"The Sages of Sivana were not only the most youthful people I
have ever met," observed Julian, "they were also, without a doubt,
the kindest."
"Yogi Raman told me that when he was a child, as he waited
for sleep, his father would step softly into his rose-covered hut and
ask him what good deeds he had performed through the course of
that day. Believe it or not, if he said that he hadn't done any, his
father would request that he get up and perform some act of
kindness and selfless service before he was permitted to go to
sleep."
Julian went on. "One of the most essential of all of the virtues
for enlightened living that I can share with you, John, is this one:when all is said and done, no matter what you have achieved, no
matter how many summer homes you own, no matter how many
cars sit in your driveway, the quality of your life will come down to
the quality of your contribution."
"Does this have something to do with the fresh yellow roses in
Yogi Raman's fable?"
"Of course it does. The flowers will remind you of the ancient
Chinese proverb, "a little bit of fragrance always clings to the hand
that gives you roses." The meaning is clear — when you work to
improve the lives of others, you indirectly elevate your own life in
the process. When you take care to practice random acts of
kindness daily, your own life becomes far richer and more
meaningful. To cultivate the sacredness and sanctity of each day,
serve others in some way."
"Are you suggesting that I get involved in some volunteer
work?"
"That's an excellent starting point. But what I'm speaking of is
much more philosophical than that. I'm suggesting that you adopt
a new paradigm of your role on this planet."
"You're losing me again. Shed some light on the term
paradigm. I'm not really familiar with it."
"A paradigm is simply a way of looking at a circumstance or at
life in general. Some people see the glass of life as half empty. The
optimists see it as half full. They interpret the same circumstance
differently because they have adopted a different paradigm. A
paradigm is basically the lens through which you see the events of
your life, both external and internal."
"So when you suggest that I adopt a new paradigm of my
purpose, are you saying that I should change my outlook?"
"Sort of. To dramatically improve the quality of your life, youmust cultivate a new perspective of why you are here on Earth.
You must realize that, just as you entered the world with nothing,
you are destined to leave with nothing. This being the case, there
can be only one real reason for your being here."
"And that would be?"
"To give yourself to others and to contribute in a meaningful
way," Julian replied. "I'm not saying that you can't have your toys
or that you must give up your law practice and devote your life to
the disadvantaged, although I have recently met people who have
taken this course of action with great satisfaction. Our world is in
the midst of great change. People are trading in money for
meaning. Lawyers who used to judge people by the size of their
pocketbooks are now judging people by the size of their
commitment to others, by the size of their hearts. Teachers are
leaving the wombs of their secure jobs to nurture the intellectual
growth of needy kids living in the combat zones we call inner cities.
People have heard the clear call for change. People are realizing
that they are here for a purpose and that they have been given
special gifts that will aid them to realize it."
"What kind of special gifts?"
"Exactly the ones I have been telling you about all evening: an
abundance of mental ability, boundless energy, unlimited
creativity, a storehouse of discipline and a wellspring of
peacefulness. It is simply a matter of unlocking these treasures
and applying them for some common good," noted Julian.
"I'm still with you. So how can one go about doing good?"
"I'm simply saying that you should make it a priority to
change your world view so that you stop seeing yourself purely as
an individual and start seeing yourself as part of the collective."
"So I should become kinder and gentler?""Realize that the most noble thing you can do is to give to
others. The sages of the East call it the process of 'shedding the
shackles of self.' It is all about losing your self-consciousness and
starting to focus on a higher purpose. This might be in the form of
giving more to those around you, whether this means your time or
your energy: these truly are your two most valuable resources. It
could be something as major as taking a one-year sabbatical to
work with the poor or something as minor as letting a few cars
pass in front of you in the middle of a crushing traffic jam. It might
sound corny, but if there is one thing that I have learned it is that
your life moves to a more magical dimension when you start
striving to make the world a better place. Yogi Raman said that
when we are born, we are crying while the world rejoices. He
suggested that we should live our lives in such a way that when we
die, the world cries while we are rejoicing."
I knew Julian had a point. One of the things that was starting
to bother me about practicing law was that I didn't really feel I was
making the sort of contribution I knew I was capable of making.
