12.44pm

wonderful tales of wisdom, makes very good reading...
enjoy..

1) The Pretty Lady

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were travelling together. They
came to the bank of a river and found the bridge 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 the pretty lady across the
river on his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the   
big monk. "How can big disciple 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 the 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,  immediately after the unpleasant event is over.
This will immediately remove all our agonies. There is no need to be further hurt
by the unpleasant event after it is over. It is just that simple.]                  
                                                                                   
                                                                                   
                                                                                  
2) 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 hocked 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 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.]                                                         
                                                                                   
                                                                                   
                                                                                   
3) The Turtles                                                                   
                                                                                                                                                
A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. 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 for their outing. During the second
year of their journey they found a place ideal for them at last! For about six
months they cleaned up 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 don't do anything          
ourselves.]   
                                                                   

---

Ivy called at 10+am.
I am to go down to Kim Tian tml morning to sign my letter.
K.. I beta go cuz I am running late...

By the way, last nite or this morning... After I hang up with Ivy, I had a weird dream.
I dreamt that Cynthia have moved all her stuffs to my house. My room is all filled up.
I am blowing my top becuz my room is in such a mess that I cant find my stuffs.
She actually wanna move her desktop & printer to my house for me to help her check what is wrong with her printer. But dunno why end up her cupboard & those small small ornaments also come over. I was terrified. As u all know, I had a hard time cleaning up my room. Now I am enjoying the spacious room before it got stuff up with junks I bring home again. Hahaha...