Story: The Persistent Seeker

A merchant of great wealth one day found himself asking 'What is truth?' The question was small enough to start. Yet with each asking it grew until it consumed his thoughts. Finally overcome he decided to seek the answer no matter the cost.

The merchant first went to the university to ask his question, 'What is truth?' The smiling professors replied, 'Pay our fee and we will teach you about truth.' And so he began his studies.

Yet, after many years of hearing the professors expound on the meaning and relevance of truth and of the objective vs the subjective and of the absolute vs the relative the merchant was unsatisfied. He left them in disgust saying, 'These are all roundabout discussions of rhetoric. The teachers are content with their incomplete answers and in their vanity read and lecture with ambiguity. They use their learning as bludgeons.'

Again the merchant went out asking, 'What is truth?' He went to the temple. The priests looked at him with excitement and said, 'Welcome, our religion is truth. Tithe a portion of your wealth and we will teach you the laws of our god. Then you will know the truth.'

Filled with hope the merchant eagerly read the laws. Yet as he studied them he asked, 'What is the reason behind them? These laws are confusing and not clear at all. They require sacrifices which confine and limit the freedom of anyone who follows them. How are they truth?' No one could answer him.

As he was talking, he noticed a man he did not recognize who was sitting nearly naked in the courtyard. The merchant thought, 'Perhaps this man is wise and holy. Perhaps he has my answer.' So the merchant went up to him and asked, 'What is truth?' The man stared at him blankly and mumbled, 'I have nothing to wear, clothe me.' The merchant although disappointed retrieved his suitcase and gave it to the man.

Frustrated the merchant left the temple and entered the city. This time he prayed to chance and asked the first man he met, 'What is truth?' The man replied, 'I am hungry, feed me.' The merchant cursing his luck bought a loaf of bread for him.

Perhaps women have greater insight than men, the merchant thought. And age being wiser than youth he decided on an old woman shuffling down the street. So he approached her and asked, 'What is truth?' But she replied as if she did not hear him, 'I cannot afford my rent this month, help me.' And although he was dejected that he was making no progress, he spoke to her landlord and paid her rent.

There and then the merchant decided that the people in the city were too self-centered to have any answers. So he would seek his answer among the farmers and fieldhands of the countryside. But at the city gate the merchant met a man covered in bloody sores. The leper asked him before the merchant could speak, 'Help me.' The merchant took the leper to a doctor and left the last of his wealth to cover the leper's care. Now being out of money, the merchant left the city.

On the road he passed a farm, outside a beautiful young woman was outside crying. He stopped and asked her what was wrong. She answered through her tears, 'My husband died just before the harvest leaving me no money. And to make matters worse, even though the fields are ready to be brought in it is too much work for me to do alone.' The merchant replied with compassion, 'I have no money myself to hire workers for you. But if you feed me and give me a place to sleep, I will help you bring in the harvest.' And so he stayed with her for a time.

As the snows came he made up his mind to set out again, but she prevailed upon him to stay until the thaw. Yet at the thaw again she begged him not to leave. Smiling he looked at her and said, 'You have your harvest. You can now hire workers for the planting and harvest this year. You will do well. But I, I must find out what is truth. Once I do I will return to you.' Seeing his determination the widow with a heavy heart she let him go.

The penniless merchant now decided that the last place to look was in the empty places. Perhaps there is a lone sage high on a mountain or a pious monk in a valley who can answer my question.

Setting out the merchant traveled through forests and deserts. He met wanderers and bandits, hermits and hunters. Yet none of them were able to answer his question, 'What is truth?'

One day near dusk and on the verge of giving up, the merchant stumbled across a grove of oak trees. There he saw a man sitting under an oak as if in a trance. The entire grove was silent and at its center the man almost seemed to glow. Afraid to wake him, the merchant moved silently closer when the man suddenly opened his eyes. Taken aback at the penerating stare, the merchant fell to his knees and transfixed was face to face with the man under the oak tree.

It was then that the merchant recognized the face. It was the naked man in the temple courtyard. About to open his mouth he saw the face change again to the man who begged him for food. And then it was wrinkled smile of the poor old woman; now it was pain-creased brow of the bloody leper and finally to the beautiful clear eyes of the widow who was waiting for him. There he understood his question. In the oak grove where truth sat waiting.