Open Your Mind to Prosperity

A well-known poet Sadi once gave an account of this incident: Once, Sadi was too poor to buy a pair of shoes for himself. He could only walk bare-footed to the church. Before he stepped into the church building, he felt utterly sad and unfortunate. However, he happened to see in church a person who had no legs at all. Immediately, he realized that he wasn’t the most unfortunate person in this world. He stopped feeling distressed about being so poor to even afford a pair of shoes. He then wrote this, ‘in the eyes of the well-fed, roasted goose is like green grass; in the eyes of the hungry, carrots are delicacies to them.’

An old woman’s only son fell sick and passed away. She was grief-stricken and asked the master, ‘Do you know of any way to make my son come back to life?’ The master told her, ‘I have a way. However, you must first get a cup of living water for me. This cup of water must come from a family that has never experienced pain and bitterness before. Once I’ve got this cup of water, I can make your son alive again.’ The old woman was very happy and went immediately to find this cup of water. However, no matter where she went to, whether to the villages or to the towns, she realized that very family had some kind of pain or bitterness of their own. In the end, she became a very busy person, busy comforting the pain and bitterness that other people was suffering. Soon, she had forgotten about the matter of finding the cup of living water. It was through her enthusiasm in giving that her pain and grief of losing her son left her heart gradually.

Whatever the circumstance, look around you and you will find that there is someone out there who is at a worse situation than you. You will then realize that you are actually quite fortunate and blessed.

A team of mountain climbers was all ready to conquer a tall mountain of 6000 meters height above sea level. They formed a subgroup and set up tents at the bottom of the mountain, at 2000 meters above sea level, waiting for the weather to turn better. The group included very experienced professional mountain climbers with very strong bodies.
Finally the sky became clear with a little breeze. The group set off following their leader, a team member with many years of experience.

It was complete serenity and quietness below their feet. The glacier at the top of the mountain was sparkling under the sunlight. Everyone was enjoying the beauty of nature and the joy of mountain climbing. They constantly kept in contact with the base station and talked to their families at homes, describing to them the beautiful scenery they saw up here.

As the group were slowing approaching the main peak, the weather suddenly changed. Grey clouds rolled quickly over and soon covered the whole sky. Strong wind started blowing and was picking up speed. The temperature dropped drastically. A few of the very experienced mountain climbers knew that things were turning out bad and requested everyone to retreat. However, the time they took along the way was too long that night was approaching. From past experience, they were unable to get down the mountain. They could only wait for the rescue team to come and help them.

The wind became very strong. Many of their coats were torn by the roaring wind. Even the gloves fell off…..
To add to their misfortune, one member’s leg was hit by a flying stone and was bleeding profusely. As the wind got fiercer, the temperature dropped to freezing cold. The injured member cried in pain, ‘I’m very cold….’ The blood that flowed out quickly froze. One of the member said, ‘The sky isn’t totally dark yet. Let me carry him down the mountain. He could perhaps be saved.’ ‘Anything might happen along the way! Wait for the rescue team. They’ll be arriving soon.’ Everyone persuaded him. However, he still went ahead to carry the injured member on his back and fought hard to find his way to the bottom of the mountain.

Night had arrived. A snow-storm took place at the mountain. The rescue team was not able to go up the mountain at all. The next day, the rescue team found the frozen bodies of the group, who had waited for them at the original place, closely hugged together. However somewhere at 4000 meters above sea level, they found the injured member and the person who carried him, both of who were alive.
The rescue team said that it was a miracle to be able to survive under this kind of weather. They came to the conclusion that the two of them survived because they had not stopped doing strenuous exercises the whole night.

Some fail when faced with difficulties. It is sometimes unavoidable. The important thing is to be able to stand up to fight again and again, no matter how many times you fail. A person this persistent is bound to gain victory at the end.

Ali went on a short trip with his friends Jimmy and Mark. When the 3 of them went up on a hill, Mark accidentally lost his balance and fell. Just when he thought he was heading towards the bottom of the steep slope, his friend Jimmy quick-wittedly caught hold of his shirt, pulled it with all his might and finally got him up safe. Mark was grateful to Jimmy for saving his life. In remembrance of this, Mark found a rock nearby and carved these words on it, ‘Jimmy saved Mark’s life on XX (day) XX (month) XXXX (year)’.

The three of them carried on with their journey. A few days later, they came by a river when Jimmy and Mark suddenly got into an argument due to a trivial matter. In a fit of anger, Jimmy gave Mark a slap on his face. Mark on the other hand kept himself in control. He did not retaliate. Instead, he ran to the beach and wrote these words with all his strength on the sand, ‘Jimmy slapped Mark on XX (day) XX (month) XXXX (year)’.

This unusual trip finally came to an end. One day, Ali asked Mark curiously, ‘Why did you carve on the rock about Jimmy saving your life but write on the sand about him hitting you?’ Mark replied calmly, ‘I will forever remember and be grateful to Jimmy for saving my life. As for the hitting incident, I will slowly let it disappear from my mind with the movement of the sand.’

Many can remember the kindness they have received from others but cannot let go of the hatred feel for some people. Learn to remember forever the grace and kindness others have shown towards you. Carve them in the rocks and in your heart and use them to motivate you in helping others in future. Forget intentionally all the grudge and hatred you have for others. Let these trivial matters leave your life forever. Your path in life will then get broader and you will experience true happiness.

A family was moving house when they saw 2 rats among their heaps of stuff. Everyone started shouting and got hold of something to hit the rats.

But suddenly, all stopped hitting because they noticed that there was something unusual about the 2 rats – one rat was biting on to the tail of another rat while they shifted and moved around to escape from being hit.

They looked just like 2 children holding hands together to cross the road. Then someone shouted, ‘Look, the rat behind is blind!’ Everyone turned their eyes to the rat and saw a lump-like growth in between its 2 eyes blocking its sight. Everything became clear now. During this critical moment, the ‘healthy’ rat took effort to lead its handicapped friend to a way of escape by putting its tail into the friend’s mouth. It could have left the friend behind and escaped alone. Everyone’s heart softened. Without a word, all stood to one side to make way for the rats to escape.

Think about this: how were the 2 rats related? Were they husband and wife, mother and son or not related at all? Will you do the same as the ‘healthy’ rat if you were met with danger with someone handicapped? Will it make a difference if the handicapped person is a stranger or an enemy?

There was a boy who had quite a bad temper. He got into tantrum so many times in a day that everyone around him got so upset everyday.

One day, his father gave him a box of nails. He told him to hammer a nail on the fence in the backyard every time he had a tantrum. On the first day, the boy hammered a total of 37 nails on the fence.

A few weeks later, the boy gradually learnt to control his anger so the number of nails he put on the fence daily gradually decreased. He even found controlling his bad temper was much easier than hammering a nail on the fence…….. In the end, the boy turned over a new leaf. Throwing tantrum became the least that he would do everyday.

He told his father his change. His father then suggested, ‘If you could hold fast to throwing zero tantrums for the whole day, pull out a nail from the fence.’ The boy tried as hard as he could. After some time, he finally did it! He eventually pulled all the nails out from the fence.

His father held his hand and walked with him to the fence. He said, ‘my son, you’ve done very well! But look at the holes on the fence left behind by those nails. The fence is no longer the same as before. After you’ve thrown your temper at others, your words were just like those nails leaving behind scars on others’ hearts. Doing this is just like stabbing someone’s body with a knife and then pulling the knife out again.’

No matter how many ‘sorry’ you have said to a person, the wound would still be around and may even be around forever. In fact, the hurt that one has done to someone verbally is no lesser than the hurt he has done to him physically

A soldier who was fighting in Vietnam War called home one day to his parents. He told them that he would be coming home soon.

