There is an old story about a seeker who has traveled high into the Himalayas to find a great teacher whom he believes has the secret of life. After much hardship, the traveler finally comes face to face with the wise one in a cave high in the mountains. The seer has been a recluse for many years, half naked, dressed in only a few dirty rags. His face and head are a tangled mass of snowy hair. His eyes are red and glassy from lack of sleep. The traveler sits nervously at the teacher’s side. “Tell me,” he pleads, “What is the secret of life?” “The secret of life is simple,” responds the teacher. “Life is just a bowl of cherries.” The traveler is startled by the teacher’s response. “A bowl of cherries!” he exclaims. The teacher ponders this for a moment and then questions, “You mean it isn’t?” -Leo Buscaglia The secret of life is in living. The key to living is being awake and aware of the world; knowing that there is an eye which never closes and the ear which hears all.
A story related by Rabbi Hugo Gryn from his native Czechoslovakia about a swan. A river flooded and swelled and the only way the still-weak cygnets could be saved would be if the father swan carried them on his back to a distant and safer bank. Halfway across he asked the first one, ‘How will you treat me when you grow up?’ ‘Oh, I’ll be the best son in the world to you! I’ll obey you, care for you, love you . . . ’ ‘You little hypocrite,’ said the father, and dropped him. He asked the same question of the second fledgling. ‘What’s the difference?’ he replied. ‘You just get me to the other side.’ ‘You are no good,’ said the father and dropped him. The third cygnet thought a while and said: ‘I’m not sure how I will act, but I can tell you this: I shall treat my young the way you treat me.’ And in the story that one got saved. It is a story of both honesty and direction. We are products of our origi...