In a small village in Mexico lies an enormous outdated clock hanging on the wall of a big church. Beside this church is a small plaza.
At some point, an American vacationer visited this plaza. He forgot his watch, and he didn’t see the massive clock on the church wall. This was additionally within the twentieth century earlier than cellphones had been commonplace, so he had no thought what the time was.
He noticed a Mexican man with an enormous sombrero hat and a curved mustache mendacity on the bottom sleeping. Beside him was a donkey.
He then went as much as this man and mentioned, “Excuse me sir, have you learnt what time it’s?”
The Mexican man sat up, rubbed his eyes, raised the tail of the donkey, squinted, after which instructed the American, “It’s 2PM proper now.”
The American thought the Mexican was enjoying a joke on him, so he took out his radio, which reviews the time. Positive sufficient, the radio mentioned it’s 2PM.
The American vacationer then shopped across the plaza for some time. Later, he got here again and requested the Mexican man once more, “Excuse me sir, have you learnt what time it’s now?”
The sleepy-eyed Mexican sat up once more, raised the donkey’s tail up, squinted, after which mentioned, “It’s 4PM now.”
The American checked with the radio once more, and certainly it was 4PM. The American was astonished by this donkey who might inform time, so he determined to purchase the donkey off the Mexican man.
He then respectfully requested, “Sir, please inform me, how do you discover out the time from this donkey?”
The Mexican man smiled and mentioned, “Easy. I sit up, raise the donkey’s tail, and thru the hole between the donkey’s tail and butt, I can see the massive clock hanging on the church over there. Then I’ll know the time.”
Ethical of the story: If we solely take a look at the floor of issues and miss the deeper essence, then we might find yourself making a laughing inventory out of ourselves.
(Story supply: Harvard Household Schooling)
Commentary
Though we’d assume the person within the story is a bit dumb, we shouldn’t be so assured that we’d not make the identical mistake of solely seeing the floor of issues. Having the ability to see the deeper essence and the foundation of issues isn’t all the time that simple.
The Analects of Confucius says,
“Exemplary individuals attend to the foundation of issues.”
To turn out to be an exemplary individual requires studying and cultivation. In different phrases, it’s widespread and regular for most individuals to solely see the floor of issues.
To present an analogy, if somebody is chubby, that may be a floor stage symptom. What’s the root trigger? It’s in all probability associated to their weight loss plan and sedentary life-style. If that individual merely will get surgical procedure to chop away the stomach fats, however he doesn’t change his weight loss plan and life-style, then that stomach fats will come again once more, together with damaging negative effects from the surgical procedure. That is attending to the floor stage signs and lacking the foundation trigger.
To be clear, this isn’t to say that symptom-level remedies are dangerous. If the signs are already very extreme, we want symptom-level remedies promptly, but when we wish to resolve the issue long-term, then we have to even have root-level remedies.
Beneath are some extra examples to contemplate:
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Is the battle actually in regards to the matter? Or is it a couple of lack of respect and willingness to know them?
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On the floor, it looks as if they overreacted to a small matter. However in case you look deeper, you’ll see that maybe they’ve gathered plenty of resentment over time, and that “small matter” was the final straw.
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On the floor, they may appear respectful and caring, however are you able to discern the intention behind their conduct? Is it sincerity or selfishness?
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On the floor, they may appear essential, however are you able to discern their intention? Is it annoyance or true care?
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On the floor, it could look like completely happy individuals have good circumstances. However in actuality, many individuals with objectively good circumstances are nonetheless very sad.
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On the floor, it looks as if exterior stressors are making us confused. However how come different individuals in the identical state of affairs won’t be as confused as we’re?
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter what drawback or aim we’ve got, we should always ask ourselves: What are the roots, and what are the signs? If we solely attend to the surface-level signs, then we’ll find yourself like the person who purchased the donkey to inform time.
