14. Don't yell at Life
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Listen: Any addiction you carry, whether it is alcohol, smoking, or even an addiction to worrying, shows clearly that you don't have respect for your life. Any incompletion you carry shows that you don't have respect for Life! And many times, because you don't have respect for Life, Life responds the same way towards you.
I have a story: A shy guy goes into a bar. He sees a beautiful woman sitting at the bar. After an hour, gathering up his courage – this guy must be an NRI (Non-Resident Indian) newly gone to the West from an Indian village! – he finally goes over to her and asks, 'Do you mind if I chat with you for a while?' The woman responds by yelling at the top of her lungs, 'WHAT? What do you mean? No, I won't sleep with you tonight!' The guy is shocked. Everyone in the bar is now staring at them. Naturally, the guy is now hopelessly and completely embarrassed. He just slinks back to his table. He sits quietly, putting his head down.
After a few minutes, the woman walks over to him and apologizes. She smiles at him and says, 'I am sorry if I embarrassed you. I am a journalist and I have an assignment to study how people respond to embarassing situations. So I was studying how you would respond.'
Suddenly, this guy raises his head and shouts at the top of his lungs, 'WHAT? What do you mean you need two hundred dollars?'
Understand, when you yell at life, life yells at you. When you try to embarrass life, life embarrasses you. When you don't respect life, life will not respect you.
And don't imagine that you continuously respect life. If you are spending your time in worrying, you don't have respect for life! If you are spending your time in incompletion, you are embarrassing life. If you are not looking into your life, you are disrespecting life. Please understand, if you yell at Life, naturally Life will be waiting to yell at you.