The parents were elated and told him that they wished he could come home the soonest possible. When the soldier told them that he would be coming home with a friend, the parents welcomed that. However, when he told them that this friend had lost a leg and an arm during the war and he would be staying with them permanently, the father rejected him straight away.

He said that handicapped people would add burden to the family so he would not welcome his friend to stay with them for long term. He suggested this friend of his to think of a way himself to settle his problem. Upon hearing this, the soldier hung up the phone.

A few days later, the parents were informed by the police that their son committed suicide. When they went for identification, they were stunned when they saw their son having only one leg and one arm.

At the end of the Second World War, Japan’s economy was badly hit causing steep increase in its unemployment rate. Productivity in factories was affected too.

A food company on the verge of closing down decided to retrench one third of its workers in an attempt to get over the crisis. Three types of workers were in the list – the cleaners, the drivers and the unskilled warehouse workers. These 3 types added up to around 30 over workers. The manager sat down, talked and explained to them the reason for the retrenchment.

The cleaner said, ‘We are very important. Without us doing the cleaning job, there wouldn’t be a clean, comfortable, healthy and orderly working environment for everyone to concentrate on their work.’ The drivers said, ‘We are very important. We have so many products. Without us, how can our products be quickly sent and sold to the market on time?’ The warehouse workers said, ‘We are very important. The war is just over. Many are still struggling with hunger. Without us, these foods could all be stolen by the beggars wandering on the streets.’

The manager thought that they all had a point in what they had said. After several good discussions, the company decided not to go ahead with the retrenchment plan. Instead, they did a restructuring and reformation on the company’s management. At the end, the manager hung a big board at the front of the factory’s gate. On the board was written these 4 words – ‘I AM VERY IMPORTANT’. From then onwards, when the workers came to work every day, the first thing they saw was ‘I am very important’. Whether they were the front line or the white collar, everyone felt that the management found them very important and thus put in effort in their work. These 4 words kindled the enthusiasm in the entire company. A year later, the company swiftly picked up and stood out to become one of the well-known companies in Japan.

Never look down on yourself at any point of time. At the critical moment, do you dare to say ‘I am very important?’ Try saying it out and you could then be opening a new chapter of your life.

A psychiatrist with many years of clinical experience went into retirement and wrote a book about treatment of psychological illnesses. The book had over 1000 pages containing details of all kinds of such illnesses, each followed by a comprehensive description of the medication and treatment for it.

Once, the psychiatrist was invited to give a lecture at a university. At the lecture, he took out his book, showed it to the audience and said, ‘there are over 1000 pages in this book with over 3000 methods of treatment and over 10000 kinds of medication. However, the entire content in this book can be zipped into 4 words.’ He then wrote on the white board, ‘If, Next time’.

He said, ‘that which consumed and tortured our brain is no other than the word ‘If’ – ‘if I had made it to the university’, ‘if I hadn’t given her up in the past’, ‘if I had changed my job at that time’……. There are thousands of methods of treatment but at the end there is only one way and that’s to change ‘if’ to ‘next time’ – ‘I’ll pursue further studies if I have a chance next time’, ‘I won’t give up my love again next time’…… that which causes a person to have psychological barrier affecting his/her happiness is sometimes not material poverty or wealth but his mentality. If one keeps sinking himself in regrets and sorrow of the past, pain will surely occupy his entire heart.’

There is an interesting story that goes like this:
There are 2 types of people in this world. When a bunch of grapes is at hand, one type of people will choose the best ones to eat first whereas the other type will leave the best ones to eat last. However, these 2 types of people are not happy at all. Those who eat the best grapes first find his grape getting worse and worse. The second type of people feels that every grape that he eats is the worst from the grapes that are left. The reason is the first type of people has memory of the past only. He often uses things in the past to measure the present. He is therefore unhappy. The second type of people is the opposite. He has memory of the present only. He too is unhappy.

What not think of it this way? I have already eaten the best grape. What is there to regret then? The grape that I leave behind is always the best compared to the past. Why feel unhappy about it?

A person’s attitude towards life determines his happiness and sadness.