Problems and Opportunity

 BUDDHA WAS WALKING through a forest. The woodcutters who were cutting wood nearby ran to him and said, `Stop, please stop! There is a terrible demon in the forest. He is a cannibal who eats human flesh! After eating a person, he cuts of the thumb and keeps it safe. In this way, he has so far collected 999 thumbs. He needs just one more to make it 1000. His plan is, once the final thumb is collected, to string them all up and wear them around his neck! So please do not go into the forest. If you go, it would be a big problem for you!’
To that, Buddha replied, `I would get no better opportunity than this!’ and entered deep into the forest. As expected, the demon felled a huge branch of a banyan tree and appeared in front of Buddha in a cloud of dust. But Buddha did not run away like others in fright. He stood strong, firm and said, `if killing gives you pleasure, you please do so! I accept the fact that you are really strong. But one thing….Though you have the strength to break the branch of a banyan tree, you can never attach it back to that tree. It is very easy to destroy…but difficult to join!’
`You know the art of destroying; I know the art of joining!’ Buddha replied. More than his words, the truth and compassion touched the demon deeply. After that, he became the disciple of Buddha. He was Anguli Mala
The truth of the tale is very simple. The demon was not a `problem’ for Buddha; instead it was an opportunity to protect the villagers from further misery. That is all!
Life is not something that happens according to a planned agenda. It is a procession of unexpected opportunities! In fact each problem is an opportunity for us.
For some, even small matters appear to be giant problems. There are many who view even a small matter through a magnifying glass and get terrified.
A woman approached a Monk and said, ` My son refuses to listen anything that I say. If this continues, he may not even marry the girl I choose for him!’ He asked the woman to bring her son next day and as asked the son was brought. That little boy was refusing to eat… he was drawing pictures when asked to write A…B…C.’ her question was, as he was not obeying her in such trivial matters presently, how could she expect him to listen her words when he grew up into adulthood?
The farsighted fear was her problem! There are also other types of people…those who do not stop at viewing the problem with fear; but also magnify it out of proportion. It is like a monkey which, when bruised, does not leave the bruise alone. It continues to scratch till the bruise turns into a big wound; some even die from such wounds.
It is true we may face problems at times, in our lives, unlike the aforesaid examples. During such moments, there are two possible ways out for us. One, catch the bull by the horn and directly confront a problem. We may come over the problem or the problem could overcome us!
View the problem as it is. Don’t inflate it by your fear thoughts. Do not consider the problem as a punishment. You will definitely suffer. Take it as a challenge. You will be energized!

 

HOW CAN WE BE HAPPY?

Once a group of 50 people was attending a seminar.
Suddenly the speaker stopped and decided to do a group activity. He started giving each one a balloon. Each one was asked to write his/her name on it using a marker pen. Then all the balloons were collected and put in another room.

Now these delegates were let in that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written, within 5 minutes. Everyone was frantically searching for their name, colliding with each other, pushing around others and there was utter chaos.

At the end of 5 minutes no one could find their own balloon.

Now each one was asked to randomly collect a balloon and give it to the person whose name was written on it.

Within minutes everyone had their own balloon.

The speaker began— exactly this is happening in our lives. Everyone is frantically looking for happiness all around, not knowing where it is.

Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. Give them their happiness; you will get your own happiness.

And this is the purpose of human life.

10 Self Improvement Activities

    These self improvement activities will help you become more productive, get into the positive state of mind and achieve better quality of life.

    In this article you will also find out how to use your energy effectively, what is the quickest way to achieve personal growth and how to excel in every activity.

    1st Self Improvement Activity: Use your energy on important things

    If you want to succeed in life, you should not waste your energy on activities that do not bring any benefits.

    Such useless activities include surfing the Internet without any purpose, watching TV, worrying and wasting money.

    When you are involved in such activities, you have no or little energy left for activities that can create a better future. It is worth prioritising and accomplishing important tasks first, and then if you still have enough energy, you may decide to do the unimportant.

    2nd Self Improvement Activity: Focus on one task at a time

    If you want to get perfect results, you should only concentrate on one activity. This way all your energy will go into it and you will accomplish it perfectly.

    If you waste your energy on several things at the same time, you will get average results because you will divide your energy between the activities.

    3rd Self Improvement Activity: Control your thinking

    To avoid chaos in your mind resulting in chaos in the outside world, you should try to observe your thoughts. Once you start doing that, you will notice how many negative thoughts you get daily.

    By observing negative thinking you will be able to emotionally disengage from it. As a result, negative thinking will affect you less and you will notice that your days are getting more peaceful and positive.

