The Archbishops Inscription
There is a story about an inscription on the tomb of one of the Archbishops of Canterbury. Once there was a boy, who was born in England.; He thought "when I grow up, I am going to change the world." He studied the arts of war, then went on the crusades. He fought and fought returning from the wars very sad and depressed at all the carnage and death that he had witnessed and participated in. So he went into the church thinking after all this pain, "I have seen the world and tried to change it with arms of war and seen nothing change, perhaps I can change my country with well meaning effort through the church." He worked and worked to change the country. In fact, he worked so hard, he became Archbishop. Then he looked around and saw that despite all his work there was no real change.; Again he felt sad, but he thought: "I know, if I cannot change the world through war, and my country through the church, then I will change the church"
So he worked and worked to change the church. One day he looked in the mirror and realized he had grown old. He looked around and realized the world had not changed, neither had the country and neither had the church. He thought I will change my family. I know that I can do at least this before I die. This was to no avail. It just made his whole family angry with him. One day he thought soon I am going to die, I could not change the world, or my country or the church or my family, perhaps I have just enough time to change myself. He began to work upon himself meditating every day and watching how he spoke and being mindful of what and how he did things, being thoughtful of others, always with the thought: "today is probably my last day and my last chance to be kind and loving and to give from my heart" Then to his surprise, he started to see changes in everyone around him; First he saw changes in the behavior of his close associates, then his family and then even in previously difficult members of the church. So he had this story inscribed on his tombstone at the cathedral and at the end it says: "so I tell all of you who would do as I, and try to change the world, do not wait until the end of your life to know this great truth:
'work on yourself because as you change, the whole world will changes with you'"
