Yesterdays Zen story is great for us because it’s two different things. It’s totally bull and it’s also a very wise important point.
It’s total bull because, I mean, come on! In this story everything’s lost and then he looks at the ring and boom! Magically he’s saved. So you know what our our greedy spiritual minds are going to do with that right? We’re going to start believing that there is a magic pot, or a potion we can use to make everything always come out right. If we always just believe that this too shall pass then we’ll magically drift through life and end up with everything we want.
But that’s not what this story really means.
If we go deeper. If we can get past the magical thinking we can start seeing what’s really really important about this story.
First of all the Mystic gave it to the king in a way that it would not become a belief system. He was told to not open the ring until things are really really bad. Imagine if the king had cheated and he’d opened it up and he saw that it said, “This too shall pass?” He would have just turned it into like a pedantic saying. “This too shall pass.” And he would have become one of those annoying people who are always telling everybody their beliefs.
But he didn’t. He had to be at the point where he could really learn the lesson before seeing the message. That’s the true magic of this story. It shows the difference between believing and knowing.
So don’t turn “This too shall pass” into a saying for you. We’re all annoying enough anyway. Right? Don’t add this fuel to your mix. The important spiritual insights for you are the one’s you really truly know.