" The more we
focus on a particular, the more it loses
its meaning; the
answers lie in
the totality of things. "
A young man, on the edge of a valley on which stood a humble monastery,
shattered the silence
by approaching a monk.
As if challenging the
elder's wisdom with
something unanswerable, boldly asked the
most profound of questions: "What is
the meaning of life?"
The elderly man, continuing
to gaze absorbedly
at the cliff, replied: "Try contemplating the valley; boy, beauty
lies in the totality of things.
When you concentrate
on a single detail, on a single question for
example, in the same way as when you eccessively
enlarge on a picture, you can
no longer recognise
the subject of the image because
it has been reduced to a shapeless coloured blur and what you are left to see has lost its meaning.
When you lose yourself
in single details,
like the question
you asked, contemplate
the "whole" with the knowledge that
everything you seek
is showing itself
to you in all its magnificence.
At that moment you are admiring
the totality of answers to all your questions."
Thus the young man's glance, until
that moment focused
on the elder's mouth believing that
the answer lay in his words, ceased to focus on those fleshy lips and silently, as the
monk, turned his attention toward the
valley.