Sure I had the privilege of litigating a number of precedent-setting
cases that had advanced a number of good causes. But law had
become a business for me rather than a labor of love. I was an
idealist in law school like so many of my contemporaries. Over cold
coffee and stale pizza in our dorm rooms, we had planned to
change the world. Almost twenty years have passed since then,
and my burning desire to advocate change has given way to my
burning desire to pay off my mortgage and build up my retirement
fund. I realized, for the first time in a long while, that I had
ensconced myself in a middle-class cocoon, one that sheltered me
from society at large and one I had grown accustomed to.
"Let me share an old story with you that might really hithome." Julian continued. "There was once a feeble old woman
whose loving husband died. So she went to live with her son and
his wife and daughter. Every day, the woman's sight grew worse
and her hearing grew worse. Some days her hands trembled so
badly the peas on her plate rolled onto the floor and the soup ran
from her cup. Her son and his wife couldn't help but be annoyed at
the mess she made and one day they said enough was enough. So
they set up a little table for the old woman in a corner next to the
broom closet and made her eat all of her meals there, alone. She
would look at them at mealtimes with tear-filled eyes from across
the room, but they hardly talked to her while they ate, except to
scold her for dropping a spoon or a fork.
"One evening, just before dinner, the little girl was sitting on
the floor playing with her building blocks. 'What are you making?'
her father asked earnestly. 'I'm building a little table for you and
mother,' she said, 'so you can eat by yourselves in the corner
someday when I get big.' The father and mother were moved to
silence for what seemed like an eternity. Then they started to
weep. In that instant they became aware of the nature of their
actions and the sadness they had caused. That night they led the
old woman back to her rightful place at their big dinner table and
from that day on she ate all her meals with them. And when a little
morsel of food fell off the table or a fork strayed onto the floor,
nobody seemed to mind anymore.
"In this story, the parents were not bad people," Julian said.
"They simply needed the spark of awareness to light their candle
of compassion. Compassion and daily acts of kindness make life far
richer. Take the time to meditate every morning on the good you
will do for others during your day. The sincere words of praise to
those who least expect it, the gestures of warmth offered tofriends in need, the small tokens of affection to members of your
family for no reason at all, all add up to a much more wonderful
way to live. And speaking of friendships, make sure you keep them
in constant repair. A person with three solid friends is very
wealthy indeed."
I nodded.
"Friends add humor, fascination and beauty to life. There are
few things more rejuvenating than sharing a belly-bursting laugh
with an old friend. Friends keep you humble when you get too self-
righteous. Friends make you smile when you are taking yourself
too seriously. Good friends are there to help you when life throws
one of its little curves at you and things look worse than they seem.
When I was a busy litigator, I had no time for friends. Now I am
alone, except for you, John. I have no one to take long walks in the
woods with when everyone else is nestled into the cocoon of a soft,
hazy slumber. When I have just put down a wonderful book that
has moved me deeply, I have no one to share my thoughts with.
And I have no one to open my soul to when the sunshine of a
glorious autumn day warms my heart and fills me with joy."
Julian quickly caught himself. "However, regret is not an
activity for which I have any time. I have learned from my
teachers in Sivana that, 'Every dawn is a new day to the one who
is enlightened.'"
I had always viewed Julian as a sort of super-human legal
gladiator, crunching through the arguments of his opponents as a
martial artist does through a stack of heavily reinforced boards. I
could see that the man I had met many years ago had been
transformed into one of a very different nature. The one in front of
me was gentle, kind and peaceful. He seemed secure in who he was
and in his role in the theatre of life. Like no other person I had ever met, he seemed to see the pain of his past as a wise, old teacher
and yet at the same time, he served notice that his life was far
more than the sum of events gone by.
Julian's eyes glittered in the hope of things yet to come. I was
enveloped by his sense of delight for the wonders of this world and
caught up in his unbridled joy for living. It appeared to me that
Julian Mantle, hard-hitting, bone-crunching litigation counsel to
the well-heeled, had indeed been elevated from a human being
passing through life without a care for anyone, to a spiritual being
passing through life caring only about others. Perhaps this was the
path that I too was about to walk.