Pretty Lady

Lesson from the Story of the Pretty Lady

Very often, when our feelings are hurt by others, whether over something that people have done or not done, we harbor the hurt for a long time and suffer in silence for a long time. In the process, the hurt extends beyond a long long time, something very unwise and can bring untold damage. Perhaps the following story of the Pretty Lady brings home the point.

Here goes the story

Once upon a time, a big monk and a little monk were travelling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn’t cross the river. The big monk offered to carry her across the river on his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. “How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?” though the little monk. But he kept quiet.

The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her. All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about the big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation.
Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk. “How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is every pretty? All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite.”
The big monk looked surprised and said, “I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?”

(This very old Chinese Zen story reflects the thinking of many people today. We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause us to be bitter or jealous..But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away. We keep on carrying the baggage of the ‘pretty lady’ with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony. Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of the baggage of the ‘pretty lady’. We should let go of the pretty lady immediately after crossing the river, that is after the unpleasant event is over. This will immediately remove all our agonies. There is no need to be further hurt by the unpleasant event after it is over. Science is organized knowledge, Wisdom is organized life.

Posted by
Ivan

Barley Benefits

Ever wonder the healing and cleansing properties of barley

One of the common problem affecting us is having to remove stones from our body. Over times, whether we like it or not, stones get accumulated within some organs in our body. Many years back, I remember trying out a formula to help remove stones from our gall bladder. I was told that we all have stones within us. It is a matter of few or many. The more water we drink, the better it is for us. Recently, I have come across 2 friends who unfortunately, have to remove stones from their kidney. So when I received the following internet mail, I thought of sharing the goodness of barley and drinking barley water. Apparently, this came from someone in Australia.

For the Chinese, drinking barley water is a common habit. Here goes the content of the internet story

“High in fibre, barley is also a kidney cleanser. Better yet, regular intake of it helps prevent heart disease. BARLEY water was always a regular drink when we were still living at home. Whenever we had to go for a medical exam that included a urine test , my mum would have us drink barley water a day before it to make sure we got a positive result!

My mother was a wise woman. I later found out from an Australian naturopath that barley known to be a kidney cleanser, and he happily downed glasses of it at a meal we had in the coffee shop here.

Barley is good for your intestinal health too. Try to eat the barley grains you find in your drink or sweet broth and fu chook (bean curd skin) and gingko nuts.

It’s high in fibre which feeds the friendly bacteria in the colon and helps speed up the transit of fecal matter in int. In this way it helps prevent haemorrhoids and colon cancer.

The propionic acid and beta glucan from barley’s insoluble fibre also help lower cholesterol and prevent the formation of gallstones.

Eating barley regularly is a preventive step against heart disease as, besides the fibre content, it is also high in niacin, a B vitamin good for lowering cholesterol.

Diabetics should eat more barley as the fibre will prevent blood sugar levels from rising too high. It also provides relief from constipation or diarrhea for those suffering from Irritational Bowel Syndrome.

Barley is rich in selenium which prevents cancer and relieves symptoms of asthma and arthritis. It is a good source of manganese, copper and phosphorous.

Malt sugar comes from sprouted barley which, when fermented, is an ingredient in beer and other alcoholic beverages.

Barley, whose Latin name is Hordeum vulgare, has been cultivated for more than 10,000 years.
Since ancient times, barley has been used for healing purposes and has been known to the Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Athletes in Greece and Rome in those days were known to eat barley bread to give them strength.

Besides the usual things we do with barley, I enjoy having it in a western soup. The large pearl barley is used and I love the sticky bite of it.

Here’s a recipe for barley soup:

Barley soup with roasted garlic
- 1 cup pearl barley
- 5 cloves whole garlic, roasted
- 2 litres chicken stock, steeped from 1 chicken breasts simmered in 3 litres water
- 2 tbsps vegetable oil
- 2 large onions, diced
- 150g turkey ham, cut up
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tsps sea salt or to taste
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley

Method
1. Wash barley and soak it in a bowl of water for 3 hours. Drain.
2. Heat oil in pan and fry onions. Add carrots and celery, then the barley and fry for 3 minutes
3. Add Chicken stock, pepper and roasted garlic and simmer over low heat for at least an hour, or until barley is soft.
4. Add salt to taste and serve the soup garnished with chopped parsley.


Well, I have not tried this recipe. But I do drink a lot of barley water and can tell that it has many good properties. Like many people used to ask me whether the things that I consumed is effective, I would say that the fact that I am still around and healthy is good enough evidence.

Posted by
Ivan