Optimism, Realism, Workism.

Ten Days in the Life of a Vipassana Boy

A long time ago in India, there was a woman with three sons. One day she gave her first son 20 rupees and sent him to the market to buy some cooking oil. On the way home, he tripped, fell and dropped the bottle of oil, spilling half out onto the dirt path. He ran home crying, “Boo-hoo Mummy, I fell and look, I lost half of the cooking oil. Isn’t that terrible!”

The Pessimist.

Next time she sent her second son, again with a 20-rupee note to fill her oil bottle, and what do you know? On the way home, he tripped and dropped the bottle spilling half of the oil out onto the dirt path. Excitedly he picked up the bottle and ran home. “Mummy, look! I fell and spilled some of the oil, but I managed to save half of it. Isn’t that great!

The Optimist.

Now it is the third son’s turn to go to the market with 20 rupees to fill the oil bottle, and as a result of very shoddy path maintenance, he also tripped and spilled half the oil on the way home. “Mummy, look! I fell and spilled some of the oil, but I managed to save half of it, isn’t that great! Of course, I realize you need a full bottle, so I’m going to work doing odd jobs until I earn ten rupees to refill it.”

The Vipassana Boy.

“Optimism, realism, workism,” so goes one definition of Vipassana meditation as told by the charismatic guru in (video) residence, S.N. Goenka, at the Vipassana Meditation Centre in Blackheath, NSW.