The Heron and the Swan

That is a very good question. It is one that I, myself, asked many years ago. To get an answer, I travelled to a distant monastery where there lived an old monk with a reputation for great wisdom.

When I asked him that question, he took me out to the monastery's lake and showed me a Heron and a Swan and told me to consider the two birds and the way in which they lived their lives adjacent to each other but in such a way that they coexisted without competing - the heron dining on fish whilst the swan lived on the tiny animals that lived in the water.

After long thought, I realised what he was telling me. That, in order to give the appearance of great wisdom, it was useful to give vague answers which appeared to be deep and meaningful but which, in reality, were completely meaningless.

Most people ask me how to achieve great wisdom, which is a much harder question.