A GREAT PLACE FOR YOU TO MOVE

A SHORT INSPIRATIONAL STORY THAT CAN  BRING HAPPINESS IN YOUR LIFE

BUDDHA AND A GRIEF STRICKEN WOMEN STORY

THE RIGHT WAY TO BSOLVE PROBLEM IN YOUR LIFE

SEE HOW EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING FOR YOUR GOOD

THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO YOUR SUCCESS

HUNDRED CAMELS AND A MONK STORY

POWER OF SILENCE

THE SECOND ARROW OF SUFFERING

GOD'S PLAN FOR YOU IS BETTER THAN YOUR PLAN FOR YOURSELF

HOW TO STOP THE MIND'S CHATTER

Buddha and the criminal story

HOW TO SAVE YOUR RELATIONSHIP FROM FALLING APART

YOU CAN NOT STOP YOURSELF FROM PRACTISING MEDITATION ONCE YOU KNOW THIS

LAW WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE

NEVER FEEL SORROW

WHO I AM? The most important question of your life. Once upon a time, there lived a great king. He had learned a lot about buddha. Sometimes he wanted to go and meet buddha. His wife had been a disciple of Buddha for a long time, Even before she was married to the king. It happened that one day Buddha came to the king's capital. His wife said to him.” It doesn't look right that when a man like Buddha comes to your capital”.” you won’t even go to welcome him”. Therefore, I am going to see him”. When I meet him, he is sure to ask about you. What should I say then? You should also go and see him. King thought for a moment and said “OK”. I will also come to welcome him to our kingdom. but I am meeting him for the first time. I would like to give him some presents.  King thought for a moment then proudly said” I have a very precious diamond, no one else has that kind of diamond”.” if I take it as a gift then buddha will definitely appreciate it”. His wife started laughing and said rather than a diamond, it would be better if you just took a fresh lotus flower from a pond. I have known Buddha and followed him for a long time. Therefore I know that for buddha lotus flower is more beautiful than a diamond. Buddha is an enlightened monk, what will he do with a diamond, it will be an unnecessary burden. the king replied,” OK, then I will take both diamond and lotus flowers. and let us see what buddha will take and who wins. “King proudly said and smiled. The next morning they went to buddha. buddha was going to start his morning talks, surrounded by thousand of monks who were waiting to listen to him. just then the king came on his golden chariot to the commune of the buddha. king stepped out of his chariot and walked towards buddha, with him he was carrying a gift for buddha. he bowed down to buddha and offered him the diamond. Buddha said “drop it !!” The king knew that the diamond was very precious and it was very difficult for him to drop such a precious diamond. Buddha again said, ‘drop it !” The king hesitated but he was surrounded by thousands of monks and they were listening to those words, he had no other choice but to drop the diamond. so the king dropped the diamond. then king offered the lotus flower to buddha. again buddha said, “drop it !!”  The king thought, “Is this man crazy? Everything I presented to him he tells to drop but he had no other choice and dropped the lotus flower too. Buddha again said,” drop it !” the king replied, “but both my hands are empty now”. “What do you want me to drop now?” Buddha again said, “drop it”. Now the king got annoyed. His ego of being a king aroused. He said to buddha ,” what are you asking me to drop now?” see I have nothing left in my hands now. Buddha smiled and said, my dear friend, I am not asking you to drop any substance. I am asking you to drop your personality. I am asking you to drop your ego. Drop that you are a king. drop that mask of being a king. because through that mask it is impossible for me to approach you. Here nobody's emperor, nobody's beggar, here everybody is himself, just be yourself. just be part of existence. king never thought like that, a great silence spread there for a while, the king went into deep thought he felt something and then fell at the feet of the buddha. now, Buddha said “that’s what i have been telling you just drop it We see  In our life. We all are wearing a mask, the mask of name, the mask of designation. The mask of identity that society has given us. we spend our whole life wearing that mask. We have forgotten our real selves and to tell us the truth about our real entity and our real self a great master like buddha is needed.

A small charity and you will never be poor again One day Buddha reached the state of Magadha with his pupils. He decided to stay there for some days. When residents of that state came to know that Buddha with his pupils was in their town. They started visiting to see him. They also started bringing different kinds of gifts for buddha. Buddha was sitting with his pupils. People were coming to see him and giving him expensive gifts. Buddha was accepting gifts to be distributed among poors. The great king Bimbisara also came to see buddha and he was the first to offer incredible gifts like precious jewels, gold coins, ornaments, and large quantities of food. Prince Ajatashatru followed with gifts that were equally valuable and precious. Buddha was sitting amidst his pupils and accepting gifts by the gesture of raising one hand up, some other rich citizens and merchants also came to see buddha with many expensive gifts. Buddha again received them with a gesture of raising one hand up; many kings, nobles, and merchants presented gifts to buddha. He accepted them all with the gesture of raising one hand up. After all the kings were done giving their offerings an old,rough-looking woman arrived there. she was hesitating to come in front and was hiding something in her hands behind.  When Buddha saw her hesitating he asked her,” mother why are you hesitating.” and ``what are you trying to hide behind in your hands” She greeted the buddha and said eagerly. “O Enlightened one, I heard about your visit to our town today” “I am a poor woman and have nothing”. When I heard the news “ I was eating this pomegranate and had eaten only half” “I have nothing else to give, so I brought along my half-eaten pomegranate” My lord, I hope you will  accept this because I have nothing else to give you apart from that. Buddha stood up and extended both his hands to receive the half pomegranate. He accepted it with respect and grace. This act of buddha astonished everyone present there. Some of the kings even felt offended but they were reluctant to ask Buddha, Take the initiative. One of the kings approached Buddha and asked respectfully, “My lord, why did you receive her gift with both hands and all of our expensive gifts only by the gesture of raising one hand? It was only half a pomegranate, and that too was half eaten. Her gift was nothing in comparison to ours. What was special in her gift that you stood up and received her gift with both hands? Buddha replied gently. He said. “My dear friend, you and all other rich merchants gave me very expensive gifts indeed? But none of you gave even a tenth of what you have and even after you gave your motives was also to gain more glory, rather than charity. This woman gave her all that she had and in return, she didn’t expect any glory. Her intentions were so magnanimous. I definitely needed to receive such a noble offering with both my hands. For me, her gift was the noblest of all kings and other rich merchants of the town were ashamed now. Their ego of being rich and superior was crushed to pieces. They came to understand that being rich and wealthy doesn’t make you superior to others but the purity of your intentions is what matters more than the magnitude of your actions. We have seen in our life that sometimes people wish that if they had more money they could do more charity but they forget that charity does not depend upon the magnitude of your donation but it depends upon the purity of your intentions.

