Making Tea For a Lazy Disciple – A Zen Story

Story:

In a monastery, a Zen master gathered firewood and started a fire for a stove. He was preparing tea. A disciple asked him, "For whom are you preparing tea?"

The master replied, "You see that lazy guy sitting over there? It is for him."

He was referring to one particularly lazy disciple who kept dodging work and just sat around, while all the other disciples were active in work.

The disciple said, "Why do you have to prepare tea for him? He has grown up now. Let him prepare it on his own."

The Master smiled and said, "I am here and now."

Sadhguru's explanation:

What's the most important teaching in life? You do what you can do. It is far better to see that "I can do this and I cannot do this" rather than thinking "I have to do this and I should not do this."

When you identify yourself with something and think, "This is my family. This is my wife. This is my mother. This is my house. This is my street," you conclude that "I will do this. I will not do that." You will start thinking "If my child gets injured I have to run and save him, but if some other child is getting injured why should I bother?"

Nobody belongs to you in this world. They ended up coming into this world just the way you came in, that is all. If you get married, you say, "This is my wife." If you get divorced, you say "This is not my wife!" Both are relationships fixed by you. When you get married and feel that your spouse is a part of you, you accordingly develop love and pleasant thoughts towards them. Once you deny the relationship, these emotions change and you start feeling frustrated, angry and hateful.

So when you think something belongs to you, the emotions that come with it are hugely discriminatory. This will never bring out your capabilities to the fullest.

Raju and Malathi were lovers. As they belonged to different castes, their families and their communities were not ready to accept their marriage.

Raju said, "When we can't live together, what is the point of this life? Come, let us die together."

Both of them climbed up to a cliff. They stood there hand in hand at the edge. When they were just about to jump, Malathi said, "Raju, I am terrified. You jump first! I will get the courage to jump after seeing you go!"

Raju said, "I love you, Malathi!" and jumped from the edge in a moment.

Malathi saw him fall into a deep trench below where nobody could get to. She also got ready to jump. At that moment she thought, "Now Raju is no more. If Raju is not there, my love is no more. If there is no love anymore, no family problem, no social problem. When there is no problem at all, why should I give up my life?"

She looked down at the trench below and shouted, "Raju, I love you!" and started walking back home.

When you think “this is mine” or “she is mine,” the actions that come out of that will be just like this.

Those who walk on the spiritual path do not shrink themselves like that. They don't say, "I will do something for this person, I will not do something for that person." They will only think, "At this moment I can do this. If there is an opportunity to do it, I will do it," and they will act accordingly.

If you want to realize your life to the fullest, first and foremost is you should never shrink yourself into thinking "This is mine and this is not mine." If you expand within yourself to include the whole world, then everything is yours.

Too many people are hungry not because there is dearth of food. It is simply because there is dearth of love and care in human hearts.

சத்குருவின் பனிக்கால வாழ்த்துக்கள்

My Smile

As the snow fell in heaps
water froze and life stood
still. I walk out to
see how life is faring
without heated rooms
or woolens. All was well
just a bit circumspect
in expression. As I felt
the freeze creeping up from
the ends of the body, a smile
spreads upon my face
as my smile is one thing
that weather cannot freeze.
You will have to burn it
down upon the pyre.

Love & Grace,

LIVING LIFE LIKE AN ACTOR - MEDITATION FOR BUSY PEOPLE - OSHO

If someone wants to blossom in sannyas living in the thick of the world, he should cease to be a doer and become an actor, become a witness…..
Your miseries will just evaporate, because all your miseries and agonies come from your being a doer in life….

“ Recently an actor came to visit me. He is a new entrant into the film world. He asked for my autograph with a message for him.
So I wrote in his book: "Act as if it is real life and live as if it is acting."

To me, the sannyasin is one who lives life like an actor.
If someone wants to blossom in sannyas living in the thick of the world, he should cease to be a doer and become an actor, become a witness.
He should live in the thick of life, play his role, and at the same time be a witness to it, but in no way should he be deeply involved in his role, be attached to it.
He should cross the river in a way that his feet remain untouched by the water.
It is, however, difficult to cross a river without letting the water touch your feet, but it is quite possible to live in the world without getting involved in it, without being tied to it.

In this connection it is necessary to understand what play acting is.
The miracle is that the more your life becomes play acting, the more orderly, natural and carefree it becomes.
If a woman, as a mother, learns a small truth, that although the child she is bringing up has been borne by her, yet he does not belong to her alone, that she has been no more than a passage for him to come into this world, that he really belongs to that unknown source from which he came, which will sustain him through his life and to which he will return in the end, then that mother will cease to be a doer; she will really become a play actor and a witness.

Conduct an experiment sometime.
Decide that for twenty four hours you are going to do everything as acting.
If someone insults you, you will not really be angry, you will only act as if you are angry.
And likewise, if someone praises you, you will not really be flattered, you will only act as though you are flattered.
An experiment like this, just for twenty-four hours, will bring astonishing results for you; it will open new doors to life and living for you.
You will then realize to your surprise that you have gone through any amount of unnecessary pain and misery in life by being a doer; they could have easily been avoided if you had been an actor instead.
When you go to bed after this experiment in play acting, you will have a deep sleep such as you have never known.
Once you cease to be a doer, all your tensions and anxieties will disappear.
Your miseries will just evaporate, because all your miseries and agonies come from your being a doer in life.”

OSHO
Book - Krishna: The Man & His Philosophy. Chapter # 22
Chapter Name - Sannyas Is Of The Highest

PLEASING

Stop fulfilling expectations of others, because that is the only way you can commit suicide. You are not here to fulfill anybody´s expectations and nobody else is here to fulfill your expectations. Never become a victim of others´ expectations and don´t make anybody a victim of your expectations.

This is what I call individuality. Respect your own individuality and respect others´ individuality. Never interfere in anybody´s life and don´t allow anybody to interfere in your life. Only then one day you can grow into spirituality.

Otherwise, ninety-nine percent of people simply commit suicide. Their whole life is nothing but a slow suicide. Fulfilling this expectation, that expectation... some day it was the father, some day it was the mother, some day it was the wife, husband, then come children – they also expect. Then the society, the priest and the politician. All around everybody is expecting. And poor you there, just a poor human being – and the whole world expecting you to do this and that. And you can´t fulfill all of their expectations, because they are contradictory.

You have gone mad fulfilling everybody´s expectations. And you have not fulfilled anybody´s. Nobody is happy. You are lost, wasted, and nobody is happy. People who are not happy with themselves cannot be happy. Whatsoever you do, they will find ways to be unhappy with you, because they cannot be happy.

Happiness is an art that one has to learn. It has nothing to do with your doing or not doing. Instead of pleasing, learn the art of happiness.

Osho, The Discipline of the Transcendence, Vol. 1, Talk #2
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Osho - No thought for the day