Short Stories Zen | Sufi | Children's | Inspiratioanal | Fiction | Online | Love

A collection of best short stories with varied interests will be published on this blog from classic stories to modern. Stories would be Inspirational, spiritual, full with wisdom, famous, fiction, funny or humorous to stories for children, adult, fiction, non fiction, bible stories,social stories, follkore . So feel free to find a story to read online be your mood happy or sad. Navigate through the list of labels like Zen and Sufi.

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Monday, June 6, 2011

A short story about occult powers

Was going though an article Occult and psychic powers a great hindrance on the blog dedicated to Shirdi Sai Baba.

This reminds me of a story from Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna chapter 28.
Just like Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi, Shri Ramakrishna Paramhamsha refrained His disciple, devotees and spiritual seekers to refrain themselves from seeking any kind of occult powers, or working for the same.

The story

Once a Sadhu attained occult power while going through spiritual practices. He then forgot all about the highest of the spiritual attainment, merging in the divine. The lord wanted to point that out to him, so He appeared as a common man in front of the Sadhu.

He asked Sadhu if he had great occult powers, to which the Sadhu affirmed with pride.

Pointing at an Elephant close by, the man asked the Sadhu, “Can you kill that huge elephant?”

With the smile of arrogance, the Sadhu said, “Not a big deal”. He took a pinch of dust, did some mantra chant and threw the same in air. The Elephant instantly was brought down on earth, struggled a while in pain, and was dead.

“Impressive”, said the man. “Now can you revive the elephant back to life?”, he asked.

The sadhu again picked some dust, did some mantra chant and let go the dust in air, with an arrogant smile on his face. The elephant came back to life. Got up and went off in search of food.

Then the Lord said: 'Wonderful is your power. But may I ask you one thing? You have killed the elephant and you have revived it. But what has that done for you? Do you feel uplifted by it? Has it enabled you to realize God?' Saying this the Lord vanished.

More inspirational short stories to read online on this blog

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Strength of being or physical strength and sharp techniques ?

Again one another Zen story to ponder upon.

This one is called 'Great Waves'.

In the early days of the Meiji era there lived a well-known wrestler called O-nami, Great Waves.

O-nami was immensely strong and knew the art of wresting. In his private bouts he defeated even his teacher, but in public was so bashful that his own pupils threw him.

A wrestler called O-nami, meaning the great waves, was immensely strong and technically sound with the moves of wrestling. His physical strength and the techniques were so sharp, that he would defeat even his teacher, not to mention the fellow wrestlers in the private bouts.

The story was altogether different when the bouts happened in public. Even the even his own pupils would throw him. The fear to be in public seemed to work on this physically strong and so sound with sharp techniques of wrestling art. However a man may be strong physically and endowed with the sharpest of the techniques in any field, it loses it's importance when the strength draining impulses or feelings like fear attacks the system. Out of fear the body would tremble the wits will lose it's sharpness, all the hard work done for years for physical strength and sharpening of the techniques, vanishes in moments.

That's the reason more emphasis should be put on the strength of being along with the strength of physic and strength of technique. Unless freed from feelings and impulses that drains the strength.

O-nami felt he should go to a Zen master for help. Hakuju, a wandering teacher, was stopping in a little temple nearby, so O-nami went to see him and told him of his great trouble.

The great waves felt he should go to a Zen Master for help. Perfectly a right decision. He has already trained under a reputable instructor dealing with techniques and physical strength. He himself is an instructor. A Zen Master or a spiritual master is the one who carries the spiritual wealth that washes away the negative impulses and feelings. The presence, the grace, the divine love, the compassion of the Spiritually perfect Master is most important for washing away impulses like fear. Hakuju was a wondering teacher. Some Zen Master wanders from place to place bestowing their grace and compassion to the ones who receptive. O-nami was in the receptive state humble with no pride of strength or sharpen techniques. He really needed the help and hence was humble at heart and mind. With a receptive and humble heart and mind, he presented his problem to the Zen Master.

A receptive and humbleness is the most essential quality one requires when seeing a spiritual perfect master. A mind puffed with pride of it's own accomplishments, or a mind that goes with the attitude i know a lot or i am something would definitely come without gaining much. It's like pouring water in already filled cup, most poured water will overflow, the rest gets contaminated with the water already present inside.

