Once, while walking through the forest, Lao Tzu saw a huge beautiful tree. Already from a distance it stood out among all the other trees. A whole thousand chariots could find shelter under its luxurious crown.
- What kind of tree?! - Lao Tzu exclaimed. “You can see everything, it’s not like the others.”
He looked up and saw that the branches of the tree were so crooked that they could not be used to make pillars or masts for a ship. He looked down at its mighty root and saw that it was so tortuous that even a coffin could not be hollowed out of it. Its leaves and fruits taste so bitter that it makes your mouth ache. You inhale the scent emitted by its flowers, and you walk around stupefied for three days.
And Lao Tzu said to his disciples:
“That’s a good-for-nothing tree, that’s why it grew so huge.” Now I understand why the brightest people in the world are made of material that no one needs!
Learn from this tree, become as useless as it. Then no one will cut you down.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru