Happy Thanksgiving

[Forza <headroom@domain.elided>]

Hello My Alfa Loving Friends..........

Here is a nice Thanksgiving story given to me by my Zen Doshi (teacher)........

Zen Buddhism has no traditional "Sacred Texts" Such as a Torah, Bible, or
Koran. The teachings are shared person to person or through stories, fables
and parables.

In the days prior to Siddharthas (Buddhas) enlightenment, he was fed and
cared for by teen-age children. They asked him many questions about what he
had learned. The following story is a modern adaptation of one of his
responses.

"Children: Strawberries are too delicate to be picked by machine. Every
strawberry you have ever eaten-each piece of fruit-has been picked by
callused human hands. Every piece of toast with jelly represents someone's
knees, someone aching back and hips, someone with a bandana on their wrist
to wipe away the sweat. I can understand your being appreciative for the
strawberry; but can you feel thanks for the sun that warmed the plants,
thanks for the rain that nourished the soil, thanks for the worms that lived
in the soil and created nutrients, thanks for storekeeper who sold the
strawberries? Take away any one of these items and the strawberry disappears.
A strawberry is like a single letter of the alphabet. It can be
meaningless-stand by itself- or be part of a great meaning. Hopefully, this
story will help you value and treasure the smallest details set before you in
the world; how to realize as last that nothing is little; that life is like a
great chain, the nature of which is understood whenever we are shown a single
link. When you truly feel this interdependence you will come to appreciate
the mystery of the universal self and know that it is compassion and love. At
that moment, be still and feel the beauty that comes from being simply
thankful for no reason at all."


All my Love to you and your families.. My thoughts and prayers are with you 
all...

Gabriel
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