(Image taken from Sivers.org)
Once upon a time there
was a Chinese farmer
whose horse ran away.
That evening, all of his
neighbors came around
to commiserate.
They said,
“We are so sorry to hear
your horse has run away.
This is most unfortunate.”
The farmer said,
“Maybe.”
The next day the horse
came back bringing seven
wild horses with it, and in
the evening everybody
came back and said,
“Oh, isn’t that lucky.
What a great turn of events.
You now have eight horses!”
The farmer again said,
“Maybe.”
The following day his son
tried to break one of
the horses, and while
riding it, he was thrown
and broke his leg.
The neighbors then said,
“Oh dear, that’s too bad,”
and the farmer replied,
“Maybe.”
The next day the
conscription officers
came around to conscript
people into the army,
and they rejected his
son because he
had a broken leg.
Again all the neighbors
came around and said,
Isn’t that great!”
Again, he said,
“Maybe.”
The whole process of
nature is a process of
tremendous complexity,
usually impossible to tell
whether anything that
happens in it, ends up
good or bad.
You never really know
what the consequences
of the event may turn
out to be, sometimes
indifferent, other times
bad or good fortune.
One should go with
the flow of events and
stay in equanimity ~
Ancient parable
Image: Sivers