Trust God But Tie Your Camel

There was once a man who was on his way back home from market with his camel and, as he’d had a good day, he decided to stop at a mosque along the road and offer his thanks to God.

He left his camel outside and went in with his prayer mat and spent several hours offering thanks to Allah, praying and promising that he’d be a good Muslim in the future, help the poor and be an upstanding pillar of his community.

When he emerged it was already dark and lo and behold – his camel was gone!

He immediately flew into a violent temper and shook his fist at the sky, yelling:

“You traitor, Allah! How could you do this to me? I put all my trust in you and then you go and stab me in the back like this!”

A passing sufi dervish heard the man yelling and chuckled to himself.

“Listen,” he said, “Trust God but, you know, tie up your camel.”

 

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The Secret of Surrender

A man was very much interested in self-knowledge, in self-realization. His whole search had been to find a master who could teach him meditation. He went from one master to another, but nothing was happening.

Years went by, he was tired, exhausted. Then someone told him, “If you really want to find a master you will have to go to the Himalayas. He lives in some unknown parts of the Himalayas; you will have to search for him. One thing is certain, he is there. Nobody knows exactly where, because whenever somebody comes to know of him he moves from that place and goes even deeper into the Himalayan ranges.”

The man was getting old, but he gathered courage. For two years he had to work to earn money for the journey, then he made the journey. It is an old story. He had to ride on camels and horses and then go on foot, and then he reached the Himalayas. People said, “Yes, we have heard about the old man, very ancient he is, one cannot say how old — maybe three hundred years old, or even five hundred years old; nobody knows. He lives somewhere, but the location cannot be given to you. Nobody is aware of where exactly you will find him, but he is there. If you search hard you are bound to find him.”

The man searched and searched and searched. For two years he was roaming in the Himalayas — tired, exhausted, dead exhausted, living only on wild fruits, leaves and grass. He had lost much weight. But he was intent that he had to find this man; even if it took his life, it would be worth it.

And can you imagine? One day he saw a small hut, a grass hut. He was so tired that he was not even able to walk, so he crawled. He reached the hut. There was no door; he looked in, there was nobody inside. And not only was there nobody inside, but there was every sign that for years there had been nobody inside.

You can think what would have happened to that man. He fell on the ground. Out of sheer tiredness he said, “I give up.” He was lying there under the sun in the cool breeze of the Himalayas, and for the first time he started feeling so blissful, he had never tasted such bliss! Suddenly he started feeling full of light. Suddenly all thoughts disappeared, suddenly he was transported — and for no reason at all, because he had not done anything.

And then he became aware that somebody was leaning over him. He opened his eyes. A very ancient man was there. And the old man, smiling, said, “So you have come. Have you something to ask me?”

And the man said, “No.”

And the old man laughed, a great belly laugh which was echoed by the valleys. And he said, “So now you know what meditation is?”

And the man said, “Yes.”

(Source : OSHO – The Book of Wisdom)

 

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Look Who is Talking

A rabbi is kneeling in front of the altar.

“God, I am nothing and you are everything”, he says.

The cantor sees him and he kneels down and says,

“God, I am nothing and you are everything”.

The assistant rabbi sees them and he too does the same thing.

The janitor sees them and is so moved that he too kneels down and says, “God, you are everything and I am nothing”.

The assistant rabbi nudges the cantor and says”Look who thinks he’s nothing”.

– Author unknown

 

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Why Together

“All the teachers say that spiritual treasure is something one finds alone. So why are we all here together?” asked a disciple of the Sufi master Nasrudin. “You are all here together because a forest is always stronger than a lone tree,” replied Nasrudin.

“The forest maintains the humidity in the air, it resists the hurricane, and it helps to make the soil fertile. But what makes a tree strong is its root, and the root of one plant cannot help another plant to grow. Working together towards the same end and allowing each one to grow in his own way, that is the path for those who wish to commune with God.”

 

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Here is God

(Photo Credit Kiritz.jp)

A group of fifteen soldiers led by their Major were on their way to the post in snow-clad mountains, where they would be deployed for next three months. Another batch, which will be relieved, would be waiting anxiously for their arrival so that they could fall back to safer confines of their parent unit. Some would proceed on leave and meet their families. They were happy that they were to relieve a set of comrades who had done their job.

It was a treacherous climb and the journey was to last till the next evening. Cold winter with intermittent snowfall added to the torture. If only someone could offer a cup of tea, the Major thought, knowing completely well that it was a futile wish.
They continued for another hour before they came across a dilapidated structure which looked like a small shop. It was locked.

It was 2 o’clock in the night and there was no house close to the shop where the owner could be located. In any case it was not advisable to knock any doors in the night for security reasons.  It was a stalemate. “No tea boys, bad luck” said the Major. The Major told the men to take some rest since they had been walking for more than three hours now. “Sir, this is a tea shop indeed and we can make tea. We will have to break the lock though.”

The officer was in doubt about the proposed action but a steaming cup of tea was not a bad idea. He thought for a while and permitted for the lock to be broken. The lock was broken. They were in luck. The place was a shop indeed and had everything required to preparing tea, and also a few packets of biscuits.

