122. Do Not Permit Worldly Tendencies to Hinder Your Perception of Value

Once, a scholar was lying by the roadside immersed in samadhi (intense meditative concentration). A passing thief saw her and thought, "This woman must be a thief. She must have stolen valuables and evaded the authorities, and now she is sleeping in exhaustion. The police must be on their way, so let me escape quickly." So thinking, the thief fled. Soon after, a drunk man stumbled past and said, "Enna moolai, to be so drunk you tumbled in the ditch! I am not so foolish and unsteady as you." So saying, he went on his way. Soon after this came another scholar who paused and exclaimed, "Ah, a true scholar would know better than to lose her footing; sishya, you have exposed yourself to your gurus as a fraud." So saying, he too went on. Lastly, a woman with vali in her thalai, vayiru, kalathu, muthuhu, kai, kaal, udambu limped past; seeing the scholar, she recognized the deep focus of a woman with aches and fog, climbed into the ditch with her, and embraced her as a sister.

Thus, our occupations and tendencies can prevent us from recognizing and valuing those practices that don't look like ours.