There exists a treasure buried at the foot of a mountain
They say it only comes to you in a dream
Therefore, very few people have found that treasure
Many people seek the treasure but look in all the wrong places
It seems the location is only revealed to a select few
Once, it came to a man in a dream and he went out and told the townspeople “follow me to the treasure,” but no one followed.
So the man went on a journey alone to discover the treasure at the foot of the mountain.
The journey was perilous and not without trial but the man was determined to find the treasure
By some miracle unknown he discovered the treasure buried deep within the footbed of the mountain. He thought “If I had to climb down from the top, this would be harder.”
When he found the treasure, the treasure was vast and innumerable. There was more than enough to share. So he took his share of the treasure and went back to the town where he lived.
The townspeople marveled at the gold, jewel and trinkets that the man had brought back. He tried to tell them where to find this buried treasure and that there was more than enough for everyone. When he told them how easy it was, no one believed him. And so, no one else in that town found the treasure for themselves.
The man kept the gold and trinkets and split the wealth, so that way everyone could be wealthy. Some, instead of asking, took from him. But since he was going to give it away anyway, he did not convict them.
The man kept going back to the source of the treasure and bringing back more because the townspeople couldn’t do it themselves.
Eventually, the townspeople had so much gold that they stopped taking from him.
“We have enough gold already,” they said.
The townspeople and the man wound up living merrily with all the gold they had acquired. They had more than enough gold and money to buy material things so they just continued to accumulate wealth until they had an abundance.
The young man was sullen. It seemed every attempt he had at making a good life was foiled.
Day after day, bad things would happen and he would take it on the nose.
It was something he was used to.
He wondered how much longer he could endure hit after hit until he broke.
One day something snapped in him and he decided he was no longer going to be a slave to his circumstances.
He would clean up his act once and for all and redeem himself.
When he decided that at that moment, unbeknownst to him, hell was unleashed upon him.
His life got so dramatically worse he pondered taking his own life to finally escape the wheel of suffering.
Realizing that it wasn’t the answer, he endured some more.
Shrouded in ultimate darkness, not even a beacon of hope.
Sooner or later, a ray of light shined through the clouds. He had already undergone the worst and couldn’t see it getting any worse!
He said “I’m just going to accept this.”
So he practiced accepting.
When he accepted all the bad things going on around him, the bad things started turning into good things.
He was no longer a victim of his circumstances.
He detached from the outcomes of life and found that life was positively enjoyable if you allow it to be. He was the one creating all of his problems all along and was never a victim.
Now, in some strange way, he was thankful for all the things he experienced because his life became enjoyable as a result of the pain he endured.
If he would have surrendered defeat in the eye of the storm, he would have never got to see the calm.
Artistic Apathy 