Every Day is a Second Chance

One day a young man asked his Master, “I fear death. How can I get rid of this fear?”

“Tell me,” the old man answered, “When you borrow a few coins, are you afraid to give them later back?”

“Of course not,” the student answered with surprise, “but what does this have to do with my fear?”

The teacher picked up a small piece of soil from the ground and continued, “You have received your body in debt with required return. And every bite of bread eaten by you, every sip of water drank by you increases that debt. You are made from dust on which you walk and the ground is your main creditor, constantly reminding you of this debt. It is pulling you down towards it. In the end, the ground will swallow you whole, without any remains.”

The old man threw the soil into the air, after attaining its fall, he finished, “No matter how high you rise, how long you are in the flight, you will still need to fall down. That is given. And to cope with the fear of this fall is very easy – stop thinking about yourself as the master of your body. Face the thought that you are just a tenant. And because you don’t know the length of your rent, remember that it can end at any second. We are all debtors, and our debts will certainly be recovered, no matter if we are afraid of it or not. So is there a point of being afraid?”

A thought – is the most important thing

Once upon a time there lived a Sannyasi – a holy man, sitting by the tree and teaching people. He drank milk, and ate only fruits, endlessly was doing pranayama and thought of himself as a saint. In the same village a poor woman, that was called witch, lived. Everyday Sannyasi went to warn the woman that the black magic she was doing will bring her to hell. The poor woman couldn’t change her lifestyle because her black magic was the only way for her existence. She was strongly impressed by the story of her future that Sannyasi told her. She cried and prayed to God begging to forgive her, because she couldn’t help herself.

And then the saint and the witch died. Angels came and took her soul to heaven, and for the soul of Sannyasi came the devils.

– Why is that? – He protested, – didn’t I live a life of a saint? Why are they taking me to hell and the evil witch has gone to heaven?

– Because, – the devils responded, – she was forced to commit improper deeds, but her soul was always stretching to God, she prayed for forgiveness and now redemption came to her. And you did opposite, you committed only good deeds, but in your mind you were always concentrated on evil coming from others. You saw only sin, thought only about sin, so now you will go somewhere where there is only sin.

Our Character.

 A long time ago there was a boy. He was smart, talented and handsome. However, he was very selfish and his temper was so difficult, that nobody wanted to be friends with him. Often he got angry and said various hurtful things to people around him.

The boy‘s parents very concerned about his bad temper. They considered what they could do and one day the father had an idea. He called his son and gave him a hammer and a bag of nails. The father said: „Every time you get angry, take a nail and drive into that old fence as hard as you can.”

The fence was very tough and the hammer was heavy, nevertheless the boy was so furious that during the very first day he has driven 37 nails.

Day after day, week after week, the number of nails was gradually decreasing. After some time, the boy started to understand that holding his temper is easier that driving nails into the fence.

One day the boy didn‘t need hammer and nails anymore as he learned to hold his temper perfectly. So he came to his father and told about his achievement. „Now every time, when you hold your temper all day long, pull out one nail“.

Much time has passed. At last the boy could be proud of himself as all the nails were gone. When he came to his father and told about this, he offered to come and take a careful look at the fence. „You did a good job, my son, but pay your attention to the holes that left from the nails. The fence will never be the same. The same happens when your say hurtful things to people, as your words leave scars in their hearts like those holes in the fence. Remember, we need to treat everyone with love and respect, because it doesn‘t matter, that you say you are sorry, the scars will not disappear.