Daily Meditation: Sunday, July 23, 2006

One day, Fatima, the wife of Nastradine Hodja, was washing …

07/23/2006

One day, Fatima, the wife of Nastradine Hodja, was washing the clothes when a crow flying nearby approached her and carried off the soap. She began to chase after it, shouting, when Nastradine Hodja, who was busy eating Turkish delight, said to her: ‘Calm down, Fatima, the crow is a lot blacker than we are; he needs the soap more than we do.’ You are laughing? But this is the way many people reason. By comparing themselves to others who are less evolved, they obviously find themselves to be whiter than white. It is fine to make comparisons, but only if you compare yourself to those who are more honest, generous and luminous than yourself, and only if you remind yourself what a long way you still have to go! Furthermore, you must never look back, for those who endlessly turn to see how far they have travelled stop progressing and never reach the summit. Those, however, who never stop but instead advance with their eyes fixed on the summit will one day reach their goal and at last enjoy true rest.