Sunday, May 6, 2007

Problems: What are they?

There was a man with lots of problems. He didn't get along with his wife or his kids. He had health challenges. He didn't like his job. His employer didn't like him. He felt like everything in his existence was a mess.

So he decided to go to a famous Rabbi, a holy man who had deep spiritual insight, and to ask the Rabbi why he had all these problems, and how he could get rid of them.

When he got to the Rabbi's house the Rabbi was with someone else and the Rabbi's wife showed the man to the parlor and asked him to wait. There was a comfortable chair in the parlor and a warm fire (it was winter), and the man sat down in the chair and soon fell asleep.

And he had a dream: In the dream he saw a host of beautiful angels marching past him in a solemn procession. Thy were glowing with light and he was mesmerized by their glory. He saw they were proceeding into a dark wood.

And after them he saw a host of dark demons marching, ugly, nasty-looking creatures. There was a lot of them, and they were following the angels into the dark wood.

This all made him very curious so he followed the demons and angels deep into the wood until they came to a great circular open area in the midst of which was a gigantic balance scale.

All the angels climbed into the right-hand pan of the balance scale until the pan was near full and touching the ground. Then the demons began to climb into the left-hand pan. As they were doing so the man began recognizing the demons. Each one of them had been given birth to by a negative deed which the man had committed in his past. If he looked at any single demon he could even begin to remember which negative deed it was.

Turning to the angels he realized that he had given birth to them also through his positive deeds. As he watched the demons crawl into their pan he saw the pan growing heavier and heavier, and as they weighed the angels down, their pan began to rise into the air. "Oh no!" thought the man "I am witnessing my own judgement!"

But then a most wondrous thing happened. A motly host of beings burst through the trees into the open circle. They were dressed very colorfully in a variety of clothes. They ran over to the pan which was loading up with demons and began pulling them off one by one. "Who are these strange people?" thought the man. And as he looked at them he realized that these beings were his problems. There was his hernia, all dressed in red. And that one there who was all in tatters were his bills he couldn't pay. And that one there was obviously the embodiment of his problems with his wife. And that dark one there was his depression. And he realized that all of his problems, every one of them were actually his allies, were helping him to clear negativity, were neutralizing his bad karma.

And just then the Rabbi's wife came in and woke him and said, "The Rabbi can see you now."

"Oh," said the man, "Uh, well, that's O.K. I think I found the answer to my question. I know the Rabbi's time is valuable, so I think I'll be on my way. But thanks anyway."

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