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mrkotians
Guest
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A woodcutter was very old, without any family – his wife had died and he had no children. Just to feed himself in his old age – and he must have been eighty – he had to work hard to go to the forest to cut wood and sell it. At the most, what he got was enough for him to survive.
Every day in the forest he used to pass a Sufi mystic sitting under a tree. And just as it is in the Eastern tradition, he would touch the feet of the mystic, take his blessings, and go on for his work.
The mystic started feeling sad for the man. One day he said, ”You are a strange man, you don’t have any curiosity, because if you just go a little deeper into the forest, you can find a copper mine.
And just one day’s work will be enough for seven days’ food; right now, every day you have to work. Even I have started feeling sadness for you. You just go a little ahead.”
The man was reluctant because he knew the forest... but who knows? Perhaps the mystic was right, because he had also been in the forest. As long as he could remember, the mystic was under the tree. Just to give it a try, not being certain if it was going to happen... But he found a copper mine.He collected enough copper, and that was really sufficient for one week.
He rested, and after one week when he came back, he was looking a little better, healthier, a little younger. He touched the feet of the mystic and said, ”This time I am touching your feet not just traditionally, I am really grateful.”
The mystic said, ”So soon? You are a fool! If you go a little deeper, you will find a silver mine. One day’s work will be enough for one month.”
The man could not believe it – his whole life he had lived in misery and suffering. But the mystic had proved right the first time; perhaps, who knows, he was right again. Or maybe the mystic was simply joking or making a fool of him, but there was no harm in going.
He went a little deeper, and found a silver mine. He said, ”My God! The whole of my life I was wasting cutting wood. It was hard work, then selling was hard. There are so many woodcutters, so much competition.”
He gathered some silver, and it was really enough for one month. He lived luxuriously and comfortably. After one month he came and just fell at the feet of the mystic and said, ”I am truly grateful, and I am sorry that there were moments when I doubted.”
The mystic said, ”You have still not understood me. Go a little deeper.”
The man said, ”For what? I am living in luxury!”
He said, ”You don’t know what luxury is. Just a little further, and you will find a gold mine.”
It was beyond the conception of the woodcutter to have a gold mine, but he went. Now there was no doubt: this man certainly knew.
He found the gold, and the mystic said, ”This will be enough for one year; perhaps I may not be able to see you for one year now.”
The woodcutter said, ”No, I will come once in a while just to touch your feet. You are a man of miracles! Why do you go on sitting here, when you know so much about gold and silver?”
The next time he came to the mystic, he was looking a totally different man – beautiful clothes, beautiful shoes – and he had certainly become younger, healthier. He had gained weight; otherwise before he was just a skeleton.
It took a little time for the mystic to recognize him, that this was the old woodcutter. He said, ”So, things are going well?”
The man said, ”They are going tremendously well, but I just remembered last night... perhaps there is something more beyond this.”
The mystic said, ”Now, finally, I have been able to reach to your heart. Now you have hope, now you have a promising future. Yes, there is something more beyond it: a diamond mine.”
The mystic said, ”You would not have believed me, you would not have trusted me. You would not have gone if I had told you about diamonds. I had to lead you slowly, slowly. Now you have come on your own to ask me, and this is a good sign. You are no longer satisfied, contented, although you are living more luxuriously than anybody else.
The woodcutter said, ”That’s true. I will give it a try.” He went and found the diamonds. When he was coming back – this was for the first time that coming back he also went to the mystic, to touch his feet – he said, ”Now perhaps I may not be coming at all. These diamonds are enough for my whole life. That’s why I have come to touch your feet.”
The mystic said, ”But there is something more beyond it.”
The woodcutter said, ”No, there is nothing beyond diamonds. What can there be beyond diamonds?
Now you are just kidding!”
The woodcutter said, ”My God, why didn’t you say it in the first place? Why should I waste my time with copper and silver and gold?”
The mystic said, ”Believe me. Come at least once. There is something beyond diamonds.”
And the second day the man appeared – he could not sleep the whole night. He had enough diamonds to live his whole life as a king, but the next day he came. The mystic was sitting with closed eyes – this was for the first time. The woodcutter touched his feet, but the mystic was simply as if he was a statue. He didn’t move, he didn’t receive his gratitude.
He shook the mystic. He said, ”What has happened? You were going to show me something that is beyond.”
The mystic said, ”That’s what I am showing you. Beyond the diamonds is your own being... just a little further on. Unless you discover the mine of your own being, you have not found anything.”
The woodcutter said, ”Now I can understand why you are always sitting here, under this tree, never going and bothering about diamonds. Now I will sit by your side under this tree until I find this mine you are talking about. It is very difficult. The other was very easy – going out a little more, a little
more. Now you are changing the whole direction.”
While the woodcutter sat silently in the forest in the presence of the mystic – soaking his presence in, his silence, his loving being – the whole day passed, and when the sun was setting the man was amazed. He opened his eyes. He said, ”You should have told me before – I have been passing by here. You are not a man of compassion. For years I have been cutting wood, dragging the load on my own shoulders, and you simply sat here enjoying this inner feeling, this inner joy, and you wouldn’t tell me.”
The mystic said, ”You would not have listened. First diamonds are needed. Now you can go home, because the mine of your treasures is within you. Just remember one thing: go on and on, never stop. There is no full stop, because every full stop is a death.”
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