THE PARABLE OF THE ACORNS

There was once a very large community of acorns living in a mighty oak tree. From birth, theacorns had been taught that their ultimate purpose in life was to achieve the highest level ofacornness, represented by a highly polished shell. To help them achieve this, the acorn leadersestablished acorn health clubs, acorn beauty parlors, and acorn shell—polishing institutions. Allacorns were expected to master the ability to keep their shells polished and assist other acorns indeveloping their skills to do the same.

Some acorns were not satisfied. They did not believe that life should be limited to self-polishingand helping others learn how to polish. These acorns were resented and criticized by themajority. It is not nice to have your complacency disturbed, your comfort zone challenged. They would shout at the doubtful acorns, "Hey, this is the way it has always been! Why are youasking those stupid questions? Who are you to question anyway?"

The doubtful acorns explained that they had noticed some things that the acorn leaders had notexplained. They had become aware that no matter how highly polished an acorn was, there camea time when it would fall from the tree. The shell would crack. Moisture would seep in andcause what was known as acorn death. If all acorns had to die no matter how polished theirshells were, why should they spend their lives polishing their shells?

These questions came to the attention of the acorn priests. They stepped forward to reassure allthe acorns. It had been revealed to them, they said, that if an acorn obeyed all the commands ofthe priests and the leaders, kept its shell highly polished, paid its taxes and tithes, when the acorndied it would be transported to acorn heaven. Once there, no acorn ever had to worry aboutfalling or losing its luster. There would be warm breezes forever, and every acorn would sit atthe right hand of the acorn god and achieve acorn immortality.

To assure the acorns of their rightful place in acorn heaven, there was a ritual the priests coulddo—for a small fee, of course. Whenever an acorn fell, the priests would perform special riteson the ground in the exact place the acorn had fallen. The following spring, if a plant grew inthat spot, the remaining acorn family would know that the deceased acorn had made it to heaven. The acorns were once again reassured and went back to polishing their shells.

As time went on, there came to this acorn community a new acorn who described himself as anacorn prophet. The acorn prophet began to hold nightly meetings at which he told the acorns whogathered that they were being misled by the priests and leaders. The acorn prophet revealed thatinside every acorn lived a mighty oak. According to the prophet, the purpose of acorn life was togrow into oakness. He further explained that falling to the ground was simply a step in theprocess. To become an oak, it would be necessary to stop being an acorn. The falling processactually was the beginning of a new life. The prophet said each acorn owed it to the world todevelop itself through hard work, loving gestures, and deliberate concentration to become amighty oak tree.

While many acorns thought the message was pretty far-fetched, they could not help but bedrawn to the acorn prophet. His words were so loving, although it was evident from his

lackluster appearance that he had not been to the acorn beauty parlor in a while. Still, he had aglow. More than a luster, his glow seemed to come from the inside. He explained it was hisoakness and that every acorn had the same ability. All they had to do was believe, work ontheir purpose in life, and never fear the fall from the tree.

When the acorn priests heard of the tales being told by the acorn prophet, they were extremelyupset. "He'll ruin our business! We had better do something quick!" They did. They calledtogether a group of acorn scientists and ordered them to launch an immediate investigation torefute the acorn prophet's theory. The acorn scientists gathered many acorns upon which theyconducted many experiments. When the experiments were complete, they prepared scholarlypapers documenting the lack of evidence for oakness being present in any acorn. In all thespecimens examined, there was nothing the scientists could see, hear, smell, touch, or taste toindicate that an acorn was anything other than an acorn.

When the acorn community heard this, they once again bowed to the priests and the scientistsbecause they knew everything. The priests then sent for the acorn prophet and turned him overto the courts. He was found guilty of unlawful challenge of the acorn hierarchy and blasphemyagainst the acorn priesthood. He was sentenced to death. In a very pompous and elaborateevent, the acorn prophet was pushed from the tree to his death. The acorn priests did notperform the sacred ritual, and the following spring no plant grew upon the spot where theprophet had fallen.

There were a few acorns who continued to question the teachings of the acorn priests, althoughthey felt guilty doing so. In secret meetings, they would gather to discuss and examine thewritten teachings the acorn prophet had left behind. Without a plan, or even an intent, theybegan to work with the principles the prophet had spoken of. They began to tap into theiroakness with silent and deliberate thought. They shifted their attention from polishing theirshells to developing their oakness.

Miraculously, with no special rites or ceremony, they began to feel like oaks, think like oaks,behave like oaks. In a very short time, they too began to glow. Although their luster was not ashigh as the priests told them it should be, they were peaceful, tranquil, loving, and seeminglywise in dealing with the pressures of acorn life. Their glow drew more and more acorns to thesecret nightly meetings. Before long, there was a mighty oakness movement in the acorncommunity.

Once again, some leery acorn tipped off the priests. They came and seized the papers of theacorn prophet from the leaders of the oak movement. They reworded the papers to make themharmless and claimed to be the authors of the papers all along. The acorn priests were verycareful to emphasize in the new oak document that oakness had only happened once, that theacorn prophet was the one and only example of oakness, and that all who aspired to be like himshould keep their shells highly polished and pay their tithes and taxes.

Despite the various efforts on the part of the acorn priests and royalty to squelch the oakmovement, the acorn community continued to question. Why did they live in an oak tree? Ifthey lived in the body of the oak, did they not have the same qualities and attributes? These

wayward acorns remained convinced that it was their purpose in life to make real, to realize,and to bring forth their oakness. The acorn priests monitored them very closely. Whenever onemade too much sense or caused too much of a stirring in the community, they would pay theacorn thugs to come secretly in the night, capture the unorthodox acorn, and feed it to thesquirrels. They had dispensed with the public ritual of throwing acorns to the ground becausethe surrounding community had become flooded, annoyingly so, with hundreds of oak trees.

Adapted from the original version presented by John W. Aikens, Explorations in Awareness(Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1966).