The other day, I took a train to where I work. Inside the train I noticed a man clutching a Bible and shouting to all to listen to him. He was yelling:

“You must listen to me, otherwise all of you are going to hell.”

He raised his index finger and pointed it at every one of us in his view.

His intentions might be good but his action speaks the opposite. The way he was sending his message made everyone want to run away from him as fast as possible. Including me.

Thinking “I am right and you are wrong” is where the problem is. I don’t want to be pushed into kindness. I don’t like to be frightened into accepting what others believe.

“When kindness is forced, it loses its luster.”

“If you preach kindness to others, you will turn them away. You will be using unkindness to promote the idea of kindness.” Ben A. Wise

You have to cultivate kindness within you instead of expecting the world to hand it to you as a trophy for your “good” behavior or intention.

Kindness is free.

“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” Princess Diana

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy of kindness.” Dalai Lama

Here is a poignant story about being kind without expecting any kind of reward in return (even when the world is a dark place). It was a few years ago that I read the inspirational story. I do not remember the original source of the story.

I will tell you the story in my own way:

There were two old men bedridden in a single room. Both of them were terminally ill and were waiting for their death any day. In the single room, one was lying next to a window, while the other one was lying on the opposite side next to a wall.

Even though both of them were terminally ill, the one who was lying next to a wall was always feeling more ailing and thought of only dark thoughts. Seeing this the old man who was lying next to a window began telling the other man a story.

“I see through this window a beautiful flower on a garden. I see the beautiful sky. I see children playing. I see the beauty of the outside. The rain is beautiful in this time of the year. I see a butterfly. ”

To understand the context of the story, the man lying next to a wall was fully paralyzed. So, he could not see anything from where he was lying on the bed. The only thing he saw was the ceiling.

Nevertheless, this man saw the sky through the eyes of the man who was lying next to the window. He felt the rain on the outside. He saw children playing in his mind. He felt the sun rising on the sky. He saw the stars on the sky at night. He saw couples kissing by the tree.

Even though the man next to a wall did not move an inch from his bed, he saw everything from the outside world. Because everyday, his companion told him what he saw through the window.

After couple of months ——————-

The man next to a wall woke up one day early in the morning and listened. There was no usual voice from the other side.

He waited for the usual beginning of a story from his friend.

But nothing. There was no sound in the room.

He called his name.

No one answered.

When a nurse entered the room few minutes later, he asked her where his friend is and she told him:

“I am sorry Sir, He died at midnight peacefully. So, we have taken the body for preparation.”

When the dying old man heard this, he grieved. He cried silently laying still on his bed. He then asked the nurse:

“Would you please move my bed to the window where he was? Even though I cannot move my body, I want to be where he was staying, I want to be in the place where he was telling me all those wonderful stories. I want to feel him in my heart.”

The nurse told him something he did not expect.

Nurse: “Sir, there is no window in this room.”

The old man: “But —— my friend told me beautiful things every day that he saw through a window over there.”

Nurse: “Sir, that is not possible. Your friend could not see.”

The old man: “What do you mean?”

Nurse: “He was blind.”

To your inspirations,

Banchi