Is is as if life or reality itself has had it in mind all along to unravel the very design i have been trying all along to impose on it.
Two monks were once travelling together down a wet and muddy road. The rain was torrential, making it almost impossible to walk along the path. As the two men were trudging along, a beautiful girl dressed in silk appeared. She was unable to cross the path and looked distressed. __et me help you_, said the older monk. He picked her up and carried her over the mud. His younger male companion did not utter a word that night until they reached their lodging temple. Then after hours of restrained conversation, the younger monk exclaimed: __e monks do not touch females; it is too tempting for us and can create a bad outcome_. The older monk looked into the younger monks eyes and said, __ left the girl on the road. Are you still carrying her?_ This ancient Zen story illustrates beautifully how so many of us are trapped in the habit of constantly __e-living_ the past in our minds, thus dishonouring the present moment. The young monk wasted hours distressing himself with judgment, speculation, anxiety, resentment and ultimately self-perpetuated unhappiness as a direct result of not being mindful.
Quote Detail
Two monks were once travelling together down a wet and muddy road. The rain was torrential, making it almost impossible to walk along the path. As the two men were trudging along, a beautiful girl dressed in silk appeared. She was unable to cross the path and looked distressed. __et me help you_, said the older monk. He picked her up and carried her over the mud. His younger male companion did not utter a word that night until they reached their lodging temple. Then after hours of restrained conversation, the younger monk exclaimed: __e monks do not touch females; it is too tempting for us and can create a bad outcome_. The older monk looked into the younger monks eyes and said, __ left the girl on the road. Are you still carrying her?_ This ancient Zen story illustrates beautifully how so many of us are trapped in the habit of constantly __e-living_ the past in our minds, thus dishonouring the present moment. The young monk wasted hours distressing himself with judgment, speculation, anxiety, resentment and ultimately self-perpetuated unhappiness as a direct result of not being mindful.
Quick Answer
What this quote page tells you
This canonical quote page keeps the full saying, the attributed author, any linked work, and the topic tags together so the quote can be cited from one stable URL.
Related Quotes
More quote cards from the same area
Now, however open a person manages to be, there is one possibility to which he remains as closed as ever: the possibility that when he uncovers his deepest anxieties he will find hidden inside them certain horrifying truths which his whole effort to control his life has been designed to keep repressed.
When we operate on the basis of the will to control, we are aware of only one kind of "evil": the failure of existence to conform to the plan we have for it.
What we work so hard to avoid is the shattering of our lives by horrors we know we will be helpless to control.
May your sleep be your death, and your wakefulness be your heaven.
Peace of mind arrives the moment you come to peace with the contents of your mind.