When You Seek Advice From a Guru

There once was a fool who sought the advice from a local guru. After climbing the mountain for two days, he found an old man sitting upon a pallet meditating.

“Do you seek knowledge,” the old man asked.

“Well, sort of. I want to know how to get rid of all my problems.”

The guru thought for a moment while the fool fidgeted. At last, he had the answer.

“The knowledge that you seek can only be answered by Nature. You must seek the advice of the Ostrich; then you must heed the words of the Clouds.”

A few weeks later, the fool returned visibly exhausted and half starved.

“Did you find the answers that you seek,” asked the wise man.

“Heck no! I tried to talk to the ostrich, but the dumb bird fell dead! Then I found another one, but it died too. So I decided to talk to the clouds and see what they had to say.

I spent two whole days on the top of a mountain, but every time that I asked a question, the clouds would just glide past me like I wasn’t even there.”

The wise man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “And still you haven’t found the answer to you question?”

“What? Haven’t you been listening! No, I haven’t found the answer to my question. I still don’t know how to get rid of my problems.”

“Did you talk with the fish?”

“Fish? You didn’t say anything about the fish!”

“Ah, you see, the ostrich was to tell you of the fish, and the cloud was to tell you of the direction. No matter. Why not take the shortcut,” he offered his wrinkled hand to the side of the mountain. Beneath, the churning ocean awaited.

“How will I know that I have found the answer?”

“You’ll know. You’ll have no more problems.”

As the fool jumped from the mountain, the guru smiled humbly to himself and sighed. “Problem solved.”

Though he did indeed feel pity for the fool, he couldn’t help but wonder why the silly man had already visited him twice and not once did he think to use the elevator that he had installed into the side of the mountain just for visitors.

Burying your head in the sand will never make the problem go away and when you let the problem drift you by for too long, the reality of the situation will still remain that you still have a problem to face.

If you’re going to seek the help of a little old man meditating on top of a mountain, you had better make sure that you really need advice and not just an easy fix or he may just offer up the easier option set aside especially for fools. After all, he didn’t become a wise man by running into a situation before thinking things through…he became a guru through patience.