Folk Tales No. 37

The monks and the lady ....

We all heard of the two monks who came to assist a lady across the stream and then one of the monk raised the concern of the other monk having in contact with the lady as its forbidden by their teaching. Well, that was not all to it.

So our story began.

The two monks continued in their journey across the country side after event. But still the young monk was puzzled by the nature of the lesson.

‘Hold on, Senior. I have to clear this from my mind. You carried the lady across the stream as it forbidden by our teaching to come in contact with any ladies.’

‘Our teaching taught us that. And I did carry the lady in question across the stream. And yes, you have not release your burden on the issue. So its in my capacity to tell you how. Sit here, my dear apprentice.’

And so they sat on the side of the road.

The carpenter came and saw them sitting there. He was carrying a long bench he just made.

‘Holy Ones, do you need a bench while you wait?’

The senior monk replied, ‘no thank you. We are fine.’

Later came a trader who rode by in his cart pulled by a donkey.

‘Do you want a ride, Holy Ones.’

The senior monk replied again, ‘no thank you. We are fine.’

It began to rain and the there came a group of ladies who had their umbrellas up.  They stopped to looked at the monks.

‘Can we offered you an umbrella? We do have a spare one.’

The senior monk replied again, ‘no thank you. We are fine.’

The ladies moved on.

The young apprentice looked to his senior and asked.

‘Tell me why are we sitting here and continuing our journey. You also did not accept any assistance given. So please tell me why is that so?’

‘I am teaching you the basics of our lessons. I asked you to sit here with me. That was the lesson I was teaching; to sit here. But your mind is not on the subject but the bench and cart, and also the shelter from the rain. If one does not understand the fundamental basics of the lesson; you will never learned.’

The Senior continued.

‘Just like I assisted the lady to cross the stream. Our basic lesson is to assist the needed in times of needs. And not to speculate on the nature of the gender of the person whom we are to assist. You are holding onto the thoughts that is not in our lessons at all. And your thoughts constraint your action on the basic lessons.’

‘But we are forbidden to touch any ladies of any age.’

‘I know. But I consider her not a lady but a distressed living creature whom I helped as I would retrieve a cat from the tree or freed a dog from it cage. Or even dressed a wound of an injured person. Do I check their gender before I do the deed? Its the impurity of your thoughts that undermine your noble deeds. So perhaps if you cleared your impurity, you will have less bagage in life.’

( we are taught many lessons in life, but we tend to forget the most basic lesson; learn the correct ones. )