    4th Self Improvement Activity: Get organised

    When you live in an organised manner, you do not suffer from stress and your life is peaceful and balanced.

    To start living this way, you should start planning your day in advance. This will eliminate any stress caused by being late to a meeting or forgetting to complete some task.

    You should also live in tidiness because by keeping your home clean you also keep your mental state clear and peaceful. Such mental state will benefit you in many ways, including improved memory and less negativity.

    5th Self Improvement Activity: Live in the present

    Although this self improvement activity may seem strange to you, it is a very important activity that many ignore. The majority of people do not live in the present. They either dwell on their past or daydream about the future. They seem to forget the most important time of all - the present.

    You should enjoy every present moment because your current state of mind always manifests in the outside world, creating your future accordingly.

    Therefore if your main mood is very positive, you will experience only happy days. However, if you dwell on negative thoughts, you are sure to encounter many obstacles and misfortunes in the present and days to come.

    6th Self Improvement Activity: Complete each task in a perfect manner

    Whenever you are working on some project, try to accomplish it in the best way possible. Always ask yourself 'Is this project turned out as perfect as it could possibly be?' If the answer is no, try to correct or add something to it until there is nothing that you can improve.

    This way you will make sure that each single task you accomplish is done in an excellent manner. By doing this you will create successful future because you cannot possibly fail if you only get perfect results.

    Also, when you entirely focus on one task excluding everything else, you will notice that you start enjoying the task. If you concentrate on the task but still do not enjoy it, that means that you probably see the task as a means to an end rather than the process.

    You should start focusing on the process itself to find enjoyment in the task. Such enjoyment will fuel motivation and you will accomplish everything quicker and better.

    If you enjoy your work, you will put only positive energy into it. As a result, your completed tasks will bring you success.

    7th Self Improvement Activity: Challenge yourself

    Nothing develops you more than challenges. Challenges force you to shift your comfort zone, experience new situations and make you grow. Without challenges life would be very boring and depressing.

    Challenges are necessary for every human being who is seeking quality life. Only through trial and error you realise who you really are, which activities you like and what preferences you have.

    You can easily measure the success of a person by the amount of challenges s/he had.

    8th Self Improvement Activity: Read personal development books

    There is nothing more important than searching information about self improvement. Without reading any self improvement books or articles you cannot improve yourself.

    9th Self Improvement Activity: Socialize only with positive people

    Positive people can inspire, empower and make you happy. It is so much worth to be at least once in a while with positive people rather than constantly spend time with negative friends or relatives.

    If you spend your days with, for example, lazy people, you may notice that you are becoming lazy.

    If all your friends' main qualities are negative, try to avoid all of them. This way you will not be affected in a negative way and after some time will start attracting positive people.

    10th Self Improvement Activity: Exercise

   Daily exercise develops determination, focus and patience. It improves your health and strengthens your body. It makes you more active, positive and invincible.

    People who exercise every day are always perceived as strong-willed and disciplined.

    Conclusion

    These personal improvement activities are sure to put you on the track to success. I hope that you will apply the steps in this article and, as a result, will greatly improve the quality of your life.

Determination and Persistence !!

This is a real life story of engineer John Roebling building the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, USA back in 1870. The bridge was completed in 1883, after 13 years.


In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was also injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to talk or walk.

“We told them so.” “Crazy men and their crazy dreams.” “It’s foolish to chase wild visions.”

Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built.

In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever. He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task.

As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.

It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.

He touched his wife’s arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.

For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife’s arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man’s indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.

Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.

Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realised with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.

A Very Funny hypocrite Situation (MUST READ)

In a small town in America, a person decided to open up his bar business, which was right opposite to a church. The church & its congregation started a campaign to block the bar from opening with
petitions and prayed daily against his business. Work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and was about to open a few days later, a strong lightning struck the bar and it was burnt to the ground. The church folk were rather smug in their outlook after that, till The bar owner sued the church authorities for $2million on the grounds that the church through its congregation & prayers was ultimately responsible For the demise of his bar shop, either through direct or indirect actions or means. In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection that their prayers were reasons to the bar shop’s demise. In support of their claim they referred to the
Benson study at Harvard that inter-cessionary prayer had no impact ! As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork and at the hearing and commented:

‘I don’t know how I am going to decide this case, but it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and we have an entire church and its devotees that doesn’t.’

GOD's "NO"

When God gives us 'NO'
for an answer Keep in mind
that there is a much greater 'YES' behind it.
His 'NO' is not a 'REJECTION', But a 'REDIRECTION'

Ultimate Though

" Life is a question,nobody can answer it" AND " Death is an answer,Nobody can Question it"