FIGHTING THE RAT - Harnessing Conscience Power

What a terrible dream I experienced last night!’howled Gate-Keeper Yin to his wife. ‘A giant rat would not desist from chasing after me until, finally, with no place to turn, it had me cornered.’
‘Heaven protect us against such things! What did you do?’his spouse enquired earnestly.
‘What could I do but attack it,’ Yin continued. ‘And I fought hard let me tell you, but in the end I was sorely wounded. But then a very strange thing happened. Just as I lay in a defeated crumpled heap of humiliation, expecting the final mortal blow,the rat spoke to me. It said: “You win,” and immediately helped me up, which is when I awoke. What awful misfortune can it possibly foretell?’
‘My old mother was wise,’ answered his wife seemingly calmer in her remembrance of something. ‘She would say: 'When you have a fight with your conscience and get beaten, you win! Maybe that rat was your conscience and you’ve gone and
cornered yourself.’

This was taken from Lesson 8 in Volume II of The Teachings of Billionaire yen Tzu - if you want to read the rest of the story.

Yen Tzu goes on to say ...Conscience is that part of our consciousness that is vital to our development and growth. However, there is conscience and true-conscience. The former is subjective, the latter objective. We often think the function of our subjective, or conditioned, conscience, is to spoil life for those of us who are unlucky enough to be pricked by it. It could be said that, ‘your conscience doesn’t keep you from doing anything; it merely keeps you from enjoying it.’ In this guise it can be likened to an irritating acquaintance that you have periodically to tolerate. All too often we construct an entire framework of intelligent rationa-lies-ations in our attempts to justify actions that contradict our deepest sense of right and wrong.


I love this esoteric thought-provoking material. It sets me up for the day. Yen Tzu's book is timeless and wherever you open it I find words of wisdom to inspire me for that day. Has anyone else read any of his teachings?

KNOWING THE EAGLE - Realising Desires; Needing Nothing

Hermit Wei glimpsed three eagles soaring above him. Calling them down to him he requested of the first: ‘How much to carry me across the plains to the neighbouring state, please?’
‘It’s a two day flight at least and you are a heavy load,’ replied the first eagle, ‘I would like ten fish, a goat and a flagon of soya milk.’
‘So much,’ said Hermit Wei, and turning to the second eagle
asked, ‘What will you do it for?’
‘It is right you are a heavy load,’ answered the second eagle, ‘yet as I am due to go in that direction in any case, I would want five fish, a kid-goat and a flagon of rice-water. It is along trip that will require sustenance.’
Asking the third eagle what the charge would be, the hermit was surprised to hear: ‘Five fish and a litre of water.’
‘What kind of fool answer is that?’ Wei shouted. ‘Why do you possibly ask for an amount that will not even sustain you for the trip?’
‘I needed the order,’ said the crestfallen eagle.
‘Needed the order!’ the hermit returned angrily. ‘Well my desire to go will not be at the mercy of your need. In compromising your worth you compromise my life!
Come,’ speaking to the second eagle, ‘let us plan our trip. With your desire to go my way and your considered charge, I know my journey is assured.’

There are more parables like this in The Teachings of Billionaire Yen Tzu Volume II Lesson One.

In the words of Yen Tzu - 'Healthy desire is the starting point of all achievement. The desire to live, for instance, is the unconscious motivation to take our first breath of life. There are,
however, polarities to our desires, so that, depending on how much we want something, we can unwittingly bring about adverse conditions. A simple illustration of this can be seen by an
ambitious individual, who desiring to impress others, brings about the opposite effect.'

This makes so much sense to me - sometimes we want something so much that we overlook the obvious. We make compromises just to get what we want and then end up begrudging the people that take us up on our promises.

RIDING THE TIGER - Channelling Your Energy

Today my elder son, Ni, joins us,’ said Merchant Hui Neng proudly, to all the agents and workers gathered together. ‘Ni has studied under many teachers who assure me that he will prove to be our most valuable asset.’
Having built up his business from nothing, Hui Neng had been determined that his eldest son would not be deprived of a good all-round education. For Ni’s part there had been many lessons. He had excelled at rhetoric and debate, which he’d really enjoyed, and was able to express himself eloquently. But he had done so badly at his figure work that his tutors had decided to replace debating studies with twice the amount of figure work.
‘You will not be able to join your father in business without figure work,’ advised his tutors. ‘Just because you dislike it is no excuse to shirk.’
‘But why must I study what is of no interest to me at the
expense of what does interest me?’ argued Ni.
‘Because that is the way you will become stronger,’ they had answered stubbornly. ‘Redoubling your efforts on your lesser skills is the only way to remove your weaknesses.’

For More of this fascinating tale you need to read The Teachings of Billionaire Yen Tzu - Volum I Lesson 6

I agree with Yen Tzu that "All of us are mediocre at many things, are good at some, excel at fewer and have the ability to become world-class at something. This is because for every natural
strength we are born with, we have countless weaknesses. Having a strength is not the opposite of having a weakness, however. Like success and failure, or health and illness, each follows a particular pattern."

This is so true. Human beings are complicated but generally we are good at the things we enjoy doing and always thinking that we need to push ourselves to improve the things we are weak at. I think that putting our energy into positive things is by far the best way to get on in life.