Sharing Spoons
A
holy man was having a conversation with God one day and said, ' God, I would
like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'
God led the holy man to two doors.
He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.
In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles, that were strapped to their arms and each found it impossible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. And because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.
The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. God said, 'You have seen Hell.'
They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, 'I don’t understand.'
It is simple,’ said God. 'It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'
After several months I’ve been forwarded an email that actual made sense to me, comparing it with the junk I’ve been receiving lately. On an average, from all the emails I receive every 2nd email tells me to forward the email to a certain number of people or I’ll have a thousand years of bad luck. And as a challenge I delete them first, I refuse to forward it to any number of people coz really I don’t believe my luck, is dependent on emails, I definitely think God’s not going to be marking my good deeds if I forward emails to people.
This email however hit me, it made me think and I choked a bit too, coz I imagined myself sitting in a room like this and several people came to my mind that would be ready to share their spoon with me, who would put me before them, who would sit opposite me and give me a spoon full of this mouthwatering stew. (Basma your definitely one of those people I imagined). And I also knew that if I were there I’d probably be in hell thinking how I can eat this. (Honestly I am pretty selfish) The first phrase that came to my mind after reading it was ‘selfless giving’ and second was ‘unconditional love’.
‘How do I eat this?’ or ‘would you like to have some?’ its putting the others need before you that can take you to heaven from hell.
Imagine yourself sitting in a room like this with a long spoon strapped to your arm and a mouthwatering stew in front of you, what would you do? Think and waste time wondering how I eat this or would you instead ask someone else would you like to have some after realizing that technically its impossible to eat this yourself?
What I thought was can someone even care about anyone else to think if they were hungry or not if they themselves were starving? Would I do that? I guess not, if I hadn’t eaten anything and was really starving I wouldn’t even bother asking anybody else if they’d like to eat it I’d probably be too busy thinking of how to get the stuff in my mouth. But someone in heavens would! They would ignore their growling stomach and ask me instead if I would want some.
I really don’t know if I’d be the first one to share my spoon with anyone but I’m sure I wouldn’t be the last one. I am after all not exactly cool on the idea of ‘selfless giving’ but I do ‘love unconditionally’ that is after I start loving.
God led the holy man to two doors.
He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.
In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles, that were strapped to their arms and each found it impossible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. And because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.
The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. God said, 'You have seen Hell.'
They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, 'I don’t understand.'
It is simple,’ said God. 'It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'
After several months I’ve been forwarded an email that actual made sense to me, comparing it with the junk I’ve been receiving lately. On an average, from all the emails I receive every 2nd email tells me to forward the email to a certain number of people or I’ll have a thousand years of bad luck. And as a challenge I delete them first, I refuse to forward it to any number of people coz really I don’t believe my luck, is dependent on emails, I definitely think God’s not going to be marking my good deeds if I forward emails to people.
This email however hit me, it made me think and I choked a bit too, coz I imagined myself sitting in a room like this and several people came to my mind that would be ready to share their spoon with me, who would put me before them, who would sit opposite me and give me a spoon full of this mouthwatering stew. (Basma your definitely one of those people I imagined). And I also knew that if I were there I’d probably be in hell thinking how I can eat this. (Honestly I am pretty selfish) The first phrase that came to my mind after reading it was ‘selfless giving’ and second was ‘unconditional love’.
‘How do I eat this?’ or ‘would you like to have some?’ its putting the others need before you that can take you to heaven from hell.
Imagine yourself sitting in a room like this with a long spoon strapped to your arm and a mouthwatering stew in front of you, what would you do? Think and waste time wondering how I eat this or would you instead ask someone else would you like to have some after realizing that technically its impossible to eat this yourself?
What I thought was can someone even care about anyone else to think if they were hungry or not if they themselves were starving? Would I do that? I guess not, if I hadn’t eaten anything and was really starving I wouldn’t even bother asking anybody else if they’d like to eat it I’d probably be too busy thinking of how to get the stuff in my mouth. But someone in heavens would! They would ignore their growling stomach and ask me instead if I would want some.
I really don’t know if I’d be the first one to share my spoon with anyone but I’m sure I wouldn’t be the last one. I am after all not exactly cool on the idea of ‘selfless giving’ but I do ‘love unconditionally’ that is after I start loving.
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