The world is made up by stories

One day a banker was counting his money. He discovered there was way too little of it, so he invented some more, to make up the difference between his desire and his actual state, and he told the bank a story why this was good for the bank.

One day a man sold stories about the bank, to lead more people to trust the bank. This brought more money in the bank, that was used to create more money. As a reward for his work he was given some apples.

One day the banker, believed the wrong story and lost all the money in the bank. The state helped him to recover the bank, when he told a story why this was essential. To do so the poor man was fired, and taxed. And he was told a story to hide the difference between what was fair and what really happened.

One day the now poor man was counting his apples. He discovered he had to few to feed his family. So invented a story to hide the difference between his desire and the facts. His family noticed it very much as their belly started rumbling for lack of food, although the stories helped to dampen the misery.

Comment of the sage: One needs sages in banks, to keep the money real.

Comment of the fool: As real as too little apples to feed a family?

What you seek is already present

One day a seeker went to a sage. The sage was sitting in a windy corner of a large field. The seeker asked the sage: Can you tell me, why there is suffering?
The sage smiled and gestured around him. The man looked around and saw nothing that gave a clue.
The seeker asked: Then tell me, why are some powerful and others not?
The sage smiled and gestured around him. The man quickly scanned the area and turned back to the sage.
The seeker asked: Then tell me, where do I find true wisdom?

The sage smiled and gestured around him.
The seeker got frustrated, and said: Look I am just a beginning seeker, and I need some help here.
The sage smiled and gestured around him.


Comment of the sage: Whatever the topic is, it is present here and now.

Comment of the fool: Better hammer it down, next time it happens.

Taking life serious.

One day two man on their way to work, saw a man dancing on a flat roof.
They stopped at looked at him in wonder.
"Shouldn't you be working?" shouted one of them.
"Shouldn't you take life more serious?" shouted the other.

The man on the roof danced on and shouted, while doing so: "If you take life serious, better get rid of those stones dragging you down."
The two men on the street shrugged and moved on. They didn't know of no stones.

Comment of the sage: Life is too serious, to be taken too seriously.

Comment of the fool: Stop stealing lines and join the dance!

The Riddle of Control

All books are true and still they may oppose each other.

So what is true? What is false?

Why do you seek the answer here? Be gone!

Still here? Who is in control?

The man wondered about these last two sentences.

The man had just worked trough the book:

“Choose to be happy”

He had done all the exercises, integrated all wise advise.

He was the master of his own happiness, his life and his emotions,

and he was still puzzled about many things. Then he was run over by a drunk driver.

Comment of the sage: You can control your focus, but you can never control the outcome

Comment of the fool: I wrote the story. Why believe me?

Jihad on the letter.

Who said the Jihad is bad?

Holy War serves Mankind,

When I wage it upon my own bad habits.

Ignore the facts or not

Historians claim: The text of the Bible has been tinkered with by Popes, translators and history. Chapters thrown out and some carefully chosen words in.

Historians claim: The Koran became less forgiving with Mohammed’s rise to power.

Historians claim: The oldest text of the Tao Te Tjing was discovered on separate wood planks that may have had a very different order

Historians claim: Many so-called words of the Buddha were only written years after his death.

So why then do some take these texts so literal?

Take the heart of these books and you enter the holy.

Take the letter and you will fall prey to human error.

Comment of the Sage: Literal belief in texts made small print in contracts acceptable.

Comment of the Fool: I trust the literal texts of those works better than the claims above. What do I know?

The Dish of Life

Cheers to life and what it brings.

Taste the experiences of live. Eat it, drink it.

Taste pain, hunger, happiness, bittersweet, betrayal and love

along the way. Taste it all and never get drunk on each of them.

Have patience for the residue to sink in. Because what can be gained can be found on almost any plate and in any cup.

Here we find the wisdom of experience.

The true understanding of love.

Yet: For the impatient with nothing to drink, or with hastily emptied cups, there’s only bitter longing for something more. For the superficial love turned sour and for the greedy no residue but ash.

So it’s not about what you eat or drink, but how you let it sink in

And savour it on your tongue to learn from.

And when you have learned, when you have tasted

Wow, how much better the good plates are.

How a little smell already can make you high.

Comment of the Sage: Life is a dish, and each bite should to be savoured, for you'll never know if you get to the dessert at the end.

Comment of the Fool: Those may be, slobber, wise words, crunch, crunch, but if am fast, burp, buurrp, I get a lot more of it, hiccup.

What is written in the wind?

One day a aspiring wise one posted a heart warming quote on a social site. It was liked a hundred thousand times. Then some artist added is as text to great soft focus pictures. It went viral and spread all across the globe. People shook their heads at it and said yes more than 10 million times. So?

One day a little girl asked her mother why she was crying. The mother was now caught between telling the truth or keeping her child from hard realities. She became human in the fire of difficult choices. And?

One day deep in the desert a lost man raised his hand as if to wave to a friend, a friend who was no longer there. That man is dust. He faltering wave is very much alive. How?

His faltering wave is alive.

We all are blessed in different ways

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore

A certain secret sage of the ages had a weak nature. In fact he had such an inflatable ego, that even he wasn't allowed to know he was the secret teacher. So whenever he came and left a place people felt aroused with inspiration to be better and more humane. They wondered about this, until they found out is was the nudging this one man had made. A question here, an suggestion there and a small gift somewhere else. 
One day, one who travelled the path a little enough found him out. He pointed the great sage out to the community, priding himself with the find. When they told the Sage he had been found out the man collapsed and never resumed his work. He told them he had followed a path without his ego knowing it. But now he knew, it would disturb the work. 

The intention with which you nudge, makes all the difference.

So knowing ones own best work or effect on others may not help at all. When one is cause, one is strong. When one seeks effect, one becomes like driftwood peddling. This happens more often. The same goes for certain current sages. Everyone who reads this will be visited by one of them. When you feel you are in his presence, just learn from him or her. But don't tell them you know who they really are. Humbleness has never been so fragile as this century, and the sages are just as human as you or me. That is not the miracle. The miracle is the difference they make.