Acres Of Diamonds!!!www.mondaymantras.com

Monday ※ Health: Wonder Benefits of Basil Seeds ..............5

※ Main: All about Car Safety ...............2 & 3

※ Inspirational: Acres of Diamonds!!! ...............1

WORKING TOWARDS MAKING MONDAY’S MORE

EXCITING INFORMATIVE AND ENTERTAINING Mantras

※ Spiritual: 5 Zen Stories which can give Glimpse of Enlightment ...............4

There was a farmer in Africa who was hap-py and content. He was happy because he was content. He was content because he was happy. One day a wise man came to him and told him about the glory of diamonds andthe power that goes along with them.

The wise man said, “If you had a diamond the size of your thumb, you could have your own city. If you had a diamond the size of your fist, you could probably own your own country.” And then he went away.

That night the farmer couldn’t sleep. He was unhappy and he was discontent. He wasunhappy because he was discontent and discontent because he was unhappy.

The next morning he made arrangements to sell off hisfarm, took care of his fami-ly and went in search of diamonds.

He looked all over Africa and couldn’t find any. He looked all through Europe and couldn’t find any. When he got to Spain, he was emotionally, physically and fi-nancially broke. He got so disheart-ened that he threw himself into the Bar-celona River and committed suicide.

Back home, the person who had bought his farm was watering the camels at a stream that ran through the farm.Across the stream, the rays of the morn-ing sun hit a stone and made it sparkle like a rainbow. He thought it would look good on the mantle piece. He picked up the stone and put it in the living room. That af-ternoon the wise man came and saw the stone sparkling. He asked, “Is Hafiz back?” The new owner said, “No, why do you ask?” The wise man said, “Because that is a di-amond. I recognize one when I see one.”

The man said, no, that’s just a stone I picked up from the stream. Come, I’ll show you. There are many more.” They went and picked some samples and sent them for analysis. Sure enough, the stones were diamonds. They found that the farm was indeed cov-ered with acres and acres of diamonds.

What is the moral of this sto-ry? There are five morals:

1. When our attitude is right, we real-ize that we are all walking on acres and acres of diamonds. Opportunity is always under our feet. We don’t have to go any-where. All we need to do is recognize it.

2. The grass on the oth-er side always looks greener.

3. While we are dyeing the grass on the other side, there are others who are dyeing the grass on our side. They would be happy to trade places with us.

4. When people don’t know how to recognize opportunity, they com-plain of noise when it knocks.

5. The same opportunity never knocks twice. The next one may be better or worse, but it is never the same one.

Source:http://www.slideshare.net/bright9977/acres-of-diamonds-13357070

| ⁜ 23 | ⁜ May | ⁜ 2016 |

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Zen stories are the ancient words and deeds of Zen masters, which have been passed through the ages, crossing the dy-nasties and cultures of forgotten peo-ples, originating with the Buddha himself.

The insights that these stories seeded, as time rolled on, flowered into invaluable instructions for those wan ing to reach liberation.

Zen Story #1: The Pointerhe Zen teacher’s dog loved his evening romp with his master. The dog would bound ahead to fetch a stick, then run back, wag his tail, and wait for the next game. On this par-ticular evening, the teacher invited one of his brightest students to join him – a boy so intelligent that he became troubled by the contradictions in Buddhist doctrine.

“You must understand,” said the teach-er, “that words are only guideposts. Never let the words or symbols get in the way of truth. Here, I’ll show you.”

With that the teacher called his happy dog.

“Fetch me the moon,” he said to his dog and pointed to the full moon.

“Where is my dog looking?” asked the teacher of the bright pupil.

“He’s looking at your finger.”

“Exactly. Don’t be like my dog. Don’t confuse the pointing finger with the thing that is being pointed at. All our Buddhist words are only guideposts. Every man fights his way through other men’s words to find his own truth.”

Zen Story #2: Flow Like a RiverThere is the story of a young martial arts student who was under the tu-telage of a famous master.

One day, the master was watching a prac-tice session in the courtyard. He real-ized that the presence of the other stu-dents was interfering with the young man’s attempts to perfect his technique.

The master could sense the young man’s frustration. He went up to the young man and tapped him on his shoulder.“What’s the problem?” he inquired.

“I don’t know”, said the youth,

with a strained expression.

“No matter how much I try, I am un-able to execute the moves properly”.

“Before you can master technique, you must understand harmony. Come with me, I will explain”, replied the master.

The teacher and student left the build-ing and walked some distance into the woods until they came upon a stream. The master stood silently on the bank for several moments. Then he spoke.

“Look at the stream,” he said. “There are rocks in its way. Does it slam into them out of frustration? It simply flows over and around them and moves on! Be like the wa-ter and you will know what harmony is.”

The young man took the master’s advice to heart. Soon, he was barely noticing the other students around him. Nothing could come in his way of executing the most perfect moves.

Zen Story #3: No Objective WorldOnce there was a monk who specialized in the Buddhist precepts, and he kept to them all his life. Once when he was walk-ing at night, he stepped on something. It made a squishing sound, and he imagined he had stepped on an egg-bearing frog.

This caused him no end of alarm and re-gret, in view of the Buddhist precept against taking life, and when he finally went to sleep that night he dreamed that hun-dreds of frogs came demanding his life.

