Intelligence

One afternoon, some people saw an old woman looking for something outside of her hut. “What’s going on? What are you looking for?” the people would ask her. “I lost a needle,” she said. All of the people present started to look for the needle with the old woman.

After some time, someone commented: “The Street is very long and a needle is very small, why don’t you tell us exactly where you dropped it?” “Inside of my house,” said the old woman.

“Have you gone mad? If you dropped the needle inside of your house, why are you looking for it out here?” the people asked her. “Because there’s sunlight out here, but there’s none inside my house,” she said matter of fact.

This Buddhist tale reminds us that many times, out of convenience, we seek for things on the outside that are actually found on the inside. Why do we seek happiness outside of ourselves? Did we lose it there?  This tale creates profound awareness within us. True contentment can be found only within us, by understanding ourselves. And the apt time is now when we are bound within our walls due to social isolation, to combat coronavirus pandemic. Let’s utilize this seclusion to love, understand and live with ourselves better.