"Great Waves is your name," the teacher advised, "so stay in this temple tonight. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid."

The master advises him to stay in the temple. Near his overflowing presence. This one might be overlooked and the technique given by the Master would be pondered upon by the most readers. The real secret lies in this short advise most than what has to follow. A temple is a sacred place were much is done to evoke the sacred energies. Moreover wherever a Master is the sacredness flows in torrents. Only a receptiveness and humbleness is required. Not humble and i know much will not find much there. There would not be much difference for the one to be in presence of Master, in temple or in market place. In fact a market place would be much comfortable and friendly.

For humble, receptive and with faith, the presence of the Master is a place overflowing with great treasure. The treasure that would fill the one with grace, love compassion and bliss. Removing feelings like anger, fear, frustration and such.

Then the Master provides him with a simple technique.

"Imagine that you are those billows."

Looks simple but if one tries to put it in practise it becomes apparent that that's not so simple as it looks. The thought process one has been with attacks and takes away one from feeling the of raging waves. The mind has this quality of wandering in the known. Of what it has already known and feels most comfortable with the known. It fears with something new.

"You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid."

This one is difficult too. Losing the identity. Nobody would like to lose the identity one has build up. That holds much importance. A wrestler, a scientist, a thinker, a rationalist, a businessman every body would cling to their identity. Letting go of the identity and be receptive and open, to be intelligent in that sense is also a huge arduous task.

For the wrestler who approached the Master it shouldn't be that arduous. He is there to get free from the fear. And with that fear the identity of the wrestler has also to be given up. It would have been much difficult for a successful wrestler. Rather a successful wrestler would least care going to the Master, be with his fears and enjoy the success.

"You are those huge waves sweeping everything before them, swallowing all in their path. Do this and you will be the greatest wrestler in the land"

If the above mentioned hurdles are absent or weak, there should be no problem for the elimination of the fear through the presence of the Master grace.

The teacher retired.

This one is a paradox. Physically it may seen that the teacher is retiring, but He never retires. The flow of grace, love and compassion is ever flowing through Him. The greatest of the forces for the receptive is always at work, it does not require and rest and never retires.

O-nami sat in meditation trying to imagine himself as waves. He thought of many different things. Then gradually he turned more and more to the feeling of waves.

Onami sat and made the effort of imagine himself as great waves sweeping everything. The force of the conditioned thoughts would not allow it in the beginning. Gradually he turned more and more towards the feeling of waves. Just imagination or thoughts are not of much importance. The feel, one should be so one with the thoughts, that the thoughts disappears. The totality is and intensity is most important. The waves does not think, they just flow with vigor. The actual feeling of the waves is required and he was turning towards the same.

As the night advanced the waves became larger and larger. They swept away the flowers in their vases. Even the Buddha in the shrine was inundated. Before dawn the temple was nothing but the ebb and flow of an immense sea.

As the night advance, with the help of overflowing grace of the Master, the identity of the wrestler was lost. Only the waves were their. There was no self centered self meddling with the waves. Hence the waves became bigger and bigger. The waves cannot get bigger it the self centered identity is there. The mind would be occupied in solving the problems identified with the self. Since there were only the waves they swept away everything. Before the dawn there was nothing but the sea.

This could be also understood symbolically. The waves is the grace of the Master. Felling the grace the grace takes over wrestler's identity. Along with the identity everything negative with that identity is lost. Only the grace, the divine love and compassion remained. The fear was of the wrestler, since the wrestler was not there and only the powerful grace was working, it took care of sweeping away everything. Nothing but the grace, the divine love and compassion was present.

In the morning the teacher found O-nami meditating, a faint smile on his face. He patted the wrestler's shoulder. "Now nothing can disturb you," he said. "You are those waves. You will sweep everything before you."

