Thursday February 26, 2009
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Cry With You
I’d like to share with you a story I continue to find, even many years after first hearing it and retelling it countless times, a great reminder and inspiration. I trust it will be for you too.
A man makes the long journey to his teacher and tells him that his son is in a terrible condition and that the doctors have given up hope. Without his teacher’s intercession, the man’s son will certainly die.
“Is there anything that you can do to help?” he asks. The spiritual master prays and meditates. He tries everything possible, and finally, after hours of effort, he turns to his student and says, “I’m sorry, but the gates of heaven are closed. There is nothing that I can do for your son.”
The man is desolate. He gets on his horse and starts traveling back home. As evening falls, he hears the sound of a horse galloping behind him; he turns around and sees his master. He thinks that perhaps his master was able after all to open up the gates of heaven.
“What is the news?” he asks eagerly. “I’m sorry,” the master says, “the gates of heaven are still closed. But after you left, I realized that, even if I cannot help you, with my prayers and meditations at least I can cry with you. That is why I have come.”
The two men sat together on a rock at the side of the road and wept.
The story, as told by spiritual masters throughout the ages, has a happy conclusion – the child was actually healed. However, the lesson was not about that, but about how we can continue loving and caring even when we think there is nothing we can do about a situation.
I think we all reach that point, whether it’s with our friends, family, or community, where we decide we can’t do any more. And yet, what this story teaches us is there is always more we can do.
This week think about people with whom, for whatever reason, you stopped helping because you felt there was nothing more you could do for them. Find something more you can do. There’s no telling what gates it can open for them (and for you).
P.S. There’s a great new book out by Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, called “The Life You Can Save,” in which he offers the psychological perspective on why we don’t do more to help others.
Copy and paste the following link on your browser for dates and locations:
http://www.kabbalah.com/lks/register.html?cid=20090209d
