One night, the Shah dressed up as a peasant to enjoy the evening air undisturbed by his rank, and to wander through the streets of his empire unnoticed. He walked through town and reached the poor section of town. The street was quiet, but suddenly he heard singing from a little cottage. As he peaked through the window he saw a man sitting at a table.
He was amazed that such a poor man would be in such good spirits. He knocked on the door and asked if he would be welcome to join the man as a guest. They ate and drank together. After the meal the Shah asked the man how he earned his living.
“I am a poor Jew, I fix shoes in the street, and with what I earn I sustain myself for that day.” answered the man.
“But what will be your fate if something happens to you or you get too old to work?”” asked the Shah.
“Oh I do not worry about that,” the man said happily. “I know God will provide.”
The Shah decided to test the faith of the poor man. The next day he issued a decree that forbidded anyone to fix shoes in the street. The Jew was stunned when he found out this new law, but he contemplated looking inward and said, “God, I am certain that you will provide.”
He looked around himself and saw a man with water jugs on his shoulders, and he saw that he can become a water carrier. So he hauled water from the town well, and sold enough to buy food for a day.
That evening, curious how the poor man made out, the Shah returned to the man’s house.
“How are you?” he asked upon entering. I came to see how you survived the new law.”
“God provided for me today,” the Jew answered happily. “One door closed, but God opened another. I am now a water carrier.”
The following day the Shah issued a new decree that carrying water for pay was not allowed. So the Jew spoke to God, and when he looked about him, he saw men going into the woods to cut trees for firewood. This he went with them and made enough for food for the day.
That night the Shah came again to check on the poor Jew. To test his faith more, the following day he ordered all wood cutters to the palace. When they arrived, with our poor Jew among them, he issued guard garb for them and a sword. They would be paid, but not until the end of the month. Our man was now really puzzled, for he had no food for one day, Continue reading “How to Live More Abundantly… a Jewish Story”
Knowing vs. Certainty
I’ve spent, so far, 20 years in Landmark.
The most important thing I learned there was that all the power for you lies in the part of reality that you don’t know that you don’t know.
They demonstrate the proportions with a pie chart: the whole pie is all that could be known. A thin slice is what you know. Continue reading “Knowing vs. Certainty”
Are you deserving? Or even your pets deserve more than you?
Many of us don’t bother to ask for more, or to challenge our status quo, or to dream bigger because we don’t feel like we deserve it. We feel, at the core, that we are “wrong.”
When we feel “wrong” in speaking up or fulfilling a deep need, it’s because we are getting in touch with something that wasn’t accepted in us when we were younger, or in a past life. For example, when people who weren’t allowed to feel joy start feeling joy, it confuses them, and even makes them uncomfortable. That’s why we sabotage ourselves.
Today, get in touch with what feels wrong to you. Give yourself permission to feel right.
Another aspect of this “being wrong” or “being the wrong one” is that we put everyone’s need before ours.
I developed that characteristic over time.
Just a week ago I had two cats that I spent more money on their food than my own, spent more time worrying about their well-being than mine.
One cat, an abandoned male cat Continue reading “Are you deserving? Or even your pets deserve more than you?”
Time Travel and Kabbalah
When we talk about time travel, what we mean is totally in fully in the 1% reality.
Just watch the movie: Back to the Future, and you see the character played by Michael J. Fox physically did stuff and that changed the future that he traveled back to. It changed the people, their income level, their behavior, their social status.
But what if our limited thinking is not the only way to look at this phenomenon?
Let me tell you something that I had first hand experience with.
Some 20 years ago, in a Landmark Seminar, the Leadership Seminar, Continue reading “Time Travel and Kabbalah”