Once a Bird asked a BEE, After a continuous hard
work, you prepare the honey..........
But a man steals the honey.
Do you not feel sad?"
Then the Bee replied, Never......
Because a man can only steal my honey, not the art
of making honey....
A woman who had worked all
her life to bring about good
was granted one wish:
"Before I die let me visit both
hell and heaven." Her wish
was granted.
She was whisked off to a
great banqueting hall. The
tables were piled high with
delicious food and drink.
Around the tables sat
miserable, starving people as
wretched as could be. "Why
are they like this?" she asked
the angel who accompanied
her. "Look at their arms," the
angel replied. She looked and
saw that attached to the
people's arms were long
chopsticks secured above the
elbow. Unable to bend their
elbows, the people aimed the
chopsticks at the food,
missed every time and sat
hungry, frustrated and
miserable. "Indeed this is hell!
Take me away from here!"
She was then whisked off to
heaven. Again she found
herself in a great banqueting
hall with tables piled high.
Around the tables sat people
laughing, contented, joyful.
"No chopsticks I suppose,"
she said. "Oh yes there are.
Look - just as in hell they are
long and attached above the
elbow but look... here people
have learnt to feed one
another".
A great Japanese master
received a university
professor who came to
enquire about wisdom. The
master served tea. He poured
his visitor's cup full, and then
kept on pouring. The
professor watched the
overflow until he could no
longer restrain himself. 'It is
overfull. No more will go in!'
'Like this cup,' the master
said, 'you are full of your own
opinions and speculations.
How can I show you wisdom
unless you first empty your
cup?'
After years of searching, the
seeker was told to go to a
cave, in which he would find a
well. 'Ask the well what is
truth', he was advised, 'and
the well will reveal it to you'.
Having found the well, the
seeker asked that most
fundamental question. And
from the depths came the
answer, 'Go to the village
crossroad: there you shall
find what you are seeking'.
Full of hope and anticipation
the man ran to the crossroad
to find only three rather
uninteresting shops. One shop
was selling pieces of metal,
another sold wood, and thin
wires were for sale in the
third. Nothing and no one
there seemed to have much to
do with the revelation of truth.
Disappointed, the seeker
returned to the well to demand
an explanation, but he was
told only, 'You will understand
in the future.' When the man
protested, all he got in return
were the echoes of his own
shouts. Indignant for having
been made a fool of - or so he
thought at the time - the
seeker continued his
wanderings in search of truth.
As years went by, the
memory of his experience at
the well gradually faded until
one night, while he was
walking in the moonlight, the
sound of sitar music caught
his attention. It was wonderful
music and it was played with
great mastery and inspiration.
Profoundly moved, the truth
seeker felt drawn towards the
player. He looked at the
fingers dancing over the
strings. He became aware of
the sitar itself. And then
suddenly he exploded in a cry
of joyous recognition: the sitar
was made out of wires and
pieces of metal and wood just
like those he had once seen
in the three stores and had
thought it to be without any
particular significance.
At last he understood the
message of the well: we have
already been given everything
we need: our task is to
assemble and use it in the
appropriate way. Nothing is
meaningful so long as we
perceive only separate
fragments. But as soon as the
fragments come together into
a synthesis, a new entity
emerges, whose nature we
could not have foreseen by
considering the fragments
alone.
There is a Chinese story of an
old farmer who had an old
horse for tilling his fields. One
day the horse escaped into
the hills and, when all the
farmer's neighbours
sympathised with the old man
over his bad luck, the farmer
replied, 'Bad luck? Good luck?
Who knows?'
A week later the horse
returned with a herd of wild
horses from the hills and this
time the neighbours
congratulated the farmer on
his good luck. His reply was,
'Good luck? Bad luck? Who
knows?'
Then, when the farmer's son
was attempted to tame one of
the wild horses, he fell off its
back and broke his leg.
Everyone thought this very
bad luck. Not the farmer,
whose only reaction was, 'Bad
luck? Good luck? Who
knows?'
Some weeks later the army
marched into the village and
conscripted every able-bodied
youth they found there. When
they saw the farmer's son
with his broken leg they let
him off. Now was that good
luck? Bad luck? Who knows?
A farmer had a dog who used to sit by the roadside
waiting for vehicles to come around. As soon as
one came he would run down the road, barking and
trying to overtake it. One day a neighbor asked the
farmer "Do you think your dog is ever going to
catch a car?" The farmer replied, "That is not what
bothers me. What bothers me is what he would do if
he ever caught one." Many people in life behave
like that dog who is pursuing meaningless goals.
Life is hard by the yard,
but by the inch,
it's a cinch.
There once was a bunch of
tiny frogs...
... who arranged a running
competition. The goal was to
reach the top of a very high
tower. A big crowd had
gathered around the tower to
see the race and cheer on the
contestants...
The race began...
Honestly, no-one in crowd
really believed that the tiny
frogs would reach the top of
the tower. You heard
statements such as:
"Oh, WAY too difficult!!"
"They will NEVER make it to
the top".
"Not a chance that they will
succeed. The tower is too
high!"
The tiny frogs began
collapsing. One by one...
... Except for those who in a
fresh tempo were climbing
higher and higher...
The crowd continued to yell
"It is too difficult!!! No one will
make it!"
More tiny frogs got tired and
gave up...
...But ONE continued higher
and higher and higher...
This one wouldn't give up!
At the end, everyone else had
given up climbing the tower.
Except for the one tiny frog
who, after a big effort, was
the only one who reached the
top!
THEN all of the other tiny
frogs naturally wanted to
know how this one frog
managed to do it?
A contestant asked the tiny
frog how the one who
succeeded had found the
strength to reach the goal?
It turned out...
That the winner was deaf.
