The £20 note

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a £20 note. In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this £20 note?”

Hands started going up.

He said, “I am going to give this £20 to one of you but first, let me do this.”

He proceeded to crumple up the £20 note.

He then asked, “Who still wants it?”

Still the hands were up in the air.

Well, he replied, “What if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. “Now, who still wants it?”
Still the hands went into the air.

“My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth £20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.

We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE.

You are special- Don’t EVER forget it.” Count your blessings, not your problems. And remember: amateurs built the ark …

professionals built the Titanic.

Moral:
Coaching will help you to discover what is important and valuable to you, and how to get more of what you want…

If you are thinking to change your negative habits, do not hesitate to contact www.LifeKoach.com, e-mail at lifekoach@gmail.com.

Meditation

“The purpose of meditation is to achieve uninterrupted mindfulness. Mindfulness, and only mindfulness, produces Enlightenment.”
—Gunaratana in Mindfulness in Plain English

People meditate for many reasons. Some do it to lower their blood pressure; others like to see special effects with their eyes closed. Many people do it simply because it makes them feel good.

There is nothing wrong with these motives, but on this article, we are only interested in meditation methods that can help lead to enlightment.

We think all such methods have something in common: all of them are exercises in remaining aware of where your attention is pointing. In other words, they teach you to avoid getting lost in thought. When the exercise becomes automatic, permanent, and effortless, enlightenment may follow.

Note the word permanent: you are supposed to meditate all day while engaged in normal activities. If you want to get enlightened, meditation is not just something you do for half an hour while sitting on a cushion. This can’t be stressed enough: these techniques lead to enlightenment only if they become permanent states of mind. They must become habits.

People sometimes say that practicing a deliberate technique is not meditation. According to them, only an effortlessly alert and quiet state is meditation. Such assertions are confusing. Actually, both things are meditation, because the word meditation has two meanings.

The important point to understand is that meditation in the first sense (deliberate effort) is intended to lead to meditation in the second sense (an effortless state of quiet awareness). It is a two-stage process. (And it is designed to lead to a third stage, the dissolution of the ego.)

Although many types of meditation have been advocated by various schools of Hinduism and Buddhism, this page emphasizes insight methods associated with Theravada Buddhism, and the method of self-enquiry as taught by Ramana Maharshi.

The best book about the first is probably Mindfulness in Plain English, which is on our website here; the best book about the second is probably Be As You Are, which can be purchased here.

Beginning meditators may find it useful to divide meditation methods into two categories, those that stress concentration (holding onto a single thought) and those that stress mindfulness (remaining aware of what the mind is perceiving without getting lost in thought). This conceptual division is associated with Theravada Buddhism and is explained brilliantly in the book The Meditative Mind. The reason we recommend mindfulness techniques is that they automatically develop both concentration and mindfulness. This is not true for concentration techniques: they do not necessarily develop mindfulness.

When the English word “Meditation” is used in the context of Hinduism or Buddhism, as we use it here, it is a translation of the Sanskrit word “Dhyana” or its cognates in other Asian languages: “Jhan” in Pali (the language of the Buddha), “Chan” in Chinese, and “Zen” in Japanese.

This page was published on www.realization.org

The Four Oxen and the Lion

A Lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell.

Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them.

At last, however, they fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and each
went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field.

Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four.

Moral:
United we stand, divided we fall.

The Fishermen

Some Fishermen were out trawling their nets. Perceiving them to be very heavy, they danced about for joy and supposed that they had taken a large catch.

When they had dragged the nets to the shore they found but few fish: the nets were full of sand and stones, and the men were beyond measure cast downso much at the disappointment which had befallen them, but because they had formed such very different expectations.

One of their company, an old man, said, “Let us cease lamenting, my mates, for, as it seems to me, sorrow is always the twin sister of joy; and it was only to be looked for that we, who just now were over-rejoiced, should next have something to make us sad.”

Moral:
Sorrow is always the twin sister of Joy.

The Flea and the Man

A Man, very much annoyed with a Flea, caught him at last, and said, “Who are you who dare to feed on my limbs, and to cost me so much trouble in catching you?”

The Flea replied, “O my dear sir, pray spare my life, and destroy me not, for I cannot possibly do you much harm.”

The Man, laughing, replied, “Now you shall certainly die by mine own hands, for no evil, whether it be small or large, ought to be tolerated.”

Moral:
Never underestimate your enemy by size.

The Fisherman and the Little Fish

A Fisherman who lived on the produce of his nets, one day caught a single small Fish as the result of his day’s labor.

The Fish, panting convulsively, thus entreated for his life: “O Sir, what good can I be to you, and how little am I worth? I am not yet come to my full size. Pray spare my life, and put me back into the sea. I shall soon become a large fish fit for the tables of the rich, and then you can catch me again, and make a handsome profit of me.”

The Fisherman replied, “I should indeed be a very simple fellow if, for the chance of a greater uncertain profit, I were to forego my present certain gain.”

Moral:
Do not under judge your success, by size.