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Byron Katie answers the question: What are some especially common stories and beliefs people realize they hold when they start doing The Work?
TheBeggarStories is a compilation of the collaborative minds of different people who are helping beggars all over the world. Through sharing experiences and thoughts, this blog aims to enlighten us on the beauty of reaching out to less fortunate people. If you have a story to tell, a painting or just an idea then share it with us. you may email your work at rsandagon@gmail.com.I don't have any interesting, entertaining, or heartwarming beggar stories to share, so I did a google search and came up with the following stories:
I love the Sufi stories. Here's one about the Archangel Gabriel. I'm posting it here today, just in case we find ourselves taking this project way too seriously. I thought it might lighten things up a bit.
One morning during prayer time, a simple peasant came into the mosque while Muhammad was leading community prayers. As part of one of the prayer cycles, Muhammad recited the portion of the Qur'an in which Moses comes before Pharaoh, but Pharaoh refuses to listen.
"That goddamn son of a bitch!" exclaimed the peasant. After everyone had held their breath, some began to shush him, and the prayers continued.
Afterward, several of the Prophet's companions began to lay into the peasant, telling him that not only was his interruption rude, it had invalidated his prayer.
While they were still haranguing him, the angel Gabriel came to Muhammad and said to him, "Allah has two messages for you. First, peace to you. Second, would you please tell your friends to stop harassing this poor peasant? His sincere cursing pleased me more than the others' prayers."
This was reported in the New Year's Edition, "Parade Magazine," as one of the most significant events in 1985. The amazing event occurred with the Soviet Cosmonauts in the Salyut 7 that orbited the earth in 1985.
The six Soviet Cosmonauts in 1985 saw "celestial beings" on the 155th day aboard their orbiting space station. This was first reported by Cosmonaut Vladimir Solevev and Oleg Atkov as well as Leonid Kizim. This is what they said, "What we saw were seven giant figures in the form of humans, but with wings and mist-like halos as in the classic depiction of angels."
As the Cosmonauts were performing medical experiments in Salyut 7 high above the earth, a brilliant orange cloud enveloped them, blinding them temporarily, and when their eyes cleared, they saw the angels.
The heavenly visitors, they said, followed them for about 10 minutes and vanished as suddenly as they had appeared. However, 12 days later, Cosmonauts Svetlana Savitskaya, Igor Volk, and Vladimir Dzhanibevok, who had just joined the others on the space station, also saw the beings. "They were glowing," they reported. "We were truly overwhelmed. There was a great orange light, and through it, we could see the figures of seven angels. They were smiling as though they shared a glorious secret, but within a few minutes, they were gone, and we never saw them again."
My personal experience with an angel goes like this.
I was going through a crisis a few years ago, and I was very stressed about a lot of things in my life. I didn't know what to do.
One day I went out to my backyard to try and de-stress. As I was walking I suddenly felt these huge warm wings fold themselves around me. It was like someone came up behind me but I could not see them.
When I was full cocooned in these wings which covered my whole body,I felt this amazing peace, total peace like I had never experienced.Then what I would say was an angel, talked to me by feelings. She told me that she was there to help me through the next big challenge of my life, and that I would sail through them easily.
What happened to me was indeed one of my biggest tests, but I did sail through it easily. I was given the right help and I haven't looked back since. I now know that we are not alone, and when things are really bad in our lives our Guardian angels are trying to comfort us through anyway they can. By sending people to us or something beautiful happening that lightens our load. Suffering can either make us bitter or it can deepen us.
Angels will always help us when we ask them, they don't like to interfere with our lives, but if we need their comfort and support, they will send someone to us or gives us a feeling of strength to help us cope. We just have to ask.
warm regards
Sony Crystal
So here we are with 16 or 17 days left of this project, and I'm having a really hard time with the whole concept that giving brings prosperity. I'm thinking that I don't really believe in it at all. What I have come to believe is that giving cannot be done without first receiving, that giving is a by-product of receiving, and that giving in and of itself will not make you rich.
That being said, I can't get over the feeling that something about this concept is eluding me. That there is some deeper truth that I'm not quite getting. I look at my parents and I see that they live that lifestyle. Their monthly support consists of gifts and love offerings from people who believe in them and what they do, from people who love them. And as it is given to them, they give it out. I've seen it over and over again. When they see a need, they immediately reach into their pockets to see what they can give - be it money, time, energy, prayer, or stuff.
