The following story; written by Mao Tse Tung,
former Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party,
is one which should set us all thinking.
In olden times, there was once all old man from the
northern part of China who lived on the side of a
mountain range which always lay in shadow. The
problem was that there were two high mountains in
front of his door which prevented the sun from
entering his house. One day, the old man called to
his young sons and said to them, “Let us go and
remove these mountains by digging, so that the
sun’s rays may fall upon our house unhindered.” A
neighbour of the old man’s, hearing of this plan,
made fun of it. He said to the old man, “I knew that
you were foolish, but I never realized that there was
just no limit to your foolishness. How on earth is it
possible to remove these high mountains just by
digging them?”
The old man replied in all seriousness, “Yes, you
are right. But when I die, my sons will dig, and after
their death, their sons will dig. The digging-process
will thus continue for generations. The mountains,
as you know, will not go on increasing in size,
whereas each digging is bound to reduce them in
size and, in this way, there will come a time when
we shall have finally succeeded in removing these
obstacles.” The power to solve problems is always
more significant than the problems themselves, and
while problems are invariably limited, their
solution is unlimited, there always being a number
of different approaches which naturally vary, in
scale and complexity. This story is a beautiful
illustration of how a major feat necessitates not only
long-term planning, but the willingness and
determination to carry that planning into effect.
For a people who have the fortitude, to carry on
their schemes from one generation to the next,
working consistently and steadfastly, there is no
mountain or river on earth which they will not be
able to conquer.
Ref - The Moral Vision
- by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
