Be who you are (wisdom stories)
Why weren’t you more like you?
A classic story tells about the great Chassidic Rabbi Zusha, who was found agitated and upset as he lay on deathbed. His students asked, “Rebbe, why are you so sad? After all the the great things you have accomplished, your place in heaven is assured!”
“I’m afraid!” Zusha replied, “Because when I get to heaven, God won’t ask me ‘Why weren’t you more like Moses?’ or ‘Why weren’t you more like King David?’ God will ask ‘Zusha, why weren’t you more like Zusha?’ And then what will I say!?”
Love the feathers you’ve got
There was once a crow who did not like his feathers.
“I wish I were a peacock!” he would say.
“You are beautiful as you are!” the other crows insisted.
“How plain and dull you seem to me!” he’d complain, and fly off to admire peacocks.
The peacocks strutted about with their colorful tail feathers outstretched. To the delight of the crow, some of the peacock feathers lay on the ground when the peacocks left.
Crow flew down to the ground and stuck the feathers into his wings and tail. He attached a few sticking up from his head.
“Now I am as beautiful as a peacock,” he said.
But, when he went to join them in their strutting, the peacocks poked him and pecked him. What a fuss!
“You are not a peacock,” they said, “Don’t imitate us!”
Bruised and still dragging some broken peacock feathers in his tail, he returned home.
After all his insults, no one wanted his company!
As he sat alone, the other crows said, “It’s foolish to try and be what you’re not. Learn to love the feathers you’ve got!”
Source: David Holt, Bill Mooney
The duckling
The Sufi saint Shams of Tabriz tells the following story about himself:
I have been considered a misfit since my childhood. No one seemed to understand me. My own father once said to me, “You are not mad enough to be put in a madhouse, and not withdrawn enough to be put in a monastery. I don’t know what to do with you.”
I replied, “A duck’s egg was once put under a hen. When the egg hatched the duckling walked about with the mother hen until they came to a pond. The duckling went straight into the water. The hen stayed clucking anxiously on land. Now, dear father, I have walked into the ocean and find in it my home. You can hardly blame me if you choose to stay on the shore.”
Source: Anthony De Mello
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