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General
Buddhism |
Namo Dharmaya
Hail to the Teachings
STORIES FROM THE HEART
PAGE CONTENTS:
Choice
A miracle for $1.10
Instructions for life
Smile !
Stilson's leap
Jerry is the manager of a restaurant in America. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs; they would follow him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and
asked him, "I don't get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time.
How do you do it?"
Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices
today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood.
I always choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can
choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I always choose to
learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to
accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I always
choose the positive side of life."
"But it's not always that easy," I protested.
"Yes, it is," Jerry said, "Life is all about choices When you cut away all
the junk, every situation is a choice You choose how you react to situations.
You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood
or bad mood. It's your choice how you live your life."
Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you are
never supposed to do in the restaurant business: he left the back door of
his restaurant open one morning and was robbed by three armed men. While trying
to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness slipped off the combination.
The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed
to the hospital. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry
was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his
body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident.
When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins.
Want to see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind
as the robbery took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the
back door," Jerry replied. "Then, after they shot me, as I lay on the
floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or choose
to die. I chose to live."
"Weren't you scared?" I asked.
Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going
to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the Emergency Room and I saw the
expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In
their eyes, I read 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big nurse shouting questions
at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything." 'Yes,' I replied.
The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took
a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I
am choosing to live. Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead'.
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing
attitude.
I learned from him that everyday you have the choice to either enjoy your
life or to hate it. The only thing that is truly yours - that no one can control
or take from you -- is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything
else in life becomes much easier.
A MIRACLE OF $1.10 (a true story)
Tess was a precocious eight year old when she heard her Mom and Dad talking
about her little brother, Andrew. All she knew was that he was very sick and
they were completely out of money. They were moving to an apartment complex
next month because Daddy didn't have the money for the doctor bills and our
house. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and it was looking like
there was no-one to loan them the money. She heard Daddy say to her tearful
Mother with whispered desperation, "Only a miracle can save him now."
Tess went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place
in the closet. She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully.
Three times, even. The total had to be exactly perfect. No chance here for
mistakes. Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the
cap, she slipped out the back door and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall's Drug
Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door. She waited patiently
for the pharmacist to give her some attention but he was too busy at this
moment. Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared
her throat with the most disgusting sound she could muster. No good.
Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on the glass counter.
That did it!
"And what do you want?" the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice.
"I'm talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven't seen in ages," he said
without waiting for a reply to his question.
"Well, I want to talk to you about my brother," Tess answered back in the
same annoyed tone. "He's really, really sick... and I want to buy a miracle."
"I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist.
"His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my
Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?"
"We don't sell miracles here, little girl. I'm sorry but I can't help you,"
the pharmacist said, softening a little. "Listen, I have the money to pay
for it. If it isn't enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much it
costs."
The pharmacist's brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked
the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does you brother need?"
"I don't know," Tess replied with her eyes welling up. "I just know he's really
sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy can't pay for it,
so I want to use my money."
"How much do you have?" asked the man from Chicago. "One dollar and eleven
cents," Tess answered barely audibly. "And it's all the money I have, but
I can get some more if I need to.
"Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven cents - the
exact price of a miracle for little brothers." He took her money in one hand
and with the other hand he grasped her mitten and said, "Take me to where
you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I
have the kind of miracle you need."
That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specializing
in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn't
long until Andrew was home again and doing well. Mom and Dad were happily
talking about the chain of events that had led them to this place.
"That surgery," her Mom whispered. "was a real miracle. I wonder how much
it would have cost?"
Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost... one dollar and eleven
cents ...... plus the faith of a little child.
A miracle is not the suspension of natural law, but the operation of a higher law......
INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIFE ( from e-mail chain: origin from Nepalese mantra?)
1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great
risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs: Respect for self Respect for others and Responsibility
for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke
of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct
it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back,
you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation.
Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each
other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
She smiled at a sorrowful stranger.
The smile seemed to make him feel better.
He remembered past kindnesses of a friend
And wrote him a thank you letter.
The friend was so pleased with the thank you
That he left a large tip after lunch.
The waitress, surprised by the size of the tip,
Bet the whole thing on a hunch.
The next day she picked up her winnings,
And gave part to a man on the street.
The man on the street was grateful;
For two days he'd had nothing to eat.
After he finished his dinner,
He left for his small dingy room.
He didn't know at that moment that he might be facing his doom.
On the way he picked up a shivering puppy.
And took him home to get warm.
The puppy was very grateful
To be in out of the storm.
That night the house caught on fire.
The puppy barked the alarm.
He barked till he woke the whole household
And saved everybody from harm.
One of the boys that he rescued
Grew up to be President.
All this because of a simple smile
That hadn't cost a cent.
STILSON'S LEAP (from a book of which the title I lost)
On a gray day in late November 1941, a squadron of Spitfires was flying back
towards Britain across the English Channel. The sky was low, with few breaks
in the clouds. They had just broken up a formation of enemy bombers and, while
most pilots were now low on fuel, all would make it back safely to the base
if luck held.
Then flames leaped out from beneath the cowling of the commanding officer's
plane, and thick, black smoke spewed from his exhausts. The whirling propeller
slowed, then froze, and his aircraft, trailing smoke, began hurtling down
towards the sea.
The cockpit canopy slid back, and the commanding officer tumbled out. His
parachute opened. The others watched him drift down through the wind and silence
towards the ocean, which splashed and foamed below.
Dropping lower, they saw him hit the sea, then, supported by his life-vest,
rise up and swim away from the entangling parachute lines. He waved them off,
but awkwardly, as if he were injured. Despite his signal, they circled over
him until their fuel was dangerously low. They would wait for his life raft
to bob up to the surface before they left him.
But the raft never surfaced. A shard of metal had torn it, perhaps - or a
bullet had pierced it, or the flames had destroyed it. No matter. Without
a life raft he could never survive in those cold waters.
The other pilots radioed his position over and over, though several were flying
with almost dry tanks.
The new acting squadron leader knew there was nothing more they could do.
It was his job to bring the squadron home. Cursing the foul luck that had
caught them so close to home, he gave the order for them to continue back
to their base.
But a man named Stilson, ignoring all orders to leave, and refusing to acknowledge
any radio contact, only gained altitude while still circling over their downed
commander. At three thousand feet, Stilson's canopy slid back, the graceful
green-and-brown fighter arched over, and Stilson tumbled from the warmth and
safety of the cramped little cockpit, falling free.
His parachute blossomed above him, as he floated down towards the foaming
sea. The sun broke through the clouds, and a mile away his empty plane ploughed
into the waves, kicking up a long plume of rainbow spray, and, settling in
the water, sank from sight.
The other pilots saw Stilson float down, strike the choppy, glinting surface
of the Channel, sink, then come frothing up into the sunlight. They saw him
cut loose from the shroud lines and kick free of the sinking chute. They saw
his inflated raft pop up to the surface, saw him pull himself in and paddle
over to where the commander was still struggling feebly in the bitterly cold
water. They saw him haul the officer into the tiny raft with him. On their
next pass - their last - the others saw both men bobbing in the life raft
together. Next, the clouds closed in, obscuring all.
The others all made it back safely - just barely. They filled out their reports
and waited. No word came. In the morning the sky was peaceful and clear, and
they flew over a bright, blue, calm, sparkling sea.
But no trace of either man was ever found.
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