Kindness-the most wanted quality

Wanna drag an elephant by hair?:

By Ishara Mudugamuwa

Are you a kind person? If you are a lucky person, it's not easy to improve this quality in your heart. Kindness is not a single feeling. It is a collection of feelings. So it's not easy to improve this quality in your heart.

If you can understand others, if you can forgive others, if you are rich in moral values, if you can be patient and if you possess a sound spiritual status, certainly you are a person with kind heart.

When one's mind is filled with such virtues, he is a kind person. Kindness is a basic element of all the religious philosophers. All religious leaders utilised their mental and physical energy to direct people in the correct path.

Kindness is like Sun. Sun gives us light, energy and heat. Likewise kindness gives light to our journey of life. It gives energy to solve problems.

When we talk about kindness, the Buddha's preaching predominates because its entirety is based on kindness. Kindness comes from a state that some are born with that and the others will have to cultivate within themselves.

Though kindness is a mental state it has to be followed by actions.

Kindness will not bring you a return in material form and it is a stream that runs only one way, but the return comes to you in a form of happiness and complacency which is the greatest of all blessings. Your kindness helps to release the pain of mind and suffering.

Suppose, one of your friends is suffering from mental agony and deprivation, may be due to broken affair, bereavement in the family, lost of career or due to any other personal matter.

It may not be costly to help him to be relieved at least for the time being. For that what you need is kindness and compassion. It may be just a spending few minuets of your time to listen to him and tell him a few encouraging words and give him an advice.

With that advice he may gain confidence and wisdom to get rid of that difficult situation. When you see somebody suffering from distress due to physical or mental incapacity, you should not say "It is a sin, poor fellow" and ignore.

There are many ways through which you can help him to get out of that state, may be not soon after the incident, even later. If you can strive to help him....there you have a kind heart.

To be kind to your beloved is not a unique quality. Even in the animal world you may find such behaviour patterns. Real kindness is not selective. It may be your friend, enemy or someone unknown.

"Be kind to unkind people. They need it most." The saying goes that the unkind people need your kindness most. For not long they sift their unkindness.

The kind heart has the power to do great wonders. There is a Persian saying that "By a sweet tongue and kindness can drag an elephant with a hair." The value of kindness to unkind people is amply demonstrated in 'Angulimala 'story where the Buddha is said to have walked into the snare of the killer Angulimala and reformed him completely.

In our younger days we have read enough fables and stories that depicted well the benefits of kindness. But only a few of us remember them when we are adults . Keep it in the mind that kindness has the power to cure illnesses of everyone.

If you can be kind to people, animal and a plant without discrimination, that will rebound to you in the form of peace of mind and happiness.