Stay Young

My message to the young is to always remain young. Never become old. Your body will become old, but your mind has no necessity to become old. If your mind remains young and fresh, ready to learn, ready to explore new dimensions of life, you are alive. The moment your mind stops exploring, expanding, you are no more alive. You may vegetate, you may drag you body around for twenty, thirty more years.

DON’T ACCEPT OTHERS’ PRESCRIPTION FOR YOU

Others want to prescribe everything in your life. You can remain young only if you never accept any conditioning from anybody else. Youngness is something like sharpening your sword; you should inquire everything on your own. Don’t believe in the Holy Scriptures, because there is nothing holy in them, they are not even first-rate literature.

HAVE A HEALTHY DOUBT

Your starting point should not be belief, but a healthy doubt. And remember, doubt does not mean disbelief, doubt simply means, “I don’t know and I want to inquire. I have not come to a conclusion to say yes or no.” Doubt is youth, belief is old age. The person is tired of inquiry; he has started believing in somebody else. It is better to die as a seeker; at least you have the contentment that you did everything that was possible, and you will have originality.

WEAR YOUR ORIGINAL FACE

And this is my experience: to wear your original face is the greatest face is the greatest joy in the world, but everybody is wearing a mask. Somebody is Hindu, that is mask; somebody is a Mohammedan, that is a mask. A young man has to fight against all masks; he has to declare all the universe, “I am going to remain individual, I am going to remain just myself, I am not going to imitate anybody.”

WEALTH SHOULD BE RESPECTED

Young people should strive for health because centuries, unnecessarily, wealth has been condemned. Wealth should be respected in the same way as we respect any other creativity. Somebody paints, we respect. Somebody make a statue, we respect. Somebody makes music, we respect. Somebody creates wealth, and we condemn.

Richness should be respected if you want to destroy poverty.

CREATING WEALTH IS A GREAT CREATIVITY

The young people should change the whole movement. Richness should be respected and should be created – it can be created. Just as there are Picassos, there are Fords who can create wealth. With technology available, to create wealth is the simplest thing. You just have to inspire young people to create. Rather than wasting their energy in frustration and protests and fighting and throwing stones and destroying buses, the same energy can make the country a paradise.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Courtesy Osho

International  Foundation

www.osho.com

  

 

Stop the Urge to Control

Caring for someone is one thing, but taking control of their lives is a total no-no. The urge to dictate terms, give unsolicited advise will suffocate the other person and ruin perfect relationships. Give space, move back when needed and respect everyone's opinion.

Love and Time

Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all constructed boats and left. Except for Love.

Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment.

When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.

Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, 
"Richness, can you take me with you?"
Richness answered, "No, I can't. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you."

Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel. "Vanity, please help me!"
"I can't help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat," Vanity answered.

Sadness was close by so Love asked, "Sadness, let me go with you."
"Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!"

Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her. 

Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come, Love, I will take you." It was an elder. So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were going. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went her own way. Realizing how much was owed the elder, 

Love asked Knowledge, another elder, "Who Helped me?"
"It was Time," Knowledge answered.
"Time?" asked Love. "But why did Time help me?"
Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, "Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is."

Are You a Bucket Filler or Dipper

You have heard of the cup that overflowed. This is a story of a bucket that is like the cup, only larger, it is an invisible bucket. Everyone has one. It determines how we feel about ourselves, about others, and how we get along with people. Have you ever experienced a series of very favorable things which made you want to be good to people for a week? At that time, your bucket was full.

A bucket can be filled by a lot of things that happen. When a person speaks to you, recognizing you as a human being, your bucket is filled a little. Even more if he calls you by name, especially if it is the name you like to be called. If he compliments you on your dress or on a job well done, the level in your bucket goes up still higher. There must be a million ways to raise the level in another's bucket. Writing a friendly letter, remembering something that is special to him, knowing the names of his children, expressing sympathy for his loss, giving him a hand when his work is heavy, taking time for conversation, or, perhaps more important, listing to him.

When one's bucket is full of this emotional support, one can express warmth and friendliness to people. But, remember, this is a theory about a bucket and a dipper. Other people have dippers and they can get their dippers in your bucket. This, too, can be done in a million ways.

