Theme : ANGER.
Story 01
The Wise Donkey.
A merchant was traveling with his donkey laden with his merchandize.
He had a stick in his hand with which he would cane the beast often. He hurled abuses at the donkey and held it responsible for the ills that he is suffering. This he did it non-stop, all along the way. In addition, he would kick the beast once in a while.
A Sufi saint walked past the donkey and the merchant. He could quickly grasp the situation between the man and the donkey. He thought it fit to give the merchant a slice of his thought.
He drew the attention of the merchant politely and told him that it was unfortunate that the beast was not provided by the god with faculties to understand our language and ways we think.
So there is no use in abusing and torturing the hapless beast. The merchant was not impressed with this advice.
Instead, the Sufi continued, there is something that a man can learn from Donkey. It is worth attempting.
The merchant was shocked to hear this suggestion. “You mean, I learn from this dumb and good for nothing animal”?
The Sufi continued. “True. Learning the art of keeping cool head and composure in front of a donkey, in an adverse situation”.
Hope you noted both the fun and pun in Sufi’s advice. But there is a lot more to it.
Is it that, only donkeys are not equipped with enough faculties to understand humans. Not at all.
Most fellow humans are also do not have enough faculties to understand the world around them. Many of our fellow men do not understand the instructions and react correctly.
Those who are angered are no better than the merchant to believe that every one around us are intelligent enough to understand.
A mere understanding of this simple truth, will ensure that we will never be angry with any one.
Instead of reacting violently and displaying displeasure through outbursts, understanding this simple truth will benefit us. There by help us devising ways that prevent a future bad situation.
Theme: Very often our judgements are wrong!
Know this:
Our lives moved faster than our ancestors. Your generation moves faster than ours. The change of pace is bound to continue its upward journey until one day there will be greater wars or calamity that would lead to destruction. The pace of life, then might come to a near halt, The upward travel on the cycle of life would start again, afresh.
The increased pace of life is nevertheless exciting. This excitement, is not without its ill effects. Fast pace of life deprives us of the patience necessary to watch, listen and think.
You do it and may be all the generations to come would repeat it unless we are conscious of it.
The following story would amply demonstrate it.
Know this:
(1) Look back into your life. You will besurprised to discover that you remained a good friend to an ill-willed person for long. Some day, years later, you discover an enemy in whom you trusted so long. On the other hand in our usual act of misjudgment you hurt someone who really cared for you and your wellbeing.
(2) One of the important sources of our miseries in our life can be traced to frequent misjudgment of people and events around you - their abilities, their worth, their nature and finally their intentions.
(3) We end up deciding in a hurry, only to repent such decisions at leisure.
(4) Most of Our judgments are based on our limited knowledge. So it is often flawed. Alternately, very rarely, our judgments are correct.
(5) In this process, we hurt others and eventually hurt ourselves.
Suggestions:
Exercise Caution in judging others:
Defer an action, based on your judgement alone, as long as possible.
I will tell you a few stories, depicting different life situations where we grossly misjudge people around us.