The Empty Boat!

A monk decides to meditate alone, away from his monastery. He takes his boat out to the middle of the lake, moors it there, closes his eyes and begins his meditation.  After a few hours of undisturbed silence, he suddenly feels the bump of another boat colliding with his own.

With his eyes still closed, he senses his anger rising, and by the time he opens his eyes,  he is ready to scream at the boatman who dared disturb his meditation. But when he opens his eyes, he sees it is an empty boat that had probably got untethered and floated to the middle of the lake.

At that moment, the monk achieves self-realization, and understands that the anger is within him; it merely needs the bump of an external object to provoke it out of him.

From then on, whenever he came across someone who irritated him or provoked him to anger, he reminded himself :

''The other person is merely an empty boat. The anger is within me..."

In reality, we all have the anger within us, all the time. All it needs is someone, like the empty boat, to provoke it.

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Farmer's daughter!

A young man wished to marry the farmer's beautiful daughter. He went to the farmer to ask his permission.

The farmer looked him over and said,

"Son, go stand out in that field. I'm going to release three bulls, one at a time. If you can catch the tail of any one of the three bulls, you can marry my daughter."

The young man stood in the pasture awaiting the first bull.

The barn door opened and out ran the biggest, meanest-looking bull he had ever seen. He decided that one of the next bulls had to be a better choice than this one, so he ran over to the side and let the bull pass through the pasture out the back gate.

The barn door opened again. Unbelievable. He had never seen anything so big and fierce in his life. It stood pawing the ground, grunting, slinging slobber as it eyed him. Whatever the next bull was like, it had to be a better choice than this one. He ran to the fence and let the bull pass through the pasture, out the back gate.

The door opened a third time. A smile came across his face. This was the weakest, scrawniest little bull he had ever seen. This one was his bull. As the bull came running by, he positioned himself just right and jumped at just the exact moment.

He grabbed… but the bull had no tail!

Moral:-Life is full of opportunities. Some will be easy to take advantage of, some will be difficult. But once we let them pass (often in hopes of something better), those opportunities may never again be available. So always grab the first opportunity.

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Abundant blessings!

A king who did not believe in the goodness of God, had a slave who, in all circumstances, said: My king, do not be discouraged, because everything God does is perfect, no mistakes!

One day they went hunting and along the way a wild animal attacked the king. His slave managed to kill the animal, but could not prevent his majesty losing a finger.

Furious and without showing his gratitude for being saved, the nobleman said “Is God good? If He was good, I would not have been attacked and lost my finger.”

The slave replied: “My king, despite all these things, I can only tell you that God is good, and he knows “why” of all these things. What God does is perfect. He is never wrong!”

Outraged by the response, the king ordered the arrest of his slave.

Later, he left for another hunt and was captured by savages who made human sacrifices.

In the altar, ready to sacrifice the nobleman, the savages found that the victim had not one of his fingers, so he was released. According to them, it was not so complete to be offered to the gods.

Upon his return to the palace, he authorized the release of his slave that he received very affectionately.

“My dear, God was really good to me! I was almost killed by the wild men, but for lack of a single finger, I was let go! But I have a question: if God is so good, why did he allow me to put you in jail?”

“My King, if I had gone with you in this hunt, I would have been sacrificed for you, because I have no missing finger, therefore, remember everything God does is perfect. He is never wrong.”

Often we complain about life, and negative things that happen to us, forgetting that nothing is random and that everything has a purpose.

Every morning, offer your day to God, don’t be in a rush. Ask God to inspire your thoughts, guide your actions, and ease your feelings. And do not be afraid. God is never wrong!

You know why this message is for you? I do not know, but God knows, because he never make mistakes…

We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him, whom he has called according to his plan. (Rom 8: 28).

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Mother is flying a kite

Her son is watching her carefully. After some time son says, "Mom, because of the string the kite is not able to go any further higher."

Hearing this, the mother smiles and breaks the string. The kite goes higher and then shortly after that, it comes and falls on the ground. The child is very dejected and sad.

The mother sits next to him and calmly explains: "Son, in life we reach a certain level and then we feel that there are certain things that are not letting us grow any further like Home, Family, Friends, Culture etc."

We feel we want to be  free from those strings which we believe are stopping us from going higher.

But, remember son."That our home , family, friends and culture are the things that will help us stay stable at the high heights."

If we try to break away from those strings, our condition will be similar to the kite. "We'll fall down soon."

Moral:: "Never  go  away  from  Home  Culture,  Family, Friends  and Relationships as they help keep us stable while we are flying high..." Life is Beautiful, live it to the full.

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Each Gives What He Has !

Back in the days when Germany was divided, a huge wall separated East & West Berlin. One day, some people in East Berlin took a truck load of garbage and dumped it on the West Berlin side.

The people of West Berlin could have done the same thing, but they didn't Instead they took a truck load of canned goods, bread, milk and other provisions, and neatly stacked it on the East Berlin side. On top of this stack they placed the sign:

*“EACH GIVES WHAT HE HAS"*

How very true! You can only give what you have.

My dear friend, what do you have inside of you? Is it hate or love? Violence or peace? Death or life?

What have you acquired over the years? Is it capacity to build or capacity to destroy? Is it ability to make money or steal money? Is it ingenuity to develop good things that will benefit mankind or ability to bomb those good things that others have laboured to build? Think about it.

*"EACH GIVES WHAT HE HAS"*

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