The Gates of Heaven and Hell

The Gates of Heaven and Hell

Story time (Don’t I just love stories).

One day the Zen Master Lao Tzu was meditating at his abode, when he was interrupted by a very anxious  Army General. The General, a mighty man who had won several battles was experiencing a lot of anxiety and restlessness within, and wanted to know if he would go to heaven or hell because of the wars he had fought and the number of people he had killed.

Instead of answering him, Lao Tzu knocked him on his head with his fist. The general, already an irritable person, was enraged. He screamed at Lao Tzu ‘HOW DARE YOU HIT ME ON THE HEAD’. His face grew red with rage, to which Lao Tzu calmly responded saying ‘Here lie the gates of Hell’. The General, immediately realizing his mistake bowed in front of the great Zen master ‘Please forgive me, I should not have lost my temper’ to which Lao Tzu, gently smiled and said ‘Here lie the Gates of Heaven’. The General went back in peace with a big smile on his face. Lao Tzu resumed his meditation.

All that Lao Tzu did was to trigger a response. The General’s first response was directly from his ego which drove him to rage. The Generals second response came out of humility and a sudden quantum moment where he realized that the choice of heaven and hell was within him and not some place he would go once he died. With this incident with the Zen Master, the General realized that the anger and guilt that he was carrying within as a result of his past deeds manifested itself in the form of a negative reaction. The moment he came to terms with it, his entire reaction changed in a matter of seconds.Basically, the general had to make peace with his past in order to experience heaven within.

Heaven within comes from being at peace with your life which in other words is a sum total of your past and your present. Since the present exists only in concept, it’s safe to say that our life is summed up by our past.

Everything that we did to bring us to WHERE we are now and WHO we are now.  The word PAST tends to terrify most people because it has a negative connotation. When someone says ‘oh he/she has a past’ it generally means they’ve not had a good past. The past isn’t negative, not by a long shot. The Past is experience, The Past is growth, The Past is a life that has been lived. The Past guides us to our future and teaches us invaluable lessons so that we don’t repeat our mistakes. 

The problem often lies when we allow the past to dictate our future. And that’s what leads us to hell within. The role of the past is to prepare us for the future not to dictate it. It strengthens us by putting us through the good times and the bad so that we evolve and grow. We learn about what works for us and what doesn’t. Past experience plays an important role in self-preservation. The Past highlights any alarming situations that we may be facing or are likely to face. Most importantly, The Past provides us with ammunition to make our choices. But do not allow it to make those decisions for you.  When we give too much importance to it by clinging on it, we experience hell within. 

Try this exercise- walk forward but look back. You can do it for a few steps but beyond that, apart from having a very sore neck, you will be directionless, I guarantee it, and you just might keep bumping into something or the other. And that’s because you’re not meant to look back all the time. Sure, when you do stop for a while in this journey of life, its fine to look back at how far you’ve come, smile, and say to yourself ‘you’ve come a long way, baby and yet there is still much to be done, so get up and get on with our journey’. Thank the past and move on. That’s when you will set foot into the Gates of Heaven within. Because you will be at peace J.  

Merry Christmas to all you wonderful people. May the coming year bring you peace within or as Kung Fu Panda rightly puts it ‘Inner Peace’.

‘Appreciation? What’s that?’

This one is something I read sometime back and it actually has quite a profound meaning. So here goes.

Jack happened to visit his neighbor Jim that morning. Jim has a dog called Max. Max is a wonderful dog. That day Jack was up early and happened to stroll past Jim’s courtyard. He noticed that in the morning Max had woken up before his master. He would climb on his two feet and unlock the door. He would then pick up the bottle of milk, go to the kitchen, leave the bottle of milk on the table, go out the door again to pick up the newspaper and keep it near his master’s favourite reclining chair. He would again head back outdoors to perform his routine actions. He also noticed that Max would come back home but not before wiping his feet on the doormat so that the house wouldn’t get dirty with his pug-marks.

