The Eagle & Chicken

Once upon a time there was a large mountain side where there an eagle's nest rested. The eagle nest contains four large eagle eggs.

  One day an earthquake rocked the mountain causing one of the eggs to roll down the mountain, to a chicken farm, located in the valley below. The chickens knew that they must protect and care for the eagle's egg, so an old hen volunteered to nurture and raise the large egg.

One day the egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born. Sadly, however the eagle was raised to be a chicken. Soon the eagle believed he was nothing more than a chicken. The eagle did what the other chicken did. It scratched in the dirt for seeds. It clucked and crackled. It never flew more than a few feet because that is what the other chickens did.

The eagle loved his home and family but his spirit cried out for more. While playing a game on the farm one day he looked to the skies above and noticed an eagle soaring gracefully and majestically in the skies. He asked the chickens: "what is that beautiful bird?' the chickens replied, "That is an eagle.

He is an outstanding bird, but you cannot fly like him because you are just a chicken." So the eagle never gave it a second thought, believing that to be truth. He lived the life of and died as a chicken depriving himself of his heritage because of lack of vision.

What a waste! He was born to win but conditioned to lose.

The same thing is true for most people. The unfortunate part of life is as Oliver Wendall Holmes said, " We don't achieve excellence because our own lack of vision."

Don't let negative people drag you down. Remember that a person's character is not only judged by the company they keep but also by the company they avoid.

Practice Dying

Plato was asked at the very end of his life to sum up his whole life's work, his philosophy, he said simply, "Practice Dying".

I've always loved to hear it when masses of understanding and wisdom are summarized in a few words.

'The Course in Miracles' is done so in this way; - "Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists."

Osho was once asked to sum up Zen, he just said, "let go". He was asked what was the essence of Tantra, the ancient eastern mystical art/science, he said, "Accept and surrender to what is."

Time and again he has described all real religion as learning how to die. As I see it all of these statements are basically saying the same thing. The essence is to discover/understand/experience "what is", what is "real" i.e.

Life/Love/God/Nature/Dharma/Tao etc, …then accept yourself as a part of it and surrender into it. To say, "Thy will be done".

Gradually all that's unreal dissolves or dies away (anything that can be lost was never truly yours) and you start to flow along with a deeper force and become your own destiny; to fulfill your potential, your purpose to experience your intrinsic nature. It's like a seed dying to become a tree. A caterpillar has to die in a sense to become a butterfly.

As Rumi said, "When have I ever become less by dying???"

Basically you are learning to trust, to have faith. You are moving from a closed fist to an open hand. This process can heal many people, who were on the verge of death.

Maybe Plato was saying why wait until then, let go now and be transformed? This is something we can practice from moment to moment. Dying to the past, dying to the known, dying to the false. Surrendering into the unknown. Trusting what "is". Trusting God.

That's why they say, "Let go and Let God". I think that there is another way in which we can practice dying, a different side to the coin.

Stephen Levine once asked, "If you had a year to live what would you do, who would you call, what would you say and why are you waiting?????????" This could be a year, a month, a week, a day, an hour. Nothing is certain except the fact that each and every one of us will die. Knowing this (without fearing it) can inspire us, take us deeper into the present moment. Help us to live more fully and passionately. Encourage us to give everything of ourselves. To love, laugh, share and become closer to one another. To really live.

"Throughout the whole of life, one must continue to learn how to live, and what will amaze you even more, throughout life one must learn how to die."
Seneca

"When Rabbi Birnham lay dying, his wife burst into tears. He said, 'What are you crying for? My whole life was only that I might learn how to die."
Osho

"While I thought I was learning how to live, I was really learning how to die."
Leonardo Da Vinci

New Horizons

Way back in 1st standard, a wise teacher of mine once told me, "The world out there is a tough place for those who dare to dream, and even tougher for those who fight for their dreams. But if you have Faith in yourself and in your dreams, then, the same world will cheer for you and will shower your path to success with flowers."

Today, I thank her from bottom of my heart for imparting this great piece of wisdom. For it was my faith then, which inspired me to dream, and my faith now, which helped me take a great step towards realizing it.

