The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari Book Summary
Hey guys, I'm Ali, so let's talk about this guy named Roben who was a very successful lawyer. Now when I say successful, I mean that he was
famous, rich, and he fought cases only to defend some really wealthy people. He
had a big mansion, a private jet, and of course, a Ferrari. But even after
achieving these huge things in his life, he was not satisfied. He wanted more
fame, more money which led him to a point where he was working for almost 18
hours a day. As a result, he got divorced, he barely interacted with his family
and boy did he look like an 80 year old man even though he was just 53. So once
during a regular courtroom session, he felt some pain around his chest area and
suddenly he fainted. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors divinized
that he'd just got a heart attack.
When Roben came back to senses, doctors advised him not to
go so hard on himself, as he really was not in a position to sustain all that
pressure. They asked Roben to quit his job and to live his life peacefully
with all that he has earned. This came as a shock to him. I mean, he had been
winning all cases his entire life, but when it came to the case of his own
life, he looked like a loser. He took a few days to digest this fact and slowly
he started to realise all his mistakes. So one fine morning, he took a very
bold step. He started selling every materialistic things that he possessed. He
sold his mansion, his private jet, and yes, he even sold his Ferrari.
Once he was done selling things, he set out on a journey in
search of the true meaning of life. This journey was towards the mystical land
of India across the great Himalayan range where these Indian monks resided. These
monks were not ordinary, as they were among the people with highest level of
wisdom, and they were capable of liberating the potential of anyone's soul, body
and mind. Roben had his sources from where he got to know that these monks
live happily for more than 100 years, that too with energy of a young man. It
took him days to find one of those monks who upon listening to Roben's story, agreed
to take him to their secret village. Roben started living there with those
monks in that village. Watching Roben's dedication, monk leader decided to
teach Roben the principles of life on a condition that Roben will not keep
that knowledge to himself. Rather, he would spread it to the outside world. So
the monks started narrating a story.
Imagine you're sitting in a beautiful garden which is full
of different type of trees, flowers, and you can see many birds chirping
around. The flowers in the garden smell really nice and you are having a good
time there. You notice that there's a lighthouse in the middle of the garden
and suddenly the door of that lighthouse creaks open as you can see a sumo
wrestler coming out of the lighthouse. It's really weird to look at the sumo
wrestler, as he's just wearing underwear made of thin wire. He wanders around
and finds a golden stopwatch lying in the garden. As soon as he tries to pick
it up, he slips and he falls on the ground, lying motionless. After some time,
you could see that he gets back to his senses, probably because of the nice
fragrance of the rose in the garden and he looks towards his left. On his left
was a path paved out of small diamonds which led to a place where the sumo wrestler
can find all the happiness in his life. He starts walking on that path and soon
gets out of sight. Now I know you guys might be feeling really weird, so did Roben as this is no story. He asked monk if this was some kind of a joke as
this story made no sense at all. The monk then said that this is no ordinary
story, as this story has seven biggest principles of life.
He then went there and started explaining the story, leading
it to its hidden meaning. The first principle is related to the garden. The
garden in the story symbolises our brain. If you sow good seeds, you'll
eventually be a nice fruits on trees, good plants bearing beautiful flowers, and
nice smooth grass. But if you put garbage inside the garden, or if you just
stop watering the plants, the place will soon turn into a dump. Similarly, if
you flood your brain with positive thoughts like kindness, love, empathy, and
if you keep motivating yourself, your brain will develop into this beautiful
garden bearing good thoughts. This will help you achieve great things in life
with inner peace. But if you think negative or if you don't give your brain some
regular exercise, it will turn into this garbage dump which can only yield
something poisonous. It's rightly said, empty mind is devil's workshop. The
second principle is related to the lighthouse which symbolises goals in your
life.
A lighthouse shows the right direction to the ships sailing
in an ocean. Similarly, we should choose the right path in our life. You can
only reach a destination if at all you know your destination. Choose the target
and work on achieving it. You might have to face some difficulties while moving
towards your goal. But if you're consistently moving in right direction, sooner
or later you're going to reach your destination. The third principle is related
to the sumo wrestler which symbolises kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese word which
means continuous learning and improvement. Like a sumo wrestler has to be very
specific with his diet and discipline to achieve this huge physique, we need to
always keep learning. Black Book Review Club has always been focusing on how we
should inculcate the habit of reading books because books are the best mentors.
Not only you learn things from books, but you always keep improving in every
small thing that you do in your life.
Moreover, books are a consolidation of everything that the
authors have learned in their entire lifetime, and you can have all that
knowledge in just a few hours. Isn't that amazing? So my point here is to take
part in every activity which you think can help you improve in your life. The
fourth principle is related to the underwear that the wrestler is wearing which
is made up of wires. Interpret self-control and discipline. It might be small
and think, but without that underwear, the wrestler will be naked, and that
really won't be a pleasing sight. Now if you have seen cable wire from inside, you
might be aware of the fact that it usually is made up of many thin wires which
together forms a cable. These thin wires might be weak alone, but when put
together are even stronger than an iron rod. Similarly, our self-control and
discipline is made up of every small thing that we do in our life. Be it waking
up early or eating healthy. We feel that these small things don't really
matter. But in reality, these are the only thing that matters. You won't see an
instant impact, but in the long run, these small things can bring some big
changes in your life and they will define who you are as an individual. The
fifth principle is related to the golden stopwatch which symbolises time. No
matter how rich or poor you are, you only have 24 hours in an entire day, not
even a second more or less than anyone else. But the way we utilise these 24
hours is what makes us happy or sad, rich or poor.
Most of us have this habit of procrastinating which is
nothing but a waste of time. By the time you're done with building castles in
the air, someone else out there just signed a huge profitable deal. By the time
you woke up in the morning, someone else is running from gym feeling fresh, fit
and happy. Now when I say time is golden, it doesn't mean that we should always
keep working, no. Instead we must enjoy and have some fun activities in our
day-to-day life. And what's really important is to manage everything in those
24 hours. Every successful person knows how to manage time. So they manage to
do every single activity in same 24 hours that each one of us has got.
Now the sixth principle is related to the fragrant rose. There's
one really famous saying in China which means that there's always a little
fragrance remaining in the hand of those who give flowers to others. So here
this flower and its fragrance symbolises social cause. Doesn't matter how much
you earn or what heights you reach, satisfaction of helping others is
priceless. No wonder why some really rich people in today's world do charity
work, investing their hard earned money in developing some rural village, and
many more things. So if you want to have that priceless feeling of happiness and
satisfaction, help others selflessly and you'll find yourself happy most of the
time.
The seventh principle is related to the path of diamonds. These
diamonds represent the small moment of happiness which comes our way in life. These
moments are always in the present time. Our human brains are designed in such a
way that we tend to get disturbed thinking of our past and worrying about
future. You never really enjoy the small happy moments that we have in present.
It can literally be anything, playing with your kids in a nearby park, or maybe
spending some quality time with your partner. These present moments are
supposed to be lived in present and these are the real diamonds in our life. If
only you understand this now, you are really going to be good at relationships,
and well, a real happy, contented person. So guys, these were the seven lessons
which the monk taught Roben which completely changed his life. As promised, Roben spread out this knowledge to the outer world, and that is what we all
should do to help our loved ones get all the happiness in the life. So share
this Article with everyone you care about and subscribe to this Blog for more Articles
which will help you become One Big Yogi or Monk.
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