Banyan Tree

Banyan Tree

October 2024

BANYAN TREE 

TEACHING STORY 

THE BUDDHA’S SOLUTION 

A young man joined the Buddha as a disciple. He  had a very inquisitive mind and was constantly  asking the master many questions. One day,  when he approached the Buddha with another  question, He listened to him and said: “I will  answer you, but you have to wait a year. This  is my condition and promise: in a year, I will  answer your question.” 

Hearing this, Ananda, who was sitting next to  him in the shade of a tree, burst out laughing.  “What’s the matter?” The young disciple asked.  “Why is he laughing?” 

“Ask him yourself,” the Buddha replied. “What are you laughing at?” the young man  asked. 

“I’m laughing at the fact that a year ago the  Buddha told me the same thing: ‘Wait a year in  silence, discard unnecessary thoughts, and then  ask me again.’ If you really want to ask, ask now,  otherwise, you’ll never ask again!” 

“This is my condition,” the Buddha repeated.  “If you ask in a year, I will answer. If you don’t  ask, I won’t answer.” 

“All right,” the young man agreed. 

A year later, the Buddha asked this man, “Well,  a year has passed by. Do you have a question to  ask?” 

“No,” the young man replied, “You asked me  to wait for a year. I did so in silence and threw  away all my thoughts. But when the thoughts  disappeared, there were no questions left. Now  I understand why Ananda was laughing. He was  laughing about the fact that I wouldn’t be able to  ask questions when I wouldn’t have any.” 

THIS I KNOW 

BY SWAMI CHINMAYANANDA  SARASWATI 

• Children are not vessels to be filled but lamps  to be lit. 

• Happiness depends on what you can give, not  what you can get. 

• Silently hear everyone. Accept what is  good. Reject and forget what is not. This is  intelligent living.  

• Leave aside your regrets of the past and  anxieties of the future, and focus intelligently  on the present. This is the best way of ensuring  a positive future.  

• What we have is a gift from Him. What we do  with what we have is our gift to Him. 

• To love and to be loved is the greatest  happiness.  

• The result of action depends upon the very  quality of the action.  

• The real guru is the pure intellect within,  and the purified, deeply aspiring mind is the  disciple. 

• The really poor man is not the one who lacks  money but the one who lacks the joy of the  heart.  

• Prayer, in its truest sense, is an attempt to  invoke the mightier potential that is already  in us, through mental integration. 

• The spirit of Advaita is not to keep away from  anything but to keep in tune with everything. • In all adversities, there is always in its depth, a  treasure of spiritual blessings secretly hidden. 

INSPIRATION 

A JOURNEY TO CHERISH 

Progress won’t always be linear 

Fasten your seatbelt, O dear! 

Let the gusty winds blow 

It counts as progress even though slow  Be anchored by your own intention  Take a step back and analyse the situation  Being hopeful is a must-have trait 

Kickstart with a clean slate  

Stop giving people discounts  

Strive for a balanced karmic account Your worth is not a negotiation  

Cease the hunt for outside validation Wipe away the frosted glass  

Upgrade your dreams to business class  Savour the delicacies life has to offer  Navigate cautiously, you being the chauffeur  Pass over the dead past and unborn future  The present is the only gift to nurture  You are the epitome of perfection 

Let the magic flow like a work of fiction  —Sneha Aggarwal

ONE-MINUTE WISDOM THE POWER OF AWARENESS 

Even though it was the master’s day of silence,  a traveller begged for a word of wisdom that  would guide him through life’s journey.  The master nodded affably, took a sheet of paper,  and wrote a single word on it: ‘Awareness.’  The visitor was perplexed. “That’s too brief.  Would you please expand on it a bit?”  The master took the paper back and wrote:  “Awareness, awareness, awareness.”  

“But what do these words mean,” asked the  stranger helplessly. 

 The master reached out for the paper and  wrote: “Awareness, awareness, awareness means  AWARENESS.” 

—Anthony de Mello 

QUOTE 

“A little foolishness, enough to enjoy life, and a little wisdom to avoid the errors. That will do.”  — Osho 

JUST FOR LAUGHS 

THE SAVIOUR’S DILEMMA 

A man was swimming in a river when he heard shouts coming from a drowning man up  the river. He swam to the man and managed to save him. Afterwards, the man found out  that he had saved Joe Biden, the President of the USA. 

“Now,” said Biden, “you can ask of me whatever you want.” 

The man was nervous. He looked about furtively and whispered to Biden, “Just do me a  favour. Don’t tell anyone that it was me who saved you.”