The Magical Kitchen

Imagine that you have a magical kitchen in your home. In that magical kitchen, you can have any food you want from any place in the world in any quantity. You never worry about what to eat; whatever you wish for, you can have at your table. You are very generous with your food; you give your food unconditionally to others, not because you want something in return from them. Whoever comes to your home, you feed just for the pleasure of sharing your food, and your house is always full of people who come to eat the food from your magical kitchen. Then one day someone knocks at your door, and It's a person with a pizza. You open the door, and the person looks at you and says, "Hey, do you see this pizza? I'll give you this pizza if you let me control your life, if you just do whatever I want you to do. You are never going to starve because I can bring pizza every day. You just have to be good to me. Can you imagine your reaction? In your kitchen you can have the same pizza even better. Yet this person comes to you and offers you food, if you just do whatever he wants you to do. You are going to laugh and say, "No, thank you! I don't need your food; I have plenty of food. You can come into my house and eat whatever you want, and you don't have to do anything. Don't believe I'm going to do whatever you want me to do, No one will manipulate me with food." Now imagine exactly the opposite. Several weeks have gone by, and you haven't eaten. You are starving, and you have no money in your pocket to buy food. The person comes with the pizza and says, "Hey, there's food here. You can have this food if you just do what I want you to do." You can smell the food, and you are starving. You decide to accept the food and do whatever that person asks of you. You eat some food, and he says, "If you want more, you can have more, but you have to keep doing what I want you to do." You have food today, but tomorrow you may not have food, so you agree to do whatever you can for food. You can become a slave because of food, because you need food, because you don't have It. Then after a certain time you have doubts. You say, "What am I going to do without my pizza? I cannot live without my pizza. What if my partner decides to give the pizza to someone else -- my pizza? Now imagine that instead of food, we are talking about love.

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When I first read this story, I was stunned by it. It seems like a very simple and obvious story but when I combined the other ideas shared in the book, I realize it means more to me than I thought.

1. I will be only hungry when my kitchen is not working.

2. I will be conditional if I feel the scarcity.

3. If I feel I have an abundance of food, I won't be able to stop myself from sharing it. I can't eat alone when I know the food is great and in abundance.

4. Thinking that the food is abundant is a matter of faith, no one knows how long the food is going to last and no one can be sure that tomorrow I will get the food. The abundance comes from a point of view. It has nothing to do with a particular amount or quantity.

5. The joy is not eating the best food available from anywhere in the world in an unlimited quantity. The joy is in sharing.

6. When I am not hungry, I don't need anything in return. I just want to give it to others.

Please do share, if you find something other than what I have learned from the story...

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All the credit goes to the writer Don Miguel Ruiz for writing the book "The Mastery of Love"