Last night I had the wonderful privilege of having dinner with two friends — one a Taoist Master, the other our patient and kind translator! Though much of the weekly knowledge I gain from the Master is going into the book [please stay tuned :)!], I woke up thinking of one of his stories and I wanted to share with you :)

There were three sons who were challenged with a task to find the largest watermelon in a very large field. The only rule was that they were not allowed to go backwards in the search.

The first son went partly through the field and picked the one he thinks is largest.

The second son goes farther into the field and picks a larger watermelon.

Finally, the third son seeing the other two determines that the further you go, the larger the watermelon. Therefore he decides to go to the end of the field. He ends up picking the smallest watermelon.

Many people live their lives in this way.

Please carefully consider and meditate on this story.

 

Photo source: keeping careful guard over the watermelons :)