Two Donkeys

This is a story told as is below by Prem Rawat when he was about 13 yrs old and he was just learning English, so it may read a bit simplistic at times. He still tells this from time to time. I really like it. Hope you enjoy:

"There were two donkeys. And one was carrying salt, and one was carrying cotton. And obviously, the one who was carrying salt didn't have seemingly that big of a load on his back. It just had two very little bags of salt. And the one who was carrying the cotton had a huge load, seemingly. Because it was very light, the guy made it a big load, with a lot of cotton. And they both came to a stream. And they were both getting really tired.

And the "cotton" donkey says to the donkey who's carrying the salt, "Man, this guy is really mean to me, because, look, he has given you - and I envy you because you are not carrying as big of a load as I am!"

The donkey said, "No, that's not true, you know. Your load looks big, but actually I'm carrying a lot more load."

And he said, "No, I don't believe you. I envy you. I'm jealous of you." They were tired, the donkey who was carrying the salt was little smart . He sat down in the water, in the stream, and just the flow of the water dissolved the salt, and his load became light. And all of a sudden, the donkey got up, and he was really happy because the weight was gone off his back.

So this other donkey said. "Wow Look at that! That's great! All I have to do is just sit down in the water, and my weight will get less and then I can go." And so the donkey did sit down in the water. And slowly the cotton stared getting wet and heavier unti1 the donkey couldn't even get up and drowned in the river.

So now, here is an example. And it's not that funny. But it's a true example. That's what we do in our river. We see some odd happiness - happiness maybe that's not even real. And we pursue it. We start pursuing it. We start getting into it more and more and more.

And then we say, "Well, if I do the same thing, my weight will decrease. My weight will get less, and then I don't have to carry so much in my life." And so we sink in the river of illusion more and more and more and more... till we can't even get out, till we can't even get up, until we completely drown."

(Prem continued) To me, that's the way a lot of people are. I mean, really, for one moment just look at it. What is the purpose of your life? Why is there a life?

And you can't really get rid of that illusion. And yet, here you. There is this machine; here you are. And here is this big machine: illusion, a mirage. And here is the reality. And reality is real; it has no shape, has no weight, has no mass. And therefore, it need not exist in any shape. Because it' s real. Reality doesn't have to prove itself. It doesn't have to do anything! It's there. It's perfect. It's infinite."