Famous hassidic tale on darkness and light

Natural spring, Mackinac Island, Michigan

A Rabbi asked his students,

One of his students suggested,

was the answer from the Rabbi.

asked a second student.

the Rabbi said.

said the students.

said the wise teacher,

A true story

Dallas. As the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing, she was still groggy from surgery. Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news.
That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature.
Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs.

he said, as kindly as he could.

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Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.

was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
As those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Dana's under-
developed nervous system was essentially 'raw', the lightest kiss or caress only intensified
her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love.
All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl. There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Dana turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time.
And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life, she showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy bending is far from the end of her story.

One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing.
As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked,

Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied,

Dana closed her eyes and again asked,

Once again, her mother replied,

Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced,

Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along.

A devoted meditator, after years concentrating on a particular mantra, had attained enough insight to begin teaching. The student's humility was far from perfect, but the teachers at the monastery were not worried.

A few years of successful teaching left the meditator with no thoughts about learning from anyone; but upon hearing about
a famous hermit living nearby, the opportunity was too exciting to be passed up.

Disputing monks, ~1858-1860
Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885) German painter

The hermit lived alone on an island at the middle of a lake, so the medi-
tator hired a man with a boat to row across to the island. The meditator
was very respectful of the old hermit. As they shared some tea made
with herbs the meditator asked him about his spiritual practice. The old man said he had no spiritual practice, except for a mantra which he re-
peated all the time to himself. The meditator was pleased: the hermit was using the same mantra he used himself – but when the hermit spoke the mantra aloud, the meditator was horrified!

asked the hermit.

The meditator gave the correct pronunciation, and the old hermit was very grateful, asking to be left alone so he could get started right away. On the way back across the lake the meditator, now confirmed as an accomplished teacher, was pondering the sad fate of the hermit.

Just then, the meditator noticed that the boatman was looking quite shocked, and turned to see the hermit standing respectfully on the water, next to the boat.

stammered the meditator; but the old man persisted in his polite request until the meditator relented and told him again the way he thought the mantra should be pronounced.

The old hermit was saying the mantra very carefully, slowly, over and over, as he walked across the surface of the water back to the island.

I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in San Ysidro. He has let me use his house to put on
fundraising events to raise money for youth at risk programs.
The last time I was there he introduced me by saying,

A horse at sunset, 10. March 2009

Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square foot house that would sit on a 200-acre dream ranch. He put a great deal of his heart into the pro-
ject and the next day he handed it in to his teacher.
Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F with a note that read,

The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked,

The teacher said,

Then the teacher added,

The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His father said,

Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all, he stated,

Monty then turned to the assembled group and said,

He added,

When the teacher was leaving, he said,

One Night four rabbinim were visited by an angel who awakened them and carried them to the Seventh Vault of the Seventh Heaven. There they beheld the sacred Wheel of Ezekiel.

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Cow dung

Johnny goes to modeling class in his school for special [mentally retarded] children and he gets his piece of putty and he's mode-
ling it. He takes a little lump of putty and goes to a corner of the room and he's playing with it.
The teacher comes up to him and says,

And the teacher says,

And Johnny says,

The teacher asks,

He says,

The teacher thought,

So she calls out to the principal, who was passing by the door at that moment, and says,

So the principal goes up to Johnny and says,

And Johnny says,

Cow dung

And the principal says,

And he says,

And he says,

The principal thinks that this is a case for the school psychologist.

The psychologist is a clever guy. He goes up and says,

And Johnny says,

And the psychologist says,

Johnny says,

Whenever Isis left Horus in the evening while they were in hiding in the papyrus swamps near Buto, she was accompanied by seven scorpions. Three of the scorpions preceded her, Petet, Tjetet, and Matet and made sure that the path ahead was safe. At her side were the scorpions, Mesetet and Mesetetef. Bringing up the rear were Tefen and Befen.

Every night, Isis warned her companions to be extremely cautious as to avoid alerting Seth as to where she was. She would remind them not to speak to anyone they met along the way.
One night, Isis was traveling to the Town of the Two Sisters in the Nile Delta. A wealthy noblewoman saw the strange party arrive and quickly shut the door to her house. The scorpions were enra-
ged at her rude behavior and decide to teach the woman a lesson. In preparation, six of the scorpions gave their individual poisons to Tefen who loaded his stinger with it. Meanwhile, a humble pea-
sant girl had offered her simple home as a refuge to Isis.
The scorpion's anger was not ameliorated by the young girl's kindness toward their mistress, and Tefen snuck out of the house. He crawled under the door of the noblewoman's house and stung her son. Distraught, the woman wandered through the town see-
king help for her child who was on the verge of death.
Isis heard the woman's cries for help. Although the woman was unkind to her, Isis could not bear the thought of the death of an innocent child and left with the woman to help her son. Isis held the boy in her arms and spoke words of great magic. She named each of the scorpions and thereby dominated them; rendering their combined poison to be harmless in the child.
The noblewoman was humbled by Isis' unconditional kindness and offered all of her worldly wealth to Isis and the peasant girl who had shown hospitality to a stranger.

