Foster Understanding
Foster Understanding of oneself means to promote, encourage and cultivate a deeper self awareness and self knowledge. It involves exploring and comprehending one's own thoughts, emotions, values, strengths, weaknesses and motivations.
Lion or Fox
The story goes that once there was a person looking to do meditation in forest.
He started meditation but when he used to feel hungry he used to go to nearby town to eat.
Once he saw a cripped fox who was fed by lion each day. He thought, god was giving him a message and stopped eating expecting devine help.
After seven days a yogi saw him and asked him why his state was such.
When he explained, he asked him why he was acting like crippled fox and not generous lion.
MORAL OF THE STORY
We always have a choice about what we want to do
True Nature
Once there was a sheep who saw a baby in the jungle lying down on the grass and crying. The sheep took it home and nursed it.
It started growing very fast. Once he bacame little big the sheep took him to school for learning survival skills. The teacher asked him to chew grass but it couldn't do it.
Teacher said go to a psychologist. He said its ok and i do not know why he cannot learn, the sheep said. Both became sad.
Once they were in the jungle and a lion suddenly came. Eing scared, everyone ran away. The little baby stayed so lion took him to the river and when both looked and the baby found that he looked more like him and not like a sheep. Thats when he realised that he was a lion baby and thus was born to rule the jungle.
MORAL OF THE STORY
Everyone has potential but one needs to look inside to understand ones potential.
Buddha's Wisdom
Once Gautam Buddha’s aunt came to him with her dead baby and asked him to revive the child. Buddha told her he would do so but that she needed to get him a vital ingredient for the resurrection: salt from a house which had never seen a death.
The woman ran door-to-door the whole day but didn’t find such a house. At dusk she fell at the Buddha’s feet and said she understands. She isn’t the only one to have suffered the loss of a loved one.
MORAL OF THE STORY
Stop feeling victimised. Everyone goes through pain.
The Washerman and the Donkey
A washerman visited a village every day. He went to every house in the town, collected all the dirty clothes, loaded them up on his donkey, and set off to the river. After reaching the river, he gasped in horror.
He had forgotten the rope at home. He panicked and looked in all directions for some help. Without his rope, he could not tie his donkey to a tree. If the donkey remained untied, it could walk away, and he would lose his livelihood. If he went back to the village, he would not have enough time to return and wash the clothes. He would lose his day’s work, which meant he could not earn money to feed the family.
He was sweating anxiously when a wise man walked up to him and asked him about his troubles. After listening to his story, the wise man smiled and offered the washerman a suggestion.
“Pretend to tie the donkey with a rope and go to the river. The donkey will graze and wait for you here.”
The washerman was astounded, but because he lacked other options, he tried it out. He took an imaginary rope, wound it around the donkey’s neck, and pretended to tie it to a tree.
He walked a few steps and saw that the donkey had begun grazing. He walked all the way to the river, and the donkey had not moved.
The washerman spent all day washing his clothes peacefully, dried the clothes, and loaded them back on the donkey. He pats the donkey and signals that they are ready to go, but the donkey does not move. The washerman is puzzled when the wise man appears and reminds the washerman to untie the donkey. The washerman opens the imaginary rope, and the donkey starts trotting off to the village.
MORAL OF THE STORY
We limit ourself my our own conditioning of mind.We are free but we believe that we have to find a key to our prison. That key could be more money, freedom, passion, true love, or any other desire.
Nothing is Permanent
A Zen master was given a beautifully crafted crystal cup. It was a gift from a former student.
He was very grateful. Every day, he enjoyed drinking out of his glass. He would show it to visitors and tell them about the kindness of his student.
But every morning, he held the cup in his hand for a few seconds and reminded himself: “This glass is already broken.”
One day, a clumsy visitor toppled the glass on its shelf. The cup fell down. When it hit the floor, it was smashed into thousands of tiny pieces.
The other visitors gasped in shock, but the Zen master remained calm. Looking at the mess in front of his feet, he said: “Ah. Yes. Let’s begin.”
He picked up a broom and started sweeping.
MORAL OF THE STORY
Nothing is permanent so we should maintain our equilibrium at all times.