Four Stories
Here are four stories I really like about finding our way in the universe. I’ve heard different variations of all 4 stories in various traditions.
One story is about you in a canoe on a river. Most of the time you’re going to be carried by the current. Let’s call this destiny.
Or you’ll be paddling by the shore where there are rocks you have to get around, this way or that, and pools you need to maneuver. Let’s call this fate.
You have the perception that you’re getting from here to there, and it seems you have the power and the choice of which way you’re going. Really, it is the the rocks and eddies and distractions, and mostly our moving our paddles that give us the grand illusion of choice.
We are always in the river, being carried along.
Here is a story of a mountain path.
This story is told in many traditions and religions around the world.
So here’s a guy, or a girl, who works on the family’s fields. But he sees the mountains off in the distance. He tells his family, I’m going to go see those mountain. The family reacts in the way families do.
A short distance away from the farm he meets a neighbor and tells her he’s going to the mountains. And she says, Oh, that’s such a far way to go. Lots of people have tried, but they just come back.
Our guy gets to the foothills of the mountain and he talks to a woman at the side of the road. And she says, Oh, you’ve got to find the right path up. Lots of people have tried, but they come back.
So our guy finds his path and he goes up this way and that way and it’s a hard climb and he gets a little discouraged. Then he finds a guy who says, Yeah, just keep going that way. I’ve never gone on from this point, but I’ve talked to a lot of people who have gone that way and come back and said it was right.
He finds his way.
Later he finds a boy at a fork in the road and people ask him, Do I go right or do I go left, and he is always ready to answer. Who knows if he is correct.
Then our guy finds confusing official looking signs.
The path comes to a cliff and a canyon. Maybe he should just climb down the cliff and climb up the other side. Or going further along the cliff he'll find a guy who has made a bridge who will say, You are welcome to cross on my bridge, or he may want a fee.
Here is a landslide, the path is totally blocked. The only way to get through the rubble is to team up with someone and help each other get to the other side.
The path eventually has to cross some water. It might be a creek, it might be a river, it might be a lake. He might decide to cross on his own and swim. He also might find a guy with a boat, a raft, or it might be a ship. And there might be a price. Or the guy with the boat might ask him to stay and help. My favorite variation is there is a creek and in the creek there is a luxurious ocean liner, unnecessary to cross the creek, but blocking it. People must go through the ocean liner but find that it’s so comfortable that they never move on.
This happens when the guy gets hungry or sleepy or tired, or discouraged. There might be someone there with some food, or shelter, or advice, for a price. Often, there is a comfortable hotel, and the only price to stay, is to remain.
Eventually, he is about to get near the top of the mountain, and he finds an old man. And the man says, I made it this far, but I can’t go any further. But I’ve talked to people who’ve gone further and who come back.
So he struggles, exhausted, to the top of the mountain.
And what does he see?
Many more even taller mountains.
Does he go back? Or does he keep going?
A woman is walking one night going home. She sees a neighbor on his hands and knees under a street light. She asks, Is everything OK?
I lost my keys, says the neighbor.
She starts helping him look for his keys.
Eventually she asks, So did you drop them here, over there, here by the curb, over there by the grass?
Oh, no, says the neighbor. I dropped them 20, 30 feet up the street.
What are we doing looking for them here???
The light is better here.
Early one morning, two young men were walking down the street. They might be yeshiva boys, or monks, or noviciates. On an errand across town for their guru, or lama, or rabbi. As they walk they are
talking about things faithful. They encounter a prostitute on her way home from a night's work. She is trying to figure out how to cross the street without getting her shoes and clothes muddy. One of the young men scoops her up in his arms and carries her across the street. They continue on their errand. But the second man says, I can’t believe you did that! We don’t have anything to do with women like her! We are supposed to keep ourselves uncorrupted by the world! What if someone had seen you! He went on like that until they did their task. He kept on at his companion all the way back. When they entered the monastery, yeshiva, church, the young man reported to the rabbi, guru, imam, what his friend had done.
Well, asked the wise man, What do you have to say for yourself?
I only carried her across the street, but he’s been carrying her all day.