Buddha’s Advice to Calm a Disturbed 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 traveling, 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 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 too he found that the lake was muddy. He returned and informed Buddha about the same. After sometime, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back. The disciple reached the lake to find the lake absolutely clean and clear with pure 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.

The light at the end of a tunnel

Go for the light

No matter how hard

No matter how far

Dark tunnels ahead

Await you

To deviate you from

Your sacred path

Creepy mazes and ways

But don't despair

Follow the map

On your heart

And then one day

On reaching the light

You find the beginning

Of a new journey

What Actually Love Is

What Actually Love Is

Why do we close our eyes when we sleep? When we cry?
When we imagine? When we kiss?
This is because the most beautiful things in
the world are unseen.

We are all a little weird and life's a little weird
and when we find someone whose weirdness
is compatible with ours,
we join up with them and fall in
mutual weirdness and call it love.

There are things that we never want to let go of,
people we never want to leave behind,
but keep in mind that letting go isn't the end of the world,
it's the beginning of a new life.

Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt,
those who have searched and those who have tried.
For only they can appreciate the importance of the people
who have touched their lives.

A great love? It's when you shed tears and still
you care for him,
it's when he ignores you and still you long for him.
It's when he begins to love another and yet you still smile
and say I'm happy for you.

If love fails, set yourself free,
let your heart spread its wings and fly again.
Remember you may find love and lose it, but when love dies,
you never have to die with it.

The strongest people are not those who always win
but those who stand back up when they fall.

Somehow along the course of life,
you learn about yourself and realize
there should never be regrets,
only a lifelong appreciation of the choices you've made.

A true friend understands when you say, I forgot,
waits forever when you say, just a minute,
stays when you say leave me alone,
opens the door even before you knock and says can I come in?

Loving is not how you forget but how you forgive,
not how you listen but how you understand,
not what you see but how you feel,
and not how you let go but how you hold on.

It's more dangerous to weep inwardly rather than outwardly.
Outward tears can be wiped away while secret tears scar forever.

In love, very rarely do we win
but when love is true, even if you lose,
you still win just for having the tingle of loving someone
more than you love yourself.

There comes a time when we have to stop loving someone
not because that person has stopped loving us
but because we have found out
that they'd be happier if we let go.

A Creed to Live By

A Creed to Live By

Don't undermine your worth by comparing
yourself with others,

It is because we are different that each
of us is special.

Don't set your goals by what other people
deem important,

Only you know what is best for you.

Don't take for granted the things closest
to your heart

Cling to that as you would your life, for without
them life is meaningless.

Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living
in the past or the future.

By living your life one day at a time, you live all the
days of your life.

Don't give up when you still have something to give

Nothing is really over … until the moment
you stop trying.

Don't be afraid to admit that you are less
than perfect,

It is the fragile thread that binds us to each other.

Don't be afraid to encounter risks,

It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's
impossible to find.

The quickest way to receive love is to give love.

The fastest way to lose love is to hold on too tightly,

And the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don't dismiss your Dreams. To be without
dreams is to be without hope.

To be without hope is to be without purpose.

Don't run through life so fast that you forget
where you've been,

But also know where you're going.

Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored
every step of the way.

Maintain Your Self-Respect With Silence!

Silence helps to get in touch with one's own pure, perfect self. When we take time and spend it in silence, we are able to get in touch with our pure, perfect self. It helps us to go within and recognize our inner own inner truth. It is not just to stay within but to recognize one's own inner worth and deal with the world with it. Even during the worst situations, we need to take time to be in silence, become introverted and look within ourselves and see our own inner worth. We will then naturally be able to maintain our self-respect. This enables us to be stable and happy, whatever the situation might be.

FACES

Everyday while traveling to and fro
I see so many faces,
At definite time, definite intervals,
Definite corners, definite places!!

So many faces I see-
That over –made up face,
that one, continuously tensed up
And that one, without a trace…

of anxiety or fear!!
That face always in a hurry,
And that cool and slow face
Without any worry!

That over-confident ‘egoistic’ face
And that face with a guilty look,
That bespectacled face whose life
Must be only in the pages of the book!

Innocent faces, quarreling and playing
With loads of books, water bags, tiffins and carrying,
Tensions only when
The exams are nearing…

That old face full of nostalgia
And those twinkling eyes full of dreams…
Stern faces, soft faces,
Faces full of powders and creams..

Each face has a different ‘outlook’
Each one has a different ‘aim’,
But despite the variation
Their destination is the same!!

Each must be having the same intentions
Of not getting lost in this crowd, this mess,
And of reaching such a level where it won’t remain
Just a mere face!!!

