The Wisdom of the Council of Saws

I had a realization one day. It was a culmination of the wisdom of the various saws i have worked with during the course of my life. I have used saws for cutting wood, metal and stone and each one has spoke of a different relationship, a different path towards the creation of the new thing.

I was able to glean a bit of wisdom which transcends the physical realm of cutting material things and which is useful in social relationships as well as to the individuals spiritual life.

What i found was that the softer the material one wishes to cut through, the larger the teeth of the saw and the greater the space between those teeth in their arrangement on the saws blade. When cutting through hard materials, say metal, the teeth are quite small, and there are very many of them. When you get to cutting stone, well the "teeth" of the saw are now comprised of abrasives, usually diamonds.

When dealing with simple matters of the social arena, say helping a friend move furniture, only a few people are needed and there are a limited number of actions to take. But in larger more difficult social matters, say social progress or cultural change, it takes many people and many small actions working in alignment towards a unified vision. I am thinking here about things as wide ranging as community legislation to radical social revolution.

In matters of the individual as well, say in self improvement or refinement, the easy change like changing ones clothes or eating a meal is done rather swiftly and in single event increments. But harder things, like losing weight or dealing with emotional issues or learning a new skill, these things take time and are achieved in a long line of tiny actions repeated over and over. It is a much slower progress, a gradual chipping away at the stone. This should be understood and considered when setting forth ones intentions as well as being aware of this and having compassion towards ones self, loving ones self with the knowledge that change takes time.