Today I read a story, the kind of story that makes you stop, shut the book… and just think about this life we have and the life we insist on creating.
So here is the story about a King, and a Beggar…
“The Begging Bowl”
Upon coming out of his palace one morning and encountering a beggar, a king asks, “What do you want?” The beggar laughingly says, “You ask as though you can fulfill my desire!” Offended, the king replies, “Of course I can. What is it?” The beggar warns, “Think twice before you promise anything.” Now, the beggar was no ordinary beggar but the king’s past-life master, who had promised in their former life, “I will come to try and wake you in our next life. This life you have missed, but I will come again to help you.” The King, not recognizing his old friend, insisted, “I will fulfill anything you ask, for I am a very powerful king who can fulfill any desire.” The beggar said, “It is a very simple desire. Can you fill this begging bowl?” “Of course!” said the king, and he instructed his vizier to “Fill the mans begging bowl with money.” The vizier did, but when the money was poured into the bowl, it disappeared. So he poured more and more, but the moment he did, it would disappear. The begging bowl remained empty. Word spread throughout the kingdom, and a huge crowd gathered. The prestige and power of the king were at stake, so he told his vizier, “If my kingdom is to be lost, I am ready to lose it, but I cannot be defeated by this beggar.” He continued to empty his wealth into the bowl. Diamonds, pearls, emeralds. His treasury was becoming empty. And yet the begging bowl seemed bottomless. Everything put into it immediately disappeared! Finally, as the crowd stood in utter silence, the king dropped at the beggar’s feet and admitted defeat. “You are victorious, but before you go, fulfill my curiosity. What is the secret of this begging bowl?” The beggar humbly replied, ‘There is no secret. It is simply made up of human desire.”One of our biggest challenges is making sure our life’s purpose doesn’t become a beggar’s bowl, a bottomless pit of desire continually searching for the next best thing that will make us happy or that we feel we need in order to be happy.
After reading this story, it made me be present in my life.
Made me present in the fact that I am happy, NOW. I have great relationships, NOW. I have a career that provides money, NOW. I have happiness in each day of my life, NOW.
Do I want things in life? Of course, we all do.
But is it money I want, or happiness I want. We often get confused by the two, whether it is money we think we need, materialistic items, or a specific physique.
At the end of the day, these things need purpose to achieve. If you don’t have purpose, the money isn’t worth it at all. Purpose fuels the success that makes the money and when you get the money, it usually fuels your purpose to make a bigger opportunity for that very purpose.
For instance, my purpose is to help others achieve happiness through fitness and health. I know the confidence, attitude, career, lifestyle, and joy it all brought me – and my purpose on this planet is to show and give others that same experience.
In doing so, I plan to make money. But what will I do with that money?
I will invest it into myself in order to help even more people and make a bigger impact.
The reason this bottomless pit relates to all that I am talking about now is because we will always want more.
Once we reach a goal or make a certain number on our salary, we want more. There is nothing wrong with chasing more, but one cannot be happy or have the purpose to achieve more unless one can be present in the happiness and achievements we already have.
Now I am going on a rant, so guess it’s time I get on with the moral of the story…
The moral of the story is simple and when you understand it, it can be life changing.
Don’t be a beggar, always focusing on what you NEED and always asking for more.
Slow down, be present, look around and embrace the amazing things in your life.
Great things come to those that recognize what truly great things are… think about that.
If you can stop to smell the roses, maybe more roses will surround you in this life…