Teaching which will take you on the path to wisdom One day Buddha was giving a spiritual discourse in a monastery. Many people had gathered there to listen to him, at the end of the discourse he concluded and said: “wake up, time is going out of hand. Don’t be late”. After the meeting was finished, he said to his beloved disciple Anand “Let’s go a little away”. Anand walked away with buddha. They had just reached the main gate of the monastery. When they stopped at one side and stood there to let people go out. People were coming out one by one after listening to buddha. Suddenly, a woman came out of the crowd to meet buddha.  She was in a hurry, and she said ,”O Blessed one, I am a dancer”. Today, my dance was scheduled at a rich merchant's house but I had forgotten about it. You said, “Time is running out, so I immediately remembered this.” Thank you for reminding me. After saying this she left, After she left A thief came towards the buddha. He said, “O blessed one, I Will not hide anything from you”. I am a thief and I had forgotten that today I had to go for burglary in a house. But I remembered my plan when you said time is running out of our hands. Thank you so much for reminding me of my task. After that thief left, an old man walking slowly came to the buddha. The old man said O blessed one. Throughout my whole life, I ran after worldly things. I had been a very materialistic person. Today when you said wakeup time is running out of hand. Your words opened my eyes, Now I have realized that the day of death is approaching. Now I feel that I have wasted my whole life. From  today, I want to give up my all worldly attachments and try for Nirvana(Liberation). When everyone left, Buddha said to Anand.”Look, Anand! I gave the same discourse to all but meaning of my discourse was interpreted differently by everyone. That woman who was a dancer understood my words differently and she went for dance in merchants house. That thief came to different understanding and thus went for burglary in a house. This old man understood my words differently and decided to try for nirvana in rest of his life And in fact this old man understood my words in a correct manner. The more one has a bag, the more he receives charity. Similarly, for nirvana (liberation), the bag of the mind has to be worthy of it for this, it is very important for the mind to be pure. Because only a pure mind can understand the true meaning of a sermon. If we observe we will find that we all are also like that dancer and like that thief We listen to many sermons and discourses. But we never try to go for nirvana (Liberation).  Because our mind is not pure. If we wish to achieve liberation then we need to purify our mind first. Only then we will be able to understand the true meaning of Buddha's teachings.

HOW TO LET GO IN LIFE AND BE HAPPY Once upon a time two Buddhist monks were traveling through a forest. To reach from one place to another. One of them was a senior monk and another was a junior monk. They were walking peacefully and with a calm mind to reach their destination. At one point, they came across a river with a strong current of water. To continue their journey, they would need to swim through the river and cross to the other side. As the two monks were preparing to cross the river. They saw that a very young and beautiful woman was sitting at the back of the river. She did not know how to swim and requested the two monks to carry her on their backs to the other side of the river. Buddhist monks take a vow of celibacy. They are not supposed to even look at women. The two monks glanced at each other because they had taken vows not to touch a woman. They both thought for a moment. The junior monk politely refused, then without saying a word, the older monk went ahead and picked up the woman on his back and carried her across the river, placed her gently on the other side of the river, and started walking to carry on his journey. The younger monk couldn’t believe what had just happened. After rejoining his companion, he was speechless, without saying a word. The junior monk was shocked at the behavior of his fellow monk. He could not stop thinking about how his fellow monk had broken his vows by touching a woman. They kept walking through the forest for an hour or so without a word between them. Two more hours passed, then three, finally the younger monk could not contain himself any longer, and asked the senior monk, “Can I ask you a  question?”. The senior monk said, “Sure go ahead,” The junior monk said - ”I have been thinking about what you did at the river”. The senior monk said- “What did I do ?” The junior monk said- “you broke your vow to Buddhism when you touched the woman “while carrying her across the river and dropping her on the other side of the river. He continued saying to the senior monk. “As monks,we are not permitted to even touch a woman”. how could you then carry that woman on your back for so long. The senior monk laughed and said,”I dropped the woman on the back of the river a long time ago!”. “However, it seems that you are still carrying her around in your head!”. This Buddhist zen story has a simple and beautiful message in it  for us. A message about living in the present moment. How many times in our own lives we are upset about things that have happened in the past.  We all go through the experience of quilting, regret, anger, frustration or any other negative emotion in our life. We carry on those hurts and resentment in our minds. But we forget that we cannot change the past no matter how long we carry on those thoughts in our mind. it will only causes us grief and suffering like that junior monk, on the other hand, that senior monk carried the woman across the river. then he dropped the woman and with it, he also dropped all the emotional baggage of that event in the past and moved on to the next, similarly, we can also cure this suffering easily by choosing to let go of what has happened in the past and concentrate on the present moment.