“It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble, how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle, how great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.” -Emmet Fox I appreciate the imagery of a cave, for I feel it represents a feeling of being trapped or imprisoned. So many – Read More –
A certain king believed that what he had been taught, and what he believed, was right. In many ways he was a just man, but he was one whose ideas were limited.
One day he said to his three daughters, “All that I have is yours, or will be yours. Through me you obtained your life. It is my will which determines your future, and hence determines your fate.”
Dutifully, and quite persuaded of the truth of this, two of the girls agreed. The third daughter, however, said, “Although my position demands that I be obedient to the laws, I cannot believe that my fate must always be determined by your opinions.”
“We shall see about that,” said the king.
He ordered her to be imprisoned in a small cell, where she languished for years. Meanwhile, the king and his obedient daughters spent freely of the wealth which otherwise would have been expended upon her.
The king said to himself, “This girl lies in a prison not by her own will, but by mine. This proves, sufficiently for any logical mind, that it is my will, not hers, which is determining her fate.”
The people of the country, hearing of their princess’s situation said to one another, “She must have said or done something very wrong for a monarch, with whom we find no fault, to treat his flesh and blood so.” For they had not arrived at the point where they felt the need to dispute the king’s assumption of rightness in everything.
From time to time the king visited the girl. Although she was pale and weakened from her imprisonment, she refused to change her attitude.
Finally the king’s patience came to an end. “Your continued defiance,” he said to her, “will only annoy me further, and seem to weaken my rights, if you stay within my realms. I could kill you; but I am merciful. I therefore banish you into the wilderness adjoining my territory. This is a wilderness, inhabited only by wild beasts and such eccentric outcasts who cannot survive in our rational society. There you will soon discover whether you can have an existence apart from that of your family; and, if you can, whether you prefer it to ours.”
His decree was at once obeyed, and she was conveyed to the borders of the kingdom. The princess found herself set loose in a wild land which bore little resemblance to the sheltered surroundings of her upbringing. But she soon learned that a cave would serve for a house, that nuts and fruits came from trees as well as golden plates, that warmth came from the Sun. This wilderness had a climate and way of existing on its own.
After some time she had so ordered her life that she had water from springs, vegetables from the earth, fire from a smoldering tree.
“Here,” she said to herself, “is a life whose elements belong together, form a completeness, yet neither individually nor collectively do they obey the commands of my father the king.”
There are sometimes those moments when tragedies seem to happen all at once in different parts of the world. Despite lives lost in casualties of war (at home and abroad) on a daily basis, there are some events that take over the media’s attention due to the sheer number of casualties or non-sensical nature of – Read More –
DEAR SAGE: I love your site! Recently, I’ve been experiencing a near paralyzing fear of making the wrong decisions! I’m worried about how everything I do now will affect my future. Please help! DEAR FUTURE-FEARER: Thank you for your support of the site! Your question is excellent…anxiety or fear of the future and analysis paralysis (as – Read More –
I read an interesting quote this morning which said, “The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work that you should be doing for the rest of your life.” (Jessica Hirsche) I like to think of it in terms of creation…what do you love to create? I feel that we all have a creative – Read More –
“Do not think that you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly into darkness.” – Lao-tzu Knowledge can never become wisdom without practice. Masters become masters – Read More –
It is pretty heady stuff to be told that you have “infinite possibilities” or “unlimited potential.” What do you do with something like that? Where do you start? As with everything, taking a deep breath first is the best idea. Calm yourself down and don’t get overwhelmed by the reality that you really could do – Read More –
