Parable about the treasure hunt

Rigden: …There is an interesting parable about a treasure hunt.

“Once upon a time, a Wise man was passing by a village. He told the villagers there that countless treasures were hidden under the ground directly below their main square. Whoever finds them will gain not only wealth but also, they will never be the same again. The villagers rejoiced at this news. There was much debate and lengthy discussions, but finally, the residents decided to dig up the treasures together. Armed with tools, they began to dig. However, after a while, when they still had no expected results from their labour, the villagers’ enthusiasm began to fade. The first people to abandon the excavations were the ones who talked a lot; rather than actually doing anything themselves to find the treasures, they only tried to tell others how they should work. These were followed by people who quickly became exhausted by this hard work. They decided these treasures are not worth all this effort. There were others who started finding pieces of broken tiles, ancient crockery, and old coins. They hid what they had found from the rest, thinking these were the real treasures and soon they had left site too. Other people simply enjoyed the experience of the treasure hunt. They believed that these feelings of joy from the search must be the treasures promised by the Wise man. Eventually, as time dragged on and only mud and rocks were strewn around them, their joy evaporated. So they turned their backs on this task, for they proved to be just too weak in spirit.

As time went on, many of the remaining people started to doubt the possibility of success in their search. They began thinking that they had become prey to some deception or a mere myth. The villagers started leaving the treasure hunt site one by one. And only those few who were fixed on the goal, who worked diligently and hard, found their treasures in the end. But after they had found the treasures, none of them was seen in this village again. And those villagers, who had participated in the treasure hunt but had not found the treasure, for the rest of their lives, were preoccupied with self-justification and explanations of why they had not stayed with everyone back then. After all, it had been a chance to change their miserable lives for the better. Some of them spent the rest of their lives wandering in the search of that Wise man who had originally revealed the secret of the treasure, hoping they could find out what the treasures looked like, where they were now, and how they could be possessed by them.”

So, the treasure is the spiritual transformation of man. To achieve it, it is necessary to work hard on yourself each day. Not everyone, who is attracted by the prospect of the path, reaches the end of it because the path involves internal changes. The first ones to leave the path are those who talk much but do nothing to transform themselves. They are followed by those who look for easy victories. Then those, who are tempted by the abilities that have opened up in them to satisfy their significance in this world, also stray from the spiritual path. They are followed by those who find pleasure in the very process of searching for the meaning of life but do not understand themselves and, as a result, they find nothing. Finally, those who doubt themselves, the sage that revealed the spiritual Truth to them, and who even doubt the Truth itself also walk away from the spiritual path. All these people interpret the spiritual path in some way which benefits them in this material world. It is only those who walk with pure and sincere intentions right to the end, persistent in their spiritual labour, transforming themselves in each day, only they find their spiritual treasures in life that make it possible for them to leave for another world. The parable teaches us that quite often, while following the spiritual path, people are merely seeking personal successes in this, temporary for them, world, instead of seeking their spiritual treasures, which open to them a way to Eternity.

From the book “AllatRa” by A. Novykh