Here's to, awakening unto yourself Or, The Old Man and the Begger

 

 

               Here's to, awakening unto yourself

                  Or The Old Man and the Begger

 

I am not sure where I found this but felt it worth sharing, Here's to, awakening unto yourself;

...."There was an old man who lived in a hut. Every morning, he went to the street for alms. He never complained about his situation or his struggles. He took what was given without question.

One day, when the old man returned from his routine, he saw that the hut was taken by somebody else. That somebody else was eating his food and putting what little money he little saved into his pocket.

The Old man, with compassion, went inside the hut.

The young beggar asked, "Who are you?" wrapping his hands around the food he found.

The Old man replied, "I am you but in a different body." Old man then took his robe and gave it to the beggar as well.

The stranger, instead of looking upon this as compassion, took The Old Man as a meager fool. The young stranger snatched the clothes from the old man's hands and stripped him from head to toe and took every bit of everything the old man had left.

"Is this everything you have?" he asked.

Old man replied humbly, "When you have everything you have nothing, and when you truly have nothing left you have everything."

The boy was confused. The old man smiled and said, "Dear ignorant child, you are trapped in an illusion that you can't see, feel or touch and are bound by invisible chains. Unless we realize who we truly are it won't matter what you own." He added, "even if you become richest of rich you will always be bound by suffering."

The young beggar froze and felt that he understood a little of what old man was saying.

Old man chanted "Gate Gate ParaGate ParaSamGate Bodhi Svaha.". "No treasure can compare to it, no money can buy it, no wealth can occupy it, no pleasure can satisfy it, no eyes can find it, no ears can hear it, no tongue can taste it, no hands can feel it, no mind can imagine it. Oh, dear child, what is this treasure?" Then Old man said. "You will not find this for we are born only to realize this."

With that, the young man's illusory world shattered, his face grew face bright and awakened.

Old man bowed to him, said "know thyself and then vanished." Shared from anon by C. S. Roberts

No date for this is timeless