And when they have a need - it gets met. So there is a reciprocity at work and I see it working, and I have benefited from it (being on the needy end more often than not). I can remember a trip we were on one summer when I was in High School. Every summer we drove here and there visiting the various churches and families who supported us. This particular trip we were on our way to some little place in Kansas, and our car broke down. We ended up in a flea bag motel, complete with mice and a dried condom under the bed. I still remember the look on my mom's face when she found the condom.
So, it's late at night, we have no money, we're in a crappy little motel room, in the middle of nowhere, and our car is broken. I was horribly annoyed that my parents would be so stupid as to get us into such a mess, and as usual, I was not keeping my mouth shut about it.
My mom turned to my dad, and said "So now what do we do?" And he said, "Well, I guess we'll just have to pray about it." Which they did. Right then and there. And I was rolling my eyes the whole time, wondering how I could have possibly ended up being related to such ridiculous people.
Next morning, guess what happens! My dad gets a call from a supporter in Kansas City, turns out he owns a car dealership and is going to give, yes that's right GIVE, us a brand new car. Not only that, but he's going to deliver it.
I may have shared this story when we were doing our "Praying for Prosperity" project. And I'm sharing it again now because it's also a story about giving and receiving. Don Kahan was in a position of giving, he wasn't broke, he wasn't giving us his personal car, he was the owner of the dealership. He was giving from a place of abundance. My parents were in a place of receiving. And they were comfortable receiving because the car wasn't really for "us," it was for God, so that they could do God's work. And they were in a place of peace about it too. Which I think is important.
So, why did that work for them? And why doesn't it seem to work for me? Or does it work for me, and I'm not noticing because I'm too busy rolling my eyes and being skeptical? What am I doing differently? What am I not doing? What's missing? Is there a fundamental truth that hasn't made itself clear. What do you guys think? What are you giving? What are you receiving? Is it working for you? When you read that story, what do you think?
Talk to me guys.
Yesterday, I read the book "Sweat Your Prayers" by Gabrielle Roth. In it I found a story that I thought would be appropriate to this month's project. Here it is:
"We are whoever we can imagine ourselves to be. Years ago I met an American girl from the Deep South on the beach in Sitges, Spain, who fantasized about being a nanny for Princess Grace in Monaco. On a whim she mailed a letter to Her Royal Highness. A few weeks later she received an airplane ticket to Monaco for an interview. She got the job. I never forgot this story and often tell it to people who think their dreams are too wild to come true."
That little story got me thinking. I was wondering if she got the job because she was extraordinarily qualified? or because it was so audacious? maybe both? and did she tell anyone that she was going to do that? was she excited and happy when she wrote the letter? was she so sure that it was a fantasy that she attached absolutely no expectations to it at all? was she surrounded by people who said to her "you can do anything you choose"?
All of which brings me to my next question: Is there something audacious and wild that you would like to do? Something so interesting, so fantastic, so exciting, that you would never even think of attempting it? Is there a letter you could write that might open the way for that wildly fantastic notion? Is there a phone call? a website you could visit? an ad you could put in the paper? What about Oprah? Is there some small action you could put forth to start that ball rolling? Are you afraid of how interesting and wonderful your life could be? So what if you fail? Approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less! So how about it? Wanna start something big?
Lets list our wildest dreams here, and then brainstorm with each other as to what small, simple action could be done to get the ball rolling. I dare you to think outside the box... way outside the box... something grand and impossible. Something wonderful. Who's up for it?
Karla's comment on Control Issues, Trust, and Being Open, stimulated two posts. Instead of waiting, and posting them on different days, I'm going to post them both today. Here's the first one, it's from ElsaJoy.com:
I'm sure you remember that old story about the monkey who came across some ripe berries in a glass jar. Not surprisingly, the monkey was elated about his find, and immediately plunged his hand inside the jar to grasp a fistful of berries. But when he tried to withdraw his hand, he found he was stuck: the neck of the jar was too small an opening for the monkey's clenched fist to negotiate. He had two choices: hold onto the treasure in his fist and remain imprisoned, or release the treasure and regain his hand.
The monkey was in agony, because he did not want to let go of the food.
The moral of that story, of course, is that letting go can be vital to your health. That concept is easy enough to read on paper; in real life, though, it is tougher to grasp. We've all been in the monkey's shoes, after all -- who hasn't tried to hold fast to something at some point, even when it was obviously a poor choice? Come on: we've all done it. Several times.
