Trust

"A man just got married and was returning home with his wife. They were crossing a lake in a boat when suddenly a great storm arose. The man was a warrior, but the woman became very much afraid because it seemed almost hopeless -- THE BOAT WAS SMALL AND THE STORM WAS REALLY HUGE, AND ANY MOMENT THEY WERE GOING TO BE DROWNED. But the man sat silently, calm and quiet, as if nothing was happening.

The woman was trembling and she said, "Are you not afraid? This may be our last moment of life! IT DOESN'T SEEM THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO REACH THE OTHER SHORE. Only some miracle can save us, otherwise death is certain. Are you not afraid? Are you mad or something? Are you a stone or something?"


THE MAN LAUGHED AND TOOK THE SWORD OUT OF ITS SHEATH. The woman was even more puzzled -- what he is doing? Then he brought the naked sword close to the woman's neck -- so close that just a small gap was there, it was almost touching her neck.


He said, "ARE YOU AFRAID?"


She started to giggle and laugh and said, "WHY SHOULD I BE AFRAID? If the sword is in your hands, why should I be afraid? I know you love me."


He put the sword back and said, "This is my answer. I know God loves me, and the sword is in His hands, and the storm is in His hands -- so WHATSOEVER IS GOING TO HAPPEN IS GOING TO BE GOOD. If we survive, good; if we don't survive, good -- because EVERYTHING IS IN HIS HANDS, AND HE CANNOT DO ANYTHING WRONG."


This is the trust one needs to imbibe. SUCH TREMENDOUS TRUST IS CAPABLE OF TRANSFORMING YOUR WHOLE LIFE! And ONLY such tremendous trust is capable of transforming your life -- less than that won't do."

Your Love Is Your Destiny

Bauls say,

HONEY IS HIDDEN WITHIN THE LOTUS BLOOM - BUT THE BEE KNOWS IT.

DUNG-BEETLES NESTLE IN DUNG, DISCOUNTING HONEY.

Become a bee; become a lover. Because the bee LOVES honey, it finds the way.

Why cannot the dung-beetle find the way? It finds a certain way; it finds the way to the dung.Because love is the way.

"Whatsoever you love you become, and whatsoever is your love you will find."

So be alert about your love: don't love a car, don't love a house, don't love a bank
balance - because you will become like that. You will become a dung-beetle. Don't love
dung.

If you are to love, then love something of the divine, something...something that
transcends things, something that transcends forms, something for which you will have to
raise your eyes to the sky. Love a GOURISHANKAR; love the Himalayan peaks. If you
love something like dung, you will move into dung because we always find the way.
Wherever our love moves, we move behind it. The bee loves the lotus; it finds it. The
very love is the path. Howsoever the lotus is hiding, the bee will find it.

There is a story about Solomon:

A woman came; the woman was the queen of Ethiopia. She wanted to love Solomon, she

wanted to become his beloved. She was very beautiful, but she wanted to love the wisest

man in the world. So she tried a few tests on Solomon, about whether he was really as

wise as he was said to be. She did many experiments; one of the experiments was this:

she brought one false flower made of paper, but made so beautifully that it was almost

impossible to detect that it was false.

She went into the court of Solomon, she stood far away from Solomon, and she said,

"I have a flower in my hand. Can you say from that far away whether it is real or unreal?"

Solomon said, "Light is not enough, and I'm an old man, and I cannot see rightly. Please

open the windows." The windows were opened. He waited for two minutes and said,

"No, it is false."

Then the woman brought another flower from her bag and she said, "What about this?" It

was exactly like the first, but it was real. Solomon pretended to look at it and then he said,

"Yes, this is a real flower."

The woman was astounded. The whole court was astounded: "What has happened?" They

asked him, "How could you find it?"

He said, "Easy - I opened the windows for the bees to come in. They decided.

For the first flower, no bee came in; for the second they immediately rushed in.

"When you love something, you have a supra-sense about where it is. Your love monitors
you, it leads you, it becomes your guide."

A bee can smell from miles far away where the flowers are. Much experiment and
research has been done with bees about how they find their way. Miles away the flowers
have bloomed, and bees will come rushing. Almost a supra-sense exists in them; that
supra-sense is-nothing but love.

You will find your way to the object you love, so be very cautious about your object of
love because that is going to decide your destiny. Your love is your destiny. Love
something superb; love something of the supra-existence; love something of the divine,
and you will find your way.

Bauls say,

"When there is no fear, just the love is enough; it will monitor you and it will
guide you."

HONEY IS HIDDEN WITHIN THE LOTUS BLOOM - BUT THE BEE KNOWS IT.

DUNG-BEETLES NESTLE IN DUNG, DISCOUNTING HONEY.

Source: The Beloved

Life is like Fire

The senses are like Fire. Your life is like Fire. Whatever you put into the fire of the senses burns. If you burn a tire, it creates pollution and a foul smell. But if you burn sandalwood, it creates fragrance. Some fires pollute and others purify.

Celebration happens around the bonfire. Grief happens around the cremation fire. The same fire that supports life in winter also destroys.

You are like Fire. Are you the fire that produces smoke and pollution, or the flame of camphor that creates light and fragrance? A saint is a camphor flame that creates light and the fragrance of love. He is the friend of life.

The highest quality fire creates light and warmth. A medium quality fire creates light but also a little smoke. The lowest quality fire produces only smoke and darkness. Learn to distinguish the different fires. If your senses are engaged in goodness, you will create light and fragrance. If engaged in impurity, you produce smoke and darkness. It is samyama (control, control of the mind) that transforms the quality of fire in you.

source: Celebrating Silence - Sri Sri Ravishankar

If GOD exist , why there so much of pain?

