Open Your Mind to Prosperity

In a 15th century religious reformist’s book, there is this little story that happened when he was young. This story changed his entire life.

One day, under a scorching sun, he passed by a huge worksite. The workers were moving bricks with sweat streaming down their backs. He did not know why they were doing it. He asked the first worker: “What are you doing?” The worker said gruffly: “Can’t you see? I am doing hard labour moving bricks.”

The young man still could not understand, so he asked the second worker: What are you doing?” This worker was milder and friendlier than the first one. He arranged the bricks in his hands and took a look and said: “I am putting up a wall.”

The young man went to ask the third worker: “What are you doing?” This worker’s face radiating with gentleness looked up, wiped away his sweat and told him proudly: “You are asking me? I am building a church!” We can see that the three workers were doing exactly the same job. But they had three levels of interpretation of their job.

The first level, he is a pessimist. In everything he does, he finds a reason to say this is hard labour that life gives me. He is right in a way. We need to work. We can see that work is tough. This is a reality.

The attitude of the second worker is a “professionalism” attitude. You know you are putting up a wall which is part of a product. This is your salary, your job function, your job title. You know that you have a duty to fulfill in your job. So you won’t perform below the baseline of your professionalism. But you don’t aspire to things at a higher level of attainment. What is this level? This is the level that Confucius describes as ‘qi” (implement). If you exist as an implement, you are qualified.

The third level is the level of idealist. You know that every brick, every drop of sweat now will eventually lead to a church. You know you have a final dream. You are embarking on this journey to realize this dream. Every step you take has a value. What you give will eventually be rewarded. When you are on such journey, whatever you do will never make you a mere implement. It is a simple principle. But it has a deeper meaning. After satisfying the requirements of a superior man at the various levels mentioned before, when you come to the stage of actual applications, do not be content with what you are doing, delve into the interpretation of the job at hand. See how it relates to your life, to your dream. See whether you, at your present position in society, will be able to build up a church. Perhaps your personal effort helps in building a church or perhaps having the dream of building a church helps you succeed as an individual.

Two woodcutters went to the same mountain daily to chop woods. The first one set off very early in morning and came back in the night time. The second woodcutter set off in the afternoon after he finished his lunch and came back before night time.

The first woodcutter managed to chop less than a basket of wood. The second woodcutter managed to chop baskets of wood.

One of their fellow villagers was very puzzled, he followed the first woodcutter and found that he was working very hard in chopping the tree and did not idle around. The next day this fellow villager went to see the second woodcutter and found that he was working very hard in sharpening his axe. On the third day afternoon, the fellow villagers went to see them chop the trees. He saw the first woodcutter chopped the tree four times but the tree did not fell down whereas the second woodcutter chops the tree once and the tree fell down immediately.

When we are working, are we using the correct method to do our work or are we like the first woodcutter; working very hard but less result? It is important to review our work flow and remember to sharpen our tools.

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?

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.

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.

A young man who started his working life was always complaining about being too poor.

An old man asked him: “If I give you 1 million dollars to turn into an 80-years-old man right away, will you do it?”

The young man replied:”No!”

The old man asked again: “If I give you one hundred million dollars to die immediately, will you do it?”

The young man replied again: “No!”

The old man laughed and said: “Aren’t you very wealthy? You’ve already got one hundred million dollars yourself!”

Einstein was mischievous and playful when he was a small boy. His mum kept telling him, ‘You must not carry on like this’ but Einstein always said, ‘Look at my friends. They are all the same as me.’

One day, Einstein’s father told him an interesting story. He said, ‘Yesterday, our neighbor Uncle Jack and I went to clean up the huge chimney in the factory at the south. The only way up the chimney was through the steel ladder built inside the chimney. So we climbed up, with Uncle Jack in front and me behind.

We held on tightly to the handle bar, went up carefully one step at a time and finally reached the top. It was then time for us to go down and Uncle Jack went ahead first with I followed after. When I saw Uncle Jack when he was out of the chimney, I knew I would look as dirty as him just like a clown. So once I was out of the chimney, I quickly ran to the river nearby to wash myself up. On the other hand, when Uncle Jack saw how clean I was, he thought he was as clean too. So he only did a quick wash on his hands before going straight down to the streets. In the end, everyone along the streets had a good laugh when they saw Uncle Jack, thinking that he was a lunatic.’

Einstein’s father then looked seriously at Einstein and said, ‘The fact is nobody can be your mirror. Only you yourself can be your own mirror. When you make others your mirror, an idiot may mistakenly be seeing himself as a genius.’

After hearing this, Einstein was full of guilt. He left the group of mischievous friends and often used himself as a mirror to examine his life. A glorious life was eventually reflected from this mirror.

One can see his faults and flaws from the mirrors we made of people around us. But the most important thing is the make ourselves our own mirrors to constantly examine and reflect on our life and to improve on them.

