Stories-For-Parents-Children-and-Grandparents-Volume-2

Seeing yourself 'When you look at your companions, try to see yourself,' said the Japanese teacher Okakura Kakuso. 'But isn't that an awfully selfish attitude?' asked a disciple. 'If we are always concerned about ourselves, we will never see the good things that others have to offer.' 'If only we did always see the good things in others,' replied Kakuso. 'But the truth is that when we look at another person, we are only looking for defects. We try to discover his wicked side because we want him to be worse than us. We never forgive him when he hurts us because we do not believe that we would ever be forgiven. We manage to wound him with harsh words, declaring that we are telling the truth, when all we are doing is trying to hide it from ourselves. We pretend that we are 200

important so that no one else will see how fragile we are. That is why whenever you judge your brother, be aware that you are the one who is on trial.' 201

In a bar in Buenos Aires I am with the Venezuelan writer Dulce Rojas, drinking coffee in Buenos Aires; we are discussing the idea of peace and how removed it has become from the human heart. Dulce then tells me the following story. A king offered a large prize to the artist who could best represent the idea of peace. A lot of painters sent their works to the palace, depicting woods at dusk, quiet rivers, children playing on the sand, rainbows in the sky, drops of dew on a rose petal. The king examined everything that was sent to him, but ended up choosing only two works. The first showed a tranquil lake that perfectly mirrored the imposing mountains surrounding it and the blue sky above. The sky was dotted with small white clouds and, if you looked closely, in the left-hand corner of the 202

lake there stood a small house with one window open and smoke rising from the chimney - the sign that a frugal but tasty supper was being prepared. The second painting was also of mountains, but these were bleak and stony with sharp, sheer peaks. Above the mountains, the sky was implacably dark, and from the heavy clouds fell lightning, hail and torrential rain. The painting was totally out of harmony with the other submissions. However, a closer look revealed a bird's nest lodged in a crack in one of those inhospitable rocks. In the midst of the violent roaring of the storm, a swallow was calmly sitting on its nest. When he gathered his court together, the king chose the second picture as the one that best expressed the idea of peace. He explained: 'Peace is not what we find in a place that is free of noise, problems and hard work; peace is what allows us to preserve the calm in our hearts, even in the most adverse situations. That is its true and only meaning.' 203

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