The Taste of Life

We create our own stress according to how we are responding to the problem. We cannot change the inevitable. Most of the time,we cannot control what happens, but we can control our attitude towards it, and we will be mastering the change rather than allowing it to master us.

Let us reflect upon our present blessings, of which all of us have many, not on our past misfortunes, of which all of us have some.

There was a story of an aging Hindu master who grew tired of his apprentice who was always complaining. One morning he sent the apprentice for some salt. 

When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and drink it.

"How does it taste?" the master asked. "Bitter," spit the apprentice. The master chuckled and then asked the young man to put another handful of salt in the lake.

The two walked to the nearby lake. After the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the water, the old man said, "Now drink from the lake." 

As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the master asked, "How does it taste?" 

"Fresh," remarked the apprentice. "Do you taste the salt?" asked the master. "No," said the young man.

At this, the master sat beside the young man who so reminded him of himself at one time and held his hands.  

He told the young man, "The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things . . .Stop being a glass. Become a lake." 

It is always tempting to complain about what is not given in life rather to be thankful for what is given. One or the other becomes a habit. But when we choose not to focus on what's missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present... we experience heaven on earth.

By Tim Pedrosa


Now playing: What a Wonderful World
 

We cannot change the past, but we can ruin the present by worrying over the future. Let's not be anxious about anything... If we fill our heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow, we have no today to be thankful for.

Tim