It was because of this faith that I took chances, risked all I had, took tough decisions and made weird choices (fortunately the right ones). But in the end, it was totally, TOTALY worthwhile because it earned me a seat in one of the state's best dental colleges.

Gosh, Dad was so right in saying, "It's not time and situations that decide your future but the choices you make and the decisions you take certainly do."

The fruit of success tastes great... and the view from the pinnacle of success I just conquered is simply amazing.

With the clouds of uncertainty clearing up and getting to see the sun shine bright and clear, I couldn't have asked for more. After this tough beginning to yet another journey of life, I'm really looking forward to new experiences, new horizons and new achievements.

Great Dreams

The question was once asked of a highly successful businessman: "How have you done so much in your lifetime?"

He replied, "I have dreamed. I have turned my mind loose to imagine what I wanted to do. Then I have gone to bed and thought about my dreams. In the night I dreamt about my dreams. And when I awoke in the morning, I saw the way to make my dreams real.

While other people were saying, 'You can't do that, it isn't possible,' I was well on my way to achieving what I wanted."

As Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the U.S., said: "We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers." They see things in the soft haze of a spring day, or in the red fire on a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great

dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nourish them through bad days until they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true."

So please, don't let anyone steal your dreams, or try to tell you they are too impossible.

"Sing your song, dream your dreams, hope your hope and pray your prayer."

Small Words

My friend, Bob Danzig, has an amazing story. Simple words of appreciation and encouragement changed his life. Bob was in five foster homes during his youth, and said he spent his childhood trying to find someone to love and appreciate him.

When he was nine years old, he had a new social worker. He said after she had done all the paperwork to move him to yet another foster home, she sat him down, looked him directly in the eyes, and said, "Bobby, I want you to always remember these words: YOU ARE WORTHWHILE!"

Bob says that no one had ever said anything like that to him, and each time they met, she repeated those words. They became an affirmation of appreciation that he heard over and over again in his head.

Bob graduated at sixteen, not because he was smart, he says, but because he got mixed up in the system! He soon took a job at the Albany New York Times as a copy boy, and his very first boss was a woman named Margaret.

After he had worked there about six months, Margaret called him into her office one day and asked him to sit down. He thought  for sure he was going to be fired! She looked him right in the eyes and said to him, "I have been the office manager for 15 years – I have been observing you – and I believe YOU ARE FULL OF PROMISE."

Those words, on that day, gave him permission to aspire.

Those two positive messages of appreciation played over and over again in his head and ultimately gave him the courage to be the very best he could be. Sixteen years later he became the Publisher of the Albany New York Times, and seven years after that, he became CEO of Hearst Newspapers, one of the largest newspaper companies in the world-and he credits it all to those simple words of appreciation and love.

What a wonderful example of how little gifts of appreciation can make such a difference in a life!

Zig Ziglar had this to say: "You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life

Patience is wonderful

In today's context, where life is fast paced, where does patience fit in?

A driver wants to reach his destination as soon as possible.

A businessman wants to make his fortune quickly.

A tourist wants to visit as many places possible in the shortest time.

A funny way of looking at it is - even our washing machines are overworked just because we want to get more done in less time.

Many a time patience is one of the less exercised capacities of humans.

A boy spends his nights thinking about his examination results, when he can actually leave it to time and go about what he can do.

A businessman tries to figure out how his career will chart without any benefit.

A girl is hasty in settling for her life partner.

Such a thing called "impatience" steals our joy out of our life. How often do we remind ourselves of the fact that uncertainty is what adds up the taste to our life?

Suppose each one of us knew, to the minute detail, what is going to happen for the next 10 days. How will it be? We can be sure that we will lose our peace while thinking about the falls, bumps and hiccups that we are sure to meet within those 10 days.

Life would become a program, an automation, robotic...

Stories are wonderful to almost all of us; each one though liking different genre of them. But think if we all knew the end of the story from the beginning? Would we either keep the book aside, because we do not like the ending, or read it every now and then remind ourselves of the ending so that the charm of the characters in the story is lost?

Someone said, "Ignorance is bliss". Now, I am not undermining the importance of planning or predicting in order to be prepared but I am just reiterating that serene patience, when employed in tandem, would help us achieve much more.

