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By Team Ayurved Sutra
Posted on
Changing the World
Changing the World
An old man walks down to the beach and sees it is covered with tens of thousands of starfish, as far as the eye can see. Far down the beach he sees a young girl who is picking the starfish up, one by one, and tossing them back in the ocean.
Amused, he walks to the girl to speak with her. “Little girl,” the old man says, “What are you doing?”
“I’m saving these starfishes lives,” says the girl. “If I don’t throw them back in the water, they’ll drown. They need the water to live.”
The old man laughs to himself. Näive girl, he thinks. “But you are only one person. There are tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. How can you possibly make a difference?”
The girl bends down, picks up a star fish, looks at it, looks up at the man, tosses it into the surf, then says, “I made a difference for that one.”
~Matt Caron, Sivana blog / blog.sivanaspirit.com
Impermanence
A revered Zen teacher once approached the king’s palace late at night. The guards did not stop him as he made his way inside to where the king was seated upon his throne. The king recognized him too.
“Welcome, sir. What do you want?” the king asked.
“I wish to sleep in this inn tonight”, said the teacher.
Taken aback, the king snorted, “This is no inn! It is my palace!”
The teacher politely asked, “If I may ask, who owned this palace before you?”
“Why, my father, of course! He is dead now.”
“And who lived here before your father?””
“My grandfather, naturally. He’s dead too.”
“This building where people live for some time and go away, did you say that it is not an inn?”
~Buddha Groove / blog.buddhagroove.com
Silent
The pupils of the Tendai school used to study meditation before Zen entered Japan. Four of them who were intimate friends promised one another to observe seven days of silence.
On the first day all were silent. Their meditation had begun auspiciously, but when night came and the oil lamps were growing dim one of the pupils could not help exclaiming to a servant: “Fix those lamps.”
The second pupil was surprised to hear the first one talk. “We are not supposed to say a word,” he remarked. “You two are stupid. Why did you talk?” asked the third.
“I am the only one who has not talked,” concluded the fourth pupil.
Never be too quick to judge others. Chances are, you’re not the perfect traveler yourself.
~MATADOR / matadornetwork.com
Knots
Once when Gautama the Buddha came to teach his disciples, he was carrying a beautiful silk handkerchief in his hands. Thousands of disciples were waiting and as they saw him walking towards them they were surprised to see such an article in the Buddha’s hand as it was most unusual.
When the Buddha addressed the gathering he asked “what do you see?” and they said, a beautiful silken handkerchief. Then slowly the Buddha started to put knots on the handkerchief, one after another, until he put 5 knots. Then he asked whether it was the same handkerchief. His disciples answered that it was the same handkerchief, yet different, as it was in knots now.
The Buddha said that is what I want you to understand. You are all Buddha but you cannot see the silken fine fabric because you are in knots.
I am like the same handkerchief but without knots.
Then he went on to pull the handkerchief from both sides and asked whether the knots would open this way.
They spoke in unison saying that this way the knots will in fact tighten and become more difficult to open.
Then the Buddha asked, why do you then try to open your knots by pulling? He continued to say that while your intention in doing so is good, your very doing is its undoing. It is trying too hard, taking too much trouble. You are making it more complicated.
He then further asked that if he needed to open these knots, what was needed to be done?
A monk answered that he would come close, observe and try to understand how the knots were formed. And if one saw how they were formed, one would be able to undo them.
Then Buddha said that is right and ended the sermon saying this is all he wanted to teach them. He ended by saying they needed to meditate upon their own knots.
~Team Mindful Spring / mindfulspring.com
