സീ‍നറി കണ്ടു മരിക്കാം - ഓഷൊ പറഞ്ഞ കഥ.

സസ്സെക് സിലെ ഒരു കടൽത്തീര വിനോദകേന്ദ്രം. വിനോദസഞ്ചാരത്തിനെത്തിയ നാണം കുണുങ്ങിയായ ഒരു ചെറുപ്പക്കാരൻ അവിടെയുള്ള കിഴുക്കാംതൂക്കായി നില്കുന്ന പാറമേൽ കയറുകയായിരുന്നു. അതിന്റെ അറ്റത്തോളം പോകാൻ അവൻ ഭയം മൂലം മടിച്ച് നിന്നു. അവനെ ഉത്സാഹിപ്പിച്ചുകൊണ്ടു നിൽകുന്ന വഴികാട്ടിയോട് (ഗൈഡ്) അയാൾ ചോദിച്ചു. “കാൽ തെറ്റി താഴെ വീണാൽ ഞാൻ എന്തു ചെയ്യും?’‘. “പേടിക്കേണ്ട. തഴെക്കു വീഴുമ്പോൾ വലത്തോട്ട് നോക്കിയാൽ മതി.” “എന്നാലോ?” “നല്ലൊരു മനോഹരമായൊരു സീനറി കണ്ടുകൊണ്ട് നിങ്ങൾക്ക് വീണു മരിക്കാം.” ഉന്മേഷവാനായ ആ വഴികാട്ടി, ചെറുപ്പക്കാരനോടു പറഞ്ഞൂ.

മുളയുടെ മരണം; ഉറവകളുടേയും. - ചെറിയപ്പിള്ളിയുടെ ചരിത്രം-3

മുളങ്കൂട്ടങ്ങള്‍ നിറഞ്ഞ നാടായിരുന്നു കുറെ കാലം മുന്പു വരെ നമ്മുടെ ചെറിയപ്പിള്ളി.

ജനങ്ങളബ്ദു --ചെറിയപ്പിള്ളിയുടെ ചരിത്രം-2

ചെറിയ്പ്പിള്ളിയിലെ പാടുകാരനാണ് അബ്ദു. “ജനങ്ങളബ്ദു“ എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞാലെ അറിയു. സ്വയം പരിചയപ്പെടുത്തുന്നതും ഇതെ പേരില്‍. പൈങ്ങാ കച്ചവടം നടത്തിയിരുന്നു.കച്ചവടം എന്നു പറഞ്ഞാല്‍ ഒരു ചാക്കും തോളില്‍ തൂക്കിയുള്ള ഒരു യാത്ര. ഇത് തൊഴിലായി സ്വീകരിച്ച മട്ടില്ല. അതും ചെയ്യൂ‍ന്നു എന്നു മാത്രം. ചിരിച്ചു കൊണ്ടല്ലാതെ സംസാരിക്കില്ല. ഇയാളെ ആര്‍ക്കും പരിഹസിക്കാം. അതിലും പുള്ളിക്കാരന്‍ ഒരു രസം കണ്ടെത്തും. കോലന്‍ മുടി. പഴുതാര മീശ. മുറിക്കയ്യന്‍ ഷര്‍ട്ട്. ഒറ്റ മുണ്ട്. മുടിയും ആളൂം പപ്പ്രച്ഛ. അലഞ്ഞു നടപ്പ്. സദാ സര്‍വത്ത്ര സര്‍വതിനോടും തൂമന്ദഹാസം. ജനങ്ങളെ ഒരു പാട്ടൂ പാടിയേ. പറയേണ്ട താമസം, ദാ പാടിക്കഴിഞ്ഞു. കോപ്പിറൈറ്റ് ഇല്ലാത്ത പാട്ട്. ആര്‍ക്കും പാടാം.

അള്ളോ യീ പട്ടിനെ വേഗം തല്ലിക്കൊല്ലന്നേ വാ എന്നു പറഞ്ഞപ്പ വാപ്പാനെ കടിച്ച് ഉ എന്നു പറഞ്ഞപ്പ ഉമ്മാനേം കടിച്ച് പള്ളീന്നെറങ്ങിയ മൊയല്യാരേം കടിച്ച് .....

അള്ളോയീ പട്ടിനെ.....

