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Archive for November 20th, 2008

TIBETAN SPIDER

November 20th, 2008

 

YOU WILL BE WHAT YOU ALWAYS WILL TO BE!!!

A Tibetan student was practicing meditation in his cell when a spider descended from the ceiling and hung suspended in front of him.

It slowly spun around, attached to the end of its web, until the novice tried to catch it, at which point it raced back up to the ceiling in a second.

Every day for a week the student’s meditation was disturbed by the spider. It even seemed that it was getting bigger, that it was becoming more adventurous, and sometimes tried to swing back and forth in front of him, with all its legs spread wide.

“This spider is bothering me,” thought the novice, “and making fun of me. I’ll catch it one day, I know will!”

He became so upset that he went to ask the advice of his Spiritual Master.

“I hid a knife in my sleeve while I was meditating,” he said. “I wanted to kill the spider when it came down, but I didn’t succeed. It disappeared the moment I thought about catching it.”

“Replace your knife with a piece of chalk,” the Master replied, “and make a cross on the spider’s back each time it disturbs your meditation. Come back and see me in a week.”

A week later the novice returned to his Master’s cell and knelt down before him, his head lowered.

“Lift your robe and look at yourself,” the Master instructed.

To his great surprise, the novice saw a big X drawn on his own chest.
_________________

This short parable may seem absurd, and yet it contains a profound truth.

The spider that disturbed the novice during his meditation was his own bad conscience, which always surfaces when we are most relaxed. And what do we do? We accuse it of trying to harm us, we say that it is someone else, we seek a threatening monster to fight with. But the monster, the spider, is our own self.

We have to be able to look at ourselves objectively in order to overcome our worries, before they assume a form that we have not chosen.

“Know thyself!”

This phrase is attributed to Socrates, but it also appears on the facade of the Temple of Delphi. 2500 years later it is still relevant, and will always remain so!

5 comments »

Posted in Philosophy

Communication Skills Does Matter

November 20th, 2008

 

 

The following humorously depicts what happens when a message is passed on by people to people; how important it is to be clear and precise
whilst communicating in the corporate world…

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION???

From: Managing Director
To: Vice President

Tomorrow morning there will be a total eclipse of the sun at nine
o’clock. This is something which we cannot see everyday. So let all
employees line up outside, in their best clothes to watch it. To mark
the occasion of this rare occurrence ,I will personally explain the
phenomenon to them .If it is raining we will not be able to see it
very well and in that case the employees should assemble in the
Canteen.

From : Vice President
To : General Manager

By order of the Managing Director, there will be a total eclipse of
the sun at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. If it is raining we will not
be able to see it in our best clothes, on the site. In this case the
disappearance of the sun will be followed through in the canteen. This
is something we cannot see happening everyday.”

From: General Managers
To: Industry Managers

By order of the Managing Director, we shall follow the disappearance
of the sun in our best clothes, in the canteen at nine o’ clock
tomorrow morning. The Managing Director will tell us whether it is
going to rain. This is something which we cannot see happen everyday.”

From : Industry Managers
To : Location heads

If it is raining in the canteen tomorrow morning, which is something
that we cannot see happen everyday ,the Managing Director in his best
clothes, will disappear at nine o’clock.”

From: Location heads
To: Marketing Executives

Tomorrow morning at nine o’clock, the Managing Director will
disappear. It’s a pity that we can’t see this happen everyday.

So friends, the next time you are communicating, be careful,

Your Communication can Make it or Break it.

2 comments »

Posted in Humour

GOD’S COFFEE

November 20th, 2008

God’s Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:

“If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us.”

God brews the coffee, not the cups………. Enjoy your coffee!

“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.”


Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

4 comments »

Posted in Poetry

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