A Tale of 2 Ants
Two ants met. One had a salt ball in its mouth. The one who did not said, “Come and taste my sweet mountain of sugar.”
The ant carrying the salt ball replied, “It would be my greatest pleasure to go to your home and taste your mountain.”
They traveled together and reached the mountain and began to eat. But the salt ball ant couldn’t taste the mountain of sugar and said, “Don’t tell me lies. Your mountain is as good as my mountain.”
The first ant said, “It is sweet.” But the other ant said, “It is salty.”
The first ant analyzed the situation and asked, “Why is it that although his body and his tongue are the same as mine, he tastes salt?”
Why does one person think one way and someone else think differently?
The sweet ant said, “Come to the waterfall. We should gargle together.”
When both reached the water and gargled, their mouths were clear and the salt ball dissolved. Then they walked back to the mountain.
The first ant said, “Would you like some refreshments? The whole mountain is food.”
The second ant began to taste that it was all sweet. He said, “You were telling me the mountain was sweet at the wrong place. It was salty over there, but here it is sweet.”
They walked for a while, reached where they had started the journey from, and again ate. “Why is it that before I thought it was salty and now it is sweet? Do you have some magic?”
The first ant said, “When you came from your home you brought your salty breakfast in your mouth. When you gargled, it was washed away.”
Then the salt ball ant realized that as long as he brought with him a salt ball he would not be able to taste the sweetness of the mountain.
In the same way, as long as one is stuck in their own preconceived ideas, beliefs and dualistic type of thinking, then there will always be conflict and one will not be able to taste the sweetness of life, unconditional love and the joy of interacting.
Each intellect carries its own salt ball, a sense of difference, which cannot be changed because of the salt ball of duality in the intellect. When freed from these conditions, and resting in the sense of acceptance of all as they are, one will remain open and loving in their communication.
