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A man who had been drifting around
the countryside wandered into the city,
where he observed a group of elders
gathered around a man who was sitting
cross-legged in the center of the
circle. He was sitting under a tree
located nearby for some shade and
relaxation, which afforded the wanderer
being within earshot of the
gathering, and their conversation. He
sat and listened as the discussion began
to unfold.
The drifter recognized the man in the
middle as one of the great sage’s of the
time, known around those parts “for his
natural ability to unravel mysteries.”
The conversation was about, “how to
overcome the tendency to scatter one’s
energies in the face of the overwhelming
duties and responsibilities of their
work and their lives.” The drifter
listened attentively to what the sage
had to say regarding this problem.
The sage began to speak, “It is
important to place oneself in the middle
of things, for from there it is possible
to get to the heart of the business—and
life, while others roam uselessly about
the edge, with tiresome condemnations
and criticisms, and without coming upon
the substance of the matter. These
critics make a hundred turns about a
point, wearing themselves, and others
down, and still they do not arrive at
the heart of what is important. All this
activity is the product of a scattered
brain, a brain unable to get straight,
to pull itself together. And afterwards,
they fall far short of getting to the
heart of the matter, which in the end is
just a cage from which they see no
escape.”
The sage continued, “To be placed in the
middle, brings one closer to the core of
things; distance to the core is now
removed. There is no separation. You’re
absorbed by the thing, which means that
you are the heart of the thing, which is
to say you are the thing—and the thing
is you. Put another way, you are the
lens in the beam, and can only receive,
give, and posses the light as the lens
does. You are transparent. You vanish as
a person, as an end, and remain purely
as a means. It is in this magical state
where order operates naturally. It is in
this state that you’ve arrived at the
heart of the thing. Here you become the
means for which transformation and
understanding occur.
The drifter interrupted the sage from
where he was sitting under the tree.
“Sir, I’ve been over here listening to
you and your lesson, and being curious,
I wonder if I may put a question to you?”
“Please do,” replied the sage.
“Are you saying that our energy scatters
because we remain on the outside looking
in, like that of the spectator, and in
that state we are easily distracted, and
we become scattered because we are
separated from, and not a part of, the
business at hand?”
“You’ve got it—that’s exactly what I’m
suggesting,” the sage replied.
V.P. Mosser
©2001-2008 V.P. Mosser
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Successful entrepreneur, V.P. Mosser is
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and numerous thought-provoking articles.
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