I went to a barbershop to have his hair cut .


As the barber began to work, I began to have a good conversation. We talked about so many things and various subjects. When we eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said:
“I don’t believe that God exists.”


“Why do you say that?” I asked .


Barber :
“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God  exists, would there be so many sick people? 
would there be abandoned children?
If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain.
I can’t imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things.”


I thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because I didn’t want to start an argument.


The barber finished his job and I left the shop.


Just after I left the barbershop, I saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.


I turned back and entered the barber shop again and said to the barber: “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”


“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber.
“I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!”


“No!” I exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”


“Ah, but barbers DO exist! That’s what happens when people do not come to me.”


“Exactly!” I affirmed . “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! That’s what happens when people do not go to Him and don’t look to Him for help. That’s! why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”


:)

A Mouse Story

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

“What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning.

“There is a mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said,

“Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you

but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him,

“There is a mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The pig sympathized, but said,

“I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it

but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”

The mouse turned to the cow and said,

“There is a mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you,

but it’s no skin off my nose.”

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap– alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house – like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. 

In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer’s wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.

But his wife’s sickness continued,

so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died.

So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t concern you,

remember — when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life.

We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

:)

Love & Responsibility

Responsibility -- go to the root meaning of the word: it means to be responsive. Love is a response! When the other calls, you are ready. When the other invites, you enter the other. When the other is not inviting, you don't interfere, you don't trespass. When the other sings, you sing in response. When the other gives you her or his hand, you take it with deep response.

Responsibility means openness, readiness, to respond. Somebody is calling and you don't respond, you remain closed. Somebody wants to love you but you don't help, you don't co-operate; rather, you create barriers. If this is the thing you are doing -- and the majority of lovers go on doing this -- when the other calls you don't respond, then when you call the other does not respond. Because when the other calls you see that this would be a good ego enhancing thing -- not to respond. Then you feel your own master: nobody can push you, and nobody can pull you into something which you were not going into already; you don't follow anybody.

When the other's being calls ready! -- be ready; respond with your totality. Don't be a miser -- that is the meaning of responsibility.

But in your sense love has no responsibility. The word has been corrupted, destroyed, poisoned.
A mother says to the child, I am your mother, you have to be responsible for me. A husband says, I am your husband, and I work hard for you. You have to be responsible for me. A father says to the son, Don't be irresponsible! Whenever you do something always think of me. This is not responsibility, you have corrupted a beautiful word. It has become ugly. Responsibility has become almost synonymous with duty. And duty is an ugly word.

Love is beautiful; if you love your mother -- you love, but it cannot be a duty. If it is duty it is better not to love, because duty is not going to satisfy her. And if you are doing your duty because she is your mother and she has given birth to you, what can you do? -- you have to take care. When she is ill you have to sit by her side -- then all the time, if it is a duty, your mind is against her, you are feeling suffocated, you are feeling burdened, in a bondage, you would like to rebel and revolt. And if this mother dies, you may not say so to anybody, but you will feel relief.

What type of responsibility is this -- when the mother dies and the son feels a deep relief? Of course he cries and weeps -- of course; and it is not that he is showing others that he is crying and weeping -- in fact, if you had loved your mother there may have been no tears, but you have not loved your mother, now the opportunity is lost. You never loved your mother and now she is gone! Hence the tears, the so much weeping and crying -- it is pathological, it is not healthy. If you had really loved your mother then what is there to weep and cry about? She is gone!

A deep silence surrounds you. In that deep silence you start understanding death, you become aware of your own death. When your mother dies -- or your father dies -- it is an indication that you will have to die. Then you become involved with death. You try to understand it.
While she was alive she helped you to understand life. Now she is gone, she has opened another door -- the door of death, to look into: because she has gone and you will have to follow.

If you have loved a person, when the person is gone you don't feel relief -- and you don't cry, and you don't weep. In deep silence you accept the fact, the helplessness of it -- and the love continues, because love does not end with the body, love does not end with the mind, love goes on flowing.


When there is no love, the question of responsibility comes in. When there is no love, you start talking about duty. When there is love, love itself is responsibility.


Source~ Tao: The Three Treasures

The Real Love!

When you are aware, you are not in need of love. When you are not in need of love, you become capable of love. This is the paradox. When you are in need you are not capable. And in this sleepy state, full of needs and desires, you go on stumbling.

It is on the same lines as banks function. If you go to a bank and you need money, they will not give you any. If you don't need money, you have enough, they will come to you and they will always be ready to give you. When you don't need, they are ready to give you; when you need, they are not ready to give you.

Let me tell you one anecdote:


Two very proper English gentlemen were drunk in the pubs looking for women. They finally got lucky and were about to bed with their respective finds. As they were lurching their way through the crowded London streets, one turned to the other and said, "Look here, old man, do you mind switching bitches?"
"No, I don't mind old thing, but can you tell a fellow why?" "Well," slobbered the first, "don't you know, between the grog and the fog and the smog, I seem to have picked up my old auntie!"

In the darkness of desire, in the madness of passion, between the grog and the fog and the smog, don't be too worried whether the other's love is real or not. Right now, as you are, the real cannot happen to you. The real happens only to real persons. Gurdjieff used to say: "Don't seek reality -- become real!"

"The Real happens to Real Persons only. To Unreal Persons only the Unreal happens."




Source: A Sudden Clash of Thunder: Osho