Once upon a time there was a stonecutter. Each day he went up to the mountains to cut stones. And while he worked he sang, for though he was a poor man, he desired no more than he had, so he had not a care in the world.
One day he was called to work on the mansion of a nobleman. When he saw the magnificence of the mansion, he experienced the pain of desire for the first time in his life and he said with a sigh, “If only I were rich! Then I would not have to earn my living in sweat and toil as I do now.”
Imagine his astonishment when he heard a voice say, “Your wish has been granted. Henceforth, anything you desire will be given to you.” He did not know what to make of the words till he returned to his hut that evening and found in its place a mansion as magnificent as the one he had been working on. So the stonecutter gave up cutting stones and began to enjoy the life of the rich.
One day when the afternoon was hot and humid, he happened to look out his window and saw the King go by with a large retinue of noblemen and slaves. He thought, “How I wish I were a King myself, sitting in the cool of the royal carriage!” His wish was promptly carried out and he found himself reclining in the comfort of the royal carriage. But the carriage turned out to be warmer than he had assumed it to be. He looked out of the carriage window and began to marvel at the power of the sun, whose heat could penetrate even the thick walls of the carriage. “I wish I were the sun,” he said to himself. Once again his wish was granted and he found himself sending out waves of light and heat into the universe.
All went well for a while. Then on a rainy day, he attempted to pierce through a thick bank of clouds and could not. So he got himself changed into a cloud and glorified in his power to keep the sun away – till he turned into rain and found, to his annoyance, a mighty rock that blocked his path so he was obliged to flow around it.
“What?” he cried. “A mere rock more powerful than I? Well, then I wish to be a rock.”
So there he was standing tall upon a mountainside. He barely had time to rejoice in his fine figure, however, when he heard strange clipping sounds proceeding from his feet. He looked down and, to his dismay, found a tiny human being sitting there engaged in cutting chunks of stone from his feet.
“What?” he shouted. “A puny creature like that more powerful than an imposing rock like me? I want to be a man!”
So he found he was once again a stonecutter going up into the mountain to cut stone, earning his living in sweat and toil but with a song in his heart because he was content to be what he was and to live by what he had.
Be Original
Can all of you see the similarity between us and Stonecutter. We are also not happy with what we have. The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side Of The Fence.
We always compare. This is one of the reasons why we are unhappy. We are not able to see what we have. We always look at what others have. In the process we lose what we have.
Comparison is door to our desire. If you really want to enjoy what you have don’t compare. Look at yourself and what you have. Find out the possibility how you can grow with what you have. People who are successful they know that if they how create the possibility from their own resources.
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
Imitation is very easy, and the whole culture and society depends on imitation. Everybody is telling you how to behave, and whatsoever they are teaching you is nothing but imitation. Religious people – the so-called religious people, the priests, the theologians – they are also teaching you, ‘Be like Jesus, be like Buddha, be like Krishna.’ Nobody ever tells you, ‘Just be yourself’ – nobody. Everybody is against you, it seems. Nobody allows you to be yourself, nobody gives you any freedom. You can be in this world, but you must imitate somebody.
You have to be just yourself and nobody else. And in fact that’s what buddhahood means: to be yourself. That is what christ-consciousness means: just to be yourself. Buddha was not an imitation of somebody else. Don’t you think there were many many great men who had preceded him? He must have been told, ‘Be a Krishna! Be a Parshvanath! Be an Adinatha!’ He must have heard beautiful stories, mythologies. He must have read the PURANAS, ancient stories about the great men, Rama, Krishna, Parasuram. He must have heard all that, he must have received the heritage. But he never tried to be somebody. He wanted to be himself, he wanted to know who he is. He never became an imitator; that’s why one day he became awakened.
If you try to become a buddha, one thing is certain – you will not be able to become yourself. One thing only is certain – that you will not be yourself. And then follows the next thing: you can never be a buddha, because you are you and a buddha is buddha. If you try to become a buddha, you cannot be a buddha; at the most you can be an imitation – a plastic flower, not a real rose.
Learning from story Stonecutter: Be Original
Experience Learning
A life of imitation is not a true life
People don’t think what they are doing: what kind of dress they are using, whether it is comfortable or not; what kind of houses they are living in, whether they are aesthetic or not. They are simply imitating others.
A life of imitation is not a true life. It is not sincere. One should live naturally on all the four steps:
Instinct is of the body.
Intellect is of the mind.
Intuition is of the heart.
And the fourth, turiya, is of the being.
If you can live all these four in harmony, you are the perfect man. Nothing should be denied in favor of anything else. All four have to be together in a harmony. And if you can avoid habits, if you can allow your nature to be your whole life, no space for habits at all …. All habits take you away from your nature; all habits prove you to be mediocre.
Live naturally and you are as natural as a rose flower; live through habits and you are made of something plastic, dead, meaningless. Then you feel miserable, and nobody else is responsible for it. You allowed imitation to enter in your authenticity and it has poisoned everything. Just follow your inner voice.
Your body has its own wisdom – use it.
Your mind can grow into a great giant as far as intelligence is concerned; use it, but don’t be used by it.
Your heart has so much love, so much beauty; it can fill the whole universe, it is oceanic. Allow it to spread and expand, and share it with people.
And the fourth is the ultimate. That is your eternal life with all conceivable blissfulness, ecstasy, joy, fearlessness, deathlessness.
If one lives simply according to his nature on each of these four rungs, he is a true man; he does not have any habit. Habits destroy your truth and impose things on you which were never intended by nature to be your destiny.
Tags: Be Original Comparison Individuality Moralities Our Greed
