Once two monks were walking down a path, eager to reach the monastery before the dark. They came across a river with water current unusually high. They decided to cross the river nevertheless.
They saw a young and beautiful woman who was trying to cross the river as well but had a worried look on her face. She felt relieved on seeing the monks and requested if they could help her cross the river. The younger monk said,
“We are monks and we are forbidden to touch women, we are sorry, we will not be able to help you”.
She was disappointed. Just then the older monk went and lifted the woman on his shoulders and started crossing the river. The younger monk was taken aback and couldn’t believe what had happened. He followed them to cross the river.
The woman thanked the monk profusely after crossing the river and continued on her way.
The two monks continued on their journey and there was complete silence between the two as hours passed. The younger monk could no longer contain himself and told the older monk –
“How could you carry that woman on your shoulders when are forbidden to touch women?”
“Which woman?” asked the older monk. The young monk was puzzeled and said – “The woman you carried and helped her in crossing the river”
The older monk smiled and replied –
“Brother, I left her at the bank a while ago but you are still carrying her”
Wisdom Bite
This beautiful Zen story is conveying that, we need to live in the present moment without carrying the baggage of the past. It could be ill feelings, anger, jealousy, or hatred against someone who would have mistreated us or said bad things about us. Life is too short to go around carrying this baggage along and losing our own peace of mind.
It should be happiness and peace of mind that should be important to us. If we inculcate forgiveness, it will relieve us from the pain and misery due to our negative thoughts that we carry with us as the baggage.
