Conceding Defeat

There was this pretty interesting passage that I came across the web encircling around a hermit that earned his daily bread by begging on the streets and listening to the problems of the people in his free time. One day, as he was busy attending to someone, he spotted a group of his loyalists that came running to him and proclaimed that he heard someone talk critically about this great hermit. 

The others were flabbergasted hearing this and were almost on the verge of confronting this person when he stopped to cast a look at the hermit. They were shocked to discover a pleasant smile on his face, with just his right hand, raised, as if just to tell the person bringing in the news that “Don’t worry, wherever he said is true. Every ounce of it”. Hearing this everyone looked at each other with astonished faces when the person bringing in the news said “Wait, but you haven’t even heard the rumour!”.

The hermit maintained his calm and repeated, “Don’t worry, whatever he said is true. Every ounce of it.”The others were left awestruck as was the person that brought in this piece of news. Later they were all convinced that whatever happened in the world had little or almost no effect on the hermit. While I read this piece I was awestruck and dumbfounded in myself and for a very long time, I kept wondering if this is at all feasible…

Those that read the headline must have already realised that the headline says “Conceding Defeat”. Now when you do think about it in real life, do you also discover this feeling of oneness and carefreeness for this other individual actually spreading the rumour about you? Is this at all feasible in real life? Have people actually succeeded in this? 

Let’s think of the optimistic angle and imagine that if they have, then can we actually say that they have been defeated? Will that be wise? Or should we infer that these beings on earth are the wisest of all beings?

Image by Jakayla Toney