Being King for a Day is not as easy as one might think. There's a lot riding on one's shoulders.
The Dali Lama wrote, The Essence of Happiness. Renown speaker Eric Thomas wrote, The Secret to Success. Striving for happiness or success is not a bad thing. But today, I'm intrigued by a different concept, the Secret to Alignment. Living in alignment can be just as important as living happily or successfully. Alignment can straighten our walk and fine-tune our engine. There's a tool that can help maintain our balance. The tool is compassion.
Compassion can help keep other things in alignment: kindness, patience, integrity, humility. The great poet, Rumi, reminds us of compassion in the poem, Solomon’s Crooked Crown. In this poem, Solomon wears a crown that goes a little crooked each time he loses his compassion.
Solomon's Crooked Crown
Solomon was busy judging others,
when it was his personal thoughts
that were disturbing the community.
His crown slid crooked on his head.
He put it straight, but the crown went
awry again. Eight times this happened
Finally, he began to talk to the headpiece.
"Why do you keep tilting over my eyes?"
"I have to. When your power loses compassion,
I have to show you what such a condition looks like."
Immediately Solomon recognized the truth.
He knelt and asked forgiveness.
The crown centered itself on his crown.
When something goes wrong, accuse yourself first.
Even the wisdom of Plato or Solomon
can wobble and go blind.
Listen when your crown reminds you
of what makes you cold toward others,
as you pamper the greedy energy inside.
There are many types of crowns: imperial crowns, medieval crowns, religious crowns. I imagine that most of these crowns have, at one point, tilted a little.
How can we keep our crowns in balance? An antonym of "crown" is "bottom". Thus, the opposite of "top" has us looking to the "bottom". Perhaps if we focus on our feet, on what grounds us, maybe we can walk in alignment and keep our crowns from tilting. Walk with compassion my friends.
Reference: The Essential Rumi, by Rumi, Coleman Barks (translator)
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