Three stone cutters were working in a marble quarry. Each was hard at work, shaping a large stone into a block. A visitor came and watched them. The visitor asked the first stone cutter,

His reply was,

He asked the second stone cutter,

He kept on hammering while he said,

The traveller turned to the third stonecutter. He seemed to be the happiest of the three. When asked

he replied,

While a mason was meticulously carving the top of a pillar in a cathedral his apprentice asked him,

The mason replied,

A group of monks were living with their master in a Tibetan monastery. Their lives were disciplined and dedicated, and the atmosphere in which they lived harmonious and peaceful. People from villages far and wide flocked to the monastery to bask in the warmth of such a loving spiritual environment.

Then one day the master departed his earthly form. At first the monks continued on as they had in the past, but after a time, the discipline and devotion slackened. The number of visitors each day began to drop, and little by little, the monastery fell into a state of disrepair.

Soon the monks were bickering among themselves, some pointing fingers of blame, others filled with guilt. The energy within the monastery walls crackled with animosity.

Finally, the senior monk could take it no longer. Hearing that a spiritual master lived as a hermit two days walk away, the monk wasted no time in seeking him out. Finding the master in his forest hermitage, the monk told him of the sad state the monas-
tery had fallen into and asked his advice.

The master smiled.

With those words spoken, the master fell silent and would say no more.

Composite of depictions of the incarnation of God

All the way back to the monastery, the abbot wondered which of his brothers might be the Incarnated One.

the monk said aloud. But then a second later thought,

he then thought. This consideration, too, was quickly followed by denial.

Finally, after dismissing each and every one of his brothers for this fault or that, the senior monk realized there were none left. Knowing it had to be one of the monks because the master had said it was, he worried over it a bit before a new thought dawned.

Reaching the monastery, he immediately told his brothers what the master had said and all were just as astonished as he had been to learn the Divine was living among them.

Since each knew it was not himself who was God Incarnate, each began to study his brothers carefully, all trying to determine who among them was the Holy One. But all any of them could see were the faults and failings of the others. If God was in their midst, he was doing a fine job of hiding himself. Finding the Incarnated One among such rubble would be difficult, indeed.

After much discussion, it was finally decided that they would all make an effort to be kind and loving toward each another, treating all with the respect and honor one would naturally give to the Incarnated One. If God insisted on remaining hidden, then they had no recourse but to treat each monk as if he were the Holy One.

Each so concentrated on seeing God in the other that soon their hearts filled with such love for one another the chains of negativity that held them bound fell away. As time passed, they began seeing God not just in each other, but in every one and everything. Days were spent in joyful reverence, rejoicing in His Holy Presence. The monastery radiated this joy like a beacon and soon the villagers returned, streaming through the doors as they had before, seeking to be touched by the love and devotion present there.

It was some time later that the senior monk decided to pay the master another visit to thank him for the secret he had re-
vealed.

the master asked.

the senior monk replied.

The master smiled.

President Abraham Lincoln who struggled with his depression held together the opposites of darkness and light
in his own psyche as well as his country at his time.
At a special prayer day he had asked the troops of the north to pray also for the south troops. To his critics who
felt that this is undermining the moral of the troops he said:

There was one of Lincoln's very rare outbursts of anger in 'Soldiers Home', a cottage in the country on a high hill, where Lincoln ruminated on emancipation proclamations and more.
An officer came to him in need as his wife had drowned in a ferry boat in the Potomac River. Lincoln reacted infuri-
ated due to the disturbance:

Following night Lincoln could not sleep all night. He sat up that night and recognized his mistake. The next mor-
ning he took care to find the hotel where the officer stayed in. He knocked at the door and apologized to the man assuring him:

"The Truth coming out of the well",
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) French painter, 1896

A 19th century legend describes what happened on that day when the Truth and the Lie met.
The Lie said to the Truth:

