The document describes two stories told to illustrate lessons about helping others and overcoming bad habits. In the first story, a visitor to a leper colony sees two disabled men - one blind, the other lame - helping each other by having one man carry the other on his back to the dining hall. The second story involves a wise old man taking a boy to a garden to show that bad habits are easy to remove when first formed but grow very difficult to uproot over time, like pulling out small plants versus large trees. The experience changed the boy's life.

1. Story To
Reflect Upon
51
A Lesson from Disabled People
Once, a visitor was being shown around a leper colony
in India. The colony was built to provide a shelter for
those people who were poor and had various physical
disabilities. At noon a gong (a metal disk that produces
a sound when hit with a hammer) sounded to gather the
inhabitants for the midday meal. People came from all
parts of the compound to the dining hall. Suddenly,
everyone started laughing at seeing two young men, one
riding on the other's back, pretending to be a horse and a
rider. They were having lots of fun. As the visitor
watched, he was told that the man who carried his friend
was blind, and the man being carried was lame (who
couldn't walk). The one who couldn't see used his feet;
the one who couldn't walk used his eyes. Together they
helped each other and reached their destination.
Reflection
Let us use each other's strengths to make up for the
weaknesses of others. Our strength is in unity, not in
division.
We must realize the fact of interconnectedness and
interdependence of all sentient beings. Only then can
there be peace, understanding and happiness.

2. Story To
Reflect Upon 52
A wise old man
A wealthy man requested an old scholar to wean his son away
from his bad habits.
The scholar took the youth for a stroll through a garden. Stopping
suddenly, he asked the boy to pull out a tiny plant growing there.
The youth held the plant between his thumb and forefinger and
pulled it out. The old man then asked him to pull out a slightly
bigger plant. The youth pulled hard and the plant came out, roots
and all.
"Now pull out that one," said the old man pointing to a bush. The
boy had to use all his strength to pull it out.
"Now take this one out," said the old man, indicating a guava
tree. The youth grasped the trunk and tried to pull it out. But it
would not budge.
"I – It's impossible," said the boy, panting with the effort.
"So it is with bad habits," said the sage. "When they are young it
is easy to pull them out but when they take hold they cannot be
uprooted."
The session with the old man changed the boy's life.
Reflections
* Bad habits and conditioning in us are hard to alter… right
mindfulness, great determination and effort are needed to remove
these defilements.
* Unless and until we remove all our bad defilements of greed,
hatred and delusion, we will continue to suffer in Samsara.