Hello my friends.
Let's just take a moment together.
To settle in and settle down.
To take a breath.
And perhaps rearrange our body into a comfortable position.
I'd like to share a story.
And the story is old and ancient.
It's a teaching from long ago.
It's a simple story of a villager who has a dream.
One night this villager dreams.
But he is supposed to wander out past the boundaries of his village.
To seek to find a traveler.
And when he does this traveler,
Has a gift for him.
This traveler is supposed to give him a beautiful ride.
And so as the villager wakes up,
In the morning,
He is so excited for this adventure,
For this journey.
He preps and prepares,
He gets ready and then wanders out past the boundaries of his village.
Well,
Not too long after he comes across the traveler that he indeed saw in his dream.
He stops him at once exclaiming,
I saw you,
I know you,
I'm supposed to find you.
He tells him he had a dream.
About him and that he was told the traveler had a very special,
Beautiful rock for him.
The traveler smiled and dug through his sack.
From the bottom of the sack,
He pulled out a big,
Gorgeous diamond.
Is this the rock that you saw in your dream?
He says to the villager.
Yes,
Yes,
Yes,
The villager says.
May I have it?
And effortlessly,
The traveler hands him the stone.
Of course you may have it.
I found it in the forest.
It's yours to keep,
He says.
Well,
The villager takes the stone,
This rock,
This diamond,
And goes to sit underneath the tree.
He holds it close to his heart and smiles big.
He sits there all day long.
And just before the sun sets.
He wanders back over to the traveler.
And he says to him,
You may have the diamond back.
I don't believe it's what I was looking for.
The traveler,
A little surprised,
Says,
Oh,
Tell me more.
The villager says.
I don't want this diamond,
But can you give me something else?
And the traveler says,
Of course,
What is it that you need?
The villager simply replies.
Can you give me the inner richness?
That allowed you to effortlessly hand over this diamond.
That would have made you the wealthiest man on earth.
Can you give me that inner richness?
The simple story reminds us that although we seek a lot of external things,
They are not the root of our happiness.
They are not the root of our joy.
And so we return once again to insight to awareness.
To the practices that help build that inner richness.
Where we may too hand over our most valued values.
Ask yourself what it would be like to do that.
To be in a space where you could offer up.
The things you value most,
Or the things that seemingly are most valuable.
What would it look like to live a life with such inner richness that you could effortlessly hand over?
The biggest,
Most beautiful diamond to a stranger.
Feel that in your heart.
Even if it's just imagination,
Even if it's just pretend for a few moments.
And then take a deep breath all the way in.
And all the way out.
Let's meet here soon again from my heart to yours.
Namaste.
