A story : Bag of worries

Let this blog find you honoring the script you wrote in your life, watching it unfolding and learning from each event.

Here is an ancient Sufi story I read in an OSHO book! You may find this interesting & inspiring.

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Bag of worries…

A man was very much burdened by his suffering. He used to pray every day to GOD, “Why me? Everybody seems to be so happy, why am only I in such suffering?” One day, out of great desperation, he prayed to God, “You can give me anybody else’s suffering and I am ready to accept it. But take mine, I cannot bear it anymore.”

That night he had a beautiful dream – beautiful and very revealing. He had a dream that God appeared in the sky and he said to everybody, “Bring all your sufferings into the temple.” Everybody was tired of his suffering; in fact, everybody has prayed sometime or other, “I am ready to accept anybody else’s suffering, but take mine away; this is too much, it is unbearable.”

So everybody gathered his own sufferings into bags, and they reached the temple, and they were all looking very happy. The day has come, their prayer has been heard! And this man also rushed to the temple.

Then God said, “Put your bags by the walls.” All the bags were put by the walls, and then God declared: “Now you can choose. Anybody can take any bag.”

And the most surprising thing was this: this man, who had been praying always, rushed to get his own bag before anybody else could choose it! And he was in for a surprise, because everybody else also rushed to his own bag, and everybody was happy to choose it again.

What was the reason? For the first time, everybody had seen others’ miseries, others’ sufferings – their bags were just as big, or even bigger!

And the second reason was that everybody had become accustomed to their own sufferings. Now to choose somebody else’s: Who knows what kind of sufferings will be inside the bag? Why bother? At least you are familiar with your own sufferings, and you become accustomed to them. And they are tolerable; for so many years you have tolerated them, why choose the unknown?

Everybody went home happy. Nothing had changed, they were bringing the same suffering back, but everybody was happy and smiling and joyous that he could get his own bag back.

In the morning the man prayed to God and said, “Thank you for the dream; I will never ask again. Whatever you have given me is good for me, must be good for me; that’s why you have given it to me.”

EMOTIONAL WELLNESS by OSHO

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How about relooking at your current biggest worry?

And say: “Wow I wonder! Why I wrote this situation in my life. Whatever I am supposed to learn from this, I am willing. I choose to come out shining and wiser from this.”

You may be in for a surprise – how that worry unfolds into a gift!

Warm regards,

Rohan 

Link to our workshops 

GOALs – where they take you & what they make you!!

Let this blog find you becoming more aware of your hidden potentials in pursuit of your goals.

In our exploration for conducting workshops for youngsters, we came across an interesting book for teens: “Being a Happy Teen” by Andrew Matthews. It was a few hours read. Very simply written and applicable for all ages!!

I found the following excerpt really inspiring and thought provoking.

It’s what you become…

Sometimes we pick up the newspaper and read where an accountant has just rowed across the Atlantic in a bathtub, or where a librarian is may be riding a camel across the United States.

We might ask ourselves, “why not take a plane?”

The answer to that is, “If you travel by bathtub (or camel), you arrive a whole different person from the one that left!” Not only do you reach your destination knowing a lot more about stars and rain and navigation – you know a lot more about yourself, and about your own courage and capabilities.

Buying a plane ticket doesn’t have the same effect.

When you set yourself a goal to learn the guitar or compete in a triathlon, when you set a goal to get a degree or a promotion or to learn French, you arrive at your goal a different person from the one that started.

That’s what “GOALS” are really about – what they make us in the process of achieving them. That’s why we bother.

Your friends don’t always understand this idea! So you may set yourself a goal – may be a fitness goal or an academic goal or personal goal – and your friends say “Why bother?” “What are you trying to prove?”

They may say, “It’s too hard!” “It takes too much time.” “You might fail!” “It’s easier to stay in bed!”

This may all be true. That’s why you feel so good when you reach your goal!

In a nut shell:

We set goals not for what we GET, but for what we BECOME.

Being a Happy Teen: Andrew Matthews

Can you recall some goals you set in your life and you worked hard for them. Whether you achieved the goals finally or not, look at what did you BECOME. How did you change in that journey!! You will be in for some interesting surprises!

Warm regards,

Rohan

Link to our workshops