The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

that I was the best student he had ever had."
"'Maybe it is all the pain you suffered in your former life that
has allowed you to embrace our wisdom with such an open heart,'
she stated. 'As the youngest of our community, I have been asked
to bring you a gift. It is from all of us and we offer it as a token of
our respect for you, one who has travelled so far to learn our ways.
At no point have you judged us or ridiculed our traditions. So,
though you have now decided to leave us within a few weeks, we
consider you one of our own. No outsider has ever received what I
am about to give you.'"
"What was the gift?" I asked impatiently.
"Divea pulled out an object from her homespun cotton bag and
handed it to me. Wrapped in a fragrant cover of some type of paper
was something I never thought I'd see there in a million years. It
was a miniature hourglass which had been made from blown glass
and a small piece of sandalwood. Seeing my expression, Divea
quickly told me that each of the sages had received one of these
instruments as children. "Though we have no possessions and live
pure, simple lives, we respect time and note its passing. These little
hourglasses serve as daily reminders of our mortality and the
importance of living full, productive days while advancing our
purposes.'"
"These monks up in the highest reaches of the Himalayan
mountains kept time?"
"Each and every one of them understood the importance of
time. They each had developed what I call a 'time consciousness.'
You see, I learned that time slips through our hands like grains of
sand, never to return. Those who use time wisely from an early age
are rewarded with rich, productive and satisfying lives. Those who
have never been exposed to the principle that 'time mastery is life