THE PARABLE OF THE RAT AND THE HORSE

Fish and bird can love each other,

But where will they live?

Chinese Wisdom

They say that life is a range of challenges. By passing through them, one evolves and develops. I think that is true. I believe that challenges are not always necessarily terribly complicated or tragically unexpected. When I say "a challenge", I mean any kind of life situation. It can even be a joyful moment.

Yet, the question that has been haunting me for many years, is not about that. Which of the life challenges can be considered the most difficult for a human being? Death? Disease? Unexpected heritage? Betrayal of relatives? A sudden descend from the career ladder? Ungrateful children? I do not think so. I see all these challenges as transiting, temporary. All of them can be overcome or healed by time.

Although there are some challenges in life that are insurmountable and impassable. The human body form itself can be considered such a challenge. All of us are all given one form: two hands, two legs, a head and other parts of the body. Plus, the fact that vision is our core instrument of exploring the world is undeniable. Two of these facts together give a steady and irresistible life obstacle: the illusion of the similarity of human beings. When we meet a person, we immediately assume, looking at his form, that we can have any lasting successful relations with him. Might them be colleagues, friends or relatives, we do not suppose, just from looking at them as at the beings with the same form that we cannot have any kind of relationship with the ones who are similar to us in their form. In order to really understand whether we can be friends, work or live together with this or that person, we need to experience a relationship with them, go through several phases in these relationships, and only then enjoy the hit or suffer from another mistake.

Why does it work in such a way? With all his love, the creator gave us this insurmountable obstacle in learning about the world. His message was wise: learn to see with your heart, do not fall into the trap of illusions. This is such a great gift that people have got. Animals were not given such a gift. Therefore, animals have many forms, similarities, and differences which automatically handles the issue of relationships.

To make it more clear, I will provide an example, which I call the parable of the rat and the horse. Imagine a beautiful street in a big city. The weather is pleasant. It might be a mild summer evening. Everything around brings joy to the eyes and heart. But these are animals who live in this city, not people. On the sidewalk, there is a stately white horse who stands at the window of a luxury shop. She is sleek, young, with a blonde straw. Probably she is waiting for someone. Suddenly, a Ferrari slowly passes by the horse. The horse, having barely looked at the car, immediately loses interest in it. The driver behind wheel did not even look towards the beautiful horse. What's wrong? A small gray rat sits behind the wheel! Of course, the horse likes Ferrari, but it never occurs to her to go out with a rat for a dinner or to expect the development of any relationship! A horse and a rat eats different types of food, lives in different houses. And they have different interests.

In such a way the creator shielded all the animals on earth from the challenge by the illusion of form. Just think about it: how diverse the animal world is! And there are no mistakes in the relationship: lions stick to lions, fish deal business with fish, birds rest with birds.

And what about us? We all have forms: two hands, two legs, a head. We are facing this challenge during our whole lifetime. And all our life we try to overcome it by trying and making mistakes. This eternal life challenge is aimed to lead us to the point where we find the wisdom of creation. It teaches us to see the world not with our eyes but rather with our heart! Is it so difficult? How many years of life do we spend on the path of movement through illusion by trying and making mistakes? Many of us can spend the whole life on this path and still the results are invisible.