unexpected

perception is how you are treated, not who you are, said the wise man to the simple one who asked: but it feels good to be liked! and had trouble differentiating between a heavy truth versus a shallow laugh because everyone could see how nice it must be to have it all. so the simple man went about his ways to collect treasures of the earth, clothed himself with them with fake friends praising him, flattering, brown nosing till perception became reality. but he wasn't happy, he wasn't satisfied, but he could not say it out aloud because you see, perception was everything and he did not want the groveling to end. it felt good, till it no longer did when the chants, the songs, the paradise felt wrong. so search for the wise man he did, could not find his whereabouts though he searched high and low. where could he be? wearied, fatigued, beaten from lack of luck he stopped by the river and there he saw the wise man when he had shed off his former self, that filled not. perception was not everything, it never touched the man, the individual, the soul and isn't that everything?