Simply being
This stone statuette of a woman sitting on a chair with her hands clasped over her stomach belonged to Walter Munz, a Swiss surgeon and close associate of Albert Schweitzer at Lambaréné. He entrusted it to us with this anecdote:
“This stone in the Village of Light reminds me of another. One day, during my weekly visit, Nzabi Prospèr, a pitiful-looking leprosy patient, brought me a still unfinished statuette that he was carving. It showed a peaceful man with his arms on his back. I asked Nzabi: “What’s your man doing? My question was very Western, even Swiss … as if a man always had to do something, earn a living, earn his money. Nzabi’s answer was simple: He’s here! – I had learned a great and valuable lesson: Be there! – a life other than the one that is always thinking about action, about having. – Buddha was near.
The statue shown here is not the one described above, but its message is similar”.