Time Out

Be True To Yourself
There was an old Hermit from Hushan in China who called on Yen Cho at his home. But the scholar was not in. He was out walking around the countryside. Later in the day the old hermit caught up with him in the middle of a game. The hermit faulted the young man for wasting his time with people from a lower class. “You are a scholar, aren’t you?” asked the elder.
“Yes,” admitted Cho,” But what good is it if I were to treat these peasants as beneath my notice? What good is my scholarship where scholars must bow and scrape before piddling authority?” He had so many reasons to play backgammon with people he explained. He ended saying,
” Who knows I may find myself lucky.”
The hermit observed the game in progress. Yen Cho had lost. The hermit asked, “You call that luck?” Yen Cho got up from the game and said,” My luck may be that I found you instead!”
The man from Hushan said he had heard so much about him and stopped over with the purpose of meeting him. The hermit and the young scholar got on well. The elder over supper admitted that he was cross with him at first. “ Wandering so early,--does not that show a fickle nature to be contrary to the rest? When all remain in bed must you gad about the country?”
Later the hermit then explained that he had found a way to conserve his life- force and he could teach him how. Yen Cho politely refused his offer saying that his life- force ought to be expended by what he was and not by another.
benny
Beware of your gurus and god-men. Don't offer your precious self on a platter. Remember before whom you are casting pearls.

With this friendly caution let me sign off.