The Kidnapping

A certain father’s child was stolen. His only son, the child of his lap, was stolen from him and taken to a strange land. As it turned out, the father new right from the beginning who it was that stole his child and soon had set a trap for them by which he would overcome them and rescue his child.

The kidnappers were tempted to become very proud of themselves for having taken possession of this child who was the most priceless child in all the world. Among themselves they disagreed about how to profit the most from having the child. They quarrelled and quarrelled about this until they nearly lost their minds. In fact the only thing that gave them any peace was their ever swelling arrogance on account of having successfully stolen the child. Finally they were completely overcome by the disease of conceit and having fully lost their minds, they dug their own graves and fell into them. They were convinced that they were digging these graves through faith in their gods as graves for their enemies. So they dug them so deep that when they themselves fell into them, during an outbreak of concerted quarrelling and fighting, they could not get out and all of them perished.

After this,, the father of the lost child simply walked into the strange land and took back his child. Looking at the dead kidnappers in their graves, he said over them, "The saying has come to pass upon you: you have swallowed the jewel of heaven and it has caused you to burst your bowels."

Between the time that the child had played on his father’s lap and the time when his father came to rescue him from the strange land, the child had grown a little older. He now had the confidence to make a request of his father, as they were about to leave the strange land and return to their own. "Father," he said, "I have made a friend in this place. He was also stolen from his home. I believe he may be my half-brother from a different wife you had other than my mother. Could we take him with us and let him live with us?"

"Very well, son," the father said, "since he has been stolen like you, we will take him with us." Soon, while they were still on the journey to their own land, the two friends, having gone out to play together, found themselves in trouble. People ended up getting hurt.

The Damage

"What is this you have done, my child," asked the father. "I have called you my dear kid. But you have acted like a wild goat! Your friend has acted like a goring ox, and you have copied him, butting and piercing people with your horns! What should I do with you? Do you know the suffering and the expense that you cost me? Can I be in debt for your soul?"

The child, who deeply loved and respected his father and was also deeply thankful to him for rescuing him from his kidnappers, was embarrassed to see that he was dishonouring his father. From the bottom of his heart he replied to his father, "I will do whatever you say."

However, as soon as he went out to play again with his friend who was like a goring ox, he couldn’t help himself. He again began to act just like him.

"Why am I taking you to live in my home?" The father asked his son. "You do not behave like you are your mother’s child! You behave just like your friend, who is the child of another mother. You did not learn that behaviour from me nor from your mother." The father then spelled out very carefully for his son all the ways of living that could lead him to be united with his mother in the living world. The father even allowed his son’s friend to be present to hear about these ways of life.

The son was conflicted hearing these words from his father. "When you came to rescue me from the strange land, you told me that my mother had left this dying world and had gone on to the living world, the child said. "You are telling me about this again now." Then with great emotion he continued, "But you said her presence would always be with me. I do not feel her presence! I have no mother! I feel like an orphan. I want to do all the things you say and find the way to be united with my mother, but when she is not with me, how will I be able?"

"I told you the truth," the father said. "Your mother’s presence is always with you. It is only because of your behaviour, which is like the goring ox behaviour of your friend, that you cannot recognize her presence."

The son listened to his father and tried to do all that he told him to do, in order to learn the ways of his father and his mother. For he greatly desired to please his father and to be able to recognize the presence of his mother with him. When he would apply himself like this, he would, indeed, begin to recognize the presence of his mother with him. However, in his immaturity, he would still sometimes think that he had worked hard enough and go off with his friend to play and explore the world around him, whereupon he would forget all about doing what his father taught him and, becoming full of himself, would begin again to act like a wild goat.

One day he came to his father and said, "Now that we have freed my friend from the strange land, he feels like he should return to his mother and his home."

"Will you leave me and go with him?" asked the father.

"At least he has a mother!" responded his son.

