desert tears

As soon as he arrived in Marrakesh, Morocco, a missionary decided he would stroll through the desert at the city’s boundary every morning. On his first stroll he noticed a man lying on the sand, caressing the ground with his hands and leaning his ears towards the earth.

“He is mad,” the missionary said to himself. But he saw the man every morning during his walks and after a month, intrigued by that strange behaviour, he decided to approach the stranger.

He knelt beside him and asked, in broken Arabic, “What are you doing?”
 “I keep the desert company and offer solace for its loneliness and its tears.”
 “I didn’t know the desert was capable of crying.”
 “It cries every day, because it dreams of being useful to mankind and turning into a huge garden where people could cultivate, flowers and sheep.”

“Well, then, tell the desert it accomplishes its mission very well,” said the missionary. “Every time I walk here, I am able to understand the true dimension of the human being, as its open space allows me to see how small we are before God. When I look at its sands, I imagine the millions of people in the world who were raised alike although the world isn’t always fair towards everyone. Its mountains help me meditate. As I see the sun rising on the horizon, my soul fills with joy and I get closer to the Creator.”

The missionary left the man and went back to his daily chores. To his surprise, he found him the next morning at the same place, in the same position.

“Did you tell the desert everything I told you?” he asked.
 The man nodded.
 “And even so it keeps crying?”
 “I can hear each of its sobs,” answered the man, his head tilted towards the ground.
 “Now it is crying because it spent thousands of years thinking it was completely useless and wasted all this time blaspheming God and its own destiny.”

“Well, then tell the desert that despite having a short lifespan, we human beings spend much of our days thinking we are useless. We rarely find the reason for our destiny and think God has been unfair to us. When a moment finally arrives in which we are shown the reason why we were born, we think it is too late to change and keep on suffering. And as the desert, we blame ourselves for the time we have wasted.”
 “I am not sure the desert will bother to hear it,” said the man.
 “It is used to suffering and it can’t see things differently.”
 “So then let us do what I always do when I feel people have lost faith. Let us pray.”

Both of them went down on their knees and prayed; one turned to Mecca as he was a Muslim and the other joined his hands in prayer, as he was Catholic. They prayed, each one to his own God.

The next day when the missionary resumed his daily walk, the man was no longer there. The ground where he used to embrace the sand seemed to be wet as if a small spring had formed. During the following months that spring grew and the city’s residents built a well around it.

The place is now called “The Well of the Desert’s Tears”. It is said that those who drink its water will be able to transform the reason of their suffering into the reason of their joy and will end up finding their true destiny.
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Satan sells used objects

Satan sells used objects
Needing to adapt to the new times, Satan decided to get rid of a whole lot of his stock of temptations. He placed an ad in the newspaper and attended his customers all day in his workshop.
It was a fantastic stock: stones for the virtuous to stumble over, mirrors for increasing one’s self-importance, and spectacles that reduced the importance of others. Some objects hanging on the wall drew a lot of attention: a dagger with a curved blade to be used on someone’s back, and tape-recorders that registered only gossip and lies.

- Don’t worry about the price! – shouted old Satan to the potential customers. – Take it home today and pay for it whenever you can!

One of the visitors noticed three tools lying in a corner that seemed to be quite worn and attracted little attention. But they were very expensive. Curious, he wanted to know the reason for that apparent discrepancy.
- They are worn because they are the ones that I use most of all – answered Satan with a laugh. – If they drew a lot of attention, people would know how to protect themselves.

- However, they are both worth the price I am asking for them: one is Doubt, the other is the Inferiority Complex, the third is Bitterness. All the other temptations can sometimes fail, but these three always work.

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Are You Single?

Going solo can be spiritually empowering as long as you take safety precautions to avoid getting into dangerously vulnerable situations, says ANURADHA VARMA


Princess Bubble and the Paper Bag Princess, modern fairytale characters, can teach us a thing or two about being single. The latter got hot and dirty while trying to rescue her prince, who turned up his nose and told her to dress like a princess — he soon got the boot.
Princess Bubble was created by former flight attendants Susan Johnston and Kimberly Webb and found her happily-ever-after long before finding Prince Charming.