ഓണപ്പാട്ടുകള്‍ പാടുന്നതിലും മഹാ വിരുതനായിരുന്നു അബ്ദു. നിമിഷം കൊണ്ട് ഉണ്ടാക്കി പാടി മറ്റുള്ളവരെ അമ്പരപ്പിക്കാനും അബ്ദുവിനാകും. രാമായണത്തിലെ ഹനുമാന്‍ -രാവണ സംവാദം അബ്ദുവിന്റെ പാട്ടില്‍..... എന്താടാ രാവണാ നീ സീതനെ കക്കാന്‍ കാരണം നിന്നോടാരു പറഞ്ഞിട്ടാ തരവഴി കാട്ടി നടക്കണത്... ഇതിനു രാവണന്റെ മറുപടി, എന്നോടാരും പറഞ്ഞില്ല, എന്റെ മനസ്സി തോന്നീട്ടാ ......... അനവധി പാട്ടുകള്‍ ഇതു പോലെ ഉണ്ട്. എല്ലാം അബ്ദുവിനൊപ്പം മറഞ്ഞു പോയി. ലോറിയും ടെമ്പോയും വരുന്നതിനു മുമ്പ് വഞ്ചിയിലായിരുന്നു ചരക്കുകള്‍ വന്നിരുന്നത്. വഞ്ചിക്കാരെ പറ്റി ഒരു പാട്ട്. വഞ്ചിക്കാരന്‍ മീ‍രാന്‍ കാക്ക രണ്ടാം കെട്ടിനു കൂട് കെട്ടി കൊണ്ടോട്ടി ചെന്നൊരു പെണ്ണിനെ കണ്ട്.... പെണ്ണു കണ്ടാല്‍ അഴകുണ്ട്, വീടു കണ്ടാല്‍ അഴകുണ്ട്, അമ്മായിഅമ്മടെ മോറു കണ്ടാല്‍..... അങ്ങൊട്ടെങ്ങും അടുക്കൂലേ.......... ഈ പാട്ടു തന്നെ ലേശം മാറ്റിയും പാടാറുണ്ട്. അബ്ദു വണ്ടി വലിക്കുന്നവരെ കണ്ടാല്‍ വഞ്ചിക്കാരന്‍ മീരാന്‍ കാക്ക എന്നത് മാറ്റി വണ്ടിക്കാരന്‍ പൈലിച്ചേട്ട്ന്‍ എന്നാക്കും. ഹ ഇതെന്താ മാറ്റിപ്പാടണത് എന്ന് ചോദിച്ചപ്പോള്‍ അബ്ദു പറഞ്ഞു. പാട്ടു പാടണത് പാടണവനു വേണ്ടിയല്ല. കേള്‍ക്കണവണനു വേണ്ടിയാണ് പാട്ട്........ പെര്‍ഫോമന്‍സിന്റെ പ്രാധാന്യം പുള്ളിക്കാരന് അറിയാമായിരുന്നു. അയ്യപ്പപ്ണിക്കരുടെ കവിതയില്‍ പറയും പോലെ “കഥ കേള്‍പ്പോരുടെ കാതിന്‍ നീളം, കവിയുടെ നാവിനുമുണ്ടെന്നാകില്‍ മുഷിവറിയില്ല,,,,” ജനത്തിനെ രസിപ്പിക്കുന്നത് ജന്മാവകാശമാണെന്ന മട്ടില്‍ ആര്‍ക്കു മുന്നിലും പാട്ടായി പ്രത്യക്ഷപ്പെട്ട അബ്ദുവിന്റെ ജീവിതം, നിലത്ത് തൂവിപ്പോയ പാലു പോലെയായിരുന്നു. സ്വയം തീര്‍ത്തതും വന്നു ഭവിച്ചതുമായ കൊടുംതീമഴക്കാലം, നാടന്‍ പാട്ടിന്റെ കീറക്കുട ചൂടി മുറിച്ചു കടക്കാനാകില്ലല്ലോ..... തീരാ ദുരിതങ്ങള്‍ നിരന്തരം വേട്ടയാടുമ്പോഴും, നടക്കുന്ന വഴി മുഴുവന്‍ നാടന്‍ ശീലുകളാല്‍ നിറച്ച, വിരസവും ശുഷ്കവുമായ നാട്ടുജീവിതത്തെ പാടിപ്പൊലിപ്പിച്ച ജനങ്ങളബ്ദുവിനെ ആരെങ്കിലും ഓര്‍ക്കുന്നുണ്ടൊ ആവൊ........

