Once upon a time, two Buddhist monks were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to walk across the river.
There was a beautiful woman waiting at the broken bridge who couldn’t cross the river.
The older monk volunteered to help her cross the river by carrying her on his back and the woman accepted the help.
Then, the older monk helped the woman cross by carrying her on his back while the young man continued to stay unhappy with a mind full of thoughts.
Amazed by the old monk’s act, the young monk was startled and wondered, “Being a monk who shouldn’t touch or look at women, how come he agreed to carry such a beautiful woman?”
In spite of his mind being is full of thought about this, the younger monk stayed calm.
After they passed through the river, the older monk left the lady on the shore of the river and got in his way with the young monk.
Both monks traveled quite a distance. All the way, the young monk was still thinking, “How come the old monk does so?” and started to make several allegations about the old monk…
This got him furious and irritated him a lot, but showed no sign of such thoughts…
After some time, not able to hold the burden of thoughts, he stopped the old monk, turned towards anger, and yelled at him,” Hey, old man, you are a big fraud. How can you call yourself a sincere monk having touched a woman, and that too such a beautiful woman?”
Looking at the young monk‘s stupidity, the old monk smiled gently and then told him, “My boy, I left that woman at the bank of the river, but how come you still carried the beautiful woman in your mind all the way?”
Hearing those words, the young monk collapsed on the old monk’s feet and broke into tears, then said, ” Hey, master, please forgive my foolishness.”
Moral
We encounter many unpleasant things in life. They irritate us and make us angry. We all struggle to get out of unpleasant things, but unknowingly, we carry them more than pleasant things. Rather than the unpleasant thing, it is our reaction to it all the time in our brain that spoils the things. There is no point in remaining hurt by unpleasant events over and over again after they are over.
Doing so spoils your present. The present is very precious for building your future, so utilize it to the best of your ability before it becomes past!
All we need to learn is to move on in life, leaving negativity behind, instead of carrying it like a king in a chariot!
