Page 40 - SB-Black and White Kingdom

A familiar phase heard at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings is, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The addict recognizes that this is the core problem for them in their dealings with all of life, not just the alcohol.
In our story, Cosmos tells of a Kingdom in which everything is black or white. You can judge its “goodness” by its color. “If a fruit is white it is ripe but if it is black, it is not ripe. If a person is your friend, he is black but if he does anything to harm you or lies to you or disagrees with you, he will change to white and you know that he is no longer your friend.” In the story, this makes all decisions and evaluations very easy, “once you learn what color means what.”
Then this strange peddler enters the story. He offers the King some magic glasses that will give him “the gift of smart.” This is not very interesting to the king but he is willing to listen. The king tries on the glasses and now everything and everyone is no longer black or white but of different “shades.”
The king finds this very confusing initially. The peddler explains that the magic glasses will allow the king to see life as it is in reality,
(free of prejudices and misperceptions) and thus make him wiser. The peddler accompanies the king for many weeks instructing him in how to use the glasses. “And with a little practice, you can tell the subtle differences not only in fruit but in people.” After some time, the King comes to realize that life is more interesting and he is making much better decisions now that he is familiar with using these “magic glasses.”
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