A man walked in the desert for 2 days and was met with sand storm. A strong wind blew across and he lost his direction. Just when he couldn’t take it any longer, he suddenly saw an old abandoned hut not very far from him.

He dragged his exhausted body all the way to the hut and went in. It was quite small with no windows and had stacks of wooden planks all around it. No water at sight! He was utterly despaired and walked to one corner of the hut.

To his wonderful surprise, he found an old water pump. Excitedly, he went forward to start the pump. But no matter how he did it, there just wasn’t any drop of water coming out at all. Just when he was about to give up, he saw a bottle next to the pump.

The bottle was sealed with a wooden cork at its mouth and there was a fading yellowish paper on the bottle that read this, ‘You must feed the pump with water to lead water in. Don’t forget to fill the bottle full with water again before you leave.’ He pulled out the cork and indeed saw the bottle full with water. But there was this battle in his heart now about whether to trust what was written in the message? If the message wasn’t true and the water never came back, he would then thirst to death. If he selfishly drank all the water in the bottle, he could leave this place alive. But what if the message was true? ‘Should I take the risk?’ he asked.

In the end, he decided to follow what was written in the message. He poured all the water in the bottle into the old rusty water pump and tried starting the pump with his trembling hands. After much effort, large streams of water came flowing out. He was overjoyed!
After having enough of water, he filled the bottle with water to its brim again and sealed tight with the wooden cork. He then wrote this message at the back of the same old piece of paper, ‘Believe me. It works!’

One must give to receive anything back. We cannot only think of receiving and not giving at all. A selfish person who has obtained a petty gain might actually be suffering a great loss.

A carpenter needed to go up a mountain frequently to chop down trees for his wood supply. One day, he found it troublesome to carry his heavy axe every time he went up and down the mountain and came up with an idea. He hid his axe behind some bush in a secluded area at the top of the mountain. However after he had finished his work, he totally forgot about the whole matter of hiding the axe.

The next time he went up the mountain, he couldn’t find his axe anywhere inside and outside his house. He thought it must have been stolen and began to suspect the boy next door.

The more the carpenter thought about it, the more he was sure about his suspicion. ‘The boy does behave suspiciously recently. It must be him! #*^>@*!’ he thought. In a fit of anger, he rushed to the boy’s door wanting to confront him. He suddenly remembered he had no evidence to produce and so gave up the idea.

A few days later, the carpenter went up the mountain again. Along the way, he recalled what happened the other day when he decided to hide his axe to save his trouble from carrying it up and down the mountain. And he indeed found his axe behind some bush he thought it might be in. That day when he went down the mountain, he met that boy next door again. This time, he had a 360 degree change in his view about the boy. ‘Look how decent and well-behaved he is. How can he be a thief? How silly I am.’

In fact, there hasn’t been any change in the actual situation at all. The only change is in the carpenter’s heart and consciousness, which are affecting the way he sees a person. Every one of us uses our heart and consciousness to understand people or situations and make them the guide to adjust our feelings to give the verbal and emotional responses.

The story above happens to us frequently in a different context. If only we could stop for a while instead of jumping to conclusion. If only we could be fair to everyone and take some time to analyze the situation or understand the person better. Things will turn out to be totally different. There will be lesser misunderstandings and arguments. At the same time, we learn a precious lesson about things around us and about life.

The boss of an established shoe manufacturing company sent 2 sales managers to Africa to investigate the potential of the market of selling new shoes to the locals. When both returned, they each gave a report separately of their investigation to the boss. Manager A said plainly, ‘Africans don’t wear shoes. Therefore there is no value in starting such a market there. We need not proceed.’ Manager B, however, thought differently. He said excitedly, ‘Most of the people in Africa haven’t yet bought any shoe. This shows that there is huge potential in this market. We should execute our plan as soon as possible to be the first to grab this golden business opportunity.’ In the end, manager B became important personnel in the company. Manager A, on the other hand, left the company not long after.

These 2 persons made totally different analysis about the situation in Africa that resulted in different consequences because of their different ethical values and style of thinking. Our style of thinking plays an important part in our lives. We see the different ways mannequins were displayed in shop windows. We all have different ways of arranging and carrying out our daily routines of brushing teeth, washing up, eating meals, going out, etc. Some youths ask for money directly from their parents when they need some whereas some chose to work part-time to earn extra pocket money. All these have something to do with differences in style of thinking and ethical values.

Your style of thinking shows up in your actions and behavior. When there is a deviation in your thinking, your behavior will normally invite troubles and even harm. Examples are ‘Drive fast if you want to drive’ and ‘it’s OK to move on road shoulders when overtaking cars’. These thoughts easily caused road accidents. On the other hand, thoughts such as ‘say well-meaning words if you want to speak’, ‘do something meaningful if you want to do something’ and ‘do it well if you want to study’ will result in good behavior and happy consequence.

To improve the quality of our lives, everyone should increase his own knowledge and widen his horizon. From our daily lives, cultivate healthy, reasonable and appropriate style of thinking and make them the guiding principles for our actions.