Patience is not just sitting around thinking something will happen; it is the grit and will to accept the flops and STILL WORK WITH ZEST, AS IF YOU ARE JUST STARTING YOUR VENTURE.

The blatant truth is that we actually kill the present time with our impatience.

Someone said, "Life need not be wonderful to be ENJOYABLE". It would not be wise for us to damage our own present for an unknowing future. With all uncertainty, we can still enjoy our EVERYDAY life.

And hence the best thing to do is to say to ourselves, "Hey you there inside, remember, you are the most happy when you don't know what is going to unfold the next moment."

3 Listeners

It was a king's court, the ministers, pundits and artists were all seated in their respective places. The king and his ministers had earned quite a name and fame for their wit and wisdom. One day a sage entered the court. He was given a warm welcome with all honor due to him. The king asked him: "Oh revered one! May I know what brings you here? We are very happy on account of your presence here today." The sage replied: "Oh King, your court is reputed for its wit and wisdom. I have brought three beautiful dolls and I would like to have an assessment and evaluation of these dolls done by your ministers.

"He presented to the king the three dolls. The king called his senior most minister and gave him the dolls for examination and evaluation. The minister just looked once at the dolls and commanded a royal messenger to fetch him a thin steel-wire.

The minister inserted the wire into the right ear of one of the dolls. The wire came out of the left ear. He kept it aside. He took up another doll and once again passed the wire into its right ear. It came out of the mouth of the doll. He kept that doll in one place. He took up the third doll and inserted the wire, it neither came out of the other ear nor from the mouth.

The king and the courtiers were eagerly watching the scene. The minister paying his tributes to the sage said: "Oh revered one." Of the three dolls, the third one is the best. The three dolls actually are symbolic of three types of listening. There are three types of listeners, in the world.

The first type listen to every word, only to pass it out from the other ear.

The second type listen well, remember it well only to speak out all that they have heard.

The third type listen, retain everything they have heard and treasure it up in their hearts. They are the best type of listeners."

The sage congratulated the king and the minister on the successful evaluation of the dolls and blessing them both, left the court.

Important part of body

My mother used to ask me what the most important part of the body is.

Through the years I would take a guess at what I thought was the correct answer.

When I was younger, I thought sound was very important to us as humans, so I said,

"My ears, Mommy." She said, 'No. Many people are deaf. But you keep thinking about it and I will ask you again soon.'

Several years passed before she asked me again. Since making my first attempt, I had contemplated the correct answer. So this time I told her,

'Mommy, sight is very important to everybody, so it must be our eyes.'

She looked at me and told me, 'You are learning fast, but the answer is not correct because there are many people who are blind.'

Stumped again, I continued my quest for knowledge and over the years, Mother asked me a couple more times and always her answer was 'No, but you are getting smarter every year, my child.'

Then last year, my Grandpa died. Everybody was hurt. Everybody was crying. Even my father cried. My Mom looked at me when it was our turn to say our final good-bye to Grandpa. She asked me, 'Do you know the most important body part yet, my dear?'

I was shocked when she asked me this now. I always thought this was a game between her and me. She saw the confusion on my face and told me.

'This question is very important. It shows that you have really lived your life.

For every body part you gave me in the past, I have told you were wrong and I have given you an example why. But today is the day you need to learn this important lesson.

She looked down at me as only a mother can. I saw her eyes well up with tears. She said, 'My dear, the most important body part is your shoulder'

I asked, 'Is it because it holds up your head?' She replied, 'No, it is because it can hold the head of a friend or loved one when they cry.

Everybody, need a shoulder to cry on sometime in life, my dear. I only hope that you have enough love and friends that you will have a shoulder to cry on when you need it.'

Then and there I knew the most important body part is not a selfish one. It is sympathetic to the pain of others.

Learning to get up

Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order.

A baby giraffe falls 10 feet from its mother's womb and usually lands on its back. Within seconds it rolls over and tucks its legs under its body. From this position it considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges of the birthing fluid from its eyes and ears.

Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its offspring to the reality of life.

In his book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a newborn giraffe learns its first lesson.

The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself directly over her calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels. When it doesn't get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again.

The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts. Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs. Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why?

