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How to Escape your Suffering - The Blind Man vs. The Cripple
Art of Meditation: Personal Development and Spiritual Growth

There is a famous Indian story about the great battle between the blind man and the cripple which I think you will all enjoy.  I came across this story first is Osho’s book on Courage, The Joy of Living Dangerously.  Here is how it goes.  In a remote village in the outskirts of Punjab there lived 2 sworn enemies.  One chap was blind and the other was a cripple.  They just could not get along.  No matter what one did, it would upset the other and visa versa.  For years this battle raged on and the animosity between them grew fierce and caustic.

As fate would have it though, during one very hot and dry summer a terrible fire broke out in the village and began consuming everything in its path.  The villagers began to flee in fear as there was no stopping the inferno.  In the panic, the blind man and the cripple were forgotten about and left to fend for themselves.  They now had a big problem.  The blind man did not know which way to go in order to escape the fire, and the cripple, who could see the path to safety, could take no action regarding it.  So both were stuck.

Luckily for them, the desire to live was greater than their hatred for each other, so they decided to work together in order to save their lives.  The blind man put the cripple on his shoulders, who then directed him on which way to go in order to escape.  Thus, working as a team, they were successful and even ended up becoming friends.

Who is the blind man and who is the cripple?  The blind man is your mind and the cripple is your heart.  What is the fire?  The fire is your suffering.  The mind is the instrument through which you can move, act — but it is blind, in that it does not know which way to go.  It endlessly debates, weighing pros and cons, wobbling between what will be gained and what will be lost if certain action was to be taken.  It cannot see how to escape the suffering.  The heart, on the other hand, can see clearly the way out, but does not have any means to act.  In order to act, it needs the mind.  So they need each other.  But, more importantly the heart needs to sit on top of the mind, as the cripple sat on the shoulders of the blind man.  With the heart leading the way, the mind becomes intelligent.  Give the heart its precedence and wisdom will then emerge and guide you safely out of your suffering.

 

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