A friend
There was once a rabbi who was revered by the people as a man of God. Not a day went by when a crowd of people wasn’t standing at his door seeking advice or healing or the holy man’s blessing. And each time the rabbi spoke, the people would hang on his lips, drinking in his every word. more »
Longing to fly
Owing to a variety of circumstances, the egg of an eagle found its way to a corner of the barn where the hen was hatching her eggs. In time, the little eaglet was hatched with other chickens.
Now as time passed the fledgling, quite unaccountably began to experience a longing to fly. So, it would say to its mother, the hen, “When shall I learn to fly”?
The poor hen was quite aware of the fact that she could not fly and hadn’t the slightest notion of what other birds did to train their fledglings in the art of flight. But she was ashamed to confess to this inadequacy, so she would say ” Not yet, my child, not yet. I shall teach you when you are ready.”
Months passed and the young eagle began to suspect that its mother did not know how to fly.But it could not get itself to break loose and fly on its own for its longing to fly had become confused with the gratitude it experienced towards the bird that hatched it.
Imagination vs reality
“If you ever marry or take a mistress after I am gone, I shall return to hunt you,” said a dying woman to her husband.
So when he fell in love again some months after his wife’s death, he was horrified, but not surprised, to see her ghost walk into the house one night and accuse him bitterly of infidelity.
This went on night after night till he could take it no more and went to consult a Zen master, who said, What makes you so sure it’s a ghost?”
“The fact that she knows and can describe to me every single thing I’ve said and done and felt and thought.”
The master gave the man a bag of soybeans and said, “Make sure you do not open it, and when she appears to you tonight, ask her how many beans there are in the bag.”
When the man put that question to the ghost, it fled, never to return. “Why?” the man asked the master later.
The master smiled. “Isn’t it strange that your ghost knew only what you knew?” he asked.
It is just astonishing to see the use they make of their imagination…
Time is priceless
A miser had accumulated five hundred thousand dinars and looked forward to a year of pleasant living before he made up his mind how best to invest his money, when suddenly the Angel of Death appeared before him to take his life away. more »
Departure lounge
A Sufi of forbidding appearance arrived at the doors of the palace. No one dared to stop him as he made his way right up to the throne on which the saintly Ibrahim ben Adam sat. more »
Some will never learn
A young man came to a master and asked, “How long is it likely to take me to attain enlightenment?”
Said the master, “Ten years.”
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Hurry up slowly
A young business executive phoned his foreign representative one day and tersely announced, “I am calling to give instructions. This call will last no more than three minutes. I shall speak and you are not to interrupt. Any comments or queries you have are to be cabled to me later.”
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