|
| |
ELDER
PAISIOS OF THE HOLY MOUNTAIN
Published
1998 (a quote from page 45)
The
Elder started telling us:
I know from experience
that in this life people are divided into two categories. A third category does
not exist; people either belong to one or the other. The first one resembles the
fly. The main characteristic of the fly is that it is attracted by dirt. For
example, when a fly is found in a garden full of flowers with beautiful
fragrances, it will ignore them and will go sit on top of some dirt on the
ground. It will start messing around with it, and feel comfortable with the bad
smell. If the fly could talk, and you asked it to show you a rose in the garden,
it would answer: “I don’t even know what a rose looks like. I only know where to
find garbage, toilets, and dirt.” There are some people who resemble the fly.
People belonging to this category have learned to think negatively, and always
look for the bad things in life, ignoring and refusing the presence of good.
The other category is like the bee whose main characteristic is that it
always looks for something sweet and nice to sit on. When a bee is found in a
room full of dirt and there is a small piece of sweet in the corner, it will
ignore the dirt and will go to sit on top of the sweet. Now, if we ask the bee
to show us where the garbage is, it will answer: “I don’t know. I can only tell
you where to find flowers, sweets, honey and sugar.” It only knows the good
things in life and is ignorant of all evil. This is the second category of
people who have a positive thinking, and see only the good side of things. They
always try to cover up the evil in order to protect their fellow men; on the
contrary, people in the first category try to expose the evil and bring it to
the surface.
When someone comes to me, starts to accuse other people, and puts me in a
difficult situation, I tell him the above example. Then, I ask him to decide
which category he wishes to belong, so he that he may find people of the same
kind to socialize with.
|
