There was once a man who became tired of his life in his village. The more he heard, from travelers passing through the nearby market town, of the ’greater world’, the more he longed to enter it, and to escape from the limitations which he felt surrounded him at every turn.
Finally he made his decision, and set off down the road which led away from his village, seeking the Greater World.
Soon he found himself upon a highway with one other traveler on it. They talked, and our friend formed the impression that his companion knew a great deal about this Greater World; so, when he was invited, he agreed to accompany the other man – whom we will call the Sage – on his way. When they had been walking for some time, the Sage said, ‘What is that thing by the side of the road, and what could one do about it?’
The traveler looked, and saw that it was a swarm of bees, which was attached to a tree-trunk. He said, ‘It is a bee-swarm. I think I’ll take it with me. I might be able to sell it.’
So he took off his coat, and using it as a makeshift sack, collected most of the bees and slung the coat over his shoulder. Now some of the bees crawled out of the coat and buzzed about angrily for a time. Then they stung the traveler in the hand. He hopped about in agony and dropped his bundle. Then, picking up the coat, he dashed it against a rock, until all the bees had been detached from it.
The Sage said, ‘Let us sit down here and think about this. What have you been doing?’
‘Some of the bees stung me, and so I reacted normally.’
‘Is it normal to punish all the bees for what some of them did?’
‘You know that anyone would have behaved like that!’ said the other man, thinking how tedious these philosophers are.
‘But what do the bees think?’ asked the Sage. He made a mysterious signal, and the traveler saw that there were three or four bees on the ground near where they sat. Through the power of the Sage’s signal, he supposed, he could understand what they were saying to one another.
One of the bees said to one of the others, ‘Master, as the Wise Bee of the Age, perhaps you can explain to us what has just happened.’
The Wise Bee answered, ‘Yes, indeed. Some beings from the Greater World came along and decided to capture us. Some of us stung them, as a reflex action, and one of them then dashed the lot of us onto a rock, in fury!’
One of the others asked him: ‘Do they always behave like that?’
‘They always behave like that, under similar circumstances’ said the Wise Bee; ‘but it is because so many members of our swarm wanted to get into the Greater World without knowing anything about it that we were seized in the first place.’
Another of the bees said, ‘Well if the Greater World is like that, I for one want to give up my search for it, and no longer consider myself a member of your School, however wise you may be___’
‘And you’ said the Sage, turning to his companion, ‘like the bees, have been trying to enter the Greater World: but as soon as you start on the road, you do something which you regret___’
