A story that still has an impact on me

As co-carrier of an international biography workers’ conference some years ago, I was asked to find a way to open the conference. I had just acquired a wonderful book called Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart, and in it I found a story that touched me, and I learned it and told it at the start of the conference. Under the name of the author it just said Chassid.

The story is about a monastery on the edge of a woods. The numbers of monks were dwindling, as young people didn’t seem to be interested in the monastic life. The abbot was very worried about this, as this would mean that the monastery would have to close.
In the woods was a hut where a rabbi came for a retreat once a year. When the rumour reached the abbot that the rabbi was now in residence in the woods, he went to see him and seek his advice. The rabbi listened to the abbot’s tale of woe and replied that he too had noticed this tendency in his faith. He said he was sorry that he didn’t have any advice for his old friend the abbot, but in parting said: “Remember that the messiah is one of you”.
When the abbot imparted this cryptic message to the monks it set off a wonder and lots of thinking. Each monk thought of his fellow monks, wondering which one of them was the messiah. The good and bad qualities of each one were assessed by each one, and the awesome and awful thought also popped up that maybe, what if... no... could it be? What if the messiah were me?

As a result, each monk began treating the others with extraordinary respect, and in case they themselves were the messiah, they started treating themselves with extraordinary respect. Summer came, people came to the woods for picnics, people visited the monastery, and one and all noticed a very special glow over the place. There was a feeling there that seemed very attractive to the soul. So young men came to enquire further, and little by little more became monks and the monastery thrived.

Again and again in my life I have seen where my own failures in the social realm and others’ failures in the social realm stem from a lack of this extraordinary respect. In times of distress and fear as we are experiencing now, respect and love would be the highest vibration, the most exalted path to take. Caring for one another and helping selflessly in case the other were the messiah!

all the best,

Sigrun Hardardottir

sigrunhardar@get2net.dk
www.victoria-ledelse.com