20 quotes that are simply motivating- compiled by john anyasor

As quotes regularly motivate and inspire us, I’ve compiled a list of 20 quotes (most of which I’ve never heard of before). I’ll let the quotes do the rest of the talking. Enjoy!

1. We are what we repeatedly do. Therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit. –Aristotle

2. “Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain

3. “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” – Michelangelo

4. “As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.” – Leonardo da Vinci

5. “Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.” –E. Joseph Cossman

6. “Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.”

7. “I would much rather have regrets about not doing what people said, than regretting not doing what my heart led me to and wondering what life had been like if I’d just been myself.” – Brittany Renée

8. “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” –Rabindranath Tagore

9. “Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.” – Oscar Wilde

10. “The one who smiles rather than angers is always stronger.” – David Schary

11. “If you only do what you know you can do- you never do very much.” –Tom Krause

12. “Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” – John Jakes

13. “To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are.”

14. “We have no right to ask when a sorrow comes, ‘Why did this happen to me?’ unless we ask the same question for every joy that comes our way.”

15. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.” – Albert Schweitzer

16. “What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

17. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” –Donald Laird

18. “Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things” – Frank A. Clark

19. “I still feel like I gotta prove something. There are a lot of people hoping I fail. I like that. I need to be hated.” – Howard Stern

20. “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” – James Dean

courtesy: http://hilife2b.com/blog . Read the blogs in this site, and get inspired. Quotes reveal to us a hitherto unknown horizon and the brevity in expressing familiarise an unknown continent. With deep felt gratitude I post this.

The Book of Cosmos -a poem by YANNIS YFANTIS

A difficult but frequently asked question that a writer faces is - ''why do you write?"

At times, the writer gets provoked and dismisses the question. But that question is answered in a

beautiful way by the Greek Poet Yannis Yfantis.

THE BOOK OF COSMOS

Only one book has been written

and it has been written by things and not by words

Only one book has been written

and it has been written by Cosmos through Cosmos for Cosmos.

Cosmos is the book of Cosmos.

Cosmos has no beginning and no end

but when the poet reveals Cosmos

It looks like creating Cosmos from the beginning.

There is only one book to be read

and this is the book of Cosmos.

To write means to read the book of Cosmos.

All my writings are nothing but underlines in the book of Cosmos.

All my writings are nothing but designs, notes, on the margin of its pages.

To write means to point out to the people

to try to share with them

the beauty or the horror I read in the book of Cosmos.

For no one can bear to read the book of Cosmos alone.

Yannis Yfantis:-

Greek Poet and author of Temple of Cosmos (1996)

Courtesy This too was published in the Journal of Literature & Aesthetics, July – December2001, Vol.1 and No.1 under the chief editorship of Dr. S. Sreenivasan, the veteran English Professor in Kollam. I got the old copy of the Journal from Hari Books Karunagappally.

GANAESHA a poem by R.PARTHASARATHY

Simply for the childlike inquisitiveness which is wonderfully depicted in it, I post the poem.

During the festival season in Kerala, the newspapers are flooded with the cruelties and offences committed towards the temple elephants and the ordeals that they undergo in the scorching heat of summer sun in the name of festivals and enjoyments. Our poet Sugathakumari has fervently appealed several times to stop this outrageous atrocities committed against the poor animals but in vain. Now see, even the Lord of Animals (Pasupati- Lord Shiva) has also done the same thing.Yes... no one is bothered to find what happened to the elephant.

Now read " GANAESHA a poem by R.PARTHASARATHY"

.

The god Shiva did not take kindly to it.

Who was this whelp trying to stop him,

from entering his wife Uma’s bath?

Ganesha’s rashness cost him his head.

A distraught Uma vowed to get even.

Where was her husband, she cried,

when she made the boy

from the scurf of her own sweet body?

The Lord of Animals then planted

hastily an elephant’s head on his son,

who rode off snorting

into the sunset on, of all things, a mouse.

And no one ever bothered to find out

what happened to the elephant.

Whose head, you wonder, will roll next?

R. Parthasarathy:-

An Indian poet, editor and translator, and lives in New York.

