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 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.]
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The Pretty Lady
Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were travelling together.
They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was 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.]
------xxxxx------
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 shocked 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 all 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 laid 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.]
