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3 Simple Questions to Discover Meaning in Your Life
It doesn't take much to simplify your life again.
A Zen tale goes like this.
After spending a few days with his friend, a blind man started for his hometown one night. When his friend handed him a lit lantern, he asked, “Of what use is a lamp to a blind person?”
The friend said, “This lamp is not for you. It’s for the person in front, to stop them from bumping into you.”
The blind man took the lantern and set out on his journey.
Down the road, someone collided with him and caused him to fall down. Angry, the blind man asked, “Can’t you watch where you’re going? I had a lamp with me. Why did you bump into me?”
“What lamp?” the man who bumped into him asked and looked around.
Then he found it and said, “Oh yes! This lamp here. But the flame went out long ago.”
The blind man held the lamp for the light it emitted. But holding it after the flame went out became a meaningless ritual.
Most of us behave in a similar fashion far more than we would like.