The father then spoke to himself, saying, "As soon as he hears he becomes deaf. From the day he was kidnapped, sometimes, it is as if he were born deaf. He must yet be liberated from this."

The Other Mother

From that time on, the father watched from a distance as his son and his friend roamed wildly in the wilderness in a direction that took them further and further away. He knew that his dear kid’s wild, goring-ox-like friend was turning him into a wild goat. He would collect them and bring them into his own land and into his own house, so that his dear kid would know where he belonged. He would learn that he had a home. But the father knew that it would only be a matter of time before the two friends wandered off together again. No doubt they would have to go and live with that goring ox’s mother. Indeed, if his son did not stop copying the behaviour of his friend, it would be certain that the two of them would have to go off and try to make a home in that far away land. If they continued in their wild ways, it was even possible that kidnappers would come again and take them to just such a far away land.

And so it was that the father collected up the two friends and brought them into his own land. He even went so far as, at times, to call them both his kids. In time, they were even able to draw close to him in his own house. For a while, his son was even able to recognize the presence of his mother in his house. For, due to these wonderful conditions, while the son remained in his own land and as long as he remained close to his father’s house, most of his goring-ox-like behaviours fell away. And even his friend was influenced to act much less like a goring ox. The son, however, was never able to approach close enough to feel the presence of his mother, because he never fully gave up his wild ways.

At times, the son and his friend would venture off to other lands, thinking that they would learn to do business there. Whenever they did this, it would bring out the wildness in them and they would return to their butting and goring ways. Whenever they would go on these adventures, the father would follow them at a distance, observing and considering what he should do, in order to cause his beloved son to fully change his ways in the end.

It seemed as though the son would forever spiral around his deep-seated love for his friend and his wild ways. Although over time, through many ups and downs, the son made much progress in learning how to follow the instructions of his father, so that he came to practice the ways of life far more than the ways of death. Yet, no matter how good he got at living in the ways of life, there was always a part of him that seemed to get satisfaction only out of going back to following the ways of his friend. Though many of the ways of life had become, now, second nature to him, sometimes he would still break with them and lose himself in pursuing the interests of his friend.

The time came when the father realized that there was only one way that his son would mature fully in the right way. There would only be one way that he would learn to walk entirely in the ways of life and be able to leave the dying world, without coming to his final end within it and to go on to unite with his mother in the living world. He would have to see with his own eyes that his wild ways and the ways of his friend were the ways of death, that they were the very ways of the kidnappers who kidnapped them. Only then, when he rescued his son from the consequences of his own ways, would he fully believe that following his father’s ways alone, without compromise, was the way of life.

Accordingly, the father stepped back, and the mother’s presence could no longer be found at all in the house. The two friends were greatly troubled and began to feel abandoned. However, they had begun to build themselves outposts in other lands, even in the strange land from where they had originally been rescued. When they felt the threat of robbers and new kidnappers surrounding them, they made alliances with the lands in which they had built outposts.

Then the son’s friend began to say to himself, "I miss my mother’s house. My friend is at odds with his father. Why should I continue to stay here with him when he can no longer securely protect and shelter me? I will negotiate with the enemy. I will allow myself to be taken and sold but only to the land of my origin. This way, I will be able to return to my mother’s house."

The Negotiation

He then carried out his plan to negotiate in this way with the enemy. The enemy, however, betrayed him and took advantage of him. When it came time for the enemy to take him, the enemy not only captured him but also his friend, the son of the father who had rescued them both from the strange land.

The enemy then said to the son's friend, "I will take you both to your mother’s land and sell you there, as I said. But I will go on a round about journey in a way that pleases me to get there. For along the way I am going to lease you out to every land I come to!"

