The Tale of Timmy Tippers

 So, as I was meditating this morning, a story popped up in my mind. It relates to the discussion about manuals or maps we use to navigate reality. 

I think it would make for another nice children's book.

The Tale of Timmy Tippers

and the Stairway to the Stars

There was a bright little boy called Timmy. Timmy loved looking at the night sky with all the shiny stars, the moon and constellations. 

 

He vowed to learn more about them, so he started to get a big book about astronomy. He learned all the names of the constellations, he learned about the planets and their trajectories, he learned about the speed of light and a great number of details.

 

 

In the course of many years, he continued studying, collecting more and more books. He couldn't be without them and carried them around wherever he went. After all, they were so important to him and his thirst for knowledge.

 

But as he got older, the weight of those books on his back started to take its toll. His back became curved and he realized he was no longer looking at the stars, but he was now only looking at the ground before his own feet. 

 

He realized that in order to see the stars again, he would have to drop the heavy bundle of books from his back. So he did and as soon as he did, his back started to straighten up again, allowing him to gaze at the night sky once again. 

Not only that. He now noticed a staircase he never noticed before.

 

 

It's a staircase that leads up to the stars. He started walking and after a while he turned around and looked down. There on the ground was the bundle of books he had been carrying his whole life. "If I had continued carrying those around with me, I would have never discovered this staircase!".

Timmy had to leave them behind to take on this new journey to the stars. He no longer needed them anyway, because now he was among the stars himself. He was so close that could touch them.

 

 

And so it goes. We bog ourselves down with all this intellectual knowledge about this and that, but like everything else, too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing. There comes a time when you realize that you don't need all that anymore, that holding on to it actually stops you from growing. You realize that you don't own this knowledge, but the knowledge started owning you. 

And so you see a crossroad before you: either hold on to your attachment and become stagnant or let go and grow. Deep down you know which way is the right one.