Nov 1, 2023

Notes by Saamya Deo

Review

In last week’s story, the monkeys that didn’t let go of the banana in the jar got captured. This limited them and at one point or the other the universe will make us let go too, one way or another. 

Let go of . . . . 

Objects – Clothes or toys

Relationships – Because we  take on the qualities of people that surround us, we should be around people that help us grow

Ideas – We should be able to not insist on our likes and dislikes, or our preferences

The more we collect = the more we have to protect

so……LET GO!!!!

Story

A robber once asked a sage ” What can I do to become a better person”? The sage says “Break one bad habit that you have”. The robber thinks and says “I will not lie”. 

The robber then decides to rob the king’s palace or treasury. When he enters the palace, he sees a person dressed in commoner clothes (the king). He asks ” Who are you”? The king replies ” I am a robber”. The robber is thrilled! They decide to rob the treasury and split everything 50/50. They leave only one diamond in the treasury for the king since they have already taken everything else. The robber gives the king his address, telling him that they should team up together again. 

The next morning, the soldiers come and tell the king that the treasury has been robbed. He, of course, already knows and sends his minister to check. The minister goes to the treasury and quickly slips the diamond in his pocket, looking around to make sure that no one sees him. He then goes to the king and reports that everything is gone! The king knows that there should be a diamond and search for the minister. The diamond is found and the minister goes to jail. Meanwhile, the king gave the robber’s address to his soldiers and the soldiers brought him back. The king asks “Did you rob the treasury”? The robber thinks for a minute and says” Yes, I did”. The king is astonished, he said the truth, straight up not lying. The king asks “Why did you tell the truth”? The robber says “I asked a sage how I can be a better person and he told me to break a bad habit, the habit that I chose was lying”. “I promised myself that I wouldn’t lie”. The king is very impressed and immediately makes him a minister. The robber doesn’t have to be a robber any more. 

Lesson

When we make a promise to someone we go through with it. When someone makes a promise to us, we want them to go through with it too. It feels really bad when someone breaks a promise that they made to us. Just like that, we make promises to ourselves. Like when we set an alarm to wake up or give ourselves a deadline. In this way, we should also keep the promises that we make to ourselves. 

First Friend Dwija’s Activity

She asked us not to think of a red dot. To act as if there wasn’t one. What red dot? I don’t see one. 

Even if you try your hardest, it is really hard not to think of something or not to do something. So instead of saying not to do something, we should think of something to do. A virtue that we can pursue instead of not doing something. 

RAW

Make a promise to yourself and keep it.