THE STORK AND THE WISE, OLD MAN STORY

A man once asked a wise, old man, “why am I what I am?” The old man answered, “you are what you are because you do not understand what you are.” The man was confused and said, “I do not understand.” The old man replied, “what you think you are, you are not! What you do not think you are, you are!” The man was even more confused so he asked the old man to please clarify. The old man, noticing the confusion in the man, responded slowly and carefully, “what you think you are is a product of the environment and circumstances of where and how you grew up and of where and how you have lived until now, but that’s not really you. That is just an external, nonsense mental idea that you have been creating of yourself unconsciously throughout your entire life.” “So, what I am is my own creation and has nothing to do with who I really am, with reality. It is just an illusion!” asked the man. “Correct!” answered the old man.

“Your entire life, you have been identifying yourself with your body, mind, the place where you were born and are living, the beliefs around you (e.g., religion, race, color, nationality, etc.), what they have taught you, and so on. But my question to you is, is that really you or is it just a mental creation of who you think you are?” the old man replied. The man did not know how to answer. So, the old man said, “let me help you to see the answer to my question. Suppose that you were born in a country where you were white, Christian, and of certain gender. You would think that your native country is the best country in the world regardless of its problems, wouldn’t you?” the old man asked. The man said, “I suppose so.” “Well, if so, you are what you are because the stork dropped you there. What if the stork had dropped you in another country like Somalia for example? You would probably be black, Muslim, and possibly of a different gender, and still believe that your country is the best country in the world, wouldn’t you? “Yes, I supposed so,” the man answered again.

“So, if who you think you are is just a mental creation of a series of identities, beliefs, values, opinions, prejudices, etc., is that really you? Are you really a mental creation, a nonsense idea, an illusion?” asked the wise man. “No, that cannot be me!” responded the man with certainty. “Well, then you must be something else. You see, people have built this idea of what they think they are but that idea is their own creation. It is like building a castle with sand. It is prone to crack, crumble and fall at some point. This is why people suffer so much. They have built something they think is very strong, but in reality, it is very vulnerable and they do not realize it because they themselves have been building it unconsciously throughout their entire lives,” the old man said.

And he continued, “the only thing that really matters in life is what you are able to personally experience. That, which gets dropped by the stork, is not a material being but a spiritual or energetic being! Your true nature! So, your job is not to believe but to seek, to live fully and completely, and to experience vastly. Open your senses, change your ways, clean up your life, and work toward your full potential (as a human being), which, if you are able to transcend your materiality, is boundless…infinite,” the wise man concluded.

Author: Maurice Correa
Website: pathtoone.com