‘Wow, what a smart dog’ Jack thought to himself. ‘I must compliment Jim for having such a fantastic dog, he is indeed lucky’. Saying this he strolled into Jim’s house (which was open) only to find to his shock and horror that Jim was beating up Max with his leash calling him ‘a stupid son of a bitch’. Jack hurriedly rushed to stop Jim ‘HEY JIM, STOP IT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? WHY ARE YOU BEATING HIM?’. What Jim said shocked the daylights out of Jack. Jim was beating Max because ‘the stupid son of a bitch didn’t close the door on his way back in’. Jack looked at Jim with deep sense of disgust and said ‘You are outta your mind, he’s done much more than any other dog that I have ever seen, can’t you see that leave alone appreciate it?’. Jim got even more angry ‘APPRECIATION? NO WAY, WHY DIDN’T HE CLOSE THE FUCKING DOOR, HE DESERVES TO BE BEATEN UP’.

Jack's heart sunk for the poor dog that was cowering under the table trying desperately to avoid the next lash of his master’s leash. What happened next was that Jack called the local Animal Welfare organization and rescued the poor dog which had one eye bleeding. A case was filed against Jim for Animal abuse. Jack decided to adopt Max. and thus began a lifelong relationship of trust, love, appreciation and giving :)

What’s the message behind this story? That no matter how hard you try to please someone, if they only want to look at the things you did not do, then they will punish you; instead of rewarding you with the most basic thing that we call appreciation. And that is very uncool. You may or may not appreciate good behavior but punishing severely will only result in that person or thing moving away from you. And its more likely that they will leave permanently. So if you have a Max-like person in your life remember to show your appreciation and  never let that person go. But, if there is a Jim in you life, never try to change him or her because he or she dosent want to change. And if he or she cannot appreciate what you bring to the table, then let them eat alone J J they simply don’t deserve your company.

An Enlightening Session with Jeff Hoffman

For those of you who may not be aware, Jeff Hoffman is a serial Entrepreneur. He has played an important role in building and running several new-age businesses including the highly successful www.priceline.com. 

During an Entrepreneur Bootcamp session here in Pune, he enticed us all with his immensely rich experience including success stories, lessons learnt from failures, how to build a business, how to identify and rectify flaws etc., but the one thing that really made a mark with me was this one particular nugget of wisdom that he shared. Read on…

AFRICA 

It so happens that in Africa, one of the most useful and easy ways to hunt down monkeys is quite unique. Hunters would dig holes in the ground and wedge a Banana into it. The Banana would be wedged just so that it is difficult for the monkey to pull it out. 

Now here’s the interesting part…when monkeys climbed down from their trees and onto the forest to try and pull out the wedged banana, they would not be able to. They would keep trying and trying to pull the banana out but since it wedged, it just wouldn't come out.

What happens next?

The hunters would then simply walk over to the monkey and capture it :((  Over the years, what the hunters realized is that no matter how dangerous the situation became, once the monkey grasped the banana, it wouldn't let go. It therefore became an easy way for hunters to catch them. 

What the Monkey didn't realize is that all it had to do was to let go of the banana and it would be free. Instead, in trying to hold onto the banana, it eventually lost everything include its life. Fellow Monkeys would scream ‘danger’ but they just wouldn't let go of the Banana.

The above story can be applied to many of us. Are we holding onto something that can and will cause havoc in our lives? And more importantly, are we aware of it? If we are aware of it, then are we ready to face the impending outcome? 

While this can be applied to every facet of life, entrepreneurs like us tend to be faced with such situations quite often. In order for us to grow, we need to break our patterns of thinking (i.e the monkey wanting the banana) and watch for warning signs. If we don’t, we tend to undo all that has been done because of our seemingly impractical, inane and innate stubbornness. Do share your thoughts on this as well. In the coming days, Ill try and put more such nuggets of wisdom that he shared.

May The force Be With You :)