A Parable of a Woman and Five Sons
There was a woman who had five sons. All of her sons were comic book fans, so she took them to Comic-Con. Each boy dressed as his favorite comic book character and spent the entire day at Comic-Con pretending to be the character he dressed as.
When they arrived home that evening, each boy ran off in a different direction, continuing to play the character he’d played all day. As the woman walked through the house looking for her sons, she came across her youngest son first. She said, “Go into your bedroom and change out of your costume. When you are done, come into the kitchen for chocolate cake and milk.”
A few minutes later, the woman came across her eldest son. She said, “Go into your bedroom and change out of your costume. When you are done, come into the kitchen for chocolate cake and milk.”
The woman continued through the house in this way until she found each of her five sons, saying to each of them, “Go into your bedroom and change out of your costume. When you are done, come into the kitchen for chocolate cake and milk.”
The last son that the woman found loved cake the most, so he changed his clothes the fastest. He ran into the kitchen and saw a round chocolate cake cut into six slices. The boy said, “Mom, since I was the fastest can I have two pieces of cake?”
“No,” the woman said, and she gave her fast son one piece of cake and a glass of milk.
Next the eldest son came into the kitchen. He looked at the five remaining slices of cake and said, “Mom, since I am the oldest, can I have two pieces of cake?”
“No,” the woman answered, and she gave her eldest son one piece of cake and a glass of milk.
Two more boys came into the kitchen and the woman served cake and milk to each of them. Finally, the youngest boy came into the kitchen. He was only four years old, and so he had worked very hard to take his costume off all by himself. “Momma,” the youngest said, “Since I worked the hardest, may I have the extra piece of cake?”
“No,” the woman answered. “Each one of you took off your costume, so each one of you get the same amount of cake.”
Why didn’t the woman give the extra piece of cake to the fastest boy, the eldest boy or the boy who had worked the hardest? It is because each one was her son. The differences made no difference.
There are apparent differences among us. Some of us gain wisdom quickly. You could say we are fast, like the woman’s fastest son. Some of us have been on the spiritual path for many years. You could say we are the elders, like the woman’s eldest son. Some of us are very committed and work very hard at awakening. We are a lot like the woman’s youngest son. However, we are all already consciousness, so our apparent differences make no difference at all.
Today’s reading focuses on letting go of the differences we see in one another. That doesn’t mean that differences won’t appear. It means that differences are appearance only.
When we focus on differences, we focus on appearances as if they are reality. When we let our sight soften around differences, and we look for sameness—for the fact of each human, in which there is no difference at all—we open to reality.
(Before reading from NTI today, read Matthew 20:1-16 in the Bible.)
