Once a highly successful businessman, running a health insurance company was getting ready to go to his office. When he reached into his car and opened a door, a stray dog sleeping under his car suddenly came out and bit on his leg! The businessman got very angry and quickly picked up a few rocks and threw at the dog but none hit the dog. The dog ran away.

Upon reaching his office, the businessman calls a meeting of his managers and during the meeting he puts the anger of dog on them. The managers also get upset by the anger of their boss and they put their anger to the employees working under them. The chain of this reaction keeps going till the lower level of employees and finally, the anger reaches to the office peon.

Now, there was no one working under the peon! So, after the office time is over, he reaches his home, and wife opens the door. She asked him, “Why are you so late today?” The peon upset due to anger threw at him by the staff, gives one slap to his wife! And says, “I didn’t go to the office to play football, I went to work so don’t irritate me with your stupid questions!”

So, now the wife got upset that she got a scolding plus a slap for no reason. She puts her anger on his son who was watching TV and gives him a slap, “This is all you do, and you have no interest in studying! Turn off the TV now!”

The son gets upset now! He walks out of his house and sees a dog passing by looking at him. He picks up a rock and hits the dog in his anger and frustration. The dog, getting hit by a rock, runs away barking in pain.

This was the same dog that bit the businessman early morning.

Moral: This was bound to happen. Reap as one has sown. This is how the life works. While we all worry about hell and heaven based on our deeds, we should concentrate more on how we are living and behaving. Do good, Good will come, Do Wrong, Wrong will come.

 

Once upon a time there lived a ferocious lion in the forest. It was a greedy lion and started killing animals in the forest indiscriminately. Seeing this, the animals gathered and decided to approach the lion with the offer of one animal of each species volunteering itself to be eaten by the lion every day. So every day it was the turn of one of the animals and in the end came the rabbits’ turn. The rabbits chose a old rabbit among them. The rabbit was wise and old. It took its own sweet time to go to the Lion. The Lion was getting impatient on not seeing any animal come by and swore to kill all animals the next day.

The rabbit then strode along to the Lion by sunset. The Lion was angry at him. But the wise rabbit was calm and slowly told the Lion that it was not his fault. He told the Lion that a group of rabbits were coming to him for the day when on the way, an angry Lion attacked them all and ate all rabbits but himself. Somehow he escaped to reach safely, the rabbit said. He said that the other Lion was challenging the supremacy of his Lordship the Lion. The Lion was naturally very enraged and asked to be taken to the location of the other Lion.

The wise rabbit agreed and led the Lion towards a deep well filled with water. Then he showed the Lion his reflection in the water of the well. The Lion was furious and started growling and naturally its image in the water, the other Lion, was also equally angry. Then the Lion jumped into the water at the other Lion to attack it, and so lost its life in the well. Thus the wise rabbit saved the forest and its inhabitants from the proud Lion.

What I have learnt from the story is that while we’re facing the problem, we must not hopeless and waiting until it comes to us. We must use our brain, we must be flexible in solving the problem, we’re facing. No matter what kind of our obstacle, don’t be afraid. Try our best to fight again it.

A woman who had worked all her life to bring about good was granted one wish: “Before I die let me visit both hell and heaven.” Her wish was granted.

She was whisked off to a great marriage hall. The tables were piled high with delicious food and drink. Around the tables sat miserable, starving people as wretched as could be. “Why are they like this?” she
asked the angel who accompanied her. “Look at their arms,” the angel replied. She looked and saw that attached to the people’s arms were long chopsticks secured above the elbow. Unable to bend their elbows, the people aimed the chopsticks at the food, missed every time and sat hungry, frustrated and miserable. “Indeed this is hell! Take me away from here!”

She was then whisked off to heaven. Again she found herself in a great banqueting hall with tables piled high. Around the tables sat people laughing, contented, and joyful. “No chopsticks I suppose,” she said. “Oh yes there are. Look – just as in hell they are long and attached above the elbow but look… here people have learnt to feed one another

There was once a well-educated, highly successful man who went to visit a Zen master to ask for solutions to his problems. As the Zen master and the man conversed, the man would frequently interrupt the Zen master to interject his own beliefs, not allowing the Zen master to finish many sentences.

Finally, the Zen master stopped talking and offered the man a cup of tea. When the Zen master poured the tea, he kept pouring after the cup was full, causing it to overflow.

“Stop pouring,” the man said, “The cup is full.”

The Zen master stopped and said, “Similarly, you are too full of your own opinions. You want my help, but you have no room in your own cup to receive my words.”

Moral of the story:

This Zen story is a reminder that your beliefs are not you. When you unconsciously hold on to your beliefs, you become rigid and closed-mind to learn and expand your consciousness. The path to self-realization is to stay conscious of your beliefs and always be open to learning.

There is a very interesting and quite applicable law in the book: “Tough times never last, but tough people do”!

If we are facing challenges in life or problems or difficulties, law of potatoes will be helpful for us. It is said that: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Robeert says that people are like Potatoes!. Farmers have to ‘categorize’ potatoes after the harvest.

Potatoes come in different sizes i.e. small, medium and large. Hence, if a farmer intends to get maximum value after sales, potatoes need to be arranged based on their sizes before shipping them to the market.

In order to ship potatoes to the market, potatoes are to be put into different bags based on their categories, after which they are loaded into trucks. This is the method that most of the potato farmers use in order to get maximum amounts from sale of potatoes.

However, there was one farmer who was different. He never sorted his potatoes i.e. he never categorized them according to their size but always managed to get maximum sales!

How is that possible? Can you get maximum sales without sorting out potatoes as per their sizes?

So, one of the farmers went to this person and asked him “What is your secret? How can you earn maximum without sorting or categorizing potatoes according to their size?”

He said, “It’s simple. I just load up the wagon with potatoes and take the roughest road to town from my village. During the long trip, the little potatoes always fall to the bottom”.

The medium potatoes land in the middle, while the big potatoes rise to the top. So, the categorization is done based on the rough road”

This is the law of potato: Difficulties of life are there to make us better and not bitter.

It is a law of life. Big potatoes rise to the top on rough roads, and tough people rise to the top in rough times. When we face difficulties in life, we need to remember that every season in life will pass. We can be happy in life, no matter what.

After night, there is morning. There is sun rise after every sunset. Likewise, after every period of difficulty, there is peace. We need to remember:

Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do!