The Jackal and the Musk Deer

The key to the treasure lies with the Guru, the Master, the Teacher.
When the Teacher is pleased with someone, he will hand over this
key. Otherwise, without this key, you will be mistaken, thinking, “I
have found it! I have received Brahmajnana, knowledge of Brahman.”
Who found it? Who got it?

Recently many people are declaring that they have become
Teachers, that they are superior to their own Teachers, superior to
the Buddhas themselves. But what they have found I do not know.
Perhaps, thinking that they are children, the Teacher may have given
them a piece of chocolate, not a million dollar note, because the child
would throw away the note, not realizing its value.

With that single piece of currency paper he could buy and eat
chocolates for the rest of his life and possibly have enough for the
next generation as well.

A child is a child. He is happy with a little chiclet.

There is a Punjabi parable about a jackal and a musk deer.
You know the nature of a jackal. He thinks he is very clever. He is sly
and knows many tricks but he lives on carrion and garbage.
The musk deer lives in the same forest, but contained in his navel is
the most rare, the most costly essence.

The musk deer also wants this musk. But, not realizing that it lies
within his own navel, he goes all around the forest, smelling each
tree, each plant, each stone, seeking to find this musk. But no one
tells him that it is in his own navel.

Somehow the jackal came to hear about it. One day he found
something that smelled very excellent to him and thought, “Ah! This is
musk! I have found it! I have found musk!”

Then, according to the nature of jackals, he went to the top of a
mountain and started howling at the top of his lungs. You know the
sound jackals make. Like ghosts laughing.

“Here!” he cried. “I have found musk! No one has ever found such
musk before! I have found it! It is even better musk than the musk
deer’s musk! Even the Buddha has not found such musk as this!”

So jackals will go on howling for some time and attract a lot of
attention. They only shut up when the people realize the shouting is
coming from a jackal and that being a jackal, his “musk” cannot be
musk at all but probably something he picked out of the garbage.