Three Men and A Temple

About a 1000 years ago, a sage was drawn to a construction site. He watched from the edge of a clearing in the forest as the workmen bent over their individual tasks. Finally his curiosity drove him to one workman at the edge of the site, whom he asked "What are you doing, my good man?"

The workman looked up briefly and went back to his work "I'm working" he said curtly. Not satisfied with the answer, the sage approached a second workman to ask him the same question.

"You can see I'm breaking stones" he replied.

The sage was made of stern stuff and he wasn't leaving without an answer, so he walked over to a third workman with the question.

"I'm building a temple" replied this workman smilingly.

The incident opened the sage's eyes, because all three of them were breaking boulders into smaller stones, but in their minds they were not doing the same jobs. The third workman was working for a cause much larger than himself and it showed in his approach to work.

You can just do a day's work, or build a career, a team, an organization, or a nation. Grow the small pictures that others see, so your big picture gets progressively even bigger. You can choose your perspective and your role in life. Be the one who builds the temple. Not the one who breaks the stones. Choose to see the larger picture or choose to see the smaller picture.