A story claimed by both Buddhists and Sufis...
One day a monkey had an profound experience which made him far more aware of the suffering of others, and much more compassionate.
He resolved to put this compassion into action.
