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 . . .
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.