Works:- 1. Rough Passages

2. The Tale of an Anklet: an Epic of South India (translation)

Courtesy: It was published in the Journal of Literature & Aesthetics, July – December2001, Vol.1 and No.1 under the chief editorship of Dr. S, Sreenivasan, the veteran English Professor in Kollam. I got the old copy of the Journal from Hari Books Karunagappally

Trees --

Joyce Kilmer. 1886–1918

Trees

I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,	5
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.	10
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree. This poem has inspired many and several videos are produced and are available in You tube. In various web sites on poetry this poem is available. simply to promote the environmental awareness with spirituality I post this with courtesy

The famous Letter of Chief of Seattle

"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land.

But how can you buy or sell the sky, the land?

The idea is strange to us.

If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people.

Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. all are holy in the memory and experience of my people.

We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins.

We are part of the earth and it is part of us.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters.

The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers.

The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors.

If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred.

Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people.

The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.
The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst.

They carry our canoes and feed our children.

So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother.

If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports.

The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh.

The wind also gives our children the spirit of life.

So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children?

That the earth is our mother?

What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.

All things are connected like the blood that unites us all.

Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

One thing we know: our God is also your God.

The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
Your destiny is a mystery to us.

What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed?

What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires?

Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone!

And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt?

The end of living and the beginning of survival.

When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here?

Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?

We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat.

So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it.

Care for it, as we have cared for it.

Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it.

Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us.
As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land.

This earth is precious to us.

It is also precious to you.
One thing we know - there is only one God.

No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart.

We ARE all brothers after all."

***** ****** ****** ***** ***** ***** **** ***** ***** **** %%%%%%%%%%%****** ***** ******* ********

Chief Seattle's
LETTER TO ALL

Chief Seattle (more correctly known as Seathl) was a Susquamish chief who lived on the islands of the Puget Sound. As a young warrior, Chief Seattle was known for his courage, daring and leadership. He gained control of six of the local tribes and continued the friendly relations with the local whites that had been established by his father. His now famous speech was believed to have been given in December, 1854. There are several versions of his letter; the following was provided by Barefoot Bob. The gemerally accepted version of speech was published in the Irsih Times on 04-06-1976. But the genuiness of the letter is controversial. It is said that the speech was actually written by a Hollywood screen writer in the 1970’s for the movie “Home – Four Wagons West”. There are lot of controversies over this much publicized letter.It has almost achieved a mythical dimension. As always, myths die hard. Whoever wrote this, it serves as a good striking weapon in the hands of vibrant environment movement. That is why I post it here. It serves a good purpose, then it should be read and reread again and again.

DADDY - a poem by Sylvia Plath

DADDY

You do not do, you do not do

Any more, black shoe

In which I have lived like a foot

For thirty years, poor and white,

Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Daddy, I have had to kill you.

You died before I had time--

Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,

Ghastly statue with one gray toe

Big as a Frisco seal

And a head in the freakish Atlantic

Where it pours bean green over blue

In the waters off beautiful Nauset.

I used to pray to recover you.

Ach, du.

In the German tongue, in the Polish town

Scraped flat by the roller

Of wars, wars, wars.

But the name of the town is common.

My Polack friend

Says there are a dozen or two.

So I never could tell where you

Put your foot, your root,

I never could talk to you.

The tongue stuck in my jaw.

It stuck in a barb wire snare.

Ich, ich, ich, ich,

I could hardly speak.

I thought every German was you.

And the language obscene

An engine, an engine

Chuffing me off like a Jew.

A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.

I began to talk like a Jew.

I think I may well be a Jew.

The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna

Are not very pure or true.

With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck

And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack

I may be a bit of a Jew.

I have always been scared of you,

With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.

And your neat mustache

And your Aryan eye, bright blue.

Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You--

Not God but a swastika

So black no sky could squeak through.

Every woman adores a Fascist,

The boot in the face, the brute

Brute heart of a brute like you.

You stand at the blackboard, daddy,

In the picture I have of you,

A cleft in your chin instead of your foot

But no less a devil for that, no not

Any less the black man who

Bit my pretty red heart in two.

I was ten when they buried you.

At twenty I tried to die

And get back, back, back to you.

I thought even the bones would do.

But they pulled me out of the sack,

And they stuck me together with glue.

And then I knew what to do.

I made a model of you,

A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.

And I said I do, I do.

So daddy, I'm finally through.

