The Ordinary And The Ultimate

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A great emperor once asked his wise men for a mantra that will be suitable for all dangers that he would have to encounter in his life.

The wise men were puzzled and as they could not come up with one, they approached a Sufi mystic for help. The mystic handed them a piece of paper and asked them to hand it over to the king. He warned them not to open it and also advised that the king should also not open it unless he felt that the particular danger or a fatal situation was the ultimate.

The king was very pleased with the solution and put the piece of paper under the diamond of his ring. The king came across many dangers and difficult situations in his life but did to open the piece of paper as he thought that the particular danger was not the ultimate. The king followed this on his death bed too and when his wise men advised him to open the paper, he declined to do so saying that the promise had to be kept.

The king said that when every fatal situation that he confronted, he always believed that it was not the ultimate and more intense danger was possible. This way he did not identify himself with any danger and hence did not feel the difficulty. And now he cared not to open the paper as the mantra had worked fine on him in all situations and also that it was not the ultimate danger.

When the king died, his wise men lost no time to open the paper. It was just an empty, unwritten paper.

Osho says that the pinch of a problem in life is felt only when one identifies with it. An ordinary event can become the ultimate when identified with it and the ultimate can become ordinary by not identifying with it!