My friend Buddha said, “We become what we think.”
Most of the time, we think of an ideal image, then for the rest of our life, we are bound to carry that image burden over our shoulders and pass it on to our next generation. We have forgotten our purpose of life, and now our goal is to achieve a tag from society. We do not live authentic no more, what a tragedy!
I remember reading a famous Tao story about four men who decided to meditate.
Their purpose was to meditate silently without speaking for two weeks. On the first night of their meditation, the candle in their room began to flicker and then went out.
The first Monk said, “Oh! The candle is out.”
The second Monk said, “Aren’t we suppose to talk?”
The third Monk said, “Why did you two break the silence?”
The fourth Monk laughed and said, “Haha! I’m the only one who didn’t speak.”
I read this story and thought, what made these people forget their purpose. From my perspective, first, Monk spoke out of his impatience and instability in his mind. The second Monk spoke out of his un-sureness, he was not sure what he was supposed to do. Third, Monk spoke out of power or authority, and he blamed the other two for breaking the rule. And fourth, Monk spoke out of his ego and pride that he was not affected by the incident (which he was).
We all are similar to these monks; we look at each other’s deeds and get involved in them at the cost of forgetting our purpose. Just stay unaffected like a lotus surrounded by the mud does. Do not be bothered by the image; it is a trap.
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