Encounters with Yoga

Yoga and meditation have now become an integral part of our society. They have steadily been growing in popularity since the 1960’s when they were brought to the public attention by such public figures as the Beatles and others. But the teachings of yoga had been encountered by western civilisation many centuries before.

The earliest record of people of the west encountering and appreciating yoga is in the writings of the ancient Greek historian, Plutarch. He writes of the meeting of Alexander the Great with 10 Indian yogis who were renowned for their wisdom and who had been instrumental in persuading a certain Sabbas to revolt against him. Alexander captured them and had them brought before him, he then put difficult questions to them declaring that he would put to death the first one to make an incorrect answer.

The first one he asked, “Who are more numerous, the living or the dead?” to which the yogi answered that the living were more numerous because the dead no longer count.
The second, upon being asked whether the earth or the sea produced larger animals said the earth did, since the sea was but a part of the earth.
The third, being asked what animal was the most cunning, said: “That which up to this time man has not discovered.”
The fourth, when asked why he had induced Sabbas to revolt, replied, “Because I wished him to either live nobly or die nobly.”
The fifth being asked which, in his opinion, was older, day or night, replied, “Day, by one day,” and he added, upon the king expressing amazement, that silly questions must have silly answers.
Passing on, then, to the sixth, Alexander asked how a man could be most loved; "If," said the philosopher, "he is most powerful, and yet does not inspire fear."
Of the three remaining, he who was asked how one might become a god instead of man, replied: "By doing something which a man cannot do"; the one who was asked which was the stronger, life or death, answered: "Life, since it supports so many ills." And the last, asked how long it were well for a man to live, answered: “Until it seems better to die.”

So, then, turning to the judge, Alexander bade him give his opinion. The judge declared that each one had answered worse than the other. "Well, then," said Alexander, "you shall die first for giving such a verdict."
"That cannot be, O King," said the judge, "Unless you falsely said that you would put to death first him who answered worst."
Alexander reputedly was so appreciative of the yogis’ answers that he set them all free and asked the one who had been the judge to accompany him in his travels.

Real Strength and Resilience Comes from Flexibility

There is an old Chinese tale of a proud oak tree and a humble bamboo plant. The oak tree was very, very big and strong and being proud of his strength and grandeur would deride the bamboo plant calling it a weak spindly thing.

One day there was a terrible storm with unbelievably strong winds that whipped and thrashed the whole land. The grand oak put up a valiant fight but eventually the mighty storm ripped it out and smashed it to the ground. The bamboo however was left standing; as the storm had battered it, it had swayed and bent, sometimes bending right down to the ground. It had not tried to resist, not feeling strong and great, it had simply moved with the forces of nature, and with its light flexible stems had resisted the storm by surrendering to it.

Attitude

The longer I live,
the more I realize
the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude to me
is more important
than the past,
than education,
than money,
than circumstances,
than failures,
than success,
than what other people think, or say, or do.

It is more important
than appearance,
giftedness,
or skill.

It will make or break
an organization,
a school,
a home.

The remarkable thing is
we have a choice everyday
regarding the attitude
we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past.
We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do
is play on the one string we have,
and that is our attitude.

I am convinced
that life is 10% what happens to me
and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you.

~ Charles Swindoll

The Mind of the Saintly Person

There are three kinds of people in the world. The first are those who are like letters carved in rock; they easily give way to anger and retain their angry thoughts for a long time. The second are like letters written in sand; they give way to anger also, but their angry thoughts quickly pass away. The third is those who are like letters written in running water; they do not retain their passing thoughts; they let abuse and uncomfortable gossip pass by unnoticed; their minds are always pure and undisturbed.

From the teachings of Buddha

The Merchant's Journey

There was once a rich merchant who had 4 daughters. He loved the 4th daughter the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to delicacies. He took great care of her and gave her nothing but the best, satisfying her every whim.

He also loved his 3rd daughter very much. She was very beautiful and he was very proud of her and always wanted to show her off to his friends. However, the merchant was always in great fear that she might run away with some ineligible suitor and guarded her very carefully.

He too, loved his 2nd daughter. She was a very considerate girl, always patient and in fact was the merchant's confidante. Whenever the merchant faced some problems, he always turned to his 2nd daughter and she would always help him out and tide him through difficult times.

