STORY TIME:)
A turn of the screw
There was an industrialist whose production line inexplicably breaks
down, costing him millions per day. He finally tracks down an expert who
takes out a screwdriver, turns one screw, and then - as the factory
cranks back to life - presents a bill for £10,000.
Affronted, the factory owner demands an itemised version. The expert is
happy to oblige: "For turning a screw: £1. For knowing which screw to
turn: £9,999."
Author: Oliver Burkeman in "The Guardian Weekend", 13 August 2011
Once day, having learned that the King of Fez was hunting lions in the
neighbourhood, they decided to invite him and his court, and killed a
number of sheep in his honour. The sovereign had dinner and went to bed.
Wishing to show their generosity, they placed a huge goatskin bottle
before his door and agreed to fill it up with milk for the royal
breakfast.
The villagers all had to milk their goats and then each of them had to
tip his bucket into the container. Given its great size, each of them
said to himself that he might just as well dilute his milk with a good
quantity of water without anyone noticing.
To the extent that, in the morning, such a thin liquid was poured out
for the king and his court that it had no taste than the taste of
meanness and greed.
Source: "Leo The African" by Amin Maalouf
This is the story of two frogs. One frog was fat and the other skinny.
One day, while searching for food, they inadvertently jumped into a vat
of milk. They couldn't get out, as the sides were too slippery, so they
were just swimming around.
The fat frog said to the skinny frog, "Brother frog, there's no use
paddling any longer. We're just going to drown, so we might as well give
up." The skinny frog replied, "Hold on brother, keep paddling. Somebody
will get us out." And they continued paddling for hours.
After a while, the fat frog said, "Brother frog, there's no use. I'm
becoming very tired now. I'm just going to stop paddling and drown. It's
Sunday and nobody's working. We're doomed. There's no possible way out
of here." But the skinny frog said, "Keep trying. Keep paddling.
Something will happen, keep paddling." Another couple of hours passed.
The fat frog said, "I can't go on any longer. There's no sense in doing
it because we're going to drown anyway. What's the use?" And the fat
frog stopped. He gave up. And he drowned in the milk. But the skinny
frog kept on paddling.
Ten minutes later, the skinny frog felt something solid beneath his
feet. He had churned the milk into butter and he hopped out of the vat.
Peace of mind
Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his
followers. This was in the initial days. While they were travelling,
they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of
his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake
there.”
The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that
some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment,
a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the
water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, “How can I
give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!” So he came back and told
Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to
drink.”
After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go
back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple
obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had
absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water
above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and
brought it to Buddha.
Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and
said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be ... and
the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water... Your mind
is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a
little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in
any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”
What did Buddha emphasize here? He said, “It is effortless.” Having
'peace of mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process.
When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to the outside. It
spreads around you and in the environment, such that people around start
feeling that peace and grace.
The starfish
Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a
beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and
forth between the surf's edge and and the beach. Back and forth this
person went. As the man approached, he could see that there were
hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural
action of the tide.
The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were
far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he
approached, the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by
one and throwing them into the surf.
As he came up to the person, he said: "You must be crazy. There are
thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly
make a difference." The person looked at the man. He then stooped down
and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He
turned back to the man and said: "It sure made a difference to that
one!"
great choice mam go on... its nice to read it...
ReplyDeletenice stories ma'am... :)
ReplyDeleteThanks.I appreciate if you write your good name after every comment.
Delete