Good Suffering > Wicked Prospering

In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the “Good Suffer”and often the “Wicked Prosper”, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.
[Bertrand Russell]

For me, the thought of bad things happening to good people is more annoying. God promises justice in the hereafter. May there be justice in this life too. Eventually, the good shall win. Right beats wrong, good trumps evil and love overrides hate. Ameen

No pain, No gain! Must there always be pain?

"Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken." But I wonder if there's no breaking then there's no healing, and if there's no healing then there's no learning. And if there's no learning then there's no struggle. But the struggle is a part of life. So must all hearts be broken?"

~ Quote in italic by Albert Camus
Description quote taken from One Tree Hill.
Image by Helen Ward

A little hidden something

There is always

• A little truth behind every JUST KIDDING
• A little curiosity behind every JUST WONDERING
• A little knowledge behind every I DON'T KNOW
• And a Little Emotion behind every I DON'T CARE

~Anonymous

* I think sometimes there a huge emotion behind 'I don't care' =)

The hidden path

Sometimes people get used to what they see in films and forget the real story," someone says to the wanderer. "Do you remember the film, 'The Ten Commandments?'"
"Of course. Moses -- Charlton Heston -- raises his staff, the waters open, and the people of Israel are able to cross the Red Sea."
"In the Bible, that's not how it was," says the person. "There, God gives an order to Moses: 'Tell the children of Israel to march.' And it is only after they begin to move forward that Moses raises his staff and the waters part." Because only courage in walking the path makes the path reveal itself.

~Paulo Cohelo
Maktub

It's all about faith. Faith induces courage that makes appear the invisible.

Sameer's thoughts on Balance

On my way back from office, I've experienced several incidents where the cars right behind me or the ones coming from the opposite side would have their lights set at high beam, blinding me and probably many other drivers. Countless times, I've thought of giving such people a piece of my angry mind. There are many such examples in our daily lives where anger seems to want to take charge over us. Some people give in to this feeling, while others simply want to be the better person and just let it go. I talk about this incident here to stress the importance of balance. 'Always ignoring' or 'always getting' angry are both wrong choices to make.

Taking the side of the apparent positive, at first, seems to be the right choice. That is a debatable concept in my opinion. For extremism in any shape or form is something to avoid. It is the art of balance that helps us to lead a steady life. Balancing one's work and play, one's love and hate, one's anger and kindness, one's heaven and earth, one's dark and light. For only God knows what's best for us. We just have to try and find the middle road.

The concept of balance is in everything. That is also why it has been stressed as such in our religion as well. Everything in this life has a negative counterpart. This is described in Chinese philosophy as Ying and Yang

I just found a very interesting article googling about these thoughts of mine :). It's not a short article but if someone is interested in the concept of Yin and Yang with respect to Islam, one must read this.

~Sameer Aziz Mirza

Not you!

The master says: "Close your eyes. Or even with your eyes open, imagine the following scene: a flock of birds on the wing. Now, tell me how many birds you saw: Five? Eleven? Sixteen?" Whatever the response -- and it is difficult for someone to say how many birds were seen -- one thing becomes quite clear in this small experiment. You can imagine a flock of birds, but the number of birds in the flock is beyond your control. Yet the scene was clear, well-defined, exact. There must be an answer to the question. Who was it that determined how many birds should appear in the imagined scene? Not you!

Maktub

~Paul Cohelo

An Interesting Insight into Decision Making

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make

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Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, I thought the same way initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

"Remember that what's right isn't always popular, and what's popular isn't always right."

The Link between friends and obesity

So you think it's the cookies, chips and bread that make you fat?
Well, maybe. But in a major study, UCSD and Harvard researchers point a finger at an unlikely culprit: the subtle – perhaps even subconscious – influence of spouses, family members and, most important, close friends.

If those people become overweight or obese, you'll be more likely to think that such a body shape and the lifestyle behaviors contributing to it are OK. The result: You are more likely to gain pounds within a couple of years.
In other words, obesity might spread through “person to person” social interactions, much like the influenza virus spreads through the air.
Likewise, the reverse is true: If your family and trusted friends become thin, you are more likely to lose weight as well.

To Read More, Click Here and Here

It's Called Mindset

As I was passing the elephants, I suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not.
I saw a trainer near by and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.
"Well," he said, "when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free."
I was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

Source: Saira-A told me abt it, Sahar emailed me abt it, National Geographic showed a programme on it too.