Of course, in the Fables Graphic Novel series, which turns fairytales on its head, Snow White finds herself single again after Prince Charming turns on his seductive charm on other women. Singlehood is a state you can find yourself in at any point in time and the important thing is to create a fulfilling life, with or without a partner.


Empowered Singles
In a television soap, the woman protagonist’s drab existence gets some colour when she finds a suitor. While she makes the right noises about the virtues of being single, her life as a single woman seems to revolve around work, home and an ex-boyfriend married to her ex-best friend. In short, life is passing her by.


That needn’t be the case with all single people — in Bollywood, for example, Miss Universe and actor Sushmita Sen extended her family by adopting two girls as a single woman and there are others who are not so well-known, but who have chosen to be single mothers.


Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik lists names of some of those who chose or were forced into a single life — the widowed matriarch Kunti and an abandoned Sita, for instance. Then there was Shakuntala, who was adopted by the unmarried sage Kanva and left by her husband King Dushyanta.


Says Pattanaik, “Everyone survives in this world. Nature does not judge or discriminate; only humans do. We treat the family as a possession and so become territorial about it, creating outsiders and insiders. While we function with a family and relationships, we have to outgrow our need for ‘attachments’.”


However, with most people part of a ‘couple’, life can raise tough questions for singles. Here, families must also play a supportive and empowering role, instead of the oft-repeated question, “Who will take care of you after us?” It’s important to let your child or sibling know you’re there if required, but also acknowledge that she is capable of living single.


Spiritual Connect
Writer Sreemoyee Piu Kundu believes being single has made her spiritually stronger. “The biggest challenge of being single is the occasional sense of being alone, especially as I am a single child.


Watching parents age, seeing friends losing their parents, dealing with parents falling ill makes one worried about the road ahead; you get the feeling that you have many battles to fight on your own. But I think being single has brought me closer to my faith. I am Buddhist and when I chant or meditate, I feel my God. Buddha is my friend and my soulmate; I call him my old man!”


It’s important to be comfortable in one’s skin. And, ultimately, singlehood is a state of mind, something that can be reclaimed by everyone, married or not. Says Brahmakumari Shivani: “Spirituality means being with everyone outside, but being single inside. This means carrying out all your responsibilities without getting entangled internally; without having people and situations affect your state of mind, learning detachment.”


She adds, “Single people can get very lonely. It’s good to be a part of a spiritual group. Spiritual knowledge and meditation empowers the individual and hence one is not dependent emotionally on others. Being part of such a group also gives the opportunity to participate in projects to serve others.”


She also recommends sustaining emotional support for “it is needed by each one of us today and it’s the same for single people. It’s good for family and friends to involve them in all outings, holidays and get-togethers.”


Make Yourself Stronger
Writer-actor-singer Suchitra Krishnamurthy, previously married to filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, believes that every relationship changes you in indefinable ways. “People are welcome in my life only if they make me happy. And yes, Indian families worry too much and don’t respect individuality enough, especially when it comes to the girl child.


Your role in a family structure is often perceived as more important than your individual thoughts and rights. This does have its good points and also the bad. It can be extremely supportive or downright hypocritical and stifling.”


She adds, “I am blessed with a family that has stood by me through thick and thin, always making me understand that I needn’t compromise my integrity or honesty in search of security.”


Feeling Lonely
Loneliness is an affliction nobody’s immune to. It’s a battle we all have to fight. And that you could be vulnerable as a single woman is an added risk, especially at a time when violence against women is on the rise. Hence, isolating yourself is not a good idea.


Emily White, author of the book Lonely, writes we’re nowhere as connected to each other as we used to be. She says, “More than 30 per cent of people in Britain live alone and the time we spend visiting friends and family has fallen.


