Bees seem to have something like human minds, exactly the same kind of stupidity. The doors may be open, but if a bee is inside the room, caught inside the room… and she may have come from the open door but she will try to get out from the closed window. Not only bees but other birds also behave in the same way. Any bird can enter in your room; the doors are open, he has come from the door, but he cannot go back from the same door.

He starts trying to get through the wall, through the ceiling… and the more he tries, the more desperate he becomes, because there is no way to get through the ceiling or through the wall or through the closed window. And in that desperation, frustration he becomes more and more blind, afraid, scared. He loses all intelligence. And the same is the case with human beings.

One day Buddha came into his assembly of the monks. It must have been just a morning like this. His sannyasins were sitting and waiting for him. They were puzzled because this was for the first time that Buddha had come with something in his hand – a handkerchief. They all looked at the handkerchief What was the matter? There must be something special in it. And Buddha sat on the platform and rather than starting speaking to the assembly he looked at the handkerchief, started tying a few knots in it, five knots in all.

The whole assembly watched – what is going on? And then he asked the assembly, ”Can anybody tell me: is this handkerchief the same as it was before the knots were tied?”

Sariputta said, ”This is a tricky question. In a way the handkerchief is the same because nothing has changed, in a way it is not the same because these five knots have appeared which were not there before. But as far as the inner nature of the handkerchief is concerned – its nature is concerned – it is the same; but as far as its form is concerned it is no more the same. The form has changed: the substance is the same.”

Buddha said, ”Right. Now I want to open these knots.” And he started stretching both ends of the handkerchief farther away from each other. He asked Sariputta. ”What do you think? By stretching farther will I be able to open the knots?”

He said, ”You will be making knots even more difficult to open because they will become smaller, more tighter. ’

Buddha said, ”Right. Then I want to ask the last question: what should I do so that I can open the knots, the tied knots? How I can untie them again?”

Sariputta said, ”Bhagwan, I would like first to come close and see how in the first place the knots have been tied. Unless I know how they have been tied it is difficult for me to suggest any solution.”

Buddha said, ”Right, Sariputta. You are blessed, because that is the most fundamental question to ask. If you are in a certain fix, the first thing is how you got into it rather than trying to get out of it. Without asking the most fundamental and the primary question, you will make things worse.”

And that’s what people are doing. They ask, ”How we can get out of our sexuality, greed, anger, attachment, jealousy, possessiveness, this and that?” without asking, ”How in the first place we get into them?”

this story found here!

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Give me some wisdom

As an Officer for the State (Correctional Officer/ Prison Guard) I am in the pits with some of the worlds most ruthless humans/inmates. I have found that some want to just do their time and get out while others have a burning desire to cause havac, spread their unhappiness.

The Mission statement for the Texas Prison Guard has in it’s length,… “To promote positive change in offender behavior.” I believe in this. I tell some of these zen stories to offenders in hopes to better their outlook on life. Like the religious services, when I get stuck having to watch them and they simply just hang out in the church, or the recreation yard or the chow hall.

The other day one walked up and said, “Mr. C, give me some wisdom.”

I told him, “Be like grass, you can step on it, smash it, cut it or even burn it and it always comes back greener and stronger.”

“A bad attitude is like a flat tire, your not going very far until you change it.”

“The way out of a hole is through self motivation.”

Then I come home and sit in front of the computer and ask the monitor, “give me some wisdom.”  So, where did I get my wisdom? … (grinin’) …”Google!”

I watched a butterfly today, dancing to a song on the radio, or so it seemed.

(~_~)