Instructions for Life

By the Dalai Lama

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's: 
• Respect for self
• Respect for others
• Responsibility for all your actions
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

From my email (again) today.

The Happy Man

Many years ago in north Africa there lived a village chief. He was very rich and had many wives and children, but he was not very happy.

He thought: "I have everything, but that does not make me happy. What must I do to be happy? I do not know."

Once he shouted angrily at his servants: "Why can't I be happy? What must I do to be happy?"

One of his servants said: "Oh, my Chief! Look at the sky! How beautiful the moon and the stars are! Look at them, and you will see how good life is. That will make you happier."

"Oh, no, no, no!" the chief answered angrily. "When I look at the moon and the stars I become angry, because I know I cannot have them."

Then another servant said: "Oh, my Chief! What about music? Music makes a man happy. We shall play to you from morning till night, and music will make you happy."

The chief's face became red with anger.

"Oh, no, no, no, no!" he cried. "What a silly idea. Music is fine, but to listen to music from morning till night, day after day? Never! No, never!"

So the servants went away, and the chief sat angrily in his rich room. Then one of the servants came back into the room and made a bow.

"Oh, my Chief," he said, "I think I can tell you something that will make you very happy."

"What is it?" asked the chief.

"It is very easy to do," said the servant. "You must find a happy man, take off his shirt and put it on. Then his happiness will go into your body and you will be as happy as he!"

"I like your idea," said the chief. He sent his soldiers all over the country to look for a happy man. They went on and on, but it was not easy to find a happy man in the chief's country

But one day the soldiers found a man in a small village who said, "I am the happiest man in the world." He was poor, but he always smiled and sang.

The soldiers brought him to the chief.

"At last I shall be a happy man!" said the chief and took off his shirt at once. "Bring the man in!"

The door to the chief's room opened. A small, dark man with a happy smile walked in.

"Come here, my friend!" said the chief. "Please take off your shirt!"

The smiling man came up to the chief. The chief looked at him and saw this: the happy man, the happiest man in the world, had no shirt!

The world has to learn that the actual pleasure derived from material things is of rather low quality on the whole, and even less in quantity than it looks to those who have not tried it.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, author and physician

From the little book of Love Stories of a different kind

Which is Better?

There once was a man who had 3 sons, all of whom loved the same girl. Each of them asked the girl the same question, "Will you marry me?"

All of the men were clever, handsome, and strong. The girl liked each of the 3 young men very much and could not decide which of them was the best.

One day the father of the 3 brothers said, "Here is some money for you. You will go on a long travel. While you are travelling, you must look for a very, very useful thing. When you find it, you must buy it and bring it home."

The 3 brothers travelled for a long time, and they bought 3 very useful things.

The first young man bought a magic carpet. On it he could fly to any place in no time.

The second brother bought a magic looking-glass. When he looked into it, he could see anyone and everything that he wanted to see.

The third bought a magic lemon. The juice of that lemon could make a dying man or woman well again.

The 3 brothers came together and showed their things to one another. Then one of them said, "We are far from our home and from our dear girl. Let us look into the looking-glass and see her."

The second brother took out his looking-glass, and they all looked into it. The saw that the girl was very ill. Then the first brother asked the other brothers to sit down on his carpet, and all of them were at the girl's house in no time. The third brother cut his lemon and gave the juice to the girl. The girl drank it and she was well again.

The young men were very happy.

"Now which of us will you marry?" they asked the girl.

"I thank you all, my dear friends," answered the girl. "One of the brothers saw me in his looking-glass, and that helped to save my life. His looking-glass is a very useful thing, and he will have it forever.

"Another brother brought all 3 of you here on his carpet, and that helped to save me, too. It is also a very useful thing, and he will have it forever.

"And one of you gave me the lemon juice, and now I am well again. But he has no lemon now. He gave all he had to save me. I will be his wife."

What difference does it make how much you have? 
What you do not have amounts to much more...
~Seneca, Roman philosopher

From the little book of Love stories of a different kind

Blessed Legs

Sheikh Sadi was a great religious preacher of Islam in Iran. He was very poor. Once he had no shoes to wear and no money to buy them. Without shoes, while walking, his feet used to burn and pebbles bruised his feet. He was always in discomfort.

One day he went to a mosque at Kufa for prayers and was, at the entrance, a man with both his legs amputated. When Sheikh Sadi pondered over that man's helplessness, his eyes opened.

He thanked God, "O God, how kind of you! You have kept my two legs safe!"

Moral of the story: We always look at what others have that we don't. We should look at what we have that others don't.

From the same little book of Love Stories as the previous few posts...

The Extra Burden

The story is told of one of the great men of the 19th century, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a monk who was a devout follower of the Indian culture, and who established the new Hindu religious sect called Arya-Samaj.

During the initial days of his spiritual practice, he used to wear only the same loincloth on his body.

Once a man approached him and said, "Swamiji, since you have only one loincloth, I have brought you another."

The yogi replied: "Well friend, even this one loincloth is a burden to me. Why do you load me with an extra burden? I thank you for your regard, but I cannot accept another loincloth. Please take it back."

Moral of the story: If you are not contented with what you already have, you will definitely not be contented with what you would like to have.

