Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back at his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather. Definitely, this would need thousands of cows’ skin, and would cost a huge amount of money.
Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, “Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money ? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet ?”
The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a “shoe” for himself.
Moral: There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story : to make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself – your heart; and not the world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change… Jane Derry – Effective and intuitive counselor, helping people untangle their lives to clarity and peace of mind.
Zen Ghost Story (about change)…
A man’s jealous wife was very ill. Before the woman died, she made her husband promise that he would remain ever faithful to her even after death. “If you betray me, I will come back to haunt you!”
The man kept his promise for one year. Then he met, fell in love, and proposed to another woman. On the very night of the engagement, the ghost of his former wife appeared. The spirit angrily berated her husband, and told him she would show up every night if he did not cancel the upcoming wedding. The grim spirit showed up night after night and mockingly told the poor man of every thing he and his fiancé had done during their day together. The ghost even knew what they had eaten and talked about. The man became afraid to go to bed. He was falling apart.
In despair, the fellow went to a Zen master for help. The master listened to the story very seriously. He said, “This is a very cunning ghost!”
“Yes!” cried the man, “she knows everything I do, she watches me all day long, and taunts me with the details”.
The master replied, “I will tell you what to do to break the spell and let your jealous dead wife’s spirit rest in peace.” That night when the ghost reappeared, the man followed the master’s instructions.
He told the ghost, “Cruel Spirit! You follow me around all day, and know everything I do. If you are so smart, then answer my one question. If you know the answer, I will remain a bereaved and lonely widower for the rest of my life.”
The ghost answered, “What is your question?”
The man scooped up a handful of beans from a large bag on the floor. “Tell me exactly how many beans there are in my hand.”
In that moment, the ghost disappeared and never returned.
Moral: (my interpretation of course) I felt this was a story about those who feel the need to control things. Those who feel they know everything and in this case possessive. Confront them with a question they can not answer and you have shattered their reality. If you click the link above and read the article that goes with this story, it is derived that the story is to make you think outside the box and promote contemplation.
may the winds of change be graceful to you
22 comments
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December 10, 2011 at 7:35 am
willowdot21
Your words are again a source of interest to me I love to read them!
December 10, 2011 at 10:40 am
zendictive
as I love to post them… initially I wanted to place the note book full of zen stories I had in a drawer on a blog to share with the world the wisdom it bestowed and of course my daily pilgrimage to find zen/enlightenment everyday (that I can) has produced even more and I do enjoy the time and effort of placing wisdom together in one location Zendictive.wordpress (~_~)
December 10, 2011 at 7:53 am
iamforchange
Inspiration…It is good to challenge and contemplate as that leads to growth and real change! Thank you!
December 10, 2011 at 10:42 am
zendictive
to ponder on a tale is an enjoyment to me, I am glad you enjoy it too (~_~)
December 10, 2011 at 8:45 am
sweetopiagirl
Reblogged this on Inspiredweightloss.
December 10, 2011 at 10:46 am
zendictive
sharing is what it is all about (~_~)
December 10, 2011 at 8:51 am
Cindi Pugliese
You did it again. Your little girl must love to hear you tell her stories. Change is a good thing, no matter how hard. It’s easy to give up when things seem most difficult, but that’s the time to move forward.
December 10, 2011 at 10:44 am
zendictive
oh well, that is challenging (grin) she is immune to my story telling charm (grin) but every once in a awhile I find one that intrigues her (~_~)
December 10, 2011 at 9:21 am
Cat Forsley
Great stories and Morals ….
Change….. “Let it come and Let it Be …”
Best ….
Cat
December 10, 2011 at 10:45 am
zendictive
“Let it come and Let it Be …”
I like that (~_~) be good, be kind, but most of all be happy!
December 10, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Cat Forsley
🙂 🙂 🙂
December 10, 2011 at 11:26 am
Fergiemoto
Wow – another good one. While I was reading the ghost story, I kept thinking that his conscience (perhaps guilty conscience?) was haunting him. Sometimes it takes hearing the right thing at the right time to help snap you into a change.
December 10, 2011 at 11:39 am
zendictive
wow, that may very well be… I was fixated on the ghost and had not thought about the man’s conscience (~_~) witty
December 10, 2011 at 2:12 pm
granbee
Art, how amazing, the serendipitous timing of this post in my blogging life! I just yesterday very softly informed our church women’s treasurer that a recent donation to a local substance abuse rehab ministry went solely to the expansion of the facility to handle the long waiting lists(thanks to the great track record of this ministry), and NOT to any printing costs in the program in which our group had purchased space to support this ministry. This lady had kept the donation smaller than some preferred due to her misconception and refusal to listen to further details originally. Now this lady is listening more carefully to me! This post confirms for me the value of properly challenging the “know-it-alls” in our lives!
December 12, 2011 at 8:05 am
zendictive
you have to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything… (~_~)
always a pleasure to read your comments
Art~
December 10, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Pocket Perspectives
Good ideas in this post…thanks! And I linked into that blog, Focus on Today, that the story was on…what a insightful blog, jammed with good ideas. Looks like they aren’t posting anymore? Well, I’ll go back and read their older posts….
December 12, 2011 at 8:00 am
zendictive
yeah, I thought about that, they may not post any longer but the wisdom is still there so I wondered, If I died tomorrow will I have done a great service by leaving these wisdom writes in the same manner… I hope so (~_~)
December 11, 2011 at 9:57 am
Sue Dreamwalker
Here’s to Change… and may it start with ourselves..
December 12, 2011 at 7:55 am
zendictive
I agree,
good to see you Sue… (~_~)
December 11, 2011 at 12:44 pm
zumpoems
Enjoyed both of these!
December 12, 2011 at 7:57 am
zendictive
yeah, they could have been two seperate posts but the same topic… change
so I placed them together… it’s not about quantity but about quality (~_~)
January 23, 2012 at 4:10 am
buying shoes « zendictive
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