A man walking through the forest saw a fox that had lost its legs and wondered how it lived. Then he saw a tiger come with game in its mouth. The tiger had its fill and left the rest of the meat for the fox.
The next day God fed the fox by the same means of the same tiger. The man began to wonder at God’s greatness and said to himself, “I too shall just rest in a corner with full trust in the Lord and he will provide me with all I need.”
He did this for many days but nothing happened, and he was almost at death’s door when he heard a voice say “O you who are in the path of error, open your eyes to the truth! Follow the example of the tiger and stop imitating the disabled fox.”
I found this powerful fable from the Arab mystic Sa’di in The Song of the Bird by Anthony De Mello. I sense we all sometimes feel ourselves to be the fox, it can be compelling. Trusting is crucial to well-being, it is essential that we do not separate our own selves from our trust in others, so that we can extend our trust inside to our own capacity to make things happen just as much as we offer it out to others. Not always easy, but certainly the path to personal freedom.
Wishing you a weekend of tigerish generosity and kindness.
コメント