Once upon a time, the sky god named Nyame gave Anansi the spider an unusual gift. It was a pot which had in it all the wisdom in the world. Nyame also instructed Anansi to share the gift of wisdom with everyone in the world.
The pot was filled with amazing skills and ideas. Anansi looked into the pot and learnt something new every day.He was extremely selfish and greedy by nature and hated sharing anything with anyone. He thought, “I want to keep all the wisdom in the pot just for me. I will hide it somewhere and not share it with anyone.”
One day, Anansi was looking for a place where he could hide his pot of wisdom. Finally, he decided to hide it at the topmost branch of a very tall tree. He made a strong rope using the vines from the tree. He then used the rope to tie the pot with his body. Anansi placed the pot in front of his stomach and tied it firmly using the rope.
He started climbing the tree very slowly but was facing a lot of difficulty. The pot was hanging against his stomach and kept bumping against the tree, hurting him in the process. The young son of
Anansi was watching him from the bottom of the tree.
After a while, his son suggested, “Father,why don’t you tie the pot at your back? That way it will not bump against the tree and it will be easier and more comfortable for you to climb up the tree by holding it with your hands."
Anansi followed his son’s suggestion and found out that it was indeed easier to climb the tree this way. Within no time, he reached the top of the tree. But Anansi was extremely angry. “What is the use of owning the pot of wisdom when even a young boy has more common sense than I do?” Anansi thought and dropped the pot of wisdom from the top of the tree.
The pot fell to the ground and broke into pieces. The gift of wisdom stored inside the pot started flying in different directions. People of the world found the bits and pieces of wisdom scattered everywhere. And they started picking up some for their friends and families.
Thus until this day, no one person has all the wisdom in the world. And all over the world, people share wisdom by exchanging ideas with one another.
Learning To Act
Once, there was a very a bright and intelligent student. He was on a mission to acquire more and more knowledge. One day,he came to know about a great Zen teacher. He wanted to acquire a great deal of knowledge on every subject and so he decided to meet the teacher. He traveled for a great distance and finally reached the Zen teacher’s house.
On meeting the teacher, he fell on his feet and said, "Master, please teach me whatever you know about the world." The master smiled and said,"Welcome son, I shall teach you whatever I can.” He enquired about the student and learnt all about him and the knowledge he had gained.
During the evening, he asked his assistant to serve tea to both of them. A tray was brought with two cups and saucers and a big pot of tea. The student got up to serve tea to the master, however the master did not let him do so and asked him to remain seated.
The master then asked the student to pick up a cup, so that he could serve tea.The student did as told. The master started pouring tea into the cup. After a while, the cup was filled with tea, but the
master continued pouring more tea into the cup. It gradually started overflowing. But the master did not stop even then. The student was surprised and asked him, “Why are you pouring more tea into the cup? It cannot hold anymore." The master looked at him and smiled.
"My dear student,you are just like this cup. You already have enough knowledge. If you try to acquire any more, it will simply overflow and get wasted like this tea. So simply practice the knowledge you have gained and you will be content with yourself."
The student realised that it’s not just obtaining knowledge, but practicing it the right way that makes a man wiser.