She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they'd get it too, if the mother didn't teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it.

The late Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin. Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these exceptional people. He said, "I write about people who sometime in their life have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished and they go to work.

"They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified, and for years they get nowhere. But every time they're knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they've accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do."

Problem Solving

There was a father who left 17 camels as an asset for his three sons.

When the father passed away, his sons opened up the will.

The Will of the father stated that the eldest son should get half of 17 camels while the middle son should be given 1/3rd (one-third). The youngest son should be given 1/9th (one-ninth) of the 17 camels.

As it is not possible to divide 17 into half or 17 by 3 or 17 by 9, three sons started to fight with each other. So, the three sons decided to go to a wise man.

The wise man listened patiently about the Will.

The wise man, after giving this thought, brought one camel of his own and added the same to 17. That increased the total to 18 camels.

Now, he started reading the deceased father’s will.

Half of 18 = 9. So he gave the eldest son 9 camels

1/3rd of 18 = 6. So he gave the middle son 6 camels

1/9th of 18 = 2. So he gave the youngest son 2 camels.

Now add this up: 9 plus 6 plus 2 is 17 and this leaves one camel, which the wise man took away.

Moral: The attitude of negotiation and problem solving is to find the 18th camel i.e. the common ground. Once a person is able to find the 18th ground the issue is resolved. It is difficult at times. However, to reach a solution, the first step is to believe that there is a solution. If we think that there is no solution, we won’t be able to reach any!

Attitude is choice

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, was fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock. Her hair fashionably coiffed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, she was moving to a nursing home today.

Her husband of 70 years had recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.

As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window.

"I love it," she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mrs. Jones, you haven't seen the room .... Just wait."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged...it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it ..."

"It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do."

Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away ... just for this time in my life.

Old age is like a bank account ... you withdraw from what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories.

Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing."

Remember the five simple rules to be happy
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less

A Simple Idea

"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

Would you agree with the statement that a dream is born from an idea-a simple idea conceived in the mind?

Back in the 19th century two brothers had an idea which eventually became their passionate and consuming dream. Their relentless pursuit of that dream was rewarded with an accomplishment that changed world travel.

On Friday December 17, 1903 at 10:35 AM, the Wright brothers (Wilbur and Orville) achieved their dream. They flew "the world's first power-driven, heavier-than-air machine in which man made free, controlled, and sustained flight." This memorable feat took place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on a cold windy morning.

The dream started with an idea that was planted in their minds by a toy given to them by their father. In the words of the boys, "Late in the autumn of 1878, our father came into the house one evening with some object partly concealed in his hands, and before we could see what it was, he tossed it into the air. Instead of falling to the floor, as we expected, it flew across the room till it struck the ceiling, where it fluttered awhile, and finally sank to the floor." This simple toy made of bamboo, cork and stretched rubber bands, fascinated the Wright brothers and sparked their lifelong interest in human flight.

The Wright brothers were great thinkers. They enjoyed learning new things. Initially, they recycled broken parts, built a printing press and opened their own printing office. Their interest moved to bicycles and in 1893, they opened the Wright Cycle Company where they sold and repaired bicycles. But Wilbur (the older brother) had his mind set on something more exciting. He decided to seriously pursue flying.

The brothers spent many hours researching, testing their machines and making improvements after unsuccessful attempts at human flight. What started out as a hobby soon became a passion. With determination and patience they realized their dream in 1903.

The next time you hear or see an airplane or travel on one, remember where it all started. A simply idea conceived in the minds of two young men who did not finish high school. Believe it or not, they did not have a University degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics or any other subject. They were not scientists in the true sense of the word. In fact, many of their peers who did not witness their accomplishment, had trouble believing that two bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio did what they claimed.

What idea or ideas are YOU working on? Have you said you can't do this or that because you are not a scientist? Have you limited yourself by saying you are not smart enough? Or have you joined the majority in saying that everything has already been invented or discovered?

Since the introduction of the first generation of personal computers in 1981, we are able to do many things more efficiently. With a super computer between your ears and the personal computer at your finger tips, your dream can be achieved. First, give birth to that dream with an idea. A simply idea that ANYONE of us can conceive!