Fables That Fix Lives: Ancient Code for Modern Problems

  Before the master carpenter Lu Ban had completed his wooden phoenix—its crest unchiseled, its talons unshaped, its feathers still rough—onlookers gathered to mock his work. Those who glimpsed only the unfinished body sneered, "This is no phoenix, but an ugly owl!" Others, seeing only the rough-hewn head, scoffed, "A clumsy pelican, nothing more!" The crowd jeered at what they believed to be Lu Ban's failure, their judgments hardened by the incomplete form before them. Yet when the master applied his final strokes—when the emerald crest rose in splendor, the vermilion talons gleamed, and the gilded feathers caught the light like scattered fire—the truth revealed itself. The phoenix shook itself alive, wings unfurling in a burst of color, and took flight in a sweeping arc across the heavens. Those who had laughed fell silent, their earlier certainty crumbling before the revelation of the whole. The Nature of Partial Perception This ancient parable mirrors a...

  A mouse always ran away at the sight of a cat. So the cat came up with a clever trick—it draped a string of prayer beads around its neck. The mouse was delighted. "Look!" it thought. "The cat has turned vegetarian. How wonderful!" To show their gratitude, a group of mice approached the cat. But the moment they got close, the cat pounced—killing and devouring several before the rest could escape. Safe at last, the surviving mice gasped, "The cat is even more dangerous now that it ‘prays’!" Moral: Not every change is genuine. Some predators just learn new disguises.  

  A man one day saw a limbless fox and wondered how it could keep itself alive, so he decided to watch it. Presently a lion came along with some meat, ate some of it and abandoned the rest. From this the fox made his meal. The watching man concluded on the basis of this incident that he should do the same, since Providence would surely accord him similar treatment. He waited a long time, but all that happened was that he got weaker and weaker. But eventually a voice said to him: 'Do not behave like a crippled fox! Be like a lion, so that you can obtain something and leave some for others!’