A Lesson from the Spirit

"Do you like riddles?"
"Yes."
"Have you ever wondered what they're for? What their role and purpose are?"
"Training the brain?"
"A riddle is a search for a solution through accumulated experience. You try to distort reality by distorting its essence. Riddles are given to you only as hints toward abilities you already possess. You are capable of bypassing the system.
If you learn to look at everything not only with your reason but through your accumulated experience, through your inner potential, everything will become clear — there will be no riddles, no questions. You will see only clues that lead you to the right answers.
Use your experience to seek solutions, while removing the doubts that come from the head; think with the heart — in all matters your soul is involved."

"Give an example, please."
"A certain master had two workers: one industrious, the other a troublemaker.
But neither of them was attached to the master, neither was loyal to him."
"Why?"
"Because they did not let him into themselves, into their lives, treating it as mere work."
"How does experience come into finding solutions here?"
"The master was experienced. And when he woke, he would pour two glasses of water: one full for the troublemaker, the other half-full. The one who was industrious worked as if for two.
"And the moral? The second did nothing then?"
"He nurtured pride in them. Until they began to expect that glass of water as a kind of reward. And they felt it as part of their life. Water is life. And by partaking of it in the mornings, they felt that life within themselves, through the master's care.
The first became even more diligent, moving to a level of devotion. And the other, receiving more water, saw the first worker's labors and perceived injustice in receiving more. But in that surplus he saw not a reward, not water, but only the master's tender, caring attitude, as toward his own son. Thus both became devoted to their master, as sons are devoted to their father.
Show your care and attention as much as is needed, as much as you feel your loved ones need."