There was a King in a kingdom deep in West Africa who was loved by his subjects. He was very successful and had conquered many other nearby villages thereby building a huge army. News of his successes spread all over as many other kings envied him for his achievements. One day, his kingdom was attacked and as usual, he called to his army who fought for him relentlessly. The battle took a few days and after it was over, his kingdom had won yet again conquering another village. He decided to throw a big party for his army for their victory. There were all kinds of food and drinks for the army who partied like never before. As the dancing continued, there was suddenly a strong wind and it put off the lights in the king’s palace. There was a moment of silence as everyone in the building started wondering what had just happened. Suddenly, there was a scream and immediately, the lights were lit.
Everyone wanted to know who and why the scream! Attention was suddenly focused on the king’s beautiful wife who was sobbing just next to the main podium.
“Someone just kissed me in the dark”, she said.
What! Everyone was surprised! Who could be this daring to the extent of kissing the king’s wife? That was an automatic death sentence! The king was equally shocked as he could also not believe what had just happened.
The king moved slowly to his wife, helped her to stand and led her to her room to rest. While they were away, there was murmuring among the crowd as everyone wondered who could be that foolish to do such a thing. They were sad because they knew the party was over as that action had completely ruined the whole event. The king, after making sure the wife was ok, came back and to everyone’s surprise, he was in an even better mood and ordered the party to continue! Everyone was shocked! It took sometime for the dancefloor to get to full capacity again but a few moments later, all was back to normal and the party continued late into the night!
A year later, there emerged another dispute with an equally strong village just a few kilometers away which meant that a war was in inevitable. The king assembled his troops and led them to war. This was a very difficult war with lots of casualties. Amid the fighting, there emerged this very brave soldier who fought with a lot of vigor and killed very many enemy soldiers. He fought near the king and was akin to protect the king at whatever cost. It wasn’t surprising that when there was an attempt to stab the king with a sword from an enemy, this soldier intercepted it and killed the attacker. The king paused for a while and thanked him for saving his life. At the end of the war, the army went back and even though they had lost several soldiers, as usual there was a celebration for the victory at the king’s palace.
Before the party, the king wanted to award this soldier who had saved his life and called him forward for the award. On reaching the podium, the soldier refused the award and everyone was very shocked.
” My beloved king”, the soldier said.”I am the man who kissed your wife during the last victory party. The fact that you didn’t want to know who had committed the act, made me indebted to you. From that day, I committed myself to Serve you even if it involves dying for you. You had mercy on me that day yet you could have killed me for kissing your wife. I wanted to protect you on the battlefield with my own life because I don’t deserve to be living. I apologies my king and I’m now ready to die”, he continued.
The king smiled and walked to him, gave him the award and said,” All that is over now. I am promoting you to head of the army”
Lesson:
The king, on his first level of thinking could have easily ordered the perpetrator of the act to come out and be killed. But he didn’t. On the second level of thinking which involves thinking about others, he believed that executing a soldier could have ruined the party and instilled fear among the other soldier who would not want to party anymore. On the third level of thinking he considering other factors like loyalty of his army men, the healthy relationship he had with the army and the general mood on that day. In thinking deeply up to this level, he was able to maintain a loyal army and his life was spared through the bravery of his soldier.
In so many instances we follow the first level of thinking which normally is not well thought out which makes us fall into actions that we regret later since we considered only ourselves. Taking time to accommodate other levels if thinking will help us weigh the best course of action, consider others and other factors present to select the best action. This is thinking deeply.
I have written an eBook that provides tips on how you can train yourself to think deeply through mindfulness. Follow the link and grab a copy and provide some feedback. Thanks
