A beggar was sitting at the edge of a road for more than thirty years. One day, a stranger passed by him.
‘Do you have any spare change?’ the beggar mumbled.
‘I have nothing to give you’, the stranger said. Then, he asked: ‘What is that box you’re sitting on?’
‘Nothing’, the beggar answered. ‘It’s just an old box. I’ve been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.’
‘Didn’t you ever have a look inside?’ the stranger asked. ‘No,’ the beggar said. ‘…what’s the point? There is nothing in there.’
‘Have a look inside,’ the stranger insisted.
The beggar finally managed to open the lid. In surprise, disbelief, but also with joy, he saw that the box was filled with gold.
I’m the stranger who has nothing to give you and the one who tells you to look in the box. Not in every box, just like the parable, but somewhere even closer: within you.
‘Yes, but I’m not a beggar,’ I hear you say.
The people who haven’t discovered their real inner wealth, which is the glow that joy brings and the deep unwavering peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they possess material wealth.
They search the outside world for leftovers of pleasure or fulfillment, for approval, safety, or love, while they have an inner treasure which not only includes all these things, but it’s also immensely larger than anything else in the world.
Eckhart Tolle
