, fosters emotional connection, boosts the immune system, lowers the blood pressure, prevents us from looking overwhelmed, or tired, and improves confidence. Ironically, we don’t seem to be convinced to relieve the stress with a smile.

Don’t forget the precious possession you own. Start off your day with the CURVE = SMILE to integrate humor, vigor and happiness into the fabric of life.

What Is True Achievement? Is it fame? Is it wealth?

Is achievement popularity? Is it fame? Is it wealth? Is it academic excellence? Is it achievement in a specific skill or branch of knowledge? Is it success? Is it recognition?Is it social approval? Is it affluence? Is it influence?

Achievement in a specific and limited sense may be any and all of these.But does achievement begin or end with any of these? What is the essence of achievement? What is the hallmark of all forms of achievement?

The hallmark and essence of every form of achievement and peak performance, to my mind, is a capacity for complete absorption in the task at hand. The athlete, the surgeon, housewife, the writer, every individual among millions of such individuals on this planet, is at their moment of achievement, absorption and peak performance, completely engrossed in the moment, in the activity at hand. This capacity of the mind for complete absorption enables achievement. Complete absorption is a characteristic of the mind that has the freedom born of total awareness, pure perception, without the division of the observer and the observed. This unitive, total awareness, this complete absorption of the mind, is the source of all achievement everywhere.

The specific nature of the activity is secondary. Whether it is washing the dishes, watering the plants, baking a cake, winning a championship or being a head of state, what characterizes peak performance, excellence, love, effortless ease and supreme contentment is the complete absorption of the mind in the task at hand. This capacity and absorption, moment to moment, every moment of our lives, in all our activities, great and small, in success and failure, in victory and defeat, in honour and dishonour, in prosperity and adversity, in happiness and sorrow, this unbroken absorption of the mind is, to me, the essence and basis of all achievement.

The achievement of wealth, by itself, is an achievement in a limited sense. How that wealth has been earned, how it will be spent and utilized, what effect it has on the individual’s development and the course of his life – all these are as important as the wealth itself. Most important, is there contentment? Is there awareness from moment to moment? Or is the accumulation of wealth, the beginning of the end? Does wealth, its blinding quality, its quality of fostering attachment and greed, will these eventually hamper the individual’s development, his evolution, his growth, his ability to be absorbed and remain absorbed in an activity that gives him pleasure and fosters his inner growth? Wealth, by itself, is neutral. Its use and the effect on the individual’s life and development is the key to its value in his life.

The same holds good for all external symbols of success – status, popularity, fame, recognition etc – do they contribute to the further development of the individual or do they arrest his growth and drag him downhill? Material wealth, rightly earned, is a
byproduct of excellence and ability in some form. Therefore, the individual’s continuing excellence and ability is fundamental.This, however, is not judged merely by his external status symbols.

Is he contented, is he happy, is he peaceful, free from conflict, from the burden of anxieties? Is he wrapped up in his own small world of petty likes and dislikes, pride, prejudice, egoism and so on? Or is he free from these? Does his environment and his external status and achievement further his inner growth or hinder it? Is he following his own thinking, his conscious choice or is he merely acting as a conditioned animal, conditioned to achieve and succeed, a joyless performing machine? These are some of the questions which come to mind.

Wealth springs from virtue. In other words, success is a byproduct of excellence in our chosen field. What is primary, however, is our inner contentment and joy. This comes from continuing challenges, excellence and achievement, from moment to moment. This comes
from awareness of ourselves and our world – people, places, events – awareness and absorption from moment to moment. This awareness and absorption may often be,invisible and meaningless to a society neck deep in superficialities and which glorifies the symbols of success. This society, through conformity, through institutions, through media, through education, through sheer weight of numbers, often subverts the process of self awareness and discovery. These forces foster denial, disownment and self alienation in an effort to achieve mindless conformity and glorify the symbols of success. Herein lies the ultimate challenge for every individual. In a quest for complete self awareness, he stands completely alone.

