There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.

"Maybe," the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.

"Maybe," replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

"Maybe," answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

"Maybe," said the farmer.



Twenty-First Century ADDENDUM:



The following day the son's leg was infected with gangrene. The neighbors offered their sympathies. "What a terrible turn of events" they asserted.

"Maybe," the farmer replied.

On the next day, the son received a check for ten million yuan from the richest man in China who had heard the story and was touched by it. The neighbors expressed their envy about this last stroke of good fortune.

"Maybe," replied the old man.

The following day a hurricane blew through the old farmer's house and scattered the ten million yuan over 6 provinces to the east. "Oh how horrible," shouted the neighbors as they chased after currency floating in the breeze.

"Maybe," the farmer contested.

Sometime after dawn on the day after that, the son was overwhelmed with bliss upon discovering that his happiness was not dependent on whether or not he had millions of yuan. He radiated love to all around him. The neighbors all exclaimed: "Isn't this just wonderful, this transformation that has taken place"

"Maybe," interjected the old farmer

Soon it became known that the son's blissful state and the charismatic affect it was having on all around him was a source of intense jealousy among leaders of the United States Government. US Government officials who had previously believed it was possible to bomb countries into accepting democracy, now became convinced that they must bomb countries where there is any sign of love and harmony just to show them that no one in this world is more loving than the military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex of the United States. In accordance with it's objective of introducing love into the air, the US government launched 3 brand new one million megaton Dr. Strangelove nuclear bombs directly into a trajectory toward the region of China where the farmer and his son were transforming humanity.

The flash of light when the bombs struck was so intense that even the corpses buried six feet underground were blinded. The impact and nuclear detonation shook the earth so violently it was propelled into a new orbit. Day turned into night as a thick cloud of radioactive effluvium rose up into the jet stream. The continent of Asia was instantly converted into a gigantic crater of radioactive glass.

The President of the United States held a press conference announcing that we were victorious in spreading our message of love and peace around the world.

From the astral realm. The now deceased neighbors moaned and wailed. They screamed and cried about the incineration of their bodies in that blinding flash. "Isn't this the worst that could have happened to us and to the entire planet?" they sobbed.

"Maybe." decried the now disembodied farmer.

As it turned out the intense searing heat of the nuclear explosion burned away most of the bad karma of the old farmer, his son, the neighbors and all of the people in a 500 mile radius who were incinerated in the blast. With all of that dead psychospiritual weight sloughed off their astral forms began ascending to previously unimagined realms of beauty, peace, and wonder. All of these nuked souls felt as if they were swimming into a sea of nectarine bliss. Reeling in splendorous delight, some of the souls sang out in praise: "Isn't this the most glorious thing that could have happened to us!"

"Maybe." rang out the gloriously ecstatic voice of the formerly old farmer, his radiant body emitting oscillating waves of tranquilizing rainbow colored lights.

Meanwhile, back on earth, it was approaching the darkest age of human consciousness. Nearly all people on the planet were intensely disturbed psychologically. Wars raged endless and new ones kept popping up like wild fires. Civilization was breaking down. Morality was hard to find anywhere. At the same time hurricanes, typhoons, volcanos, tsunamis, floods, and earthquakes raged on every corner of the globe.

The old farmer, his son, and the neighbors looked down on the horrors below from their celestial realm of peace. They felt great compassion for all the suffering beings down on earth. There was such a great dissonance between the ecstasy of their existence and the agony of the poor beleaguered beings on earth that they felt compelled to return to earth to work to lessen the suffering that was everywhere there.

One by one the blissful souls in the celestial heights compassionately chose wombs to enter. They merged with fetuses about to be born in that hell realm on earth. They succeeded in choosing a somewhat protected enclave, somewhat isolated from the worst of the chaos of the world, where babies were still being born in a somewhat healthy state and still had a little food to eat and had parents to nurture them.

As the little newborns began to mature, they all seemed particularly healthy and bright, but being neonates they had forgotten where they had come from and how they had gotten there.

As the baby carriage carrying a toddler who had been one of the neighbors was being pushed through the vast wasteland of a decimated region that used to be a tropical rainforest. the precocious baby looked over the devastation and was overwhelmed with immense sadness

Meanwhile, being pushed in the opposite direction in another baby carriage was the old farmer baby. When they drew near each other, the eyes of the two babies met. The neighbor baby began bawling loudly. "Wah! Isn't this world hopelessly ugly and sad?" cried out the neighbor baby.

The old farmer baby lifted his head innocently and serenely and replied:

"Maybe, baby"







(To be continued)

"Maybe," announced the old farmer