Mindfulness Meditation (For Everyday Life)

too strongly that we do know where we are going,
especially if we are driven by self-serving ambition
and we want certain things very badly. There is a
blindness that comes from self-furthering agendas
that leaves us thinking we know when actually we
don't know as much as we think.
"The Water of Life," a fairy tale in the Grimm Brothers'
collection, tells of the customary trio of brothers,
princes all. The two oldest brothers are greedy and
selfish. The youngest is kind and caring. Their father,
the King, is dying. An old man who mysteriously
appears in the palace garden inquires after their grief,
and when he hears the problem, suggests that a cure
might be had in the water of life. "If the King drinks of
it, he will become well again; but it is hard to find."
First, the oldest brother obtains permission to go forth
to seek the water of life for his father, harboring the
secret hope of currying his favor and becoming King
himself. Almost as soon as he sets out on his horse,
he encounters a dwarf beside the road who stops him
and asks where he is going so fast. In his hurry, the
brother treats the dwarf with scorn and
condescension, ordering him out of his way. The
presumption here is that the prince knows the way
just because he knows what he is looking for. Not so.
But this brother is unable to rein in his arrogance, and