IQ Forum

FORGIVENESS

admin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:32:33 +0000

A Kindergarten teacher had decided to let her class play a game.
The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes. Each potato will be given a name of a person that the child hates, so the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will depend on the number of persons he/she hates.

So when the day came, every child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had two potatoes; some three while some up to five potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they go for one week.

Days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those having five potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After one week, the children were relieved because the game had finally ended.

The teacher asked, “How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for one week?” The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.

The teacher said, “This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just one week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime?

DON’T REACT BUT RESPOND

admin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:54:54 +0000

When confronted with a problem, do we respond to the whole situation or react to it from our narrow experience? It is a reality that we have no control over people we meet or events that happen in our life. Thus we are often quick to react without realizing that we do have control over our response.
Reacting and responding are not the same. A reaction is an action based on an awareness of a ‘narrow slice’ of the situation. It implies that we have given charge of the situation to someone or something else. In reacting, we don’t really think about what we are doing. We resort to certain negative patterns of thought and behaviour out of habit or in response to an emotional trigger. It results in tension and creates bitterness in people and thus relationships suffer.
A response is an action that accomplishes goals based on a more thorough understanding of the whole situation. In such response, we have a command over how the situations and people influence us. Here we are taking responsibility for what has been said or done, why, as well as taking a moment to set aside our own emotional or historically learned content and try to respond in a way that will be constructive for both parties involved.
Most of us are at ease with reacting than responding! Thus any attempt to change this is almost like going against a habit that we have acquired. However, with a conscious decision and awareness, we can overcome the habit of reacting and adopt new pattern of responding. After all we are what we repeatedly do. Therefore, next time when we find ourselves emotionally hijacked, make sure not to react but respond to make a difference!

- Sajith Cyriac

This Is Good!

admin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:17:42 +0000

A story is told of a king who had a close friend. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation (positive or negative) and remarking,“This is good!”
One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, “This is good!”
To which the king replied, “No, this is not good!” and proceeded to send his friend to jail. About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took them to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So they untied the king and sent him on his way.
As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went to the jail to speak with his friend. “You were right,” he said, “it was good that my thumb was blown off.”
And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. “And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this.” “No,” his friend replied, “This is good!”
“What do you mean, ‘This is good’? How could it be good that I sent you to jail for a year?” asked the King. To which, his friend replied, “If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you.”

Idiots

admin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:38:19 +0000

Swami Vivekananda

One day Swami Vivekananda was travelling in South India by train. In his compartment there were some British soldiers. They were making fun of sannyasis in English.
He got down in Salem and was speaking with railway officers in English. Seeing this the British soldiers asked, “You speak fluent English. Why didn’t you then protest when we were ridiculing sannyasis?”
“This is not the first time I see idiots” was the crisp reply

Dare To Be Yourself

admin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:07:32 +0000

We live in a world that gives a lot of attention to the externals of life. The kind of house we live in, the car we drive, the grade on our certificates etc. seem to define us. In addition, our physical appearance, shape, weight, colour, etc. do matter when it is assumed that after all it is the “beautiful people” who make it in this world.
As a result we wear hundreds of masks, masks that we are afraid to take off and none of them is us. We panic at the thought of our limitations and fear of being exposed. That’s why we frantically create masks to hide behind, a nonchalant sophisticated facade to help us pretend that we are better than others.
Has anyone become a British by speaking English? Has anyone become an Italian by eating lots of spaghetti? Being British or Italian is not something you do or don’t do. It is you or it is not at all. Similarly, no amount of externals and masks can make us what we are not. By projecting what we are not, we only diminish our true worth. Remember that a flower filled with honey need not wear a mask to attract bees!
Living authentically means we accept as we are and courageously face all the aspects of our life: the light, the dark, the new and the old. Be who we are and say what we feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

Therefore, strip away the mask and let yourself just “BE.”

Sajith Cyriac