PARABEL OF THE PROSPECTOR


A man emigrated and arrived at some new land.  As he looked around this new
place, he heard of all the wealth, .. the GOLD found in the interior.
Although he
knew nothing about geology and mineralogy he trusted his luck and he bought
all what was needed to prospect for gold .

Off he set into the wilderness of the land to look for gold. The summers and
winters came and went for many of years, yet he found nothing. He searched
hard, did not allow himself time to relax, searched single track minded for
his dream of wealth.

Sometimes he would notice little pebbles of different colours sparkling in
the
Sunshine, lying on the ground. He took no notice of them, they were not the
gold he seeked. On rare occasions he would pick one up, simply because he
liked their looks, put them in his pocket and forgot about them.

After many years of fruitless search for his dream of wealth he came to a
place.
There in a cliff of the mountainside was a vein of the yellow metal. He
staked his
claim, then set about to digging out his precious find. He worked hard to
remove his
treasure from the earth, took as much as he could carry and set off back to
where
he had started from many years ago.
The load he was carrying on his back became  heavier and heavier as he went
along. Eventually he thought, why carry all this weight, besides robbers
might come and take it all, or a thief might steal it while I am sleeping,
so I can bury it here somewhere, just take what I can carry easily, just
enough to allow me to buy the means of transport, come back and get what I
have left.

After he arrived back at the place where he set out from, he went to where
he could
exchange his gold for money. The clerk analysed the metal and told him it
was of no value at all. It was not gold but just an alloy of copper and
nickel and the separation
of the two metals cost more then their worth because it was of such poor
quality.

The man broke out in tears. Put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a
handkerchief, to dry up his tears. As he did so, some of the shiny pebbles
he had forgotten about fell
on the floor. When the clerk in this office saw those stones he asked the
prospector
to let him have a look at those stones. He then told the man that those
pebbles were
a 1000 times more valuable then a gold nugget of the same size. They were
gems,
diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires of the purest and finest quality.
In ignorance he left the real wealth to be gathered behind, chasing a false
dream.

He was like most people living on earth., chasing the dream, the illusion,
that belongs to the earth and must remain there, cannot be taken away from
it, and doing so
do not gather the real wealth, those gems of purest, finest quality life has
to offer.

The selfless loving thoughts, deeds and compassion, for all that lives. 

Thankyou RedEagle for sharing this Story