I have written several times about Nasrudin. Nasrudin is a character in many tales and parables. He lived in the Middle East many hundreds of years ago. Here is another story about Nasrudin. In some stories he was a wise mullah. In others, he played a fool to illustrate a point. Here is another story about Nasrudin.
The emperor Tamerlane was faced with a revolt in a far flung region under his rule. Workers had rioted in one of the cities and murdered their extremely unpopular governor. Tamerlane summoned his greatest military commanders, ordering them to stamp out the revolt immediately.
“Take all the troops you need, ladders to scale the city walls, cannons to blow the city to smithereens, camels and elephants to bring terror to the hearts of every man, woman and child.”
“You have forgotten the most effective weapon to settle the violence, which you must deploy before all others,” whispered Nasrudin into the ear of the emperor.
“Tell me Nasrudin, what is that?”
“One man with the sense to listen to the complaints of the citizens and assume the role of governor.”
Once again, the old stories have parallels in our modern times.
© 2011 Eric Borreson
Showing posts with label Nasrudin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nasrudin. Show all posts
Friday, February 11, 2011
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Don’t Ask Me, Ask My Donkey!
I have written several times recently about Nasruden. Nasrudin is a character in many tales and parables. He lived in the Middle East many hundreds of years ago. Here is another story about Nasrudin.
Nasrudin was riding his donkey one day. The donkey was frightened by something and bolted. The donkey started running down the street as fast as it could.
Some of his countrymen watched with amusement. They called out to him, “Nasrudin, where are you going in such a hurry?”
"Don't ask me, ask my donkey!", Nasrudin shouted back to them.
Have you ever felt that your life was out of control? Has it seemed like things were flying past and you were being carried along with the current? Or in Nasrudin’s case, carried along with the donkey.
The first step in regaining control of your life is to step back and look at where your life has gotten out of balance. It all starts with taking time for reflection. Stop and think about what is really important. Make up a list of the top five or ten things that are important to you.
Take some time and talk about this list with the people who are important to you. Think about it for a few days. Make sure the list truly reflects your priorities. Then keep track of how you spend your time for a few weeks.
Compare your priority list with your log of how you spend your time. Do they match? If you are feeling that your life is spinning out of control, I would bet that your time is being spent on things that are not important to you. Now it’s time to take action.
What are you going to do about all the time wasters in your life? What are you going to do to learn how to spend your time on the important things in your life?
This is your chance to differentiate between what you want and what other people want of you. Time is your only asset in your quest for meaning in your life. If you allow it to happen, the parasites in your life will use up all your time. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do a favor for a friend, but the choice must be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.
© 2010 Eric Borreson
Nasrudin was riding his donkey one day. The donkey was frightened by something and bolted. The donkey started running down the street as fast as it could.
Some of his countrymen watched with amusement. They called out to him, “Nasrudin, where are you going in such a hurry?”
"Don't ask me, ask my donkey!", Nasrudin shouted back to them.
Have you ever felt that your life was out of control? Has it seemed like things were flying past and you were being carried along with the current? Or in Nasrudin’s case, carried along with the donkey.
The first step in regaining control of your life is to step back and look at where your life has gotten out of balance. It all starts with taking time for reflection. Stop and think about what is really important. Make up a list of the top five or ten things that are important to you.
Take some time and talk about this list with the people who are important to you. Think about it for a few days. Make sure the list truly reflects your priorities. Then keep track of how you spend your time for a few weeks.
Compare your priority list with your log of how you spend your time. Do they match? If you are feeling that your life is spinning out of control, I would bet that your time is being spent on things that are not important to you. Now it’s time to take action.
What are you going to do about all the time wasters in your life? What are you going to do to learn how to spend your time on the important things in your life?
This is your chance to differentiate between what you want and what other people want of you. Time is your only asset in your quest for meaning in your life. If you allow it to happen, the parasites in your life will use up all your time. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do a favor for a friend, but the choice must be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.
© 2010 Eric Borreson
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Relinquish Your Attachment to Perfection
I have written several times about Nasrudin. Nasrudin is a character in many tales and parables. He lived in the Middle East many hundreds of years ago. Here is another story about Nasrudin.
Nasrudin wanted to add some beauty to his life, so he started a flower garden. He prepared an area in his yard and planted many kinds of beautiful flowers. In due time, the flower seeds sprouted and the garden was filled with the beautiful colors and aromas of the flowers.
There was only one problem. The flower garden was full of dandelions. He didn’t want dandelions. He wanted only the flowers that he had planted. He tried everything that he could think of to get rid of the dandelions. He asked advice of gardeners from all over and tried everything they suggested. Nothing worked.
