![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/12\/27220401\/rings.jpg\")
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A rich old man died leaving two sons.\u00a0 For some time the two continue living together in the traditional Indian way, in a single joint household, a joint family.\u00a0 Then they quarreled and dicided to separate, dividing all the propery between them.\u00a0 Everything was divided fifty-fifty, and thus they settled their affairs.\u00a0 But after the settlement had been made, a small packet was discovered which had been carefully hidden by their father.\u00a0 They opened the packet and found two rings inside, one set with a valuable diamond, and the other an ordinary silver ring worth only a few rupees.<\/span><\/p>\n Seeing the diamond, the elder brother developed greed in his mind, and he started explaining to the younger one, “To me it appears that this ring is not the earnings of our father, but rather as an heirloom from his forefathers.\u00a0 That is why he kept it separate from his other psssessions.\u00a0 And since it has been kept for generations in our family, it should remain for future generations.\u00a0 Therefore I, being elder, shall keep it.\u00a0 You had better take the silver ring.”<\/span><\/p>\n The younger brother smiled and said, “All right, be happy with the diamond ring.\u00a0 I’ll be happy with the silver one.”\u00a0 Both of them placed their rings on their fingers and went their ways.<\/span><\/p>\n ]The younger brother thought to himself, “It is easily understandable that my father kept the diamond ring: it is so valuable.\u00a0 But why did he keep this ordinary silver ring?”\u00a0 He examined the ring closely and found some words engraved on it: “This will also change.”\u00a0 “Oh, this is the mantra of my father: ‘This will also change!'”\u00a0 He replaced the ring on his finger.<\/span><\/p>\n Both brothers faced all the ups and downs of life.\u00a0 When spring came, the elder brother became highly elated, losing the balance of his mind.\u00a0 When autumn or winter came, he fell into deep depression, again losing his mental balance.\u00a0 He became tense, developing hypertension.\u00a0 Unable to sleep at night, he stated using sleeping pills, tranquilizers, stronger drugs.\u00a0 Finally, he reached the stage where he required electric shock treatments.\u00a0 This was the brother with the diamond ring.<\/span><\/p>\n As for the younger brother with the silver ring, when spring came, he enjoyed it; he didn’t try to run away from it.\u00a0 He enjoyed it, but looked at his ring and remembered, “This will also change.”\u00a0 And when it changed, he could smile and say, “Well, I know it was going to change;.\u00a0 He didn’t start crying, knowing that this would also change.\u00a0 And yes, it also changed, it passed away.\u00a0 He did not lose the balance of his mind and he lived a peaceful and happy life.<\/span><\/p>\n This was the brother with the silver ring.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A rich old man died leaving two sons.\u00a0 For some time the two continue living together in the traditional Indian way, in a single joint household, a joint family.\u00a0 Then they quarreled and dicided to separate, dividing all the propery between them.\u00a0 Everything was divided fifty-fifty, and thus they settled their affairs.\u00a0 But after the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2234,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[162,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-fictional-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom <\/em>The Art of Living.\u00a0 Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka by William Hart.<\/em><\/h6>\n