************ ********* ********* ********* ******
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.]
************ ********* ********* ********* *****
The Pretty Lady
Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling 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 her across the
river on his back. The lady accepted.
The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. 'How can big 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 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, that is 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.]
.
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