November 15, 2023

Notes by Naami Deo

Review

We talked about a sage and a robber. The robber asked the sage how to be more holy. The sage said to cut down one of your bad habits. He cut down on lying instead of robbery because he needed robbery to support his family. That night, the robber went to steal everything from the king’s treasury. He was almost there when he heard footsteps. It was another robber! Except, he didn’t know that it was the king in disguise. So they split everything 50/50 and left 1 diamond for the king. The false robber asked the robber to give him his address so that they could do this again! In the morning, the king pretended to be surprised when the soldiers told him that the treasury had been robbed. He sent his minister to see if there was anything left. The minister quickly slipped the diamond in his pocket, looked around to see if anyone was there and told the king that nothing was there. The soldiers went to the address that the king gave them and brought back the robber. He asked the robber if he had stolen everything from the treasury. The robber said that he and his accomplice had split everything 50/50 except for the diamond that they had left for the king. The king saw the minister sweating and asked his soldiers to pat him down. They found the diamond! The king asked the robber why he hadn’t lied. The robber said that he had asked a sage how to be more holy and the sage had said to cut down one of his bad habits. He had chosen to lie. The king was impressed, he made the robber the new minister and threw the old one in jail. 

This teaches us that we should keep the promises that we have made to ourselves. Just like the robber did. 

RAW from last week – Keep a small promise to yourself

Story

Once, there was a boy who couldn’t see. He sat on the side of the road with a hat and a sign. The sign read that he is blind and needs help. He sat there every day, getting a few coins each day. Everyone else, paying attention to what they needed to do. One day, a young person like every day put a few coins in his hat. He took the sign and wrote on the back of it. He gave it back to the boy and left. The next few days, he got a lot of coins, and people stopped and actually talked to him. He was confused, what had changed? A few days later the young person came again, the boy asked what he had done to his sign. The young person said that he had written: “It is a beautiful day but I can’t see it”. 

Lesson

You should be grateful because you have so many things in life that some people may not have. Some people don’t have homes or enough food to eat. But we do, so we should be grateful for what we have. 

RAW – Make a gratitude jar and every day, put a piece of gratitude in it. When you aren’t smiling, take a piece out of the jar and smile.