Answer Just One Question and Get a Tip For Life

When a pickpocket meets the Buddha, he sees only his pockets...

Once a pickpocket saw a man who bought a large diamond. He followed him and even bought a ticket for the same train as the man with the diamond. When the man fell asleep, the pickpocket searched the compartment, but everything was in vain.

When the train arrived and the man who bought the diamond stepped onto the platform, the pickpocket approached him.

"Excuse me, sir," he said. "I'm a professional thief. I tried everything, and I promise I won't bother you again, but let me ask you this question: Where did you hide the diamond?"

The man answered, "I saw you were following me, and it took me a long time to figure out where to hide the diamond so you couldn't find it. In the end, I hid it in your pocket."

The diamond you're looking for is always close to you - closer than your breath. But you're searching Buddha's pockets. Empty out the pockets of your mind. Seek where the distance doesn't exist and where you don't need to do anything.

A man bought a beautiful big house with a garden. An envious neighbor lived next to him, constantly trying to ruin his good mood: he threw garbage under the gate as well as several other nasty things.

One day the man woke up in high spirits, went out on the porch, and saw a bucket of slop. He took the bucket, cleaned it thoroughly, filled it with the ripest apples, and went to his neighbor. Having heard the knocking, the neighbor thought, "Finally! I got him!" He opened the door, but the man handed him the bucket of apples, saying, "Everyone should share what they have!"

The king announced that he was looking for a husband for his daughter. On the appointed day, hundreds of suitors gathered in the castle. Everyone wanted to prove that they would love the princess forever. The girl looked at the dressed-up young men and thought. Then she called for her tutor, and they had a long talk. "I won't be talking to the suitors today," the princess announced, returning to her tutor.

The tutor's house was by the road. When the first suitor, a noble knight on a horse, rode past, he saw a beggar woman with a flower basket by the roadside. Having seen the knight, she asked, "Could you buy a bouquet, young man?" "Get out of my way, beggar!" shouted the knight and rode off. So did all the young men who hurried to the castle that day. The next day, the upset princess met the suitors. After saying a few words, she immediately sent them away. The same thing happened on the second day, and on the third.

"Darling, why do you send them away?" asked the queen anxiously. "They're unable to see beauty, Mother," answered the princess. A month passed. New suitors gathered in the castle. Only the princess and a young man were not there. They appeared together, and the princess announced that she found her match. Then she explained to the queen:

"My tutor told me that 'Only one man will love you until the end of his life: the one who will fall in love with you in rags.' Every day I dressed in old clothes, waiting for the suitors by the roadside. This young man was the only one who stopped to buy flowers from me. He told me I was beautiful."

Once two friends had an argument, and one slapped the other in the face. The latter, feeling pain, wrote in the sand: "Today my best friend slapped me." They continued walking through the desert, and they found an oasis. The friend who got a slap in the face decided to swim and nearly drowned. His friend saved him. Then he wrote on a stone: "Today my best friend saved my life."

"When I offended you, you wrote in the sand, and now you wrote on the stone. Why?" asked the one who slapped his friend and saved his life.

"When someone offends us, we should write it in the sand to let the winds erase it. But when someone does something good, we should engrave it on a stone, so no winds can erase it. Learn to write your offenses in the sand and engrave your joys on a stone."

An apprentice asked his Master, "Master, is there a more favorable day to start a new business?"

"Day?" wondered the Master, then looked cunningly at his apprentices and added, "Of course. It's Wednesday."

The apprentices grabbed their notebooks and began writing this down. Only one of them sat still, looking at his Master. "Why don't you write?" he asked.

"Because I know what you're going to say," the apprentice answered. "It's not only Wednesday - it's Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Monday, Thursday, and Sunday."

"You're right," smiled the Master. "But I was going to name Friday first, and then Tuesday."

The apprentices started making noise, excited that their friend was almost right. And then one of them asked, "Master, is it the right sequence?" The Master looked carefully at the apprentice who was almost right with his answer, and gestured to him: "Answer!"

"Only one day," he said. "Today."

A Master had been happy during all his life, and he always had a smile on his face. Even when he was dying, he laughed. His apprentices were sitting around him, and one of them asked, "You've been laughing your whole life, and now we dare to ask how do you do it. And even now, in the last minutes... What's funny about that?"

The old Master answered, "Many years ago when I was a young man already suffering, I came to my Master. Master was 70 years old, but he was smiling and laughing for no apparent reason. I asked him, 'How do you do it?' and he answered, 'Inside I'm free to choose. It's just my choice. Every morning, when I open my eyes, I ask myself what I choose today - bliss or misery? And I always choose bliss, because it's so natural.' "

There once lived a man, and he had one peculiarity: apples fell right into his hands. He passed by an apple tree, put his hand out, and an apple always fell down. Everyone wondered about this. And, of course, they were eager to know his secret. And the man always answered, "I know how to wish. I want the apple to fall, and it falls."

Other people also wished, but an apple never fell.

"It means you don't know how to wish properly," the man answered, but then he decided to teach the others.

"This is how I wish," the man said, taking out ropes, springs, buttons, grommets. "I want the apple to fall down, and so I do everything to make it come true." The man started to explain things about his device: attach it to an apple, pass by this apple after a certain time, and press the button.

"It's not fair!" people said.

"Why not? I want it, and my wish comes true."

A professor of philosophy, standing in front of his class, took a 5-liter glass jar and filled it with stones. He asked his students whether the jar was full. They answered, "Yes, it is."

Then he opened a can of peas, poured the contents into the jar, and shook it a little. Naturally, the peas occupied the free space among the stones. The professor asked the students once again whether the jar was full. They answered, "It is."

Then he took a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Obviously, the sand took up all the free space and covered everything. The professor asked his students whether the jar was full. They replied, "It is. Now it's definitely full."

Then the professor said, "And now I want you to understand that the jar is your life. Stones are the most important things in your life: family, health, friends, children - everything you need for your life to stay full, even if other things will get lost. Peas mean things that became important to you: job, house, car. Sand is the rest: trifles. If you fill your jar with sand first, you won't have space for peas and stones. The same thing about your life: if you spend all your time and energy on trifles, you won't have enough space for the most important things. Do what makes you happy: play with your children, pay attention to your spouse, meet with your friends. You'll always have enough time to work, clean your house, fix and wash your car. Focus on the stones first - focus on the most important things in your life. Define your priorities. The rest is just sand."