The next morning the Master saw the disciple immersed in the meditation. The mind that thought itself as a wrestler and that was afraid was not present there. A new spiritual mind filled with spiritual strength, Divine love and compassion was there. The old fearful mind had died. This brought about a faint smile on Masters face, whose heart is still sending the strong waves of compassion and divine love. He knew nothing could disturb this new mind. The wrestler himself had become the master. He would not just sweep away the opponents in Wrestling matches, but would sweep away the fears of many. A perfect wrestler in true sense.

The same day O-nami entered the wrestling contests and won. After that, no one in Japan was able to defeat him.

More inspirational short stories to read online on this blog

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Obedience - A Zen Story

Zen stories are wonderful stories with deep insight. Every individual understands the story in one's own way. Only the masters have the true understanding of the zen stories. Here i would write down what my mind understands through this story.

Readers are welcomed to write their own understanding in the comments.

The master Bankei's talks were attended not only by Zen students but by persons of all ranks and sects. He never quoted sutras nor indulged in scholastic dissertations. Instead, his words were spoken directly from his heart to the hearts of his listeners.

The master Bandei's talks were not just attended by the students of Zen. This is the quality of the true Zen master. A master is like a huge magnet attracting so many people from all sects and worldly ranks. That is that something great they carry, that makes it irresistible for people. It is not the words that attract them, but their presence. Same talk could be given by any other person with exactly same words and punctuations, but that won't carry the essential and would not be a center of attraction. Few people engaged in mind gymnastic might go there.

He never quoted, Sutras. A true enlightened master does not need to quote any Sutra or any other words. He does not rely on borrowed words. What comes out, comes out of direct perception. He does not require any other source than himself for the wisdom. No scholastic dissertations are required for him. It is not reading and acquiring information and dishing out again. The words are spoken from the powerful source of heart and thus it has capacity to pierce the heart and soul of the listeners. The words falling from their mouths carry a special power which falls like seeds in the heart of the listeners and germinates. Same set of words from weak at souls would not carry any weight and the listeners would soon forget them and carry on with their daily routine cores, never pondering on what has been said, but when those words from Masters pierce their hearts, they can't but ponder on what has been said and proceed towards freedom.

The words germinates in the heart of the listener and the listener then feels grateful for attending a Master's talk.

His large audiences angered a priest of the Nichiren sect because the adherents had left to hear about Zen. The self-centered Nichiren priest came to the temple, determined to debate with Bankei.

The Master seldom worries or craves about a large audience. What he is concerned is about the freedom and well being of the people and all living beings. On the other hand the priests and scholars are too attached with the the largeness of the audience. They feel large if large audience attends them. They are at the mercy of the audience. When the priest of Nichiren sect saw that his audience was attracted by the Master, Anger and jealousy took over him. The priest who should be responsible to free his audience from negative feelings like anger and jealousy falls victim of the same. A true priest concerned with the benefit of his audience would have felt great joy, on seeing his audience attracted to the true source. The master does not consider any number of people attending as mere audience. He communicates with each being one on one. Each one's heart and soul is penetrated individually according to one's conditioning of mind or sanskaras. The priest must scholarly and with crafted with intelligence of information and logic. Hence he decided to debate with the Master, gain victory over him and hence gain the large audience, to make himself greater again.

"Hey, Zen teacher!" he called out. "Wait a minute. Whoever respects you will obey what you say, but a man like myself does not respect you. Can you make me obey you?"

He goes to the Master and challenges him. The challenge comes from his self centered mind. He says whoever respects you. The Master is not at for gaining respect, he does not need it. What he wants is the freedom, love and compassion to develop from those attracted towards him. A scholar or a priest is too much after respect. A slave of people's opinion. If people respects them they feel great else their mind and hearts are at great turmoil. Master's peace and strength of mind and heart is least affected by any disrespect shown to them. Now here was a challenge thrown with disrespect shown towards the master.

"Come up beside me and I will show you," said Bankei.

The master does not show any reaction towards the harsh challenge thrown at him, by a proud priest in presence of so many listeners. He remains cool, that is the strength that a master carries.

Proudly the priest pushed his way through the crowd to the teacher.

The priest blinded by his arrogance and the ambition to win over the Master's audience pushes his way from the crowd. The ambition to get back his lost prestige, makes him push from the crowd. So many individuals is crowd for him. No respect or love for them flows through him, hence the pushing. Pushing his way through the mere crowd for his glory.