And this is what happened. The two friends were made to work for whoever they were leased out to, in every land that they came to on the way. And all the while the father watched from nearby. And all the time the presence of the son’s mother was very close to him and suffered with him, though he seldom sensed that she was near. When the father felt that his son’s suffering was beyond endurance, because he felt the weeping of his heart, he arranged for the enemy to be deceived by a philosophy that produced complacency in him. Like the kidnappers in the strange land before him, he began to become disabled through arrogance. But in this case, due to the certain philosophy that had captured his mind, he simply lost interest in spending any more time in the lands remaining on his journey than he had to. He wanted to get on to where he was going, sell his captives, and be free to pursue the heights of the philosophy that he had embraced.

Soon they had come to the land of the mother of the son’s friend. The mother and her son, whom she thought she had lost forever were reunited. The two friends were set free and brought into this mother’s house. It seemed to the two friends that they now be able to live their lives however they wanted. Those things that the father had taught his son stayed with him and he tried to find ways to integrate them into the life he began to make for himself now that he found himself to be free in the home of his friend’s mother. As for his friend, it seemed the thing he did best, the thing he had only played at when he was younger, pushing and goring others to get whatever he wanted, now became his method for attaining success in his life. Because of his father’s teachings and because he was well practiced in them now, the son tried to influence his friend to discipline himself. It was one thing to be aggressive in business and in making a living, the son thought. He was willing to make some realistic compromises in this direction himself. But, he told his friend, it was time the two of them left the wild ways of their childhood behind and tried to learn to behave in the better ways that they had been exposed to in his father’s house.

The Longing

A seed of longing began to grow in the son’s heart, to some day return to his father’s house. But if he was ever able to do that, he wanted to be able to return as a success and not as a failure.

When a unique opportunity came up to join in a certain business venture with his friend, the son found himself feeling unsure and conflicted about what he should do. On the one hand, the rewards looked great. And his friend had seemed to listen to him about paying attention to his father’s teachings, at least somewhat, and had made visible efforts to use less pushing and goring methods in business. At home, his friend became even more disciplined and restrained. He was very close to his mother, and was gentle with her, although his mother seemed proud and praised him for how aggressive he was with others. Still it seemed like he could change. On the other hand, there was no guarantee that the deal being proposed to him had a good foundation, nor that it would not lead to places that might prove unacceptable. In the end, his friend persuaded him, promising that if he did this for him, he would help him to return to his father’s house.

As it turned out, one deal led to another, and the two friends became quite successful in business together. However, the means to that success did involve a lot of strong arming, head butting and even some goring. In their personal lives the two friends diverged sharply. The son tried to hold on to his father’s teachings and even to improve his mastery of them. His friend took up other interests.

One day things caught up with the two friends as a result of the way they did business. Although the son had always tried to influence their business practices on the basis of the teachings of his father, it had never been enough. Many crises had come and gone. When tested by one perfect crisis, one day, both friends were convinced that the business had to be defended by furious head butting and goring.

The son’s father had always been watching. He had seen his son come out on the losing end of many head butting conflicts before. But this time was different. The father watched as his son was gored through a vital organ. With the authority of his voice he cleared away the world from around him and went straight to his son. Taking him in his arms in the very moment he was perishing, he breathed life again into him with the kiss of his own mouth. The father’s son opened his eyes. "My dear kid," the father whispered.

The New Kid

"My precious father!" The son whispered back. Then he said to his father, "I both see and feel the presence of my mother."

Then the father said to his son, "I will set out and carry you on the long journey back to the Land of Healing. There, in your own home you will heal completely, body and soul."

Then the son’s friend, who was lying nearby, having also been defeated, spoke out, "let me go with you! I will carry your son on my shoulders. He has never abandoned me. He always tried to teach me your ways. I know now that your ways are the only ways of life and that all other ways are the ways of death."

The father then said to his son’s friend, "You led my son down the pathway of death. He could have no greater honour than that you would become his true brother and walk with him only on the pathway of life."

"Let me return with him," said the son’s friend and I will cut his wood and carry his water."

The father looked down at his son in his arms and then over at his friend. "My dear kid," he said, "and my dear calf.."

And so they returned, the father, the kid and the calf, with the mother going before them, completing their souls.