"A man's true wealth is the good he does in this world." -Prophet Mohammed

From the little book of Love Stories of a different kind

The Richest Gift

Years ago I was trekking in the Himalayas and had made the mistake of converting a large amount of cash into the local currency.

As I progressed throughout the villages of the Annapurnas, it soon became apparent that the people were too poor to afford even the simplest supplies they would need to fashion local crafts. The had nothing.

This meant that I had this ridiculous wad of cash in my pack and was a virtual walking millionaire compared to the local people.

I grew to hate the stuff and it was an embarrassment to have it in my possession amidst such need. This led to a remarkable experience that affected me deeply and its memory has never left me.

On this particular day I had become so isolated from my fellow trekkers and found myself in a vast valley. As I made my way down, I noticed a young girl of around 13 tending some sheep. Like so many of the children of the amazing Nepalese people, she was very beautiful.

I couldn't stop looking at her and she at me. As I drew level with her she suddenly rushed over to me and, without a word, handed me a flower. Our eyes met for a tiny moment and then she ran away.

The spirit in this angelic child had responded to something she saw in me and her first thought was to find something to give. From the depths of her poverty, there was nothing she had - other than a single flower.

The weight of my cash was never heavier than at this moment and I had just received one of the richest gifts I have ever had in my life.

~by David Heycock

"If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can't buy." - Anonymous

From the little book of Love Stories of a different kind

The Priest & the Kidnappers

One day, a priest from Benares was travelling along a road with one of his students when they were captured by a gang of 500 bandits, known as the Kidnapper Gang. The Gang demanded a ransom of 5,000 gold coins and sent the student to get it.

The kidnappers tied up the magic priest tightly and left him outside their cave for the night. They gave him nothing to eat or drink.

The priest was gifted with magical power - he only had to look up into the sky, clap his hands and chant a few magic words and a shower of precious jewels would rain down from the sky.

"Why should I suffer like this? I can magically pay my own ransom." The priest though.

So he told the bandits, "I will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams! But you must untie me, wash my head and face, dress me in new clothes, and cover me with flowers. Then, after so honouring me properly, leave me alone to do my magic."

The kidnappers followed his instructions. The priest did his magic and to the bandits' amazement, he was showered with the most beautiful jewels!

The Kidnapper Gang quickly grabbed all the precious stones. The wrapped them up in bundles and went off down the road, with the magic priest following behind.

One the way, they were stopped by another gang of 500 robbers. "Give us all your wealth!" demanded the second group of robbers.

"Leave us alone," the Kidnapper Gang pleaded. "You can get all the riches you want from this magic priest, just as we have done. He says magic words, looks up into the sky, claps his hands, and the most fabulous jewels come down!"

So the Robber Gang let the Kidnapper Gang go and surrounded the priest. They demanded that he make a shower of precious stones for them as well.

He said, "I can give you all the jewels you want. But you must be patient as the magic can only be performed when the planets are lined up properly, which happens only once a year. This lucky time has already passed. It will not happen again until next year. Come see me then, and I will be happy to make you rich!"

The robbers became angry and shouted at him, "Ah, you tricky, lying priest! You made the Kidnapper Gang wealthy but refuse to do the same for us. We'll teach you a lesson for taking us so lightly."

They cut him in two with a sharp sword and left both halves of his body in the middle of the road.

The robbers then chased after the Kidnapper Gang. There was a terrible bloody battle. After hours of fighting, they killed all 500 kidnappers and stole the wonderful jewels.

As soon as they left the battleground, the 500 robbers began quarrelling over their wealth. They broke up into 2 rival groups, which fought each other until only 2 robbers were left alive, one from each side.

These two collected all the valuable jewels and his them in the forest. The were very hungry so one guarded the treasure while the other started cooking rice. The one doing the guarding thought, "When the other is finished cooking, I will kill him and keep all this loot for myself." The one doing the cooking thought, "If we divide these jewels in two, I will get less. Therefore, I will add poison to this rice, kill him and keep all the jewels for myself. Why share, when I can have it all!"

So he ate some of the rice and poisoned the rest. He took the rice pot to the other and offered it to him. But the second robber immediately swung his sword and chopped off the cook's hear!

Then the hungry killer began gobbling up the poisoned rice. Withing minutes he dropped dead on the spot.

A few days later, the priest's student returned with the ransom money. He could not find his teacher of the Kidnapper Gang. Instead, he found only the worthless possessions they had left behind after getting the jewels.

Continuing down the road, he came to the two halves of his teacher's dead body. A little further down the road, he came upon the 500 dead bodies of the Kidnapper Gang. Further down the road, he started seeing the dead robbers. He started counting until he reached 498.

Then he saw the footprints of the last two going into the forest, followed them and saw a dead body slumped over the rice pot, and another without a head.

He thought, "It is so sad. My teacher had great knowledge, but not enough common sense. He could not resist using his magical power, regardless of the results. By causing the deaths of the 1,000 greedy gangsters, he doomed himself as well." He too the treasure back to the village and used it generously for the benefit of many.

Moral of the story: When power has no conscience, and greed has no limit, the killing has no end.

- a Buddhist tale


From the little book of Love Stories of a different kind