The black telephone's off at the root,

The voices just can't worm through.

If I've killed one man, I've killed two--

The vampire who said he was you

And drank my blood for a year,

Seven years, if you want to know.

Daddy, you can lie back now.

There's a stake in your fat black heart

And the villagers never liked you.

They are dancing and stamping on you.

They always knew it was you.

Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.

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when you skip through the pages of news papers and stream through the channel news , one may find many a fathers are now languishing in jails for the crimes and offences they committed to their innocent little daughters. This poem may offend many, but it is a sad but true statement in harsh words. And it should be said so. Detailed studies are available in various web sites and also in wikipedia.

posted with the intention to make the fathers more sensible.....!

SpiritualStories by Anthony de Mello

1. Socrates And the Marketplace

True philosopher that he, as, Socrates believed that the wise person would instinctively lead a frugal life. He himself would not even wear shoes; yet he fell under the spell of the marketplace and would go there often to look at all the wares on display.

When one of his friends asked why, Socrates said: "I love to go there and discover how many things I am perfectly happy without."

2. True Satisfaction.

A Quaker had this sign put on a vacant piece of land next to his home: "THIS LAND WILL BE GIVEN TO ANYONE WHO IS TRULY SATISFIED."

A wealthy farmer who was riding by, stopped to read the sign and said to himself, "Since our friend the Quaker is so ready to part with this plot, I might as well claim it before someone else does. I am a rich man and have all I need, so I certainly qualify."

With that he went up to the door and explained what he was there for. "And art thou truly satisfied?" the Quaker asked.

"I am, indeed, for I have everything I need."

"Friends," said the Quaker, "if thou art satisfied, what dost thou want the land for?"

3. BUDDHA Threatened By Death.

Buddha was once threatened with death by a bandit called Angulimal.

"Then be good enough to fulfill my dying wish," said Buddha. "Cut off the branch of that tree."

One slash of the sword, and it was done! "What now?" asked the bandit.

Put it back again," said Buddha.

The bandit laughed. "You must be crazy to think anyone can do that."

"On the contrary, it is you who are crazy to think that you are mighty because you can wound and destroy. That is the task of children. The mighty know how to create and heal."

4. A Miser’s Death

A miser had accumulated five hundred thousand dinars and looked forward to a year of pleasant living before he made up his mind how best to invest his money, when suddenly the Angel of Death appeared before him to take his life away.

The man begged and pleaded and used a thousand arguments to be allowed to live a little longer, but the angel was obdurate. "Give me three days of life and I shall give you half my fortune," the man pleaded. The angel wouldn't hear of it and began to tug at him.

"Give me just one day, I beg of you, and you can have everything I accumlated through so much sweat and toil."

The angel was adamant still.

He was able to wring just one little concession from the angel.A few moments in which to write down this note:

"Oh you, whoever you are that happen to find this note, if you have enough to live on, don't waste your life accumulating fortunes. Live!

My five hundred thousand dinars could not buy me a single hour of life!"

5. A Damned Devotee.

The devotee knelt to be initiated into discipleship. The guru whispered the sacred mantra into his ear, warning him not to reveal it to anyone.

"What will happen if I do?" asked the devotee.

Said the guru, "Anyone you reveal the mantra to will be liberated from the bondage of ignorance and suffering, but you yourself will be excluded from discipleship and suffer damnation."

No sooner had he heard those words, than the devotee rushed to the marketplace, collected a large crowd around him, and repeated the sacred mantra for all to hear.

The disciples later reported this to the guru and demanded that the man be expelled from the monastery for his disobedience.

The guru smiled and said, "He has no need of anything I can teach. His action has shown him to be a guru in his own right."

6. Going to Heaven.

A priest walked into a pub, indignant to find so many of his parishioners there. He rounded them up and shepherded them into the church.

The he solemnly said, "All those who want to go to heaven, step over here to the left." Everyone stepped over except one man, who stubbornly stood his ground.

The priest looked at him firecely and said, "Don't you want to go to heaven?"
"No," said the man.
"Do you mean to stand there and tell me you don't want to go to heaven when you die?"
"Of course I want to go to heaven when I die. I thought you were going now!"

7. Nagarjuna and Thief

The great Buddhist saint Nagarjuna moved around naked except for a loincloth and, incongruously, a golden begging bowl gifted to him by the King, who was his disciple.