Finally, he went to the capital to ask advice of the royal gardener at the palace. The royal gardener was a wise old man that had given advice to many gardeners. He suggested many things to Nasrudin, but alas, Nasrudin had already tried them all.
They sat together in silence for some time. The royal gardener finally looked at Nasrudin and said, “I suggest that you learn to accept them.”The second Noble Truth is that suffering is caused by attachment. When I was first learning tai chi, we used the phrase, “Relinquish your attachment to perfection.”
We cannot expect things to be perfect. There are times when things just do not work out the way we want them to. There are some things in life that we cannot control, no matter how much we want to or how hard we try.
How we respond to events determines our stress level. We can worry and stress about how things didn’t work out the way we wanted or we can let go of our attachment. Peace and happiness comes when we accept what we have and do the best we can with it.
Let me repeat: “We cannot expect things to be perfect”. We are all human. We make mistakes. We have weaknesses. For example, I have been working to lose some weight. This is not vanity. I am trying to get better control of my blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides. I need to do this for my health and my life. I have been doing great for the last several weeks.
So what did I do last night? Laurie and I went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. I ate almost the whole basket of chips. At least I saved some of the meal for later. My blood sugar was way too high that evening because of it. I could beat myself up emotionally about my failure, or I can remember that I need to “Relinquish my attachment to perfection” and get back on track.
Let us not forget that “We are spiritual beings on a human journey”. Life is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the trip.
© 2010 Eric Borreson
Nasrudin wanted to add some beauty to his life, so he started a flower garden. He prepared an area in his yard and planted many kinds of beautiful flowers. In due time, the flower seeds sprouted and the garden was filled with the beautiful colors and aromas of the flowers.
There was only one problem. The flower garden was full of dandelions. He didn’t want dandelions. He wanted only the flowers that he had planted. He tried everything that he could think of to get rid of the dandelions. He asked advice of gardeners from all over and tried everything they suggested. Nothing worked.
Finally, he went to the capital to ask advice of the royal gardener at the palace. The royal gardener was a wise old man that had given advice to many gardeners. He suggested many things to Nasrudin, but alas, Nasrudin had already tried them all.
They sat together in silence for some time. The royal gardener finally looked at Nasrudin and said, “I suggest that you learn to accept them.”The second Noble Truth is that suffering is caused by attachment. When I was first learning tai chi, we used the phrase, “Relinquish your attachment to perfection.”
We cannot expect things to be perfect. There are times when things just do not work out the way we want them to. There are some things in life that we cannot control, no matter how much we want to or how hard we try.
How we respond to events determines our stress level. We can worry and stress about how things didn’t work out the way we wanted or we can let go of our attachment. Peace and happiness comes when we accept what we have and do the best we can with it.
Let me repeat: “We cannot expect things to be perfect”. We are all human. We make mistakes. We have weaknesses. For example, I have been working to lose some weight. This is not vanity. I am trying to get better control of my blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides. I need to do this for my health and my life. I have been doing great for the last several weeks.
So what did I do last night? Laurie and I went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. I ate almost the whole basket of chips. At least I saved some of the meal for later. My blood sugar was way too high that evening because of it. I could beat myself up emotionally about my failure, or I can remember that I need to “Relinquish my attachment to perfection” and get back on track.
Let us not forget that “We are spiritual beings on a human journey”. Life is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the trip.
© 2010 Eric Borreson
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Right Effort
One of the steps on the eight-fold path is “Right Effort.” Nothing can be achieved without effort. However, misguided effort distracts us from our right efforts. The energy put into misguided efforts, such as envy, aggression, greed, and violence, could be channeled to right efforts, such as self-discipline, generosity, love, and kindness.
Here is a story about Nasrudin. Nasrudin is a character in many tales and parables. He lived in the Middle East many hundreds of years ago.
The town's richest man had died. The next morning, another rich, and particularly miserly, old man said to Nasrudin, "I wonder how much he left."
Nasrudin said, "Every cent of it, sir."
There is nothing in Buddhism that opposes accumulating wealth. In fact, there are many passages in Buddhist writings that encourage people to seek and amass wealth in “rightful ways.” What is wrong is to accumulate wealth in unlawful ways or to allow wealth to enslave us with greed, possessiveness, and miserliness.
Here is a quote from
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma2/becono4.html
“In opposition to contemporary urban values, Buddhism does not measure a person's or nation's worth by material wealth. Nor does it go to the opposite extreme, as do Marxist thinkers, and condemn the accumulation of wealth as an evil in and of itself. Instead, Buddhism judges the ethical value of wealth by the ways in which it is obtained, and the uses to which it is put.”
None of us are likely to ever be considered wealthy, but being miserly means much more than money. Are you hoarding your time instead of giving it? Are you hoarding your love because of fear that it won’t be reciprocated?
