The Oak and the Woodcutters

The woodcutter cut down a mountain oak and split it into pieces, making wedges from its own branches to divide the trunk.

With a heavy sigh, the oak lamented, "I do not care about the blows of the axe aimed at my roots, but I do grieve at being torn apart by these wedges crafted from my own branches."

Indeed, misfortunes that arise from within ourselves are the hardest to bear.