Finally, the important turnaround comes when a man assesses his own inner world, his mind, the happiness and sorrow there, the success and the failures there and focuses his attention and awareness on these. At this stage, his self development, in external terms, takes a back seat, as he goes to the source of his joys and sorrows, his trials and his tribulations, his own mind.

This turnaround, maybe unseen and unfelt by others, is also development, achievement. A single advance on this steep climb may be a giant achievement, achieved after many failures. Indeed, the slippery slopes of our conditioning, thinking habits, likes and dislikes, pride, prejudice and egoism, our fears, anxieties, insecurities, are much
more treacherous territory than arduous mountain climbing, for the man seeking to be completely aware. Since the challenge is enormous, so will be the achievement.

This achievement has little to do with symbols and externals. However, it will profoundly impact the course of our entire life and every single detail in it. The impact will be far reaching and revolutionary, within ourselves.

How can we become aware of the terrain of our own mind, the steep slopes and ravines, the elation and dejection, likes and dislikes, the dichotomies, the patterns, the whole process of conditioning, the fragmentation, the thought, the seeking, which thwart total
peace, contentment and joy within ourselves here and now? How can our minds know a wholeness which external symbols cannot bring?

Again, there is no method but our own awareness, constant observation, unbroken discrimination, detachment and faith in ourselves, to observe our own minds, understand the processes therein and be free. To me, this freedom born of complete self awareness and understanding is achievement. Achievement, in the final analysis, is not what we have but what we are.

Women just think that they are clever but they are not

A woman was out golfing one day when she hit her ball into the woods. She went into the woods to look for it and found a frog in a trap. The frog said to her, "If you release me from this trap, I will grant you 3 wishes."

The woman freed the frog and the frog said, "Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes---that whatever you wish for, your husband will get 10 times more or better?"

The woman said, "That would be o.k.," and for her first wish, she wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the world. The frog warned her, "You do realize that this wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, an Adonis, that women will flock to." The woman replied, "That will be o.k. because I will be the most beautiful woman and he will only have eyes for me."

So, KAZAM, she's the most beautiful woman in the world.

For her second wish, she wanted to be the richest woman in the world. The frog said, "That will make your husband the richest man in the world and he will be ten times richer than you." The woman said, "That will be o.k. because what is mine is his and what is his is mine."

So, KAZAM, she's the richest woman in the world!

The frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered, "I'd like a MILD heart attack."

MORAL OF THE STORY: Women are clever. Don't screw with them

WRONG!! Her husband got a heartattack 10 times milder than hers.

NEW MORAL OF THE STORY IS : Women just think that they are clever but they are not ;)

Never judge anyone….

A doctor entered the hospital in hurry after being called in for an urgent surgery. He answered the call asap, changed his clothes & went directly to the surgery block. He found the boy’s father pacing in the hall waiting for the doctor. On
seeing him, the dad yelled:
“Why did U take all this time to come? Don’t U know that my son’s life is in danger? Don’t U have any sense of responsibility?”

Th…e doctor smiled & said:
“I am sorry, I wasn’t in the hospital & I came as fast as I could after receiving the call…… And now, I wish you’d calm down so that I can do my work”

“Calm down?! What if your son was in this room right now, would U calm down? If your own son dies now what will U do??” said the father angrily

The doctor smiled again & replied: “I will say what Job said in the Holy Book “From dust we came & to dust we return, blessed be the name of God”. Doctors cannot prolong lives. Go & intercede for your son, we will do our best by God’s grace”

“Giving advises when we’re not concerned is so easy” Murmured the father.

The surgery took some hours after which the doctor went out happy,
“Thank goodness!, your son is saved!” And without waiting for the father’s reply he carried on his way running. “If U have any question, ask the nurse!!”

“Why is he so arrogant? He couldn’t wait some minutes so that I ask about my son’s state” Commented the father when seeing the nurse minutes after the doctor left.

The nurse answered, tears coming down her face: “His son died yesterday in a road accident, he was in the burial when we called him for your son’s surgery. And now that he saved your son’s life, he left running to finish his son’s burial.”

Moral-Never judge anyone….. because U never know how their life is & what they’re going through”