Leaf

On a rainy day, Buddha looks at a leaf of a far plant for a very long time. Ananda, his attendant, observes this and asks Buddha, what is there in a leaf to see for such a long time.

Buddha smiles and says “for that tiny leaf to exist, first there was a seed from which it came. It needs soil, rain, sunlight, CO2, oxygen. The soil was formed in thousands of years, so was the Sun. The rain itself is a miracle. For the seed, there was its parent tree. So, the whole universe has come together to make that leaf happen.”

This story made me think very deeply. If for a leaf to exist, there is an effort of the entire Universe and a lot of time.

How about me? What about the things I use, I eat and all the event that happened all through my life so far. I felt just me being alive is a great miracle! And it should be respected likewise.

Now, I would like to add another layer on top of this thought. There were many people whom I live with, including those whom I might have just met once. For all those people to exist, and happen to be in that place at that moment for that event to occur, there are some millions of things that came together. For example, their parents, the food they ate and all the people who produced that food and so on.

Of course, In Business, too, there are just innumerable miracles. In my case, for instance, getting our first customer, Sam Albert, on the very next day we launched Evibe through Google search. The way I met Lalit Mangal, our mentor. All the team members who are working passionately to build the most meaningful platform that enables millions of memories and all the people who backed us. Some of these may look more of a milestone, but there was definitely some magic that happened.

I started taking a few moments a day to observe all the miracles around me. Interestingly, the more I began to see these miracles and acknowledge them, the more seems to happen. It certainly improved the way I see things and the way I do.

I urge you to give it a try. First, if it worked for me, most likely it may work for you. And second, after all, it came from the Buddha :)

This thought has been since I read that story from the book “Old Path White Clouds”. I hope this small story and reflection will help you to show gratitude for all the beautiful things that you are blessed with.