Journey into yourself

There is a difference between being found and finding yourself. Imagine how rewarding and beautiful a journey could be; a journey in which instead of travelling outward, you travel inward and find that everything you were in pursuit of was already within you.

An old fable goes like this. Ten learned men were braving a rough terrain in their quest for enlightenment. At one point, they needed to cross a surging, turbulent river. They made a human chain of sorts and somehow managed to cross the river. Since the gushing waters had made communication impossible they decided to ensure that each one of them had made it safely across the river. They took turns in counting and to everyone's dismay found that they could count only till nine. The tenth person was missing. They despondently hung their heads and wondered if they should continue their journey. A young boy, who was passing along, stopped and saw the misery on their faces. "What happened? Why do you all look so sad?" he asked. "We've lost our friend to the river," they said. "There were ten of us when we started and now we are only nine". The boy looked at them quizzically. "I think I can find your friend" he stated. The wise men looked astounded. "How"? they questioned. The boy asked all of them to stand in a line. Then he began counting and voila! he counted till ten. The men were stunned and fell at his feet. "You got our friend back to us. You are a miracle worker" they said in unison. The boy only smiled and continued his journey.

It was only after he left that realisation dawned; while counting the others each of them had forgotten to count themselves.

So often in meeting the demands of life and time, we forget to count ourselves. Our obsession with what is outside creates complexity that robs us of our innate simplicity and wisdom. Like the 'learned' men we panic about something that isn't lost. As we begin simplifying things, begin looking inwards, we move closer to the basics. As we move closer to the basics we see things as they really are. As we see things with more clarity, we find ourselves. Everything else follows.