What is life?

I read online whenever I get time. During surfing sometimes I find interesting pieces of writing, quotes, stories or even fables which has moral values as well. Today I am sharing a story which has a lesson for us.

• Life is hard to define.
• All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. (Havelock Ellis)
• Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't. (Richard Bach)

Now read the story:                                    

"Once a man saw in his dream, that a lion was chasing him. The man ran to a tree, climbed on to it and sat on a branch. He looked down and saw that the lion was still there waiting for him.

The man then looked to his side where the branch he was sitting on was attached to the tree and saw that two rats were circling around and eating the branch. One rat was black and the other one was white. The branch will fall on the ground very soon.

The man then looked below again with fear and discovered that a big black snake had come and settled directly under him. The snake opened its mouth right under the man so that he will fall into it. The man then looked up to see if there was anything that he could hold on to.

He saw another branch with a honeycomb. Drops of honey were falling from it. The man wanted to taste one of the drops. So, he put his tongue out and tasted one of the falling drops of honey. The honey was amazing in taste. So, he wanted to taste another drop and then another and as a result, he got lost into the sweetness of the honey. He forgot about the two rats eating his branch away, the lion on the ground and the snake that is sitting right under him. Suddenly when the branch broke he remembered all the dangers woke up from his sleep.
The man couldn't understand the dream,so he went to a scholar to know its meaning.
The scholar said
"The lion you saw is your death. It always chases you and goes where ever you go.
The two rats,one black and one white, are the night and the day. Black one is the night and the white one is the day. They circle around, coming one after another, to eat your time as they take you closer to death. The big black snake with a dark mouth is your grave. It's there, just waiting for you to fall into it.

The honeycomb is this world and the sweet drops of honey are the luxuries of this world. We like to taste a little of the luxuries of this world and it's very sweet. Then we want to taste little more and then more. Meanwhile, we get lost into it and we forget about our time, we forget about our death and we forget about our grave."
So what you learn from this story?


Few more quotes about 'life'

• In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away - shing xiong 
• “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” ― Dr. Seuss 
• “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.” ― John Lennon

And last but not the least I finish this post with words of 'Mother Teresa'
“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.”
― Mother Teresa

Useful links:

What Life Is All About

Quotes about learning and education

These quotes are a  reminder for teachers who want to enhance their teaching all the time.

• The job of an educator is to teach students to see vitality in themselves.-- Joseph Campbell
• Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.-- W. B. Yeats
• The objective of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.-- Robert Maynard Hutchins
• There is a brilliant child locked inside every student.-- Marva Collins
• A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.-- Henry B. Adams
• Information cannot replace education.-- Earl Kiole
• We all need someone who inspires us to do better than we know how.-- Anonymous
• The kids in our classroom are infinitely more significant than the subject matter we teach.-- Meladee McCarty
• Teaching is not a profession; it's a passion.-- Unknown
• Your heart is slightly bigger than the average human heart, but that's because you're a teacher.-- Aaron Bacall
• Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.-- David M. Burns
• A professor can never better distinguish himself in his work than by encouraging a clever pupil, for the true discoverers are among them, as comets amongst the stars.-- Linnaeus
• A teacher effects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.-- Henry Adams
• Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.-- Mark Twain
• An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.-- Bill Bernbach
• Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.-- Aristotle
• It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.-- Alec Bourne
• It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.-- Aristotle
• Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten-- B. F. Skinner
• Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.-- Gail Godwin
• Education is the best provision for old age.-- Aristotle
• Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.-- Confucius
• The mark of a true MBA is that he is often wrong but seldom in doubt.-- Robert Buzzell
• If I were asked ... to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.-- Alexis de Tocqueville
• Children need models rather than critics.-- Joseph Joubert
• The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-trust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciple.--Amos Bronson Alcott
• It is the responsibility of every adult... to make sure that children hear what we have learned from the lessons of life and to hear over and over that we love them and that they are not alone-- Marian Wright Edelman
• Education is more than filling a child with facts. It starts with posing questions.-- D.T. Max
• If people did not do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.-- Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in.-- Abraham Lincoln
• It's okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are our teachers -- they help us to learn.-- John Bradshaw
• It's not what is poured into a student, but what is planted.--Linda Conway
• It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.-- Albert Einstein
• Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand… what he learns and the way he understands it.-- Soren Kierkegaard
• If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.-- Thumper's father (Bambi 1942)
• A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him.-- James Baldwin
• That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil's means; great teachers foresee a pupil's ends.-- Maria Callas
• A word as to the education of the heart. We don't believe that this can be imparted through books; it can only be imparted through the loving touch of the teacher.-- Cesar Chavez
• The highest result of education is tolerance.-- Helen Keller

More at: The Really Big List of Education Quotes & Links