Read them before it’s too late

I recently read this story of an old man. When he has young, he prayed to God asking for the power to change the world. He wanted to change the world for the better, wanted to make a positive difference in the world, and wanted to be remembered as one those remarkable persons in the history of mankind. He prayed everyday for that power to change the world.

As he started to grow old and became a middle aged adult, he realized that he couldn’t change the world. That was too big of an ask, and he was too small to make such a difference. He thought that he should limit his efforts and try to change only those people that are really close to him and matter. So now he changed his prayers and started to ask for the power to change only a few people- family and friends that he loved and wanted to see happier, healthier, richer, etc.

As time kicked in, he grew older. Now at his old age, he realized that he couldn’t change anyone no matter how much he tried. Finally, he gave up on changing others, and realized that all he can change is himself. He changed his prayers and started asking for the power to change himself. I can change only myself, he finally realized. But he was sad because he didn’t have much time left. He regretted not praying since his young age to simply change himself and not others, not the world.

The story ends here. And the readers are led to believe that the take-home moral of the story is to try to change oneself from the very beginning. That’s wisdom- you can’t change anyone or anything else, but yourself.

But I’d take it one step further.

The old man became wise with time, but he wasn’t aware. He wasn’t enlightened.

True wisdom, real awareness is realizing that nothing is wrong, nothing needs changing, nothing needs to be fixed. The world doesn’t need fixing, people don’t need fixing, you don’t need fixing. Everything and everybody is just perfect, as is. Do you ever think that the axis of Jupiter is a little tilted and you want to correct it by 0.05 degrees more? Similarly, true awareness is to realize that nothing else needs fixing either- that includes yourself too. You are what you are, perfect.