The tea was prepared and it brought great relief to all in the cold night. They were now ready for the long and treacherous walk ahead of them and started to get ready to move. The officer was in thought. They had broken open the lock and prepared tea and consumed biscuits without the permission of the owner. The payment was due but there was no one in sight. But they are not a band of thieves. They are disciplined soldiers. The Major didn’t move out without doing what needed to be done. He took out a 100 dollar bill from his wallet and kept it on the counter, pressed under the sugar container, so that the owner sees it first thing when he arrives in the morning. He was now relieved of the guilt and ordered the move.

Days, weeks and months passed. They continued to do gallantly what they were required to do and were lucky not to lose any one from the group.

And then one day, it was time to be replaced by another brave lot. Soon they were on their way back and stopped at the same shop, which was today open with the owner in place. He was an old man with very meager resources and was happy to see fifteen of them with the prospect of selling at least fifteen cups of tea that day.

All of them had their tea and spoke to the old man about his life and experiences in general, selling tea at such remote a location. The poor, old man had many stories to tell all of them, replete with his faith in God.

“If God existed, an old, God-fearing and kind person as you seem to be, would not be in such bad condition” said one of them; moved by his poverty and faith in God.

“Don’t say that, son. God actually exists. I got the proof a few months ago! I was going through very tough times because my only son had been severely beaten by the drug dealers who wanted some information from him which he did not have. I had closed the shop early that day and had taken my son to the hospital. There were medicines to be purchased and I had no money. No one would give me a loan from fear of the mafia. There was no hope, my son. And that day, I had prayed to God for help. And he sent someone to my shop that day. When I returned to my shop that day and saw the lock broken, I thought someone had broken in and had taken away whatever little I had. But then I saw that ‘He’ had left 100 dollars under the sugar pot. My son, I can’t tell you what that money was worth that day. God exists my son, He does!”

“I know people are dying every day here but all of you will soon meet your near and dear ones, your children, and you must thank God, he is watching all of us. He does exist. He walked in to my shop that day and broke open the lock to give me the money I desperately needed. I know He did it.”

The faith in his eyes was unflinching. It was unnerving. Fifteen sets of eyes looked at their officer and read the order in his eyes clear and unambiguous, ‘Keep quiet.’ The officer got up and paid the bill and hugged the old man.

“Yes, I know, God does exist – and yes the tea was wonderful.” Fifteen pairs of eyes did not miss the moisture building in the eyes of the Major, a rare sight.

–

Are we looking for God / universal energy to be only in a specific form, place or time? Does He have to appear in special & dramatic manner with bells and whistles for mankind to accept His existence?  The concepts that we have forged about God, will they allow us to feel his touch in our day-to-day life?

Just imagine, we are people stuck with our feet due to gravity on the globe, in the middle of nowhere….. 

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How to Stop Train of Thoughts

 (Photo Credit : Bumpybrains.com)

Thoughts after thoughts, the train is chugging on most of the times, stealing my precious….. present moment.

I can not forget. Once in 1997, I was standing resting my back to wall and thinking about some matter at hand. When I came to a conclusion on that subject, my mind pops up, what net to think about?  I paused.

There was the thought and there was an observer to the thought.

That was one milestone moment for me as I noticed my mind pattern. Since then I have been seeking to understand mind better. One of the method I adopted, is described below.

As you sit and watch the thoughts, that is thought watching thought, as you watch, one thought comes up, before it becomes a chain, stream, use your thought again as a weapon, think that you, with your mind, have made a sword and as soon as the thought comes up, cut it off.

 

It is similar to the analogy of using a thorn to remove another. Let me explain. If one gets a prick of a thorn, it is removed by using another thorn or needle.

 

This practice can easily highlight that we are not our thoughts and there is more to us then just mere thoughts.

 

Go on, give it a try and see for yourself.  I would love to hear your experience too.

 

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Perception & Reality

Friends,

Sharing some messages that I received from my spiritual guide, though in pieces on different days but forms a beautiful garland of the subject.

20-2-13

Perception is always relative, it’s comparative. You can only compare. There is no absolute perception.

21-2-13

Vedanta says ‘yes the object exists, of course, but it may not be a cube or a globe or a cone or a rectangle or what you think it is because whatever you think, it is always the result of your relative perceptions.’

22-2-13

‘What is!’, nobody knows or nobody can know because the senses, the sensory organs or the sensory instruments which are used to know an object are themselves imperfect and relative and, therefore, nothing can be known in its absolute content.

23-2-13

Your opinions, your perceptions, your ideas, your images, they are all relative. They are not absolute. But certainly, some thing exists and that which actually exists cannot be found by the sensory organs.

24-2-13

Can the Truth be found through the mind? Vedanta says ‘Well! All that the mind can do is conceive of it or try to conceive it. It can have an idea, a faint idea of it. Beyond that, even the mind fails to understand the real substance of the universe.’

25-2-13

Vedanta also says that the real substance of the universe, is the same everywhere. In you and outside you. And that substance cannot even be found by the mind. Then, if it cannot be found by the mind, what is the use of seeking or exploring?

26-2-13

Vedanta says, ‘when the mind understands, its inability to reach out and find it, finally rests or lets go; surrenders; becomes still and quiet naturally, not forcibly – then, when the mind and the senses have ceased their function – peacefully, tranquilly – in that tranquility and absolute stillness and quietness, there is, what is actually there.

 

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