The Magical Begging Bowl.

A beggar knocks on the door of an emperor; it is early morning. The emperor was coming out for a morning walk in his beautiful garden; otherwise it would have been difficult for the beggar to have an appointment with him. But there was no mediator to prevent him. 

The emperor said, "What do you want?" The beggar said, "Before you ask that, think twice!" The emperor has never seen such a lion of a man; he has fought wars, has won victories, has made it clear that nobody is more powerful than him, but suddenly this beggar says to him, "Think twice of what you are saying, because you may not be able to fulfil it!" 

The king said, "Don't be worried, that is my concern; you ask what you want, it will be done!" 

The beggar said, "You see my begging bowl? I want it to be filled! It does not matter with what, the only condition is that it should be filled, it should be full. You can still say no, but if you say yes, then you are taking a risk." 

The emperor laughed. Just a beggar's bowl... and he is being given a warning? He told his premier to fill the beggar's bowl with diamonds, so that this beggar would know who he was asking. 

The beggar again said, "Think twice." And soon it became apparent that the beggar was right, because the moment the diamonds were poured into his begging bowl they simply disappeared! 

The word began to spread like wildfire in the capital; thousands of people arrived to watch. When the precious stones were finished the king said, "Bring out all the gold and silver, everything! My whole kingdom, my whole integrity is being challenged." But by the evening everything had disappeared and there were only two beggars left--one used to be the emperor. 

The emperor said, "Before I ask your forgiveness for not listening to your warning, please tell me the secret of this begging bowl." 

The beggar said, "There is no secret. I have polished it, made it look like a bowl, but it is a human skull. You go on pouring anything into it and it disappears." 

 

IOU - Hard Work

Buddha and his disciples begged for their food.

One day a rich man was very rough with Buddha and told him off by saying, "Aren't you ashamed that you beg? You don't believe in hard work like I do. You are lazy and depend on others for food. Tell me why I must give you something?"

Buddha replied, "I do a lot of hard work much harder than others do."

The rich man said, 'But I don't see that."

Buddha, "I work very hard to train my mind to remain empty but fully attentive. It is very hard work. Try to do it for a minute and you would realize how hard it is. I do it for 24 hours a day. Since my work involves the mind you don't see it.'

"How does that help?" the rich man asked.

Buddha reassuringly replied, "Well, when you change your inside your outside world changes. You become the master of all that you do and you can put an end to your sufferings. It is worth more than all the riches of the world that you may collect. But hard work is needed"

The rich man realized the truth and immebecame Buddha's disciple.

 

Great Indian Stories - retold

 

Happiness -- Where is it?

Deep was a poor man. One day, by chance, he found a big and bright diamond. But he could not find any use of it. So he thought about someone who might need it most and be momentarily happy to receive this diamond as a gift.

After some hard thinking he thought of someone. He took the diamond to the King and presented him the biggest and largest diamond the king had ever seen in his life.

The king was amazed by this act and asked, 'Why do you present me with such an invaluable diamond?'

"Oh King! I thought it would make you very happy." Deep replied.

'How do you know that? You could have kept it yourself'

'No Sir, I have no need for this. I thought of the neediest person who might need this diamond to be happy. And it was you. Because you are the poorest amongst all of us. You need so many things and is always hunting for so many other things in life. So you always lack happiness"

Indian stories retold -- Nagarjuna, A letter to a friend.

Morale:

Happiness can never be obtained by relating our worth to the external environment. However, it can always be achieved by anyone who takes care to continually adjust and refine the internal workings of the mind (the structure that causes everything to happen around a person). It is not easy but worth a try. As Buddha said there are only two mistakes one can make in not achieving a sense of balance, flow and happiness -- a) not start the journey b) not to finish it.