“You are a good boy” said Alice to her son Jack. Jack Smiled and ran away to play with his friends with that smile still shining on his face like a reflecting glass.

 ---

“Take your words back ” said George. “I will not” said Joseph.

George gets angry and hits Joseph. Joseph hits George back and says “You don’t know who you are dealing with… My father is a …………………………”

 (You can fill that blank yourself)

George gets even angrier and shouts back “You don’t’ know who YOU are dealing with…. My friends will…………………………..”

  (And you can fill this blank as well because you must have heard it somewhere and you are intelligent enough to understand what George is implying).

 ---

Harry, son of the mayor, walking with his two friends, sees a classmate John. Harry looks at him and then at his friends…Friends without saying a word understood what Harry wants. They run towards John, start hitting him and soon Harry joins them and says “This is my bench…. Get off and never sit on this bench again.”

Poor John runs back home crying...

 He will soon find a way to deal with bullies… He might become stronger and face Harry or successfully avoid him… But I am not interested in that poor guy. I am more interested in Harry.

 ------------------

So what’s common in all these guys??? George, Joseph and Harry?

Aggression? Courage?  Revenge? Will Power? Cruelty?  Or Confidence ? Or Over-Confidence?

They share something in common – Powerful People (I like to call them support systems)… who they believe will take care of things when things go wrong. George has powerful friends; Joseph and Harry have powerful fathers. So they have confidence in that powerful person in their respective lives.

This gives them -- > superficial confidence; which is not from within, but from outside themselves.

They feel brave and courageous.

They think they have the liberty to be aggressive.

But Let’s see what happens ten years from now :

Joseph’s and Harry’s father are dead and so is the power that they were both dwelling on. George’s friends are long gone; separated from him for many different reasons.

Now… think about what will happen to their confidence?

Will Harry bully? Will George get angry? Will Joseph hit back?

They may or may not… Can’t be sure .

Depends on how they grew up?

Did they build their own confidence from within? or

Just dwelled onto to their support systems?

Superficial confidence can be taken away from you… it’s not yours anyway. You did not build it or fight for it or defend it.

When life throws you into a hell-hole and all you have is you…

There…

Right there… is your chance, a golden opportunity to build it, fight for it and defend it. It will be yours to keep and yours to give away. No one would be able to take it from you. Not even the forces of nature or life itself.

You will own it like your soul.

Jack, the guy we first met… he is still not sure what he sorts after … When someone appreciates him, he feels good. When someone scolds him , he feels bad… He does things only to get more appreciation; he wants to find that happiness again…the one his mother gave him in those simple words “you are a good boy.” You must be thinking, we all do that… we all seek appreciation, we all want to jump up the ladder, be appreciated and acknowledged by the people around us.

But let me seed this last thought in you…

What if jack was being appreciated for violence? What if Jack was being trained to be a terrorist? Would it be good for him or humanity? Should he seek this appreciation?

“It still hurts that my father does not appreciate me…” “ It hurts that mother loves my brother more …”  -- things like this, we hold on to like a tight rope. We think if we leave this rope, we might fall…The truth is that the rope is tied around you, its suffocating you… Free yourself…NOW.

The only thing we need to seek is “our purpose”.

We need to dig deep into our souls and find out

1. What is that thing that gives me peace…?

2. What moves me to a state of trance?

3. What makes me feel more connected to this world and to the source?

We will learn so much more in this journey… That destination would seem meaningless…

And appreciation would become like a joke to you… Should someone appreciate you for doing what you are supposed to do? Would you need someone to tell you “You are doing a good job?” “You are a good boy?” when you are so peaceful…?

You are merely playing your part and it is not good or bad… You are not good or bad… There is no instrument in the world to measure your goodness or badness… Only you can feel it… You can feel the malice of good or bad… of sadness or anger

But once you embrace that beautiful peaceful light… you will seek nothing else…!!!