Someday, every one of us will pass. It’s not something we like to think about, but it may be worthwhile to give it a little thought. Think about how you will be remembered. Will you be remembered as a kind, generous, loving person? Or will you be remembered as a miser?
© 2010 Eric Borreson
Here is a story about Nasrudin. Nasrudin is a character in many tales and parables. He lived in the Middle East many hundreds of years ago.
The town's richest man had died. The next morning, another rich, and particularly miserly, old man said to Nasrudin, "I wonder how much he left."
Nasrudin said, "Every cent of it, sir."
There is nothing in Buddhism that opposes accumulating wealth. In fact, there are many passages in Buddhist writings that encourage people to seek and amass wealth in “rightful ways.” What is wrong is to accumulate wealth in unlawful ways or to allow wealth to enslave us with greed, possessiveness, and miserliness.
Here is a quote from
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma2/becono4.html
“In opposition to contemporary urban values, Buddhism does not measure a person's or nation's worth by material wealth. Nor does it go to the opposite extreme, as do Marxist thinkers, and condemn the accumulation of wealth as an evil in and of itself. Instead, Buddhism judges the ethical value of wealth by the ways in which it is obtained, and the uses to which it is put.”
None of us are likely to ever be considered wealthy, but being miserly means much more than money. Are you hoarding your time instead of giving it? Are you hoarding your love because of fear that it won’t be reciprocated?
Someday, every one of us will pass. It’s not something we like to think about, but it may be worthwhile to give it a little thought. Think about how you will be remembered. Will you be remembered as a kind, generous, loving person? Or will you be remembered as a miser?
© 2010 Eric Borreson
Finding Success in Life
Everyone wants to be successful in their life. Success is different for everyone, so only you can define it for yourself. It doesn’t matter much what you choose to do in your life. If you want to be good at it, you must spend time learning something about it and how to do it the best.
Do you have the willingness to work hard to reach your goals? Maybe you talk about doing it. Maybe you talk about planning on how to do it. Maybe you don’t even do that. What stops you from doing more? Do you keep running into a wall?
Knowing how to do something well only happens when you struggle to find your way. It doesn’t come from reading someone’s blog. It doesn’t come from listening to a talk. Those things can give guidance, but you need to do the work. The Chinese have a saying: “To learn how to do something, do it 10,000 times.”
Look at your circle of friends. Are they doing interesting things and working hard? Are they partying all night and sleeping all day? Which kind of friend do you think will help you reach your goals?
Surround yourself with your sangha, your virtuous community, of successful, positive people. Ask several of them to help you plan. Talk about your options for the future. Ask for crazy ideas to help you come up with unconventional ways to get things done.
Nasrudin is a character in many tales and parables. He lived in the Middle East many hundreds of years ago. Here is a story about Nasrudin from http://www.unfetteredmind.com/articles/willingness.php
One day, while staying at a friend's house, Nasrudin peered over the wall into the neighbor's yard and saw the most wonderful garden he had ever seen. He noticed an old man patiently weeding a flower-bed and asked, “This is a beautiful garden. I'd like to have one just like it. How do you make a garden like this?”
“Twenty years hard work.”
“Never mind,” said Nasrudin.
Do you want to create a great garden of your life? The time to start is now. Enjoy the journey because it’s a long trip.
© 2010 Eric Borreson
Do you have the willingness to work hard to reach your goals? Maybe you talk about doing it. Maybe you talk about planning on how to do it. Maybe you don’t even do that. What stops you from doing more? Do you keep running into a wall?
Knowing how to do something well only happens when you struggle to find your way. It doesn’t come from reading someone’s blog. It doesn’t come from listening to a talk. Those things can give guidance, but you need to do the work. The Chinese have a saying: “To learn how to do something, do it 10,000 times.”
Look at your circle of friends. Are they doing interesting things and working hard? Are they partying all night and sleeping all day? Which kind of friend do you think will help you reach your goals?
Surround yourself with your sangha, your virtuous community, of successful, positive people. Ask several of them to help you plan. Talk about your options for the future. Ask for crazy ideas to help you come up with unconventional ways to get things done.
Nasrudin is a character in many tales and parables. He lived in the Middle East many hundreds of years ago. Here is a story about Nasrudin from http://www.unfetteredmind.com/articles/willingness.php
One day, while staying at a friend's house, Nasrudin peered over the wall into the neighbor's yard and saw the most wonderful garden he had ever seen. He noticed an old man patiently weeding a flower-bed and asked, “This is a beautiful garden. I'd like to have one just like it. How do you make a garden like this?”
“Twenty years hard work.”
“Never mind,” said Nasrudin.
Do you want to create a great garden of your life? The time to start is now. Enjoy the journey because it’s a long trip.
© 2010 Eric Borreson
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)