The Battle of Fire and Water: A fable of Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

A long time ago before the manifestation of the material forms, two spirits, fire and water had been designated to watch over the heavenly gate, and had in their custody a divinely sealed box which contained the plans and order of the material forms.

One day, the two spirits became very curious about the material world and their purpose in it. So they got into a squabble of superiority, each giving its own reasons why it should have more dominance and power in the material world.

Fire, easily irritated and angered, flared up amidst the argument and took the box and smashed it to the ground. Then all the material creatures sprang forth from the box, running determinedly and unstoppably outside the heaven’s gate.

The two spirits became confused about how to control the situation. Consequently, they resolved to take the matter to their master in the most elevated realm of the heaven.

Hearing this, the master felt disappointed about their incompetence, especially about the lack of emotional intelligence of Fire. So the master gave his verdict.

Fire was sentenced to life imprisonment and denied the right to having a definite space in the material world. However, due to its original inclusion in the order of the material form, fire was given the privilege to come to life only where it’s activated or ignited.

For its calmness and composure, Water was rewarded with a larger space and dominion in the material world, but this came with a burden for water to always seek to tame fire and order it back to the prison whenever the latter surfaces in the material world.

The moral of this legend: Anger and violence are destructive elements of life. And while we keep our calm as we watch our neighbour exhibit these destructive elements, we may not be totally absolved of the consequences.