Discovering True Fear

A sultan decided to travel by sea with some of his favorite
courtiers. They joined the ship in Dubai and sailed out into the open
sea.
However, as soon as the ship moved away from land, one of his
subjects - who had never seen the sea before, having spent most of
his life in the mountains - began to be overcome with panic.
Sitting in the ship's hold, he cried, shouted and refused to eat
or sleep. Everyone tried to calm him down, saying that the journey
wasn't as dangerous as all that, but although he heard their words,
they had no influence on his heart. The sultan did not know what to
do, and the fine journey upon calm seas and under blue skies, became
a torment for the passengers and crew alike.
Two days passed without anyone being able to sleep because of
the man's cries. The sultan was about to order the ship to return to
port, when one of his ministers, who was known for his wisdom, came
over:
- Your Highness, with your permission, I will be able to calm
him.
Without a moment's hesitation, the sultan said that not only
would he allow it, but that he should reward him if he succeeded in
solving the problem.
The wise man asked that the man be thrown into the sea. Right
away, content because their nightmare was about to end, several crew
members grabbed the man struggling in the hold, and cast him into the
ocean.
The courtier thrashed about, sank, swallowed plenty of seawater,
returned to the surface, screamed louder than ever, sank again, and
managed to surface once again. Just then, the minister ordered for
him to dragged back on board.
From then on, no one heard so much as a single complaint from
the man, who spent the rest of the journey in silence, and even
commented to one of the passengers that he had never seen anything so
beautiful as the sky and sea touching on the horizon. The journey -
which had before been a torment to all those on board the ship -
became a pleasurable, peaceful experience.
A short time before they returned to port, the Sultan went to
see the minister:
- How did you guess that, by throwing that poor man into the
sea, he would calm down?
- Because of my marriage - replied the minister. - I was always
terrified of losing my wife, and was so jealous that I never stopped
shouting and screaming like that man.
"One day she could take no more, and left me - and I tasted the
terrible experience of living without her. She only returned when I
promised never again to torment her with my fears.
"In the same way, that man had never tasted salt water, and had
never known the agony of a drowning man. When he felt that, he
understood only too well how marvelous it can be to feel the planks
of a ship under his feet.
- Wise counsel - commented the sultan.
- In the Bible, a holy book of the Christians, it says: "all I
most feared, came to pass."
"Some people can only value what they have, when they endure the
experience of loss."

Warrior of the Light, a www.paulocoelho.com.br publication