One afternoon, some people saw an old woman looking for something outside of her hut. “What’s going on? What are you looking for?” the people would ask her. “I lost a needle,” she said. All of the people present started to look for the needle with the old woman.
After some time, someone commented: “The Street is very long and a needle is very small, why don’t you tell us exactly where you dropped it?” “Inside of my house,” said the old woman.
“Have you gone mad? If you dropped the needle inside of your house, why are you looking for it out here?” the people asked her. “Because there’s sunlight out here, but there’s none inside my house,” she said matter of fact.
This Buddhist tale reminds us that many times, out of convenience, we seek for things on the outside that are actually found on the inside. Why do we seek happiness outside of ourselves? Did we lose it there? This tale creates profound awareness within us. True contentment can be found only within us, by understanding ourselves. And the apt time is now when we are bound within our walls due to social isolation, to combat coronavirus pandemic. Let’s utilize this seclusion to love, understand and live with ourselves better.
A number of disciples went to the Buddha and said, “Sir, there are living here in Savatthi many wandering hermits and scholars who indulge in constant dispute, some saying that the world is infinite and eternal and others that it is finite and not eternal, some saying that the soul dies with the body and others that it lives on forever, and so forth.
What, Sir, would you say concerning them?”The Buddha answered, “Once upon a time there was a certain raja who called to his servant and said, ‘Come, good fellow, go and gather together in one place all the men of Savatthi who were born blind… and show them an elephant.’ ‘Very good, sire,’ replied the servant, and he did as he was told.
He said to the blind men assembled there, ‘Here is an elephant,’ and to one man he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail, saying to each one that what they touched was the elephant.“When the blind men had felt the elephant, the raja went to each of them and said to each, ‘Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant?
Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?’“Thereupon the men who were presented with the head answered, ‘Sire, an elephant is like a pot.’ And the men who had observed the ear replied, ‘An elephant is like a winnowing basket.’ Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a plowshare.
Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plow; others said the body was a granary; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle, the tuft of the tail, a brush.“Then they began to quarrel, shouting, ‘Yes it is!’ ‘No, it is not!’ ‘An elephant is not that!’ ‘Yes, it’s like that!’ and so on, till they came to blows over the matter.“Brethren, the raja was delighted with the scene.“Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing….
In their ignorance, they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.”Then the Exalted One rendered this meaning by uttering this verse of uplift,O how they cling and wrangle, some who claimFor preacher and monk the honored name!For, quarreling, each to his view they cling.Such folk see only one side of a thing.Is there a point of view that’s superior to all others?Are all descriptions of reality deficient in some way?The Buddha wisely chose not to explore these topics as he considered them a distraction from his teachings on the relief of suffering.
We conduct an accurate and reliable COVID Test.
Our qualified phlebotomists trained for safe and hygienic sample collecting during Test for COVID 19.
We are the most trustworthy lab for COVID 19 testing in India.
Get your COVID-19 Test done with Metropolis Healthcare.
Get all the updates about Covid-19 in UAE on Call Doctor UAE.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, we are providing premium home healthcare throughout Dubai & Abu Dhabi.
Bangladesh has Taken the Decision to Postpone the Upcoming Sri Lanka tour to Bangladesh Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
For More Details Visit Stumpsandbails.com
The COVID-19 pandemic has changes the working of real estate sector and has led to the change in the way real estate marketing used to be done.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Related Coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV2) or the COVID-19 virus has led to a global pandemic causing havoc all across.