A Zen story that one needs to ponder its fine points

A pair of monks, a master and his pupil, went on a journey to visit a neighbouring monastery. As monk usually do, they walked much and spoke very little. On the third day of their journey they came to a fast flowing river where they saw a pretty young woman sitting there in a beautiful dress.

As she saw them approaching, she ran towards them in excitement. “Please!” she begged of the master monk, who was clearly the one in charge, “Will you carry me across this river? I’m on my way to meet my love one but I don’t want to ruin this dress; this is the best I have.”

The novice monk was shocked at her audacity; after all his master was a holy man and touching her would be deemed unclean. But before he could utter anything, and to his surprise his mentor master agreed to carry her.

And so he did, against the strong current, wading and pushing his way forward until he put the young lady down safely on the other side, weeping in joy and thanking him over and over again.

The two monks then continued their journey on foot in silence, day after day. Until on the third day, the student monk could no longer hold his tongue.

“Master,” he asked sheepishly, “Why did you carry the woman across the river?”

The master looked at him with a little smile and said “You have learned much but you still lack some wisdom, my student.” He continued, “That woman weighed on my back for three minutes, and then I was done. But she had been weighing on your mind for three days!”

And like the monks, so are we. It is better to carry a load and put it down and forget about it. Things that happened in the past should be left over there. We do not have to carry our past mistakes and misery with us, but to look to tomorrow out of hope and the knowledge our fate is up ahead…….

Many thanks to Dorris Chan for

sharing this enlightening story.

Alan CY Kok

Alan Kok says:……and don’t be a hypocrite.
May we not be so rigid in our thinking.

明眼人将会看穿你 !!