A recent study in the US showed that almost a third of the respondents had no one to confide in.… When I was lonely, I hid my emotional reality and lied outright. I fudged facts and did everything necessary to make my isolated life look full. I hinted that I hadn’t been single for as long as I had. I worked as a lawyer, and if someone at the office suggested I looked tired, I pretended that a busy social life was leaving me drained.”


The solution? Stop looking inwards at yourself and focus outward. Being self-centred and insular doesn’t help. There’s a whole world out there, and happy people are those who’ve learnt to take an interest in their surroundings and in people around them, bringing friends and acquaintances into the fold of the extended family.

by speaking tree....

try once more

Pablo Picasso once said, “God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just keeps on trying other things.”


When we start working on our dreams, we always feel afraid. We wonder if there are rules to follow. Who comes up with these rules, while we all live such different lives? If God created the giraffe, the elephant and the cat, and we try to learn from his example, then why would we try to follow one rule or another?

Sometimes rules help us avoid the mistakes others have made before our time, but more often than not a rule will only make us repeat what someone else has already done.

Rest assured. Trust the universe, and look forward to surprising yourself. The apostle Paul said, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” The wise know some actions repeat themselves. They regularly encounter the same problems and situations they have dealt with before. Knowing that makes them sad. They start to think they’ll never be able to grow, since whatever they experienced before is happening again.

“I’ve already been through this,” they complain to their hearts.

“That may be true,” their hearts reply, “but you haven’t mastered it yet.”

The wise understand that repetition has a cause: to teach the lesson that still needs teaching. Repetitive situations require different solutions every time. The one who fails must not see this as a mistake, but rather as a step toward greater self knowledge.

It’s like Thomas Watson said, “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.”

insults

Changing attitude

“Over the course of one year, give a coin to each person who offends or upsets you,” instructed the abbot of a young man who wanted people to follow a spiritual path.
For the next twelve months, the boy gave a coin to each person who offended or upset him, as he was instructed. At the end of the year, he returned to the abbot to find out what the next steps were.
“Go into town and buy food for me,” the abbot responded.
Once the boy left, the abbot changed his clothes, disguised himself as a beggar and went to the gate. When the boy approached, he began to insult him.
“Good!” said the boy, “for a whole year I had to pay the people who upset or offended me, and now I can be offended for free, without spending anything!”
Hearing this, the abbot removed his disguise.
“He who does not take insults seriously, is on the path to wisdom.”


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your shadow

Many years ago, there lived a man who was capable of loving and forgiving everyone he came across. Because of this, God sent an angel to talk to him.

‘God asked me to come and visit you and tell you that he wishes to reward you for your goodness,’ said the angel. ‘You may have any gift you wish for. Would you like the gift of healing?’

‘Certainly not,’ said the man. ‘I would prefer God to choose those who should be healed.’

‘And what about leading sinners back to the path of Truth?’

‘That’s a job for angels like you. I don’t want to be venerated by anyone or to serve as a permanent example.’

‘Look, I can’t go back to Heaven without having given you a miracle. If you don’t choose, I’ll have to choose one for you.’

The man thought for a moment and then said:

‘All right, I would like good to be done through me, but without anyone noticing, not even me, in case I should commit the sin of vanity.

So the angel arranged for the man’s shadow to have the power of healing, but only when the sun was shining on the man’s face. In this way, wherever he went, the sick were healed, the earth grew fertile again, and sad people rediscovered happiness.

The man traveled the Earth for many years, oblivious of the miracles he was working because when he was facing the sun, his shadow was always behind him. In this way, he was able to live and die unaware of his own holiness.

read somewhere..........

no backing up

"never look back"
while i was talking to my freind yesterday ni8....n amazingly....i get sumthing which i was searching in my mind since a long time.....

close ur eyes.....turn back to ur life....
n see how many times n by whom u got hurted.....
forgive them......n leave them thr.....n forget them....
turn back........n promise urself.......u never gonna remember those things back again.....

a relief wud b thr.......
peace*