87. Know when to drop it
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There were four fools in a village. They went to the village guru and asked for a spiritual practice. The guru said, 'Practise gratitude. Be grateful for everything.' The four fools decided to follow this practice very sincerely.
Once, they used a boat to cross a river. After crossing the river, they decided, 'We should be grateful to this boat which helped us cross the river. We should not leave this boat like an orphan here and go away!' So all four of them started carrying the boat on their heads and going around. Whenever people asked, 'What are you doing?', they would say, 'We are being grateful to the boat which helped us cross the river!'
A good technique can take you a little further on the path. But if you cling to the technique even after it has become useless for you, you are like the fools carrying the boat!