We are all Kings (or Queens)

There is an ancient story for illustrating the essential truth that we are greater than who we think we are. It goes like this:

Once there was an eight-year-old boy, a Prince, who was destined to become the King. One day a circus came to the palace and all the children enjoyed the show. The Prince was tired and crawled into some hay in a cart to have a sleep. The circus left during the night and travelled far, far away.

The parents of the boy thought he was hiding in the palace and searched for him throughout the night and all the next day. They even drained the moat, fearing that he drowned. As the weeks went by without the boy being found, the parents sent out emissaries to look for him, carrying a description of birthmarks on the boy’s skin. Still they did not find him. Months and years passed by.

Meanwhile the circus had discovered a young boy in their midst. He was confused, unable to speak their strange language. So they adopted him and over the years he grew up to be their star performer, forgetting his life as a Prince.

After 15 years both of the royal parents died of a mysterious illness. The palace sent out even more emissaries to search for the missing Prince so they could bring him home and crown him King.

One day, soon after the young man’s 25th birthday, one of the emissaries went to the circus in a distant town. As he was watching the star trapeze artist he noticed a special mark on his right arm that matched the one on the little Prince from so long ago.

The emissary sort out the young man after the show, and saw that in fact he had all of the birthmarks required. He said to the young man, “You must come with me. You are a great prince and your people wish to make you their King.”

“Don’t be silly”, said the athletic young man, “I am but a poor circus performer. How could I be a King?”

The emissary stayed for some time until he convinced the young man of his true status. The King returned to his land and ruled his people well.

We too are Kings and Queens who have forgotten our true greatness, our high destiny. Those whom we are meant to rule are our thoughts, our senses, our words and our actions.

As crawling babes we saw that everyone was walking. We did not compare and decide from this that we are inferior, inept. Instead we behaved like the giant Kings that we truly are. We learned to sit up, crawl, stand, walk and then run, making 10,000 mistakes along the way, but letting none of them deter us from our quest. Intuitively we knew that we were destined to leave crawling behind and not stop until the goal was reached. We were born with this determination, perseverance and courage

Our first few baby sounds elicited joy and laughter from those who could speak. Again our belief in ourselves was so secure that we did not assume an inferiority. Instead we tried approximating sounds, again and again, until suddenly we were racing ahead in our mastery of words, learning faster than our adult mentors ever could. We were born with this enthusiasm, this confidence, this boldness and daring.

Then somehow we began to doubt ourselves, first just a little, and then a whole lot more, until nothing we did seemed enough any more. How quickly we fell into feeling weak and helpless, forgetting what we once knew: that all power and strength lie within us, like a seed waiting for the spring to return once more.

Of course there will always be a few who never doubted that a great power was always at hand, ready to express itself through them. Such are the true greats of history.

Others overcame their entrenched self-doubt with the presumptions of superiority over their fellow human beings. Such false confidence is built on the shifting sands of egoism rather than on the rock of childlike faith, and a fall is bound to come. The violin can believe that its beautiful music is self-created only until the musician goes off to have lunch.

It is our understanding that those who have fallen into low self-esteem are only a hair’s breadth away from rediscovering their true magnificence, for it is said that ‘the meek shall inherit the earth’. Those who are truly humble are at the threshold of tapping into a great power. Once the lightbulb recognises that it can achieve nothing by itself, only then can the switch be thrown and energy pours in and the bulb shines forth with a brilliant light.

These are different words to what you’ll hear on the self esteem CDs, but the essence remains the same: we are far greater than what we think we are.