Story of Two Monks

There were two monks traveling to a faraway place on foot. Along their journey came a river, which they needed to cross to get to the other side. The river was only knee deep, and at places, the water was upto the neck. But due to the very strong wind that day, the current was very strong and it was really hard to cross to the other side. 

As they were about to start, a young woman approached them and asked for help. She wanted to go to the other side of the river and asked if they could help her cross the river. It was really urgent for her to reach the other side. 

The older of the two monks agreed to help and carried her to the other side of the river. This perplexed the younger monk as they had vowed not to touch a woman. But he kept quiet and continued with the day’s trek. At dinner that day, he could not control himself and asked the elder monk. “As monks, I thought we are not supposed to touch a woman, so why did you carry her across the river”. Hearing this the elder monk replied, “ I helped someone who was in need, and I dropped her across the river. But, it seems you are still carrying her. When someone is in need, how does it matter if it is a man or woman.”

The moral of the story – Like the young monk, we hold onto things from the past, which causes us grief. We all go through experiences of guilt, regret, anger, or any other negative emotion in our life. we carry on those hurts and resentment in our minds. 

Live life with Kindness & Compassion first always. 

Epilogue: This famous Zen story came to my mind on Medha’s visual prompt for the day.  In public speaking, we have a set of answers which are always true, which you can use to answer any questions (though strictly not answering), and this felt like that. Hope to share more original writing  next time 🙂