Ancient Wisdom

The perfect man is a spiritual being. Were the ocean itself scorched up, he would not feel hot. Were the Milky Way frozen hard, he would not feel cold. Were the mountains to be riven with thunder, and the great deep to be thrown up by storm, he would not tremble. Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. Let knowledge stop at the unknowable. That is perfection. [Chung Tzu]

  There are four things which do not allow people to rest: Long Life; Reputation; Rank; Riches. Those who have them, fear ghosts, fear men, power, and punishment. They are always fugitives. Whether they are killed or live, they regulate their lives by externals. [Yang Chu, 300. B.C.]

                                                                                YU TSE. 1250 B.C. That who renounces fame has no sorrow. Fame is the follower of reality. Now, however, as people pursue fame with such frenzy, does it not really come of itself if it is disregarded? At present fame means honor and regard. Lack of fame brings humbleness and disgrace. Again, ease and pleasure follow upon honor and regard. Sorrow and grief are contrary to human nature; ease and pleasure are in accord with it. These things have reality.

' Nasrudin’s wife turned to him one morning: ‘Last night I dreamt that as I was preparing vegetables for a stew, the knife slipped and I cut my finger.’ ‘Tonight you had better sleep wearing gloves,’ replied the Mulla.

'Nasrudin' and his neighbor were comparing stories of financial ruin. ‘You may be poor, Mulla,’ said the other man, ‘but I owe so much that I shall be unable to repay the amount during my lifetime. My children will soon have to shoulder the burden of my debts and they, in turn, will be unable to pay. And so the debt will remain unpaid until the Angel of Death comes to rip my soul from me.’ ‘If I were you,’ suggested ' Nasiruddin', ‘I would stop repayments immediately and hope that the Angel of Death dies first.’

There was once an honest man, who had never, in his life, taken advantage of others. He was kind and hard-working, but he had not achieved any success in life. This man, whose name was Single mind, was constantly being betrayed and exploited, but this did not trouble him particularly, because - quite rightly - he knew that his own straight forwardness could not be corrupted by the villainy of others. Single mind practiced charity and generosity and kindness to the full extent of his capacity, reposing his trust in the justice which would follow such a life: as he was convinced it must. But he was not tranquil in mind. So he went to a Sufi and asked him what to do. The Sufi said: 'Brother; honesty, hard work, kindness: these are all things which are of the utmost importance to humankind, if realization is to be attained. But you must be sure that you are really honest; that you are, indeed not offsetting your generosity by an equally harmful greed for obstinacy in following your own...

  A King was once becoming impatient with a lecture by a Sufi, and made up his mind to score a point or two off him. Thus it was that, as soon as the Sufi had said, for - it seemed to the King - the thousandth time that ‘hundreds were blind and even those who were not blind could not understand what they saw’, he held up his hand. ‘As King of this country I insist that you match allegation with demonstration. On pain of death, show me these people who are blind, and those who are not, but will still not understand,’ he said. ‘Certainly, your Majesty’ said the Sufi. ‘And I will give even you, a mere king, the honor of taking part in my demonstration.’ ‘What do I have to do?’ asked the King. ‘You will sit for one day in the bazaar, the local market, in your robes and wearing your crown, hammering upon a brass tray.’ And so the King sat there all day with the Sufi beside him. Every few minutes someone stopped and asked, ‘What are you doing?’ and the Sufi, sitting nearby, took down his...

' Nasrudin’s donkey ran towards a pool to drink. The sides were very steep, and it was just about to over-balance and fall in when frogs began to croak loudly from the water.  This so frightened the ass that it reared up, and by this means was able to save itself.  ' Nasrudin ' threw a handful of money into the water, crying, ‘Frogs, you did me a good turn. Here is something for you to celebrate with.* 4

Once a lady brought her small son to the Mulla’s school. ‘He is very badly behaved,’ she explained, ‘and I want you to frighten him.’ The Mulla assumed a threatening posture, eyes flaming and face working. He jumped up and down, and suddenly ran out of the building. The woman fainted. When she had come to, she waited for the Mulla, who returned slowly and gravely. ‘I asked you to frighten the boy, not me!’ ‘Dear Madam,’ said the Mulla, ‘did you not see how afraid I was of myself as well ? When danger threatens, it threatens all alike.’