The Truth looked up to the skies and sighed, for the day was really beautiful. They spent a lot of time together, ultimately arriving beside a well. The Lie told the Truth:

The Truth, once again suspicious, tested the water and discovered that it indeed is very nice. They undressed and start bathing. Suddenly, the Lie came out of the water, put on the clothes of the Truth and ran away. The furious Truth came out of the well and ran everywhere to find the Lie and to get her clothes back. The World, seeing the Truth naked, turned its gaze away, with contempt and rage.
The poor Truth returned to the well and disappeared forever, hiding therein, its shame. Since then, the Lie traveled around the world, dressed as the Truth, satisfying the needs of society, because, the World, in any case, harbours no wish at all to meet the naked Truth.

A lion was captured and placed in a large yard surrounded by a high fence.
He soon became acquainted with the social life of the other lions who had been there a long time.

The lions had divided themselves into several clubs, each with its own activities.

1. One group met regularly to hate and slander the captors.
2. Another group met to sing sentimentally about a future jungle having no fences.
3. And a third group met to secretly plot violence against the other groups.

Each group tried to pressure the newcomer into joining, but something held him back.
His hesitation was linked to him observing one particular lion who kept to himself and who seemed to be in deep thought.
The newcomer shyly approached the solitary lion and requested an explanation
of his apartness.

"Join nothing," replied the lion. "Those foolish creatures do everything but the necessary. I am doing what is essential, so one day I will be out of here. You are welcome to all the facts I have uncovered."

"But what is this necessary thing you are doing?"

"Listen carefully. I AM STUDYING THE NATURE OF THE FENCE."

At forty, Franz Kafka (1883-1924) who had no children, was walking through a nearby park in Berlin when he met a girl who was crying because she had lost her favourite doll. She and Kafka searched for the doll unsuccessfully. Kafka told her
to meet him there the next day and they would come back to look for her missing doll.

The next day, when they had not yet found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter 'written' by the doll saying,

Thus began a story which continued until the end of Kafka's life. During their meetings, Kafka read the letters of the doll carefully written with adventures and conversations that the girl found adorable.

Finally, Kafka bought a doll and handed it to the girl, telling her that this doll had returned to Berlin.

said the girl.

Kafka handed her another letter in which the doll wrote:

The little girl hugged the new doll and took her home, happy. A year later Kafka died.

Many years later, the now-adult girl found a letter inside the doll. In the tiny letter, signed by Kafka, it said,

Solar eclipse with diamond ring effect, 29. March 2006

The Greek general Pericles (495-429 BC) led hundred ships into battle in the Peloponnesian War. Charging towards the enemy, a solar eclipse shrouded the sky in darkness and dimmed the daylight. Unaware of the planetary movements behind the event, panic broke out among the soldiers on board.
Pericles walked up to the navigator, held his dark coat around his head, and asked him:

The officer replied to his commander in chief:

Pericles smiled:

Comment: Uninformed ignorant humans tend to create worst-case scenarios resulting in fear. Fear leads to bad decisions. Changing one's perspective and raising courage are the antidotes to crippling fear.

"Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus.
Finally, there was only one other family between us and the ticket counter. This family made a big impression on me.
There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12. The way they were dressed, you could tell they didn't have a lot of money, but their clothes were neat and clean.
The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands. They were excitedly jabbering about the clowns, animals, and all the acts they would be seeing that night. By their excitement you could sense they had never been to the circus before. It would be a highlight of their lives.

Planting bills

The father and mother were at the head of the pack standing proud as could be. The mother was holding her husband's hand, looking up at him as if to say, "You're my knight in shining armor." He was smiling and enjoying seeing his family happy.
The ticket lady asked the man how many tickets he wanted? He proudly responded, "I'd like to buy eight children's tickets and two adult tickets, so I can take my family to the circus." The ticket lady stated the price.
The man's wife let go of his hand, her head dropped, the man's lip began to quiver. Then he leaned a little closer and asked, "How much did you say?" The ticket lady again stated the price.
The man didn't have enough money. How was he supposed to turn and tell his eight kids that he didn't have enough money to take them to the circus?
Seeing what was going on, my dad reached into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill, and then dropped it on the ground. (We were not wealthy in any sense of the word!) My father bent down, picked up the $20 bill, tapped the man on the shoulder and said, "Excuse me, sir, this fell out of your pocket."
The man understood what was going on. He wasn't begging for a handout but certainly appreciated the help in a desperate, heartbreaking and embarrassing situation.
He looked straight into my dad's eyes, took my dad's hand in both of his, squeezed tightly onto the $20 bill, and with his lip quivering and a tear streaming down his cheek, he replied; "Thank you, thank you, sir. This really means a lot to me and my family."
My father and I went back to our car and drove home. The $20 that my dad gave away is what we were going to buy our own tickets with.
Although we didn't get to see the circus that night, we both felt a joy inside us that was far greater than seeing the circus could ever provide.
That day I learnt the value to Give.
The Giver is bigger than the Receiver. If you want to be large, larger than life, learn to Give. Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get – only with what you are expecting to give – which is everything.
The importance of giving, blessing others can never be over emphasized because there's always joy in giving. Learn to make someone happy by acts of giving."