I once met someone who was holding on for dear life to a job he detested. He had been working hard at it for years, typically he would spend 10 to 14 hours a day slaving over his desk. If you asked him why he didn't look for something else, he would give a totally reasonable answer: "It's all I know."
Then one day, out of the blue, he discovered he had terminal cancer. He was shocked: he was still young, his body was in good shape, and it didn't seem remotely fair to him to be felled by cancer before he had gotten any fun out of life. The doctors told him he had a year left to live.
Stunned into unreasonableness, this fellow quit his job and decided to spend the year enjoying himself -- something he had never done before in his whole life. He had, you remember, held passionately tight to his profession, even though he hated it. But in the face of death, he lost all fear of leaving his job. He packed up a few clothes, cleaned out his bank account and took off for a trip around the world.
We didn't hear from him for several months; as the days slipped by, many of us became increasingly concerned about his wellbeing. Was he all alone in some obscure hotel in South America, getting weak and frail? There was no way to track him down; and we kept worrying about him at a distance.
Ten months later, one of our team got a phone call from the fellow. He was back in the U.S, hale and hearty, and bursting with ideas about starting a new business. The cancer? It had disappeared off the map -- the doctors could no longer see any remnant of it in the X-rays. The man was healed.
We couldn't believe our ears.
He stopped by to visit us a few days later, and indeed he looked happy, tanned, vigorous and full of excitement about his new career, which was in a vastly different direction from his previous one. We gathered around him in awe. "But how on earth did you get healed?" we all wanted to know. He said, "Well, my doctor thinks it was because I let go of the job I hated -- and then just dashed out and did all of the things I never let myself do before."
He's still healthy today, many years later. And he loves his work. We say he healed himself of cancer. He says cancer saved his life.
That same story about the monkey was told in a different way by the beloved American comedian Jack Benny. One of Benny's most famous comedy bits is the one in which a robber comes up to him on the street and demands, "Your money -- or your life!" Benny stares at the robber and then falls into one of his relentlessly long, silent pauses.
Exasperated, the robber repeats his ultimatum: "Your money -- or your life!"
And Benny says, "Don't rush me.......I'm thinking."
Today we are depositing $64,000.00! If you have any doubts as to whether this exercize can work, here is a true story about someone who wrote himself a check, affirmed and visualized his success... Jim Carey
Maybe you've even heard this story before. I thought it would be a good idea to bring it to mind again. Here is a transcript of the original interview where he talks about it:
Interviewer: Your character does everything just because of the money. There's an old story that you once signed a check to yourself for 10 million dollars when you were a struggling comic?
Jim Carey: Yeah, it was a 10 million dollar check and I made it out to myself years ago, before I was working. I used to go up to Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles and sit on the side of the highway, and look out at the city and do positive affirmations. This was early on when I was doing all the different comedy clubs, doing three comedy clubs a night. I would drive up there, and I had a baby and we were living in a single apartment downtown, with the bed on the floor, and it just made me feel better to visualise those things. It wasn't about the money; it was about where I'd be if I was making that kind of money. So I wrote that check and I stuck it in my pocket and it stayed there for four years. It was a check made out to 'Jim Carrey for acting services rendered,' for $10 million.
There was a man who wandered throughout the world seeking his deepest desire. He wandered from one city to another, from one realm to another looking for fulfillment and happiness, but in all his wanderings never came to it.
Finally one day, tired from his search, he sat down underneath a great tree at the foot of a mountain. What he did not know is that this was The Great Wish Fulfilling Tree. Whatever one wishes for when seated underneath it immediately becomes true.
As he rested in his weariness he thought to himself, "What a beautiful spot this is. I wish I had a home here," and instantly before his eyes a lovely home appeared. Surprised and delighted he thought further, "Ah, if only I had a partner to be here, with me, then my happiness would be complete," and in a moment a beautiful woman appeared calling him "husband" and beckoning to him.
"Well, first, I am hungry," he thought. "I wish there was food to eat." Immediately a banquet table appeared covered with every wonderful kind of food and drink, main courses, pastries, sweets of every variety. The man sat down and began to feast himself hungrily, but part way through the meal, still feeling tired he thought, "I wish I had a servant to serve me the rest of this food," and sure enough a man servant appeared.