One night he was about to lie down to sleep among the ruins of an ancient monastery when he noticed a thief lurking behind one of the columns. "Here, take this," said Nagarjuna, holding the begging bowl. "That way you won't disturb me once I have fallen asleep."

The thief eagerly grabbed the bowl and made off, only to return the next morning with the bowl and a request:

"When you gave away this bowl so freely last night, you made me feel very poor. Teach me how to acquire the riches that make this kind of lighthearted detachment possible."

8. Nonoko and Thief

There was an old Zen master called Nonoko who lived alone in a hut at the foot of a mountain. One night while Nonoko was sitting in meditation, a stranger broke into the hut and, brandishing a sword, demanded Nonoko's money.

Nonoko did not interrupt his meditation while he addressed the man:

"All my money is in a bowl on the shelf up there. Take all you need, but leave me five yen. I have to pay my taxes next week."

The stranger emptied the bowl of all the money it held and threw five yen back into it. He also helped himself to a precious vase he found on the shelf.

"Carry that vase with care," said Nonoko. "It will crack easily."

The stranger looked around the small barren room once more and was going to leave.

"You haven't said thank you," said Nonoko.

The man said thank you and left. The next day the whole village was in turmoil. Many people claimed they had been robbed. Someone noticed the vase missing from the shelf in Nonoko's hut and asked if he, too, had been the victim of the burglar.

"Oh, no," said Nonoko. "I gave the vase to a stranger, along with some money. He thanked me and left. He was a pleasant enough sort of fellow, but a bit careless with his sword!"

9. Sufi and the Inn

Sufi of forbidding appearance arrived at the doors of the palace. No one dared to stop him as he made his way right up to the throne on which the saintly Ibrahim ben Adam sat.

"What is it you want?" asked the King.

"A place to sleep in this inn."

"This is no inn. This is my palace."

"May I ask who owned this place before you?"

"My father. He is dead."

"And who owned it before him?"

"My grandfather. He is dead too."

"And this place where people lodge for a brief while and move on—did I hear you say it was not an inn?"

10. Heart of a Mouse.

A mouse was in constant distress because of its fear of the cat. A magician took pity on it and turned it into a cat. But then it became afraid of the dog.

So the magician turned it into a dog. Then it began to fear the panther, so the magician turned it into a panther. Whereupon it was full of fear for the hunter.

At this point, the magician gave up. He turned it into a mouse again saying, "Nothing I do for you is going to be of any help because you have the heart of a mouse."

11. Only a Visitor

In the last century, a tourist from the States visited the famous Polish rabbi Hafez Hayyim. He was astonished to see that the rabbi's home was only a simple room filled with books. The only furniture was a table and a bench.

"Rabbi, where is your furniture?" asked the tourist.
"Where is yours?" replied Hafez.
"Mine? But I'm only a visitor here."
"So am I," said the rabbi.

12. Realism.

A gambler once said to the Master, "I was caught cheating at cards yesterday, so my partners beat me up and threw me out of the window. What would you advise me to do?"

The Master looked straight through the man and said, "If I were you, from now on I would play on the ground floor."

This startled the disciples. "Why didn't you tell him to stop gambling?" they demanded.

"Because I knew he wouldn't," was the Master's simple and sagacious explanation.

13. Hyena and Monkey.

A monkey and a hyena were walking through the forest when he hyena said, "Each time I pass by those bushes there, a lion jumps out of them and mauls me. I don't know why."

"I'll walk with you this time," said the monkey, "and side with you against the lion."

So they started to walk past the bushes when the lion pounced on the hyena and nearly mauled it to death. Meanwhile, the monkey watched the proceedings from the safety of a tree that he had run up the moment the lion appeared.

"Why didn't you do something to help me?" moaned the hyena.

Said the monkey, "You were laughing so much I thought you were winning."

14. MOTION.

To the disciples who were always asking for words of wisdom the Master said, "Wisdom is not expressed in words. It reveals itself in action."

But when he saw them plunge headlong into activity, he laughed and said, "That isn't action. That's motion."

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.................whenever you feel down and find nothing inspiring, try to read the stories posted in the following web site. it will surely enliven and enthuse you. ........... a good site to better your outlook & perspective

http://www.spiritual-short-stories.com/spiritual-short-story

posted with courtesy and gratitude