“Master, I so very much want to serve others,” Bizah said.

“That’s good,” said the Master. “But tell me why you want to be of service to others.”

“Because I have so much love and compassion for my brothers and sisters that l can’t contain it. It just bursts out.”

“That’s good. And how will you serve them?”

“By loving them in the most appropriate way I can.”

“That’s very good, Bizah.”

Bizah and Tonga were picking berries one day when Tonga asked Bizah if he ever felt it hard to say “no” to people.

“At first I did, Tonga. But not anymore.”

“How did this change for you?”

Bizah was in the temple fingering through his long string of beads. Every day, he came in the early afternoon to give thanks. He would note something for which he was grateful, then go on to the next bead and do the same.

One day, he spent an extraordinarily long time in the temple, so his Master came looking for him.

“Bizah, you have been in here for hours giving thanks,” said the Master. “What is taking you so long?”

“Master,” said Bizah, “it is really hard for me today to find enough things to give thanks for. I really have to think about it.”

It was one of those sunny days when the Master decided that his students needed some fresh air, to be in nature, and to get some exercise. The group set off early in the morning for the hike. The students walked together in an organic moving community led by the Master who was about ten paces ahead.

On and on they walked, taking a break only for lunch. As the sun was starting to fall, they knew their day of trekking was soon to be over. But just then, they came to a very steep hill that seemed to go on for a mile.

“Master, why don’t you ever tell us stories about when you were young like us too?  What were your adventures, your delights, your challenges? Who were your friends and what were they like?”

“Bizah, I don’t go to the past these days unless I need to do so. I find that I have all I need right now, here in the present moment, to teach you what I have learned and you still need to learn.”

“Also, that young boy I was no longer exists – except in memory, which can be sweet but also distorting.”

“Master,” asked Bizah, “what does it mean to surrender to life?”

“What would you do if you were given a beautiful bowl as a gift?” replied his Master.

“Why, accept it, of course,” said Bizah.

“And if you were given an invitation to a wedding party?”

“ Accept that too.”

“And if you broke your leg?”

“I guess once it was broken,” said Bizah reluctantly, “I would have to accept it and try to make the best of it.”

“Would you accept it in the same way you did the gift and the invitation?”

Bizah, a devoted student of Zen, wanted to express his gratitude to his Master by giving him his two new prized possessions—baby eagles. The Zen Master was delighted with the gift and instructed his student to put them in the tree outside his hut so that he could see them every day.

Within a few days, one of the baby eagles took flight, bringing much delight to the Zen Master as he watched it soar with ease then return to a branch.

The other baby eagle did not fly. Two weeks passed, but it just sat perched in the same place on the same branch.

Bizah and his Master would go to the village once a week to have a special kind of tea at a small restaurant.

On one such occasion, Bizah said, “Look over there, Master. That man is very selfish.  He has eaten all the food and left his wife with none.”

“Bizah, remember you should not judge others,” said his Master.

The next week when they went to the village for their teatime, the same man and his wife were there again. Once more, the man ate all the food.

The Master said, “Look at that man, Bizah. He has eaten all the food and left his wife with none.”

Daily Spiritual Insight from Eckhart Tolle's Stillness Speaks 

When a problem arises in your life or you face some kind of crucial decision, how do you go about addressing it?

Many of us end up making decisions that are driven by our emotions. But emotions are not a safe gauge of what's right for us.

Emotions don't always represent our true feelings. We can be overwhelmed with emotion based on past experience that screams at us “don't do it!” But beneath this emotion our true feeling longs to proceed.