The Pretty
Lady
Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling
together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge
damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady
who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river.
The big monk offered to carry the pretty lady across the river on
his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the
move of the big monk. "How can big disciple brother carry a lady
when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?" thought
the little monk. But he kept quiet. The big monk carried the lady
across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they
crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted
ways with her. All along the way for several miles, the little monk
was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all
kinds of accusations about the big monk in his head. This got him
madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no
inclination to explain his situation.
Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could
not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk.
"How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first
opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty?
All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite."
The big monk looked surprised and said, "I had put down the pretty
lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still
carrying her along?"
[This very old Chinese zen story
reflects the thinking of many people today. We encounter many
unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us
angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause
us to be bitter or jealous. But like the little monk, we are not
willing to let them go away. We keep on carrying the baggage of the
"pretty lady" with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us,
make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony. Why?
Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of the
baggage of the "pretty lady". We should let go of the pretty lady
immediately after crossing the river, immediately after the
unpleasant event is over. This will immediately remove all our
agonies. There is no need to be further hurt by the unpleasant
event after it is over. It is just that
simple.]
The Frogs
A farmer came into town and asked the owner of a restaurant if he
could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner was hocked and
asked the man where he could get so many frog legs!
The farmer replied, "There is a pond near my house that is full of
frogs --- millions of them. They croak all night long and they are
about to make me crazy!" So the restaurant owner and the farmer
made an agreement that the farmer would deliver frogs to the
restaurant, five hundred at a time for the next several weeks. The
first week, the farmer returned to the restaurant looking rather
sheepish, with two scrawny little frogs. The restaurant owner said,
"Well... where are all the frogs?" The farmer said, "I was
mistaken. There were only these two frogs in the pond. But they
sure were making a lot of noise!"
[Next time you hear somebody
criticizing or making fun of you, remember, it's probably just a
couple of noisy frogs. Also remember that problems always seem
bigger in the dark. Have you ever lay in your bed at night worrying
about things, which seem almost overwhelming like a million frogs
croaking? Chances are pretty good that when the morning comes, and
you take a closer look, you'll wonder what all the fuss was
about.]
The Turtles
A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. Turtles, being naturally
slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outing.
Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place
for their outing. During the second year of their journey they
found a place ideal for them at last! For about six months they
cleaned up the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the
arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A
picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a
lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the
salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving
turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell.
He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat until he
returned. The family consented and the little turtle left. Three
years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years...
six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the oldest
turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was
going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich. At that point the
little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting,
"SEE! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the
salt."
[Some of us waste our time
waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so
concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything
ourselves.]