Bankei smiled. "Come over to my left side."

The Master smiles at him. Looking at the arrogance and disrespect shown towards him and individuals connected with him does not break the strength and silence and smile of His heart. And very softly he ask him to come over to his left side.

The priest obeyed.

The priest obeyed but was not at all aware of it. His mind was crowded with the thoughts and feelings of defeating the Master. To show to people and himself that he did not obey the master and was not a part of herd.

"No," said Bankei, "we may talk better if you are on the right side. Step over here."

So naturally and coolly the masters asks him to step over on the other side where he was sitting. The master knew what he was doing and the proud priest totally unaware and blinded with pride was following what master asked him to do.

The priest proudly stepped over to the right.

"You see," observed Bankei, "you are obeying me and I think you are a very gentle person. Now sit down and listen."

The master gestures did not show that any challenge was faced. Unperturbed he points to the priest that he had been obeying him. There was no need of scholarly talks. Regardless of all the pride and arrogance shown by the priest, Master points him out the gentle quality in him that obeyed.

Since the title of the story is obedience the mind ponders a little more on the obedience

- Obedience brought about by love, gentleness and compassion is far better than Obedience brought about by harshness, ambition and glorying the self centered self

- There no way out of Obedience either obey the self burning qualities like anger, jealousy and greed or obey the love, compassion and togetherness.

More inspirational short stories to read online on this blog

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Indian Spiritual Story on Karma and spirituality

Two friends were on the way. As they were moving across the nasty place filled with prostitutes, one of them had a desire to spend a night indulging himself in physical pleasure. The other one was given this idea to which he denied, and told his friend not do so.

They both parted, one going with a prostitute, the other with anger and resentment in his mind, decided to visit a temple and read a holy scripture. Along the way thoughts of comparison and how lowly his friend was dominated his mind.

The first one, as he moved with the prostitute began to have resentment on what he was doing. His mind was engrossed in how great his friend was, who decided to visit the temple and read a spiritual book. He was greatly started t miss that.

The other with the religious book in his hand and siting in the temple, was engrossed in the thought f his lowly friend.

An earthquake struck claiming many lives, both the friends included.

The officers from heaven and hell were busy with their work. The first one was taken by the officers of heaven, and could see at distance his friend being ruthlessly driven by the officers from hell.

'There must be some mistake', he said, 'According to what we were doing I deserve to be there and that friend of mine deserves to be graciously led by you to the heaven.'

'We are following the orders, and there is no mistake,' the officer from the heaven said.

The first one demanded and explanation for what had happened in the heaven. 'Your mind was engrossed in how your great your friend was, and was on the temple and sacred text, while your friend's mind was dwelling in how lowly the other was filled with deep resentment.' came the answer.

'Thinking of others as low and self higher is the door to hell.' the voice continued.

More inspirational short stories to read online on this blog

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Can one understand God?

Ramakrishna Paramhansacommons:Image:Ramakrishna.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This short story is a part of - Short Stories by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Men often think they have understood Brahman fully. Once an ant went to a hill of sugar. One grain filled its stomach. Taking another grain in its mouth it started homeward. On its way it thought, 'Next time I shall carry home the whole hill.' That is the way shallow minds think. They don't know that Brahman is beyond one's words and thought. However great a man may be, how much can he know of Brahman? Sukadeva and sages like him may have been big ants; but even they could carry at the utmost eight or ten grains of sugar!

This one is great story for the spiritual seekers. Another similar story narrated by Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsha is, one that comes to mind on this subject is.

When a person visit is mango farm. Why should he worry about --- How many mangoes are there? How many mango trees are there in farm? How many leaves are there in farm? If he is there to satisfy his hunger, he should first eat the mangoes and fill satisfied and relax. Perhaps after that he might get curious about the other things.

These stories are related to the spiritual grace for devotees or seekers. People often go to spiritual guru's, or a sacred place (pilgrimage). There first they should do is imbibe the grace as much as they can and then worry about other things.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

A Heart Touching Story - Has my beloved escaped from my heart?

HAS MY BELOVED ESCAPED FROM MY HEART?