There was once a stone cutter who was dissatisfied with himself and with his position in life.
One day he passed a wealthy merchant's house. Through the open gateway, he saw many fine possessions and important visitors.

thought the stone cutter. He became very envious and wished that he could be like the merchant.
To his great surprise, he suddenly became the merchant, enjoying more luxuries and power than he had ever imagined,
but envied and detested by those less wealthy than himself. Soon a high official passed by, carried in a sedan chair, accom-
panied by attendants and escorted by soldiers beating gongs. Everyone, no matter how wealthy, had to bow low before the
procession.

he thought.

Dirk Pyka, German master stone sculptor

Then he became the high official, carried everywhere in his embroidered sedan chair, feared and hated by the people all around. It was a hot summer day, so the official felt very un-
comfortable in the sticky sedan chair. He looked up at the sun. It shone proudly in the sky, unaffected by his presence.

he thought.

Then he became the sun, shining fiercely down on every-
one, scorching the fields, cursed by the farmers and labo-
rers. But a huge black cloud moved between him and the earth, so that his light could no longer shine on everything below.

he thought.

Then he became the cloud, flooding the fields and villages, shouted at by everyone. But soon he found that he was being pushed away by some great force, and realized that it was the wind.

he thought.

Then he became the wind, blowing tiles off the roofs of houses, uprooting trees, feared and hated by all below him.
But after a while, he ran up against something that would not move, no matter how forcefully he blew against it – a huge,
towering rock.

he thought.

Then he became the rock, more powerful than anything else on earth. But as he stood there, he heard the sound of a hammer pounding a chisel into the hard surface, and felt himself being changed.

he thought.
He looked down and saw far below him the figure of a stone cutter.

A monk decides to meditate alone. Away from his monastery, he takes a boat and goes to the middle of the lake, closes his eyes and begins to meditate.
After a few hours of unperturbed silence, he suddenly feels the blow of another boat hitting his.
With his eyes still closed, he feels his anger rising and, when he opens his eyes, he is ready to shout at the boatman who dared to disturb his meditation.
But when he opened his eyes, he saw that it was an empty boat, not tied up, floating in the middle of the lake.
At that moment, the monk achieves self-realization and under-
stands that anger is within him; it simply needs to hit an external object to provoke it.
After that, whenever he meets someone who irritates or provokes his anger, he remembers:

Helen Keller, 1913

Dr. Frank Mayfield was touring Tewksbury Institute when, on his way out, he accidentally collided with an elderly floor maid. To cover the awkward moment Dr. Mayfield started asking questions.

With that, she took his hand and led him down to the basement under the oldest section of the building. She pointed to one of what looked like small prison cells, their iron bars rusted with age, and said,

Annie was a young girl who was brought in here because she was in-
corrigible – nobody could do anything with her. She'd bite and scream and throw her food at people. The doctors and nurses couldn't even
examine her or anything. I'd see them trying with her spitting and scrat-
ching at them.

After they'd been working with her for about a year – and it was tough sledding with Annie – the Perkins institute for the Blind opened its doors. They were able to help her and she went on to study and she became a teacher herself.
Annie came back to the Tewksbury Institute to visit, and to see what she could do to help out. At first, the Director didn't say anything and then he thought about a letter he'd just received. A man had written to him about his daughter. She was abso-
lutely unruly – almost like an animal. She was blind and deaf as well as 'deranged.'
He was at his wit's end, but he didn't want to put her in an asylum. So he wrote the Institute to ask if they knew of anyone who would come to his house and work with his daughter.
And that is how Anne Sullivan (1866-1936) became the lifelong companion of Helen Keller (1880-1968).
When Helen Keller received the Nobel Prize, she was asked who had the greatest impact on her life and she said,

But Annie said,