Welcome to Mind Voyage fellow explorer🎉
My aim is to share with you a consistent dose of mind-enhancing content.
Subscribe here to level up:
The more I write Mind Voyage the greater my realization of what my intention is.
With each post, each paragraph really. I only ever want to give you information that I think and feel would truly help you.
Sometimes I hope it fills you with awe at the beautiful complexity of life. Other times I hope it makes you live intentionally, to be conscious of how your thoughts shape your life.
Watch your thoughts, they become words;
Watch your words, they become actions;
Watch you actions, they become habits;
Watch your habits, they become character;
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.— Lao Tzu
Mostly I hope it makes you feel happy, optimistic and energized to do more.
I hope you feel there’s a purpose behind everything, especially the hardship.
That you’re part of something much larger. Even though you may never be able to see the full picture.
Like a drop of water in an ocean. There is no ocean without each droplet. Yet the drops don’t know this and might each feel unimportant in the vastness.
Human life is sort of like this. And I hope I remind you that we all make up this ocean of life. And we all have a part to play.
I hope I help you remember.
Here are three stories for you today:
The Samurai and the Monk
A Zen Koan is a story that’s told in the same way a joke is told. But rather than make you laugh, a Koan makes you realize a profound truth.
It’s like a joke because the meaning of the Koan sneaks up on you. It catches you off guard and when you realize it, something changes within you.
A Zen Koan I really like goes like this:
A Samurai walks into a Zen temple.
He meets a Monk and asks,
“Is there really a heaven and a hell?“
The Monk looks at the Samurai for a moment and asks impatiently,
“Who are you?“
“I am a Samurai.“ Answered the Samurai.
The Monk laughed.
“You a Samurai? You look like a beggar.“
He glances at the Samurai’s sheathed sword.
“And your sword there, can you even cut anything with it?“ The Monk mocked.
”I bet you couldn’t even cut paper with that.”
“You’re no Samurai! Get out!”
The Samurai enraged by the insults draws out his sword, ready to strike the Monk.
The Monk looks the Samurai in the eyes and says calmly,
”And here opens the gates of hell.”
The Samurai realizing what he was about to do quickly sheaths his sword, his face a mask of shock. He bows to the Monk in gratitude for the teaching.
The Monk speaking calmly says,
“And here opens the gates of heaven.“
Teaching
Heaven and Hell are created by our actions. What we do and don’t do.
Another story that drives home this point:
Two Wolves
An Old Cherokee man speaking to his curious sons says,
“Everybody has two wolves inside of them son.“
”A good wolf and a bad wolf.”
The boy looks up at his father.
“The wolves are always fighting each other for control.“ continues the father.
“Who will win?“ The son asks.
“The one you feed.“
The Car Salesman and the Horse
There once was a horse owned by a car salesman.
Every day the horse would watch as the car salesman would spend hours wiping his prized car clean.
But would never even touch the horse.
The horse heard the salesman brag to his friends about how much he loved his car. And how the car had 1,000 horsepower.
The horse hearing all of this became sad.
The horse thought, “It would take 1,000 of me to equal that one car.“
Later on, the horse found himself being moved into a truck.
”It’s finally happened,” The horse thought,
”I’m so useless that they’ve finally gotten rid of me.”
When the truck opens at a new location, the horse sees a man with a cowboy hat standing on the other side with a wide smile on his face.
The cowboy brushes the horse every day for hours. Just as the car salesman used to clean his car.
The cowboy would brag to his friends about how beautiful his new horse is. And how his horse can jump over anything, something no car could ever do.
Teaching:
The horse went from feeling useless with the car salesman to feeling like the most important thing in the world with the cowboy.
The moral of this story is that value isn’t solely dependent on who we are, but on what other people need.
If you feel undervalued it’s not just because of who you are or aren’t. But on whether the people around you need you.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself if you feel undervalued is to go where you’re valued for who you are. Rather than trying to force the people around you to see that you have value.
The horse could never ever get the car salesman to value him as much as a car. No matter what it did.
Sometimes to truly feel valued we might have to change jobs, careers, locations, and even relationships.
Rather than trying to get the car salesman in our lives to value us for being a horse. We’d be better off finding the cowboy.
Because we all deserve to feel valued for who we are.
Thank you for reading, until next time friend ✌
P.S - Links that inspired these stories.
The Value Realisation (The Car salesman and the horse)
Nice article