The Beggars Bowl

Is this the lesson you needed today?

In a magnificent land with mountains and oceans and beaches and rivers and seas, and animals and wildlife in just abundance, there was this extraordinary empress who reigned over it all. 

She had created amazing systems of production and vast abundance for herself and her people. 

The land was productive, people were productive, there was affluence and enough all around. 

One sunny day, leaving her magnificent estate with her entourage, she noticed how deeply magnanimous and grateful she felt for the world she had created and just how much she had. 

As she passed through the gates of her walled enclave she noticed a beggar on the side of the road. The beggar was holding a bowl. It looked really beautiful. Something about it drew her towards it. 

Feeling alive and full of life's wonder she approached the beggar and said, "What is it that your heart desires? Tell me what you need. Tell me what you want and I'll give it to you." 

The beggar looked up and met the Empress’ eyes. "All I want is my bowl to be filled." 

"Well, of course, I can give you whatever you desire. I'm the Empress, look around at everything I've created." 

The beggar answered "Be careful. Be careful what you promise." 

Taken aback the Enpress replied "Of course I can fill that bowl." 

"Thank you, that is all I want. My greatest desire is for this bowl to be filled with whatever you have. My want is for my desire to satiated”

With a sweep of her hand the Empress instructed her handmaid who held her bag of coins to fill up the man's bowl. 

So she did. She opened up the bag of coins and started pouring gold and silver coins into this bowl. The most extraordinary thing happened, the coins just flowed right through.

They didn’t fall out the bottom, they just disappeared. As they hit the bowl, the coins disappeared and the bowl just stayed empty. 

“Pour faster. Come on, fill up this bowl of desire” She instructed.

Her entourage did as instructed and opening the second bag of coins they poured its contents into the bowl even faster than the first. 

Before long, all the coins they had on them were gone. 

A little flustered and noticing some anxiety rising, the Empress instructed her entourage to go back to her palace. 

"Go and open the coffers, instruct my Minister of Finance to open up the reserves. Bring out all the money we have stored there." 

Out came more bags of gold and silver, precious metals and gems – and they poured these into the outstretched bowl. 

Nothing stayed. It all disappeared as soon as it hit the bowl.

She started getting frantic. 

 "I have everything, I've created all this, there is nothing I can’t do. Of course I can fill your bowl. What else is life about if it isn’t about fulfilling all desire?" 

They poured more and more and more into the bowl.

People gathered around - concerned at what was going on. 

They could see how flustered their EMpress was. How this need to satiate the desire was starting to consume not only all the resources of the land but all her attention and lifeforce.

Losing herself in this quest, the ripple of stress and anxiety flowed out. Surely this bowl could be fulfilled.

Now it became a matter of honour. having poured so much in she could not dare stop.

Soon the coffers were empty.

Her troops were sent far and wide across her empire. Gathering funds and resources that were allocated to other things.  Crops in storage for the winter to come were gathered and stores for defence and protection were annexed.

All of this poured into the bowl.

The beggar stood quietly holding out the empty bowl and said nothing.

No matter what went in or how fast it was poured, it stayed empty. 

Eventually, the land was depleted, the crops were devastated, everything was dead and dried up. Seeds needed to plant new crops were gone. The coins to pay the armies for protection were gone. Everything had been taken from this once abundant land. 

People were now hungry and starving. Everything had been destroyed trying to fill this bowl of desire. 

Stripped of everything, feeling desperate, not knowing what had happened, the Empress fell to her knees, finally defeated and depleted.

"There's nothing I can do, there's nothing more I can have, yet this bowl stays empty. Please just tell me one thing. What is it about this bowl? Why could we not fill it?" 

The beggar looked up at her and lovingly looked her in the eye.

"You don't recognise me. I was your spiritual teacher in your past life. You ask me to come back into this life to remind you of this most important of life lessons. The lesson you were afraid you would forget - because most people do.”

The lesson is…

…The point of life is not to fulfil every desire. Desire is infinite. It is eternal. It is life itself. There's always going to be something else to desire and want. That is the gift of creation. It is unlimited. 

But, if you believe that the aim of your life is to fulfil every desire, to have every experience you could have, to do everything that crosses your mind, to possess everything you see… you're going to constantly be pouring your life force into a bowl that can never be filled. 

This is the bowl of all human desire. 

It is extraordinary, it stretches us, it teaches us how to create, how to be innovative, how to explore and do wondrous things. 

But if you become a slave to desire, if you get hooked by the illusion that your life is only worthy when you are meeting all your desires, you'll be depleted. 

You'll destroy everything you have and everything around you. 

That is the lesson you asked me to teach you, and that is why I am here."