One day, in the dead of night, the lock woke up the key and complained: “I work hard every day to guard the house for our owner, but he likes you and carry you everywhere with him, I really envy you .”
photo by Morning Brew on Unsplash
But the key was dissatisfied, he said: you stay at home every day, how comfortable that is. Yes, I follow him every day everywhere, but I am expose to the big sun, heavy rain, I envy you more！
Another day, the key really wanted to experience a comfortable stay home life, so he hid, he didn’t go with the owner that day.
when the owner got home, he couldn’t find the key to open the lock, he checked over and over again from everywhere he thought the key could have been, and finally he lost his patience. He used a rock broke the lock and threw it to the garbage can.
When he got into the house, he found the key was staying at home, but he said: “ the lock is ruined, what’s the reason to keep you here.” he dumped it, too.
The key and the lock met In the garbage can, they sighed: “because we didn’t see each other’ s value and effort, we though each other’s position is better, we had mutual suspicion, so we ended up sadly today.
Sometimes in life, when we are suspicious and jealous of each other will hurt both sides, but when we trust and support each other when we cooperate and appreciate each other, both get a win.
According to the theory of Yin and Yang, when you lost something you also gain something, when you gain something you lost something too.
photo by Alex on Unsplash
Once upon a time, there was a rich guy who had a large business and a lot of property. He worried about if his accountant had made mistakes, so even though he was old, he still kept checking the accounts by himself every night. Right next to the wall of his house, there was a poor family. The poor couple worked from dawn to dusk for making tofu for a living. Although life seemed tough to them, the poor couple talked a lot, they made jokes, they laughed and sang every day. Every night, when the poor couple was happy to go to bed, next door the rich man was still diligent for checking his accounts, no matter how exhausted he was.
One night, the rich guy’s wife said: “We are always busy at night for counting money, that’s so boring. Look at the neighbor, their life is tough, but they seem much happier than us.”The rich guy said: “they will stop laughing and singing tomorrow.” then he grabbed a gold ingot and walked out, then threw it to the poor couple’s yard. The poor couple was joking and giggling inside, suddenly they heard “bang”, something almost hit their door. They took the lantern and went out to check.
photo by Vladimir Fedotov on Unsplash
Under the lantern, there was A gold ingot on the ground, they almost stopped breathing, they were so confused, so nervous, so surprised…They picked it up quietly and went inside. They thought it draped from the sky, it’s got to be a gift from God, they can’t let other people know about it, so they hid it under the pillow, but they thought it wasn’t secure, then they hid it in the rice tank, still thought it wasn’t secure. They spent all night thinking and try where to hide it better, but nowhere seemed safe enough, of course, they did not make any tofu that night.
The second day, they started discussing their new future, they wanted to stop making tofu, buy a bigger property, but they were also worried if people noticed that they got money so fast, people may think it was stolen. If nothing will be changed in their life, then what is the reason for “god” giving this gold ingot . . . they were thinking a lot, they got so confused, they stopped joking, laughing and singing, they kept thinking and thinking over and over again, but, they couldn’t find any perfect solutions with the gold ingot.
The third day, the rich guy said to the wife: “see? no singing no joking and no laughing from the neighbor, right?”
background photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash
When we have less stuff, the things we only have will be treasured and valuable. When we have more stuff we never feel enough, then we get confused about what we truly need.
A nomad walked into the temple, he saw Bodhisattva was sitting on the lotus platform for worship, he was very envious.
He asked: “Can I change to your position”?
Bodhisattva answered: “Only if you can keep silent, no matter what you see or hear”.
Then the nomad sat on the lotus platform. Things were not as lovely as he thought. There were messy and noisy all day long, so many prayers and wishes. He struggled to keep the promise to Bodhisattva.
One day, a rich man came in, he said: “Bodhisattva，please give me virtue”.He knelt and got up, his wallet dropped on the floor, but he didn’t know. The nomad who was being “Bodhisattva” just wanted to tell the rich man about that, then he reminded himself of real Bodhisattva’s words. So he kept his mouth shut.
Then, a poor man came in. He said: “Bodhisattva, please let me get some money, my family is dying, We need some cash to see a doctor”.He knelt and got up, he suddenly found the wallet on the floor, he was so happy, he thought it was the manifestation from Bodhisattva. He took the wallet and walked away.
The nomad wanted to tell the poor man it is nothing about Bodhisattva’s manifestation, it is just because a rich man dropped by accident.
In the meantime, a fisherman came in. He asked Bodhisattva to give pleasant weather to keep him safe during fishing. Still, the same as others，knelt and got up. When he was just about to leave, the rich man came back in a hurry and stopped him, the rich man thought the fisherman must be the one who picked up his wallet. Of course, the fisherman had no idea about it, Seeing they spent the time discussing the problem, the nomad could not bear the mess anymore, he said: “stop”! , then he told them the truth about the wallet.
They found the poor man at the gate of the temple, he hadn’t left yet. So, money was back to the rich man, things cleared, and the fisherman was free to go back to fish.
This mess seemed to be handled well by the nomad, but Bodhisattva said: “just go back to your life, you thought it was impartial that you opened your mouth to tell them the truth, but nobody got the things they wished. If you have kept silent as you promised, the rich man could have got his virtue by his money helping others, the poor man would have saved family’s life and if things were not cleared soon by your mouth, the fisherman could have stuck in the temple more to avoid the bad weather, then he wouldn’t have died.
The nomad was silent then walked out of the temple . . .
quote’s background picture is from Unsplash
Everything happens for a reason, they are under the best arrangements. Things happen when it meant to happen.Sometimes, all answers can be found in silence.
Humans learn to speak in two years, but take the rest of life to learn when to keep silent.
