Loftiness

A young man trekked up a high mountain to meet a hermit sage. A simple thatched hut beside a small stone cave, a few meagre belongings, showed that this sage lived an extremely simple life. Only very noble souls could live like this. The young man joined his palms in greeting, then knelt and bowed to the sage. The sage smiled and asked:

• What have you toiled up here for?
  The young man replied:
• Master, I have come up here to ask to become a saint.
  The sage nodded:
• Are you dissatisfied with your present condition?
• Yes, Master. I want to become something lofty. I thought you must be very lofty, to live up in the mountains alone so simply.
• Being a saint is not rejecting your condition as an ordinary person, but facing that condition, embracing it, perfecting it, and transforming it.
• What you say sounds good, but I don't understand. Then why did you leave the world to live up here alone? You have cast off ordinary life too, haven't you?
• Who says I have cast off life in the world? Whoever abandons the world will never find heaven. A tree grows tall because its roots grow deep. I become lofty naturally because I love all beings. A tree never grows tall if it does not take root in the ground. I would never become a saint if I did not hold all beings in my heart.
  I live up here because I need time to test my mind in solitude. A person faces two testing situations: one is being alone, tormented by loneliness; the other is being with many people, with friction and disputes, clinging to likes and dislikes. A practitioner needs to be tested in both situations: when living with many people, to be harmonious, selfless and unattached; when living alone, to be serene and at ease.
  The young man was silent, then asked:
• Please give me your advice, Master.
  The sage replied:
• If you want to become a saint, you must first help many other people become saints.
• How can I help them become saints when they don't want to be saints?
• Then persuade them to be willing to become saints.
• How shall I persuade them?
• Look back at your own mind: from where does your wish to become a saint come? Take that and speak with everyone about it.
• Yes, I understand. But once they are willing to become saints, what should I tell them next?
• Tell them to clear away their own faults. Don't look for sainthood in some other corner of the earth; look for it in yourself, once all faults are gone. A saint is simply an ordinary person who has no more faults.
• Master, I don't have the strength to recognise my own faults. I need someone with enough wisdom, enough love for me, and enough patience to teach me, and only then can I see my faults in order to remove and correct them.
• You talk on and on. Very well, stay here with me for a while.
  The young man was delighted and knelt to bow to the sage. 🏔️

Happiness is when suffering is no longer there; it is not something apart from suffering. Saintliness is the state in which mistakes are gone; it is not something apart from mistakes. Loftiness is what stands firm on a true foundation; it is not a position floating alone up high.

In addition, whatever we want to seek for ourselves, we should first help everyone else find for themselves. If you want to get rich, help everyone become well-off. If you want to be healthy, help everyone be free of illness. If you want to succeed, help everyone avoid failure.

If we want to find a loftiness beyond the ordinary, let us open our hearts in love for all beings. And we must also find someone truly lofty before whom we can bow our heads in reverence.