Now, the merchant's 1st daughter was full of good qualities and loyal and kind, she made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and business as well as taking care of the household. However, the merchant had very little time for his first daughter and although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her.

One day, the merchant needed to go on a long and arduous journey. He thought of what lay ahead and thought of how lonely he would be. Thus, he asked the 4th daughter, "I have loved you most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I am travelling, will you come with me and keep me company?"

"No! I am sorry but I prefer to stay here." replied the 4th daughter and she walked away without another word. The answer cut like a sharp knife right into the merchant's heart. The sad merchant then asked the 3rd daughter, "I have loved you so much for all your life. Now that I'm leaving, will you come with me and keep me company?"

"No!" replied the 3rd daughter. "Life is so good here! I am planning on getting married very soon and having my own family.” The merchant's heart sank and turned cold.

He then asked the 2nd daughter, "I always turned to you for help and you've always helped me out. Now I need your help again. When I travel, will you come with me and keep me company?" "I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!" replied the 2nd daughter. "At the very most, I can only come with you to the end of town." The answer came like a bolt of thunder and the merchant was devastated.

Then a voice called out : "I'll leave with you. I'll come with you no matter where you go." The merchant looked up and there was his first daughter. She was so thin, almost like she suffered from malnutrition. Greatly grieved, the merchant saw how little help she could be in that unhealthy state and said, "I should have taken much better care of you while I could have !"

Actually, we all have 4 daughters in our lives and our arduous, if not dangerous, journey is our passing away from this body at death.

• The 4th daughter is our body. A precious possession to be cared for and maintained but no matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, we will leave it when we die.


• Our 3rd daughter? Our possessions, status and wealth. We prize them highly and guard them carefully but when we die, they all go to others.


• The 2nd daughter is our family and friends. No matter how close they have been while we live, the furthest they can stand by us is up to the grave.


• The 1st daughter is our spiritual life, often neglected in our pursuit of other, more transient goals, and the only possession we have that we take with us when we leave our bodies, continuing on our eternal journey.
  Perhaps it's a good idea to cultivate and strengthen our spiritual lives now rather than waiting until we're on our deathbed to lament.
  
  

Our Fleeting Life.

Once there was a very wealthy king who had recourse to everything anyone could possibly want in life. He was surrounded by courtiers to amuse him, by sages to advise him and servants to attend to his every whim. One of his great amusements was to set seemingly impossible tasks for his underlings and enjoy the wonderful ways in which they fulfilled those tasks. One day he said to the 20 great sages who attended his court, ‘I want you to make me a ring which when I look at it will make me happy when I’m sad, and sad when I’m happy.’ The sages spent many hours consulting with one another as to how such a ring could be produced. Finally they came up with an answer and presented a small gold ring to the king on which was engraved , ‘This too will pass!’
The king realized that when he looked at the ring while he was sad he would happily remember that his suffering would soon pass and when he looked at the ring when he was happy he would sadly remember the temporary nature of this world.


According to Buddha the lack of acceptance that things are
temporary and always changing is one of the main sources of
suffering for humanity.

The Ascetic Who Wanted Some Comfort

Once there was a spiritual aspirant who had decided to take to a life of asceticism. He lived very simply on the bank of a river, taking shelter beneath the trees and eating the fruits and roots that nature provided. His morning ritual was to take a bath in the river and wash his clothing. However because he had only one suit of clothes it was a little uncomfortable to dress himself again in the damp clothing and wait for the sunshine to dry them while he was wearing them. He decided therefore to get another set of clothes to wear while the other set was drying.

Life was a lot more comfortable for the ascetic now, when he washed his clothing he would hang it on the branch of a tree and wear it the next day when it was nice a dry. However before long he noticed that as the clothes hung up to dry a mouse would come and nibble at the clothing, each day creating more and more holes. “I will get a cat to protect my clothing and keep the mouse away.,” thought the ascetic. So he got a cat, but the cat needed to be fed so he got a cow to get the milk to feed the cat. Now someone was needed to milk the cow to feed the cat so the ascetic found a wife. But his wife needed somewhere to live so he had to build a house. The unhappy ascetic approached a sage and complained to him how complicated his life had become.

“Nothing comes without a price,” said the sage. “If you had wanted to have a simple life you should have just tolerated your wet clothing.”