The Zen master had a student who didn’t care about trivial things in life.
One day the master asked the student: Heavy rain or light rain, which one tends to wet people’s clothes? The student answered: of course the heavy rain. But the master said: The truth is the light rain get us wet easier The student asked: Heavy rain comes with a big amount of water, light rain barely has water, how light rain is the one that gets us wet easier?The master answered: because when heavy rain is dropping everyone knows, so who has the umbrella will put it on, and who doesn’t have any rain gear will go find a roof to avoid getting wet. But the light rain is hard to feel, or people feel ok with it, they don’t think this tiny water can get them wet ,but as time goes by, they will be wet without noticing.
Our speech and behavior, such as an expression or an action are like the drizzle. They look small, but if we don’t control them, without alertness and attention, they will hurt other people easily.
There was a beggar walking down the street dejectedly. His clothes were so worn that they barely covered his body. His face looked like he has not eaten a full meal in a long time. He was mumbling: why am I so poor? If I can eat a full meal that would be great! If Bodhisattva is supposed to protect people, why don’t you take care of me?”
At this moment, Bodhisattva suddenly appeared in front of him. The beggar rubbed his eyes and recognized that he was Bodhisattva, he knelt on the ground and begged: Dear Bodhisattva! Help me! I’m poor, I have nothing….”
Bodhisattva asked: “ Tell me, what do you want most?” The beggar already had the wish in mind, he just wanted a full meal, but he suddenly changed his mind, because Bodhisattva was really there with him, he didn’t want to waste the chance, he thought Bodhisattva ccould give him much more than just a meal. So the beggar answered: “ I want gold! Bodhisattva said: “ok, now take off your clothes and use them to catch the gold, but don’t catch too much, it will rip your clothes and fall, then they will turn to stones. they are only gold when you catch and wrap them in your clothes.”
The beggar was so excited, there was gold dropping like a shower. The beggar caught alot in his clothes and didn’t want to stop. Bodhisattva said: “Be careful, your clothes are almost ripped. ”
The beggar didn’t care about anything Bodhisattva said, he shouted : “more! drop more!”
Suddenly his clothes cracked a big hole and all the gold inside dropped on the ground as tiny pieces of rock.
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.