Lets say I am at a dinner and inadvertently upset a glass of thick, sticky chocolate milk that spills over the table cloth, on a lady's skirt, down onto the carpet. I am embarrassed. "Bright Eyes" across the table says, "You upset that glass of chocolate milk." I made a mistake, I know I did, and then he told me about it! He got his dipper in my bucket! Think of the times a person makes a mistake, feels terrible about it, only to have someone tell him about the known mistake ("Red pencil" mentality!)

Buckets are filled and buckets are emptied ? emptied many times because people don't really think about what are doing. When a person's bucket is emptied, he is very different than when it is full. You say to a person whose bucket is empty, "That is a pretty tie you have," and he may reply in a very irritated, defensive manner.

Although there is a limit to such an analogy, there are people who seem to have holes in their buckets. When a person has a hole in his bucket, he irritates lots of people by trying to get his dipper in their buckets. This is when he really needs somebody to pour it in his bucket because he keeps losing.

The story of our lives is the interplay of the bucket and the dipper. Everyone has both. The unyielding secret of the bucket and the dipper is that when you fill another's bucket it does not take anything out of your own bucket. The level in our own bucket gets higher when we fill another's, and, on the other hand, when we dip into another's bucket we do not fill our own ... we lose a little.

For a variety of reasons, people hesitate filling the bucket of another and consequently do not experience the fun, joy, happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction connected with making another person happy. Some reasons for this hesitancy are that people think it sounds "fakey," or the other person will be suspicious of the motive, or it is "brown-nosing."

Therefore, let us put aside our dipper and resolve to touch someone's life in order to fill their bucket.

source: www.inspirationalstories.com

Higher Power

When I found out that I was pregnant, nothing could have made me happier. My husband and I had many joys, among them feeling the baby kick and prod. Lamaze was also fun, but in a nontraditional kind of way. However, I thought that I could totally breeze through this "birthing" stuff. Yeah, right.

At 35 weeks, I broke out in the most horrible rash. It was unbearable, and I didn't sleep for 15 nights, for more than an hour. The doctors tried everything to relieve it, but induction was inevitable. So, at 37 weeks, I was going to "breeze" through the induction. Yeah, right.

After almost 3 days of labor, and nothing more than crackers and Sprite, the doctor decided that if my water didn't break, or the contractions still were unstable by 8 pm that night, they would take me off the Pitocin, and do a C-Section the next morning. Well, at 7:59 that night, the contractions were getting stronger, and I was sure that I was going to die. I also had a whole room full of well-wishers, but not for long. I asked my husband to help me, I needed to go to the bathroom, so off I went IV's and all.

About that time, I hear this enormous pop and my water broke soon after that. "Here we go," I thought. "I guess that means I don't get my supper, huh?" Well the longing for food was soon replaced by the longing for drugs. After 6 hours of pushing, and still no baby, they decided to take her out via episiotomy and vacuum. She finally made her way into the world.

I named her Ashley. Ashley was the cutest, loudest little thing that I had ever seen or heard, and she was mine.

Little did I know that tragedy awaited and I would feel a pain worse than I thought was possible. While I was helplessly watching, Ashley was about to fight the battle of her life. On the second day of life, my baby quit trying to breast feed. She also lay dormant, not moving. Even the act of changing her diaper didn't upset her and she couldn't maintain her body temperature. My gut was about to explode. Something was wrong, something bad.

I immediately called in the nurses, who called in the neonatologist. They assured me that we had just miscalculated Ashley's due date, and she was a little preemie. I knew better. I felt it. Something was much worse than that.

Unfortunately, I was right. The next day, I was released from the hospital, but Ashley stayed due to a sudden onset of jaundice. My husband and I left just long enough to check on the house and get a stuffed animal for Ashley. When we arrived back to the hospital, we passed a baby being rushed to NICU. This baby was hooked up to so many tubes, you could hardly see it. I found out five minutes later that it was not just a baby -- it was my baby.

My heart sank, I cried uncontrollably. After an hour or so, they let me see her. They told me that every test they had ran was normal, but that she had several severe seizures and was in a coma. They told us that their was nothing more that we could do, to go home and get some rest. They would call if anything came up.