Finishing the meal the man sat back down to lean against this wonderful tree and began to reflect, "How amazing it is that everything I wish has come true. There is some mysterious force about this tree. I wonder if there is a demon who lives in it," and sure enough no sooner than he had thought this than a great demon appeared. "Oh, my," he thought, "this demon will probably eat me up," and that is just what it did.
Here is a zen story:
A master once described the journey to enlightenment as "like filling a sieve with water". When a woman questioned this master on his meaning, he gave her a sieve and a cup and they went to the sea, where he asked her to fill the sieve with water. She poured a cupful of water into the sieve. It was instantly gone.
"Spiritual practice is the same," the master explained, "if we stand on the rock of 'I', and try to ladle the divine realization in. That's not the way to fill the sieve with water nor the self with divine life."
He took the sieve and threw it into the sea, where it sank. "Now it's full of water, and will remain so. That's spiritual practice. It is not ladling little cupfuls into the individuality, but becoming totally immersed in the sea of divine life."
I found this story at Snopes.com, and since today is Sunday, and because we are working at activating our luck, I decided to share it here.
It happened on the evening of March 1 in the town of Beatrice, Nebraska. In the afternoon the Reverend Walter Klempel had gone to the West Side Baptist Chruch to get things ready for choir practice. He lit the furnace -- most of the singers were in the habit of arriving around 7:15, and it was chilly in the church - he then went home to dinner.
But at 7:10, when it was time for him to go back to the church with his wife and daughter Marilyn Ruth, it turned out that Marilyn Ruth's dress was soiled. They waited while Mrs. Klempel ironed another and thus were still at home when it happened.
Ladona Vandergrift, a high school sophomore, was having trouble with a geometry problem. She knew practice began promptly and always came early. But she stayed to finish the problem.
Royena Estes was ready, but the car would not start. So she and her sister called Ladona Vandergrift, and asked her to pick them up. But Ladona was the girl with the geometry problem, and the Estes sisters had to wait.
Sadie Estes' story was the same as Royena's. All day they had been having trouble with the car; it just refused to start.
Mrs. Leonard Schuster would ordinarily have arrived at 7:20 with her small daughter Susan. But on this particular evening Mrs. Schuster had to go to her mother's house to help her get ready for a missionary meeting.
Herbert Kipf, lathe operator, would have been ahead of time but had put off an important letter. "I can't think why," he said. He lingered over it and was late.
It was a cold evening. Stenographer Joyce Black, feeling "just plain lazy," stayed in her warm house until the last possible moment. She was almost ready to leave when it happened.
Because his wife was away, Machinist Harvey Ahl was taking care of his two boys. He was going to take them to practice with him but somehow he got wound up talking. When he looked at his watch, he saw he was already late.
Marilyn Paul, the pianist, had planned to arrive half an hour early. However she fell asleep after dinner, and when her mother awakened her at 7:15 she had time only to tidy up and start out.
Mrs. F.E. Paul, choir director and mother of the pianist, was late simply because her daughter was. She had tried unsuccessfully to awaken the girl earlier.
High school girls Lucille Jones and Dorothy Wood are neighbors and customarily go to practice together. Lucille was listening to a 7-to-7:30 radio program and broke her habit of promptness because she wanted to hear the end. Dorothy waited for her.
At 7:25, with a roar heard in almost every corner of Beatrice, the West Side Baptist Church blew up. The walls fell outward, the heavy wooden roof crashed straight down like a weight in a deadfall. The blast forced a nearby radio station off the air and shattered windows in surrounding homes. But every one of the choir's fifteen members escaped injury.
Why? Because of such matters as a soiled dress, a catnap, an unfinished letter, a geometry problem and a stalled car, all of the members of the choir were late - something which had never occurred before.
Firemen thought the explosion had been caused by natural gas, which may have leaked into the church from a broken pipe outside and been ignited by the fire in the furnace. The Beatrice choir members had no particular theory about the fire's cause, but each of them began to reflect on the heretofore inconsequential details of his life, wondering at exactly what point it is that one can say, "This is an act of God."
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The Singer of Courage: In our lives we are often, even constantly, confronted with a new world, a new way of being in the world, a new way of seeing and of being seen. Ordinary living takes courage, and to rise above the ordinary into the extraordinary takes even more courage. One of the keys to courage is to consider the fear and find a way to let the energy of the fear itself power the action. That is true courage.
