The Happiness Factor

The teacher of Incomparable Wisdom showed his servant how the peasants around the countryside sowed and harvested their crops in season. The manservant said the grains knew what soil suited them best.
“See those rocks, master? Crops avoided them. Didn’t they?” The teacher asked his man to look closely. The manservant inspected the huge boulder and expressed his amazement. The surface was indeed mottled with lichens of many hues. “How come lichens knew what the crops didn’t know? He asked his master.
“Crops share a secret with soil; so would lichens with rocks,” observed the incomparable teacher.
At that time an eagle hovered above. It dropped a tortoise on the rock below. The force was such the tortoise broke apart and the eagle zoomed instantly to its supper.
A fox from one of the hidden crevices appeared to finish
off whatever was left of the supper. “ Here is a secret that draws eagle and a fox equally,” continued the master, “ those shells are not there by an accident. A secret.”
“What secret?”
“Every pebble and thorn in a rosebush thing has its place. Even this carapace shall find its own level in the scheme of things.”
Later they sat under an old cypress tree and the teacher drank the barley wine and said, “ The whole universe is singing as evening stars appear; isn’t that reason to join in their happiness?”
Happiness is a plumbline every living or non-living keeps with Life. It isn’t your mental or emotional state at any given hour of the day.
benny

O Pioneer, Do Your Thing!

"What is the meaning of life?”, one asked Confucius. They were passing through a hill country. It was spring. As they climbed down the philosopher said," It is in the spirit of that old man down there, in his gaiety...see him on a spree, with the butterflies overhead and worms stirring about his feet.."
"I don't believe your eyesight is sharp enough to see all that from here." The man was skeptical.
"Perhaps you are right. But my spirit could move into that of the old man and know.” Confucius replied. "Still it doesn't explain the meaning.” The man murmured.
Next they moved through the plains. They came across a large crowd weeping about a dead body. The widow was almost a child and curiously enough the philosopher thought her smiling inwards as if death came as deliverance; later in the evening the man who was with the philosopher asked, “What is the meaning of life? We were among the dead today."
Confucius said," Life holds mysteries and death is merely letting the youth free from the yoke of the old.” The man again asked the master, "What is the meaning of life?"
Confucius pretended as if he didn’t hear him. He said," I have to go to the City on an urgent business. You may come if you want to." He nodded.
Before they entered the City they had to pass through a village, which was almost deserted except for the womenfolk and children. Upon enquiries they were told that a great prophet had come to the nearby village holding sermons about the life after death. Meanwhile a man came into view. When the philosopher was told that he was the only one who stayed back, he wanted to speak to him.
Confucius asked if he weren't interested in the life after death? The man said, “First things first. Being poor I must look after the needful things first, my family needs me. Who will look after them in this life if I were to run after a life which neither the prophet nor anyone else has seen, let alone lived it?"
Turning towards the man who was constantly pestering him as to the meaning of life, the philosopher said, "If you really want to know the meaning, here is the man for you." With these words he pressed on towards the City.
* There is no other clue to the riddle of life than living it. How we solve it makes us pioneers.

benny