The monk was terribly upset, but when morning came he looked and found that what he stepped on was an overripe egg-plant. At that moment his feeling of un-certainty suddenly stopped, and for the first time he realized the meaning of the saying that “there is no objective world.” Then he finally knew how to practice Zen.

Zen Story #4: ModerationAn aged monk, who had lived a long and active life, was assigned a chaplain’s role at an academy for girls. In discussion groups he often found that the subject of love became a central topic. This com-prised his warning to the young women:

“Understand the danger of anything-too-much in your lives. Too much anger in com

bat can lead to recklessness and death. Too much ardor in religious beliefs can lead to close-mindedness and persecution.

Too much passion in love creates dream im-ages of the beloved – images that ultimately prove false and generate anger. To love too much is to lick honey from the point of a knife.”

“But as a celibate monk,” asked one young woman, “how can you know of love between a man and a woman?”

“Sometime, dear children,” replied the old teacher, “I will tell you why I became a monk.”

Zen Story #5: Buddhism & ChristianityA university student while visiting Gasan asked him: “Have you ever read the Christian Bible?”

“No, read it to me,” said Gasan.

The student opened the Bible and read from St. Matthew: “And why take ye thought for rainment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not ar-rayed like one of these… Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.”

Gasan said: “Whoever uttered those words I consider an enlightened man.”

The student continued reading: “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.”

Gasan remarked: “That is excellent. Who-ever said that is not far from Buddhahood.”

Source:http://highexistence.com/7-zen-stories-that-give-you-a-glimpse-of-enlightenment/

www.mondaymantras.com5 Zen Stories which can give Glimpse of Enlightment

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Wonder Benefits of Basil SeedsAs far as health benefits are concerned, the seeds are full of fiber and known for many surprising health ben-efits. These seeds are used in making falooda, sherbet, milkshakes and other popular health drinks. It is known worldwide as one of the ingredients for sweet Asian drinks. However, like Chia seeds, it is comparatively less tasty.

Basil seeds for weight loss: Sabja seeds can be used for weight management purposes. It is full of fiber that makes your stom-ach full and don’t feel hunger to a certain period of time. Af-ter soaking into water, it has the ability to expand 30 times of its original sides thus reduces longing for eating more.Sabja seeds for hair: The seeds contain adequate amount of vitamin K, protein and iron. These nutrients are help-ful to make your hair healthy and shining. So, it is sug-gested to include it in your daily diet requirements to skip embarrassment from hair loss and baldness.

Basil seeds for healthy skin: The mix of Sabja seeds and coconut oil is effective to ward off many skin related diseases. Method: Take 100 ml of coconut oil and 1tsp of crush basil seeds. Now heat the mixture for 5 minutes. Strain and apply it over your skin to cure skin related problems like psoriasis, eczema, etc.

Basil seeds for acidity: Acidity problems are very common these days due to faulty lifestyle and wrong dietary pattern. Sabja seeds are having cooling and soothing effects on the stomach. Method: Take milk (1 cup) and basil seeds (1tsp), stir it well and drink the same to reduce burning sensation in your stomach.

Sabja seeds for diabetes treatment: The seeds are good in curing of diabetes type 2 by lowering down the sugar in blood. Method: Take soaked basil seeds (1tsp), toned milk (1 glass) and vanilla for flavor. It helps to give you energy sans sugar.

Relieves constipation: The soaked Sabja seeds when eaten helps to cleanse the inner stomach. It ensures easy bowel movement and helps to flush out toxin from the stomach. It is also taken with milk before going to bed to ease constipation.

Acts as coolant: These seeds are used to lower body heat that’s why as one of the important ingre-dients in summer for a number of cool drinks such as falooda, rooh afza, nimbu pani and sherbet.

Nutritional values of basil seeds: The seeds contain many phyto-chemicals and polyphenolic flavonoids like Orientin, vicenin and other antioxidants. The leaves are rich in essential oils like eugenol, citronel-lol, limonene, citral and terpineol. It contains beta carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamin A and vitamin K. It also contains important minerals like potassium, manganese, copper, calcium, folates, and magnesium.

Sabja Seeds recipes: Rooh afza, milkshake, Indian lemonade, paan gulkand milkshake, strawberry falooda, mango falooda, mango sherbet, rose milk recipe, nimbu panni, Shikanji, nannari sharbat, bel sharbat, etc. are some of the important healthy recipes of it

Medicinal values: Medicinally, it can be used to treat digestion problems, cure constipation, removes skin infection, respiratory disorder, sore throats and stress relief.

Common names of basil seed:The scientific name of Sabja seeds is Ocimum basilicum. The different common names of basil seed are Sabja seeds, Falooda, Arabic falooda seeds, Sabja ginjalu, Thai holy basil, Selashi Tukmaria, Sabja Vethai, Hazbo, Tuk malanga, Basilic cultive, Basilien Kraut, and sweet basil seeds. These seeds are the product of rudra jada plant that comes under Tulsi family but shouldn’t be mistaken with holy basil or Tulsi.

Source: http://www.gyanunlimited.com/health/10-surprising-health-benefits-and-uses-of-sabja-seeds-basil-seeds-for-hair-skin-and-weight-loss/10441/