…and Let your Hairs Wave in the Air

A lot has been written and said about ways and processes to handle failure, depression, criticism, stress and other negative emotions and feelings but little has been written or said about ways or processes to handle success, glory, fame, limelight or appreciation. Probably, many thinkers and philosophers considered the latter as positive emotions and therefore didn’t feel any need to have a process to handle it. If you look around you will find many people who live their entire life gasping and celebrating one moment of glory or one successful act or outcome. There are many others who begin to grow reversely or begin to move backward after they taste success and feel those moments of glory and fame. One major reason for this is the inability of those people to handle success or appreciation. They are not matured enough to handle success and appreciation or probably they begin to feel that all the glory, or fame or success, or appreciation that they are getting is a permanent fixer of their life, whereas the fact is that, that moment is a time which will pass away. Certainly that is the one thing which is common between good times and bad times that it is not permanent. It just passes away.

So, does that mean that one should not celebrate the success or should not feel happy about all the good things that are happening in their life? They certainly should but at the same time one should not lose the focus. Remember, the basic rule of our world is that the one who is successful is celebrated and admired and if you want the celebration to continue and if you want to continue to bask around the fame, glory and appreciation associated with your name then you must continue to get results or continue to do acts that gave you your first glimpse of fame, success and appreciation. As they say, it is very easy to be successful and famous and also hear people singing rhymes of appreciation and admiration but it is very difficult to sustain that or continue to get that, day after day, month after month and years after years. That is why I say, “Keep your feet firm on the ground and let your hairs wave in the air”.

…when you taste the success

1) Be humble and thankful – Accept it humbly, with kindness and thankfulness. It is always important to be thankful to all the people, not only those who are appreciating or admiring you but also those who helped you to reach where you are. Not all those people might have helped you positively and many might have criticized you or demoralized you but in one way or another they helped you to become whatever you are. So, be thankful. Let the credit go where it belongs to and add doing so will not discount your hard-work, determination and passion.

2) Don’t lose the focus – Growth in life is a continuous process. Although you may have a vision for yourself and dreams to follow and therefore it doesn’t matter what you have achieved, there will always be more to achieve. There will always be new avenues to cover. You have just taken that first successful step towards your goals and dreams, journey is still pending. There are always three stages of growth and success – Local, National and Global. Don’t let your miniature achievement distract or divert you from performing at a bigger stage and achieving more.

3) Keep yourself prepared for the tougher competition – As you will begin to climb-up the ladder of success, fame and glory, you will realize that though the crowd around you is filtering out but the competition is intensifying. As discussed above, there are three phases of journey, local, national and international and your competitors at every level will at least be as skillful and competent as you are. Keep yourself prepared for the same.

4) Don’t let your new friends pull you down – In your journey, you will meet different kinds of people, some will walk with you for a while, some will be pulling you down and many will be pushing you down. The one who were with you at one point of time will be jealous of you for your achievement and success and will try to pull you down, maybe by pretending of being nice to you. And those who are above you will be scared of you and your arrival and therefore will try to push you down, maybe by their acts of pseudo glorification and appreciation, so that you lose your focus. I won’t say that one must identify right kind of people to stay around because that in itself is a very time consuming process but rather keep your focus on your goals and dreams and don’t let any negative thought distract you. After all, it is your journey and you must take it.

5) Don’t undermine those who are less appreciated or not as successful and famous as you are – I agree that you are better than many other people because what you managed to achieve they couldn’t but that doesn’t give you any right to look down at them or insult them. Do remember that though they are out but they have not lost yet. Tomorrow, they might turn out to be better than you. Losers are those who quit and accept the defeat not the one who keeps on trying. Remember that story of the Hare and Tortoise?

6) Tomorrow will be a new day – Whatever you did today or you achieved today, you got appreciation for that, and were paid in the same coin and you celebrated it too. However, tomorrow will be a new day, new tasks and new rewards and do you think you will be able to repeat the feat again? Doing it once could be a fluke but repeating it again and again over the period of time is an achievement and success in every possible sense. Don’t just sit and bask in the glory of your past achievement or successes but repeat it. There are many artists who stopped working after creating, what they thought was their masterpiece because they were too scared and they thought that probably they couldn’t be able to repeat what they have achieved yesterday.

7) Keep a check on your ego – There is nothing wrong in being proud of whatever you have achieved, after all you worked hard for it but don’t let that feeling of pride outgrow your own size or the size of what you have achieved.

Conclusion

If you look around and pick any country or any profession be it sports, business, entertainment, research, art, or politics etc, you will find many people who rise like a storm but the very next moment they fall flat on their face kissing the dust and this happens because they were so engrossed in celebrating their first few moments of appreciation, fame, and success at higher level that they just could not see anything beyond. Therefore it is important that “Keep your feet firm on the ground and let your hairs wave in the air” and keep your focus on the goal.

By: Unknown