Fault Finding

A Story......

The pupils of the Tendai school used to study meditation before Zen entered Japan. Four of them, close friends, promised one another to observe seven days of silence.

On the first day all were silent. Their meditation had begun auspiciously, but when night fell and the oil lamps were growing dim, one of the pupils could not help exclaiming to a servant "fix those lamps".

The second pupil was surprised to hear the first one talk."We are not supposed to say a word." he remarked

'You two are stupid.Why did you talk?" asked the third.

"I am the only one who has not talked," said the fourth.

The Little Girl With An Umbrella

A Story......

“Ah! There has been no rain for almost a year now!”

“How are we to feed our families?”

“It is a curse on us… we need to appease the gods!”

The gathering near the village banyan tree was a spectacle of distress. The village headman was thrown in deep concern as he contemplated a way out of the severe drought the village was facing.

After much thought, he announced, “Let the entire village start preparing for the grand service to the rain god, two days from now. I am sure the plea of a thousand hearts would not go unheard!”

The news was spread and the convinced villagers started preparing for the grand service. On the auspicious day, the entire village assembled at the place where the worship was to take place.

But only a little girl came with an umbrella!

What is the level of faith you have in many things you do... Is your doubt, a cause for your own failures?

The Holy Cat

A story:

Once there was an Ashram near Varanasi, where a guru lived with his disciples. Also living in this ashram was a cat. The cat was well fed and well loved by everyone in the Ashram. 

Each time the guru sat for chanting and worship with his disciples, the ashram cat would nuzzle and mew, and this distracted the disciples. So the guru said that during chanting and meditation time the cat should be tied to a post in another room. 

That done, daily order was restored. 

After a few years......the guru died, the disciples continues the ritual of tying the cat during meditation time. 

A couple years later, the sweet cat also died. The disciples after serious deliberation went and bought another cat and tied it to the same post in the ashram to make sure the guru's orders were observed faithfully.

Centuries passed and learned treatises were written by the guru's scholarly disciples on the ritualistic significance of tying up a cat while meditating.

'What holds you from seeking to know why you do what you do....to understand the purpose of the many things you do in life'

The Black Book

Another Story:

One day a grieving man came to Hodja - the judge

"Your cow has killed mine!" he cried

                                     

Hodja shouted, "You silly man, how can the cow know that it is a crime to kill another cow. Case dismissed!"

"Pardon me," said the man, "I got it wrong, my cow has killed yours".

"Oh!!" said the judge, "Let's open the black book and see what it says"

How different are the standards you have set for yourself from the ones set for others... Have you studied your black book?

Mahaan

Here's another story:

Along the bottom of the river Ganges lived a village of creatures whose way of life was to cling tightly to the rocks on the river bed, and to resist the current of the river. One of them 'Siddharth the adventurous' got tired of clinging. The monotony wearied him. He decided to place his trust in the current and allow it to take him where it would.

His parents and friends cautioned him about the current. "It will smash you against the rocks and kill you". But Siddharth did not heed them...and let go. Immediately he stumbled and then was tossed against the hard rocks...which only strengthened Siddhart's resolve not to cling again.

In time, the current lifted him free from the bottom and he got bruised and hurt no more. The clinging creatures saw him and marvelled at him, hailing him as 'Mahaan -the great'.

Siddharth, swaying in the current said, "I am no greater than any of you. Dare to let go and the river will lift you free and you will discover your true worth". The creatures still clinging, cried "Mahaan!". Siddharth flowed past, leaving the creatures to cling and make legends of a Mahaan.

The story reminded me  'Jonathan Livingston Seagull'  an old time favorite.

The Lost Key

I love stories, and the other day I chanced upon a book with some wonderful single page stories. Here's one:

A neighbour found Nasruddin on his hands and knees near a lamppost, searching for something. The neighbour asked, "what are you searching for?"

"My key"

Now, both men got on their knees to search. After a while the neighbour asked, "where did you lose it?"

"At home"

"Good Lord, then why are you searching here?"

"hmmm.....because it is bright here".

So...Do you end up searching for solutions where it is convenient, rather than where you actually need to look for them........how serious are you about solving your problems?

The Sculptor

This is a little story I came across the other day:

A gentleman saw a sculptor busy sculpting an idol of a deity, near a temple under construction.  And he notices a similar idol nearby. Close by he sees one pedestal on which the deity would sit. He curiously asked.."Why are you making two idols, I see only one pedestal" 

The sculptor said "I need only one, but the first one got damaged when I was just completing it" 

The gentleman went around the finished idol and found no apparent damage. "Where is the damage?" he asked. "There is a scratch on the nose of the idol," said the sculptor, still busy with his work.

"Are you going to install the idol on that twenty foot high pedestal?" inquired the tourist. "Yes" said the sculptor. "What, at such a height, who would ever know there is a scratch" exclaimed the gentleman.

The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the tourist, smiled and said "I will"

A moral that's nice to hear ......'excellence' is a drive from the inside, not the outside.