Eruch Jessawala

The following story reveals something of the nature of this love, this real love that Meher Baba was talking
about. It concerns a king and a queen who lived and ruled some centuries ago. They loved each
other and were happy together. The king was a wise and just ruler, and under his reign his kingdom
flourished and peace and prosperity prevailed over the land. The King's subjects were happy and
content. In short, it was almost an idyllic existence, but there was one flaw, one minor thing which
prevented the queen from being completely happy. And this was that the king seemed to have no
interest in God. It was not that he was against God. He had no objection to his subjects or his wife
worshipping God as they saw fit, it was just that he never seemed to join in.

Because the king was such a good man, whose life seemed naturally full of virtue, it was not
immediately apparent that he was not a believer. But, as time passed, the queen noticed that the king
always seemed to make some excuse so as not to attend religious festivals. And while she
understood that the nature of his duties prevented him from worshipping as regularly as she did, she
realized after a while that not only had she never seen him perform worship, she had never even
heard him utter a short prayer. In fact, she had never heard him mention the Lord's name.

Now, the queen was very religious, and when she began to suspect that her husband, the king, was
not a lover of God, she became quite upset. She did her best to persuade him to join her in her
devotions, but no matter how hard she tried, he always found some excuse for not joining her. This
was the only thing that marred her happiness, but as time passed, it became a bigger and bigger
thing. She would think to herself, "My husband is such a good man, his kingdom is peaceful and
prosperous, his subjects are happy. Just think how perfect life would be if only he loved God." Or
sometimes she would fear that because her husband did not love God, the peace and prosperity
might be taken away, and the more she thought about it, the more upset she got.

She began to lose interest in her duties as queen. Uppermost in her mind was the thought that her
husband was not loving God as he should. Next to that, nothing else seemed important. She began
to spend more and more time by herself in the palace temple. Her eyes, which previously had always
twinkled with delight, now seemed pensive and brooding. Her constant cheerful smile was replace
with a frown. The king observed this and was sad, but whenever he asked the queen what was
wrong, she would say, "Nothing." For she had already told the king she would like it if he
worshipped regularly, and he had said, "Ask me for anything but that."

And so life went on, with the king attending to his duties, and the queen becoming more and more
despondent and withdrawn. Now it so happened that one day, after this had been going on for some
time, the king awoke and went to the ramparts of his palace. This was his usual custom. He would
rise early and climb up to the ramparts and look out over his kingdom. He used to feel that he could
ascertain the pulse of his kingdom from there. He had learned to tell, just from standing there in the
early morning hours, whether there was any unhappiness or sorrow in the kingdom that needed
attending to.

Well, this morning, as he looked out, he was surprised to see that many people were already awake
and were busy putting up decorations. Others were cleaning the streets or their homes, and it was
clear that some sort of major celebration was about to take place. This puzzled the king. He couldn't
think of any festival or celebration which took place at that time of year. He called his prime minister
and asked him what was happening.

"It is the queen's order, sire," the prime minister replied.

"The queen's order?"

"Yes, sire. Early this morning she got up and ordered that today was to be a day of rejoicing. She
instructed that orders were to be given to all your subjects that today was a day of celebration."

"Why did she do that?"

"I don't know, sire. She didn't say."

The king was puzzled at this. Of course it was in the queen's power to pass such an order, but as she
had taken no interest in the affairs of the kingdom for some time, this was a complete mystery to the
king. Why had she suddenly given such an order? He went to see the queen, who greeted him in her
best clothes and with a dazzling smile on her face.

"Did you order this celebration?" the king asked.

"Yes," the queen admitted.

"Why? What is it? What has happened that has made you so happy all of a sudden?"

"Oh my king," the queen exclaimed, "I am so happy. At last what I have been praying for all these
years has come true. Last night, while you were sleeping, you turned over and I heard you utter the
name of God. That is why I have ordered this celebration."

"What!" exclaimed the king, "has my Beloved escaped from my heart and passed through my lips!"
And with that the king sighed and dropped dead.

The above story always brings tears to my eyes whenever i read it.

You might also like to watch a wonderful video made from 'How to love God' by Meher Baba on youtube.