The Missing Goat

It all started one lazy Sunday afternoon in a small town near Toronto in Canada.

Two school-going friends had a crazy idea.

They rounded up three goats from the neighborhood and painted the number 1, 2 and 4 on their sides.

That night they let the goats loose inside their school building.

The next morning, when the authorities entered the school, they could smell something was wrong.

They soon saw goat droppings on the stairs and near the entrance and realized that some goats had entered the building.

A search was immediately launched and very soon, the three goats were found.

But the authorities were worried, where was goat No. 3?

They spent the rest of the day looking for goat No.3.

Gradually there was panic and frustration.

The school declared classes off for the students for the rest of the day.

The teachers, helpers, guards, canteen staffs, boys were all busy looking for the goat No. 3, which, of course, was never found.

Simply because it did not exist.
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Those among us who inspite of having a good life are always feeling a "lack of fulfilment" are actually looking for the elusive, missing, non-existent goat No.3.

Whatever the area of complaint or search or dissatisfaction may be - relationship, job-satisfaction, materialistic achievement......an absence of something is always larger than the presence of many other things.

Stop worrying about goat No.3

Not Permanent

When somebody tells me that he has failed in exams, I ask "Is there a law that you will pass every time?"

When somebody tells me "My girlfriend broke up with me", I ask, "Is there a rule that you will have successful relationships always?"

When somebody asks me "Why am I depressed?", my question is "Is it compulsory to have confidence all the time?"

When somebody lamented about his huge business losses as a result of his making wrong business decisions, my question is "Is it possible that you take only the right decision all the time?"

The fact is that our expectation that life has to be perfect or permanent is the biggest reason of our happiness. One has to understand the law of impermanence of nature. After each sunny day, a dark night follows; after each birth, there follows a certain death; for full moon to come again, it has to pass through a no-moon phase. In this imperfection of nature, there is perfection.

Therefore, stop taking your failures personally or intensely. Prepare yourself for one more fight after each fall because even failures cannot be permanent.

Everyone has a Story...

A 24 year old boy seeing out from the train’s window shouted…
“Dad, look the trees are going behind!”

Dad smiled and a young couple sitting nearby, looked at the 24 year old’s childish behavior with pity, suddenly he again exclaimed…
“Dad, look the clouds are running with us!”

The couple couldn’t resist and said to the old man…
“Why don’t you take your son to a good doctor?”

The old man smiled and said…
“I did and we are just coming from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, he just got his eyes today."

Every single person on the planet has a story. Don’t judge people before you truly know them. The truth might surprise you.

Everyone is Improtant

A lonely tree was growing among the hot sands of dead desert. Prickly sands covered the Wood. The Sun mercilessly burned its bark. But the Tree kept on living in spite of all.

Once the Hawk flied over the desert. The Hawk saw the Wood and sat on its branch. He looked around the desert and said:
You are strange Tree, why do you keep on living among these dead hot sands ? Who needs it?
You, — the Tree answered.
Me? — the Hawk was surprised. — I don‘t need you.
But if not me, — the Tree told, — you would have to sit on the hot sand instead of my branches. If not me, someone, seeing you sitting on the tree alone, would say that nobody needs you, too. And would ask you what do you live for. Sitting on my branches you, Hawk, think that I need you.

The Hawk thought about it and had to agree with the Tree. If there was no Tree, the hawk would feel himself alone and useless among this vast desert.

Ask yourself first

Once, a person decided to realize his dream. Only he didn’t have enough strength to do it. Then he turned to his mother:
- Mother, help me!
- Darling, I would be glad to help you, only I don’t have it. And everything I have, I already give to you…

He asked a wise man:
- Master, tell me, where can I get strength?
- It is said that, it is on the Everest. Only I couldn’t find anything there, except the snowy winds. And when I came back, the time was irretrievably lost…

He asked the hermit:
- Holy Father, where to find strength for realizing my dream?
- In your prayers, my son. And if your dream is false, you will understand it and find peace in your prayers…

Who didn’t the person ask, but the results of his search were only confusion.

Why are you so confused? - asked an old man passing by.
I have a dream, good man. But I don’t know where to find strength for realizing it. I asked everyone already- from Everest to hell. But there was no one who could help me.

Not everyone, - a light flashed in an old man’s eyes, - did you ask yourself that?

Search within...

One evening, Rabiya - she was a famous Sufi mystic - was searching for something on the street in front of her small hut. The sun was setting: slowly, slowly, darkness was descending. A few people gathered. They asked her: What are you doing? What have you lost? What are you searching for?

She said: “I have lost my needle.”

The people said: “Now the sun is setting and it will be very difficult to find the needle, but we will help you. Where exactly has it fallen? Because the road is big and the needle is so small. If we know the exact place it will be easier to find it.”

Rabiya said, "It is better not to ask me that question - because in fact it has not fallen on the road at all, it has fallen inside my house."

The people started laughing and they said, "We always thought that you were a little insane! If the needle has fallen inside the house, then why are you searching on the road?"

Rabiya said, "For a simple, logical reason: Inside the house there is no light and on the outside a little light is still there."

The people laughed and started dispersing. Rabiya called them back and said, "Listen! That’s exactly what you are doing: I was just following your example. You go on seeking bliss in the outside world without asking the first and primary question: Where have I lost it? And I tell you, you have lost it inside. You are looking for it on the outside for the simple, logical reason that you senses, your ears hear outward, your hands reach outward; that's the reason why you are searching outside. Otherwise I tell you, you have not lost it there - and I tell you on my own authority. I have also searched on the outside for many many lives, and the day I looked in, I was surprised. There was no need to seek and search; it has always been within.”

(A story by OSHO)

The little wave

The story is abut a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He's enjoying the wind and the fresh air - until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. "My God, this terrible", the wave says. "Look what's going to happen to me!"

Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him: "Why do you look so sad?" The first wave says: "You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?"

The second wave says: "No, you don't understand. You're not a wave, you're part of the ocean."