We had been home for almost 4 hours when they called. "Mrs. Cody, get over here, now. We ran her blood-ammonia, it should be no more than 34, it's 1800! We are transporting her immediately to a specialist in Nashville. She is clinically dead, but we're going to send her on. You might want to hold her for the last time.

While I frantically got my husband, I got so mad at God. All I could scream is, "WHY? IT'S NOT FAIR! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?"

We arrived at the Nashville hospital about an hour after Ashley. She was sick, and fought hard for three days, but she would live. She was diagnosed with a Urea Cycle Disorder. A rare metabolic disorder that takes place in the liver. She was in the hospital for weeks, but is now a healthy and happy 10 month old child. She will always have this disorder, but with the right doctors, diet and medications, and frequent hospital stays, she will be okay.

For a woman that always had to plan, this was not easy for me. I am not the kind to put things in the hands of a higher power. But now I do. I do everyday. You have got to learn to trust in someone other than yourself, and when I feel down, or have a bad day, I think of the struggle and the grueling tests and treatments my daughter has gone through, and goes through on a regular basis.

We don't have as much control in life as we would like to think. Always give credit to "someone other than yourself." Never take your health or people you love for granted. They may not always be here. We don't always know why bad things happen to good people, but they do. We all have a lesson to learn, we just have to slow down and be willing to be taught. We have a purpose. Each one of us, even if we don't know it yet. There is one thing that I know. Miracles do happen, and they happen everyday, and I am a better person for having experienced it. Through the headache and tears, we have been blessed.

Source: www.inspirationalstories.com

Monk's Vision

An old monk prayed many years for a vision from God to strengthen his faith, but it never came. He had almost given up hope when, one day, a vision appeared. The old monk was overjoyed. But then, right in the middle of the vision, the monastery bell rang. The ringing of the bell meant it was time to feed the poor who gathered daily at the monastery gate. And it was the old monk's turn to feed them. If he failed to show up with food, the poor people would leave quietly, thinking the monastery had nothing to give them that day.

The old monk was torn between his earthly duty and his heavenly vision. However, before the bell stopped tolling, the monk had made his decision. With a heavy heart, he turned his back on the vision and went off to feed the poo. Nearly an hour later, the old monk returned to his room. When he opened the door, he could hardly believe his eyes. There in the room was the vision, waiting for him. As the monk dropped to is kness in thanksgiving, the vision said to him, "My son, had you not gone off to feed the poor, I would not have stayed."

The best way to serve God is to reach out in service to our brothers and sisters, especially those less gifted than ourselves.

Personal Empowerment

by: Marlene Blaszczyk

Use Empowering Words When You Talk to Yourself
(whether you are speaking out loud or silently)

How do you talk to yourself?

Do you use the words "can't", "won't", "don't need to", "why try"?
Many people do.

Do you find that what you say to yourself turns out to be true?

Why is this?

You see your brain is like a computer that you feed each day. It doesn't know always know what's real or not unless you tell it.

Example: If someone you love has hurt you, you may tell yourself that all people who love you will probably hurt you too.

Your brain just files this information for reference, it's data, little zeroes and ones and no column that asks "true or not true?" Now your brain thinks, based on what you told it, that everyone you'll ever love will hurt you.

How do you think you will respond the next time you get hurt?

Right!!

Now, what if we instead told our brain:

"Okay this person ripped my heart out - but that's only one person. I'm lovable and have many loving people in my life who are not out to hurt me. I know that the right people are coming into my life all the time. If someone hurts me, I will forgive them and bless them on their way."

Words can be empowering.

I can
I love to
I want to
I will
I must
I am

We can reach a new level of living, if we feed ourselves empowering words and practice saying them until they become a habit.

I know first hand that it takes time.

And I also know that it's worth it.

Try it for a week.

Catch yourself saying, "I can't", when you don't really mean it and instead try, "I can", and see how you think and feel about yourself.

Remember, the words you use to empower yourself will have a lasting effect, only if you practice them and they become a habit (an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary).

They say it takes at least 28 days to develop a habit. After a week, you will see that it becomes easier. It's a mindset and you can control your thoughts. Be proactive and not reactive - give yourself some good words.

Dream big and empower yourself! Believe you can and you will.