3 great lessons of life

We learn a lot through our experiences in life. The following 3
examples of TURTLES, FROGS and THE PRETTY LADY teach us some
lesson. Enjoy reading the same and do ponder over them.

The Turtles
A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. The turtles, being
naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their
outing. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable
place. During the second year of their journey they found a place
ideal for them at last!

For about six months they cleaned the area, unpacked the picnic
basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they had
forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they
all agreed. After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was
chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of
the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and
wobbled in his shell. He agreed to go on one condition: that no one
would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little
turtle left.

Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five
years...six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the
oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he
was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich. At that
point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree
shouting, 'See! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get
the salt.'

[Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our
expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we
do not do anything ourselves.]

The Frogs

A farmer came into town and asked the owner of a restaurant if he
could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner was shocked and
asked the man where he could get so many frog legs! The farmer
replied, 'There is a pond near my house that is full of frogs -
millions of them. They all croak all night long and they are about to
make me crazy!' So the restaurant owner and the farmer made an
agreement that the farmer would deliver frogs to the restaurant, five
hundred at a time for the next several weeks.

The first week, the farmer returned to the restaurant looking rather
sheepish, with two scrawny little frogs. The restaurant owner
said, 'Well... where are all the frogs?' The farmer said, 'I was
mistaken. There were only these two frogs in the pond. But they
sure were making a lot of noise!'

[ Next time you hear somebody criticizing or making fun of you,
remember, it's probably just a couple of noisy frogs. Also remember
that problems always seem bigger in the dark. Have you ever laid in
your bed at night worrying about things which seem almost
overwhelming like a million frogs croaking? Chances are pretty good
that when the morning comes, and you take a closer look, you'll
wonder what all the fuss was about.]

The Pretty Lady

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together.
They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was
damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady
who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river.
The big monk offered to carry her across the river on his back. The
lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big
monk. 'How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid
all intimacy with females?' thought the little monk. But he kept
quiet.. The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small
monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big
monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her. All along the
way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the
act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about
big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he
still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation.
Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not
stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk. 'How
can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first
opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty? All
your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite The big monk looked
surprised and said, 'I had put down the pretty lady at the river
bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?'

[This very old Chinese Zen story reflects the thinking of many people
today. We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they
irritate us and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of
hurt, sometimes they cause us to be bitter or jealous .. But
like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away.We keep
on carrying the baggage of the 'pretty lady' with us. We let them
keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and
cause us a lot of
agony.Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of
the baggage of the 'pretty lady'. We should let go of the pretty
lady immediately after crossing the river. This will immediately
remove all our agonies.There is no need to be further hurt by the
unpleasant event after it is over.]