What is Maturity?

• Maturity is the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence or destruction. 
• Maturity is to have patience. 
• Maturity is the willingness to pass up immediate pleasure in favor of the long-term gain. 
• Maturity is perseverance, the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of heavy opposition and discouraging set-backs. 
• Maturity is the capacity to face unpleasantness and frustration, discomfort and defeat, without complaint or collapse.
• Maturity is humility. It is being big enough to say, "I was wrong." And, when right, the mature person need not experience the satisfaction of saying, "I told you so."
• Maturity is the ability to make a decision and stand by it. The immature spend their lives exploring endless possibilities; then they do nothing. 
• Maturity is the art of living in peace with that which we cannot change, the courage to change that which should be changed -- and the wisdom to know the difference.

Being really poor

One day, a rich dad took his son on a trip. He wanted to show the boy how poor someone can be. They spent time on the farm of a poor family. On the way home, dad asked, "Did you see how poor they are? What did you learn?".

Son replied, "We have one dog, they have four, we have pool, they have a river, we have lanterns at night, they have somay stars, we buy food, they grow theirs, we have walls to protect us, they have friends all around, we have encyclopedias, they have the Bible." and then the boy concluded, "Thanks dad for showing me how poor we are."

MORAL: It's not about money that make us rich, it's about simplicity and having God in our lives.

Who Says Men Don't Remember Anniversaries

A woman awakes during the night to find that her husband was not in the bed.

She puts on her robe and goes downstairs to look for him. She finds him sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in front him. He appears deep in thought, just staring at the wall. She watches as he wipes a tear from his eye and takes a sip of coffee.

"What's the matter, dear?" she whispers as she steps into the room. "Why are you down here at this time of night?"

The husband looks up, "Do you remember 20 years ago when we were dating, and

you were only 17?" he asks solemnly.

The wife is touched thinking her husband is so caring and sensitive. "Yes, I do," she replies.

The husband pauses. The words are not coming easily. "Do you remember when

you father caught us in the back seat of my car?"

"Yes, I remember," says the wife, lowering herself into a chair beside him.

The husband continues..."Do you remember when he shoved a shotgun in my face and said, "Either you marry my daughter, or I will send you to jail for 20 years".

"I remember that too", she replies softly.

He wipes another tear from his cheek and says... "I would have gotten out today"!

The man who burnt money while we burn our lives for it.

I don’t hate money. I never will. In fact off late I have started loving the idea of being rich. Having said that, I am not obsessed either with the idea of being a billionaire. And I never will be.

What makes me talk about money today is this one picture that always ends up disturbing me somehow...

‘A man burning currency at a crossing in front of a silent crowd…’

I have often heard nothing in this world is free. For everything you get-you give something. Even the ’money’ you earn- you pay a ‘price’ for that- that ‘price’ could be hard work, your health or even costing you your own personal relationship in life at times.

A few years back I was with some guests at Agra when our car stopped briefly at a prominent crossing and I noticed slight commotion across the street. That time I used a Nikon with a 50-500 Sigma lens. Out of curiosity, while sitting in the car, I zoomed and shot couple of pics of a disheveled man burning some paper. We were there hardly few seconds so I didn’t quite follow what was happening. It was only later when I looked at the pics on laptop I realized the man was actually burning money-currency notes of Rs 10 & 20! The realization kind of unsettled me a bit.

Out of curiosity and disbelief I went again to that place after about a week looking for that man. I asked the cigarette shopkeeper n couple of other people around about that person. Different people told different stories-one said he was once a very rich man but lost whatever he had playing lottery. Another guy told me he had lost his money drinking and spoiled his life and there was another one who said while he was too busy earning money his wife left him for someone else and he could not take it and went mad. Nobody really knew the truth except that he was mad.

Either which way now he hated money -he would beg and then burn it. And then just stare at it silently even if there was a volcano inside. Burning currency is a criminal offence in any country and that place in spite of being across a police station –no one really cared. Because he was mad.

Mad? Was he violent? Did he misbehave with people? Did he scream or shout or throw stones? Nope. Mad because he was burning money while everyone was busy trying to earn it.

I wondered why someone would hate money to that extent unless it took away from him something far more precious than money itself. Are we not mad too-burning our lives chasing more n more money and then one day we realize we earned lots of it but then we lost the youth and whole lot of golden moments we could have lived with our loved ones...

Original Post by Pravin Talan

We get back what we give

A little boy got angry with his mother and shouted at her, "I hate you, I hate you." Because of fear of reprimand, he ran out of the house. He went up to the valley and shouted, "I hate you, I hate you," and the echo returned, "I hate you, I hate you." 

Having never heard an echo before, he was scared, and ran to his mother for protection. He said there was a bad boy in the valley who shouted "I hate you, I hate you" 

The mother understood and she asked her son to go back and shout, "I love you, I love you". The little boy went and shouted, "I love you, I love you," and back came the echo. 

That taught the little boy a lesson: Our life is like an echo. We get back what we give.


Via: Gems of Wisdom

Lessons on Life

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge
things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.


Moral:

Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.
Don't judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere through the difficult patches
and better times are sure to come some time or later.

"True love never dies for it is lust that fades away.
Love bonds for a lifetime but lust just pushes away"

Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.'
Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'

What are the Twenty-three Fields of Activities?

.
Five great elements called mahabutas:

1. Earth.
2. Water.
3. Fire.
4. Air.
5. Ether.

Three subtle elements:

6. False ego.
7. Intelligence.
8. Independent mind.

Five acquiring senses:

9. Eyes.
10. Ears.
11. Nose.
12. Tongue.
13. Skin.

Five working senses:

14. Voice.
15. Legs.
16. Hands.
17. Anus.
18. Genitals.

Five objects of senses:

19. Smell.
20. Taste.
21. Form.
22. Touch.
23. Sound.

Difference between 'Love' and 'Like'

.
It's hard to talk about this boundary without using example and comparison. They don't give an exact picture, but they suggest and give you a sense of the reality.

If you say, "I love my dog," but look at an apartment that doesn't allow pets, you only liked the dog. Whoever said, "You can fall in love with a rich man as easily as a poor man," never loved. Whoever thinks love can be measured by a bathroom scale or diminished by age, never loved.

Love is like the answer to a riddle. Other answers may seem good or clever, but only this one answer is perfect.

Love is like the right job. The job inspires you and feels like play. You crave the work, you are passionate about it. It lifts you up and drives you to new levels.

Love is the color which connects with the deepest level of your being. It is the music which speaks to you.

When you love someone, you are totally yourself with them. Nothing can drive a wedge between you. Whatever life throws at you, you deal with together.

When you reach the boundary between like and love, you know you are entering another country. You are beyond newness and infatuation. You know what Shakespeare meant when he called love "an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken."

.