bestfriendgod’s blog

An article which appeared in today’s Times of India newspaper and felt it was worth sharing.

Start Singing, Dancing And Rejoicing

Time is short. Dance, sing, be joyous! If there were no nuclear destruction possible, no threat, you could have postponed. You could have said, “Tomorrow we will dance.” But now there may be no tomorrow; you cannot postpone. This is for the first time that tomorrow is absolutely doubtful for all. Individually it is always doubtful: tomorrow may never come, even the next breath may not come in. Individually death is always imminent, but this time it is something global, universal. The whole earth may disappear, may explode.

You can cry and weep and you can beat your head against the wall; that will not stop nuclear destruction and its threat. In fact, it may bring it closer and faster because sad people, miserable people, are dangerous people. Misery creates destructiveness. Politicians have enough atomic energy piled up to destroy this earth not only once but several hundred times.

If the whole of humanity can start dancing, rejoicing, feasting ? seeing that the threat is very close by… If the whole earth can become full of joy it will be less possible to destroy, because who is going to destroy it? We are the people; it is up to us to decide that we want to live or that we want to commit suicide. If we start a new climate in the world ? of rejoicing, of dancing, of singing, of meditation, of prayer ? and if people become full of bliss, cheerfulness, laughter… there is every possibility we can avoid destruction, because joyous people don’t want to destroy, they want to create.

If destruction has become global, we have to make laughter and dancing also global, in the same proportion, to counteract it. Why be sad? And what are you going to gain by sadness? Yes, i know the world is facing a danger, but each individual has always faced the danger of death. If universal death is really close by, don’t postpone. I say rejoice ? because if you can die rejoicing, you will transcend death, you will go beyond death.

One who can die blissfully never dies, because in death he comes to know immortality.

If the time is short, then you have to spread this orange laughter all over the world. Then it is time that we should make people more and more joyous. Tell them that death can take over this earth any moment, because… politicians have so much power now… Just push a button and the process can be triggered, the whole earth can explode. You don’t have time to waste.

Remember, meditation will give you many joys, many blessings; many gifts will descend on you. The Buddha says: do not turn away what is given to you… because if you turn it away you will miss the opportunity, and it may not knock on your door again for a long time. One never knows when the moment will come again. So whenever something happens to you in meditation, open your heart. And go dancing, go joyously, because in meditation nothing wrong can ever happen to you.

The more alert you are, you find new ways of doing things, you find new styles of living your life. The more alert you are, the more creative you are, and only creative people know what happiness is. What you create is not the point ? just be creative. It may be poetry, it may be music, it may be sculpture, it can be anything, but just the process of being creative brings you to the point where you meet the Divine.

Excerpted from ‘Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha’. Courtesy: Osho International Foundation.

This is a blog which I had put up on the blogs on last october (2007). Here again I am putting it up for the benefit of the new bloggers who have joined my network since then and didnt have time to go through all my blogs.

I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me. Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she filled the palm of her hand with some water and held it before me, and said this: ‘You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It symbolizes Love.

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. 

A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart. 

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, ‘Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.’ The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn’t fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing. 

The people stared ­ ‘How can he say his heart is more beautiful?’ they thought.

The young man looked at the old man’s heart and saw its state and laughed. ‘You must be joking,’ he said. ‘Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.’

‘Yes,’ said the old man, ‘Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom have given my love - I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish,because they remind me of the love we shared.’ 

‘Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges - giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?’

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks.  He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges. 

The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his. 

A friend 4 ever
Relations are all about three things -
Winning, Losing and Sharing.
Winning heart,
Losing ego
and
Sharing joy & sorrow.

Once a boy went to a shop with his mother.

A wonderful reflection received by me in yesterday’s mail……was worth sharing.

Your anger hurts you much more than it affects anyone else. When your energy and awareness are tightly wrapped around anger, you’re not much good for anything else.

There are many things beyond your control that can be perfectly legitimate reasons for anger.
Yet the amount of time you maintain that anger is completely up to you.

The more quickly you move on, the better off you’ll be.
When you feel the first sensation of anger, let that be a reminder to let it go.

Anger can be useful in calling your attention to matters that require your response.
But anger itself is not an effective response.

Take a slow, deep breath and remind yourself of how much more effective you can be by maintaining a positive, results-oriented approach.

Decide, in a cool, calm and thoughtful manner, exactly what response would be the most powerful and valuable, and then make it happen.

Don’t let the foolish, thoughtless, destructive actions of others catch you in a trap of anger.
Take note of the anger, let it go, put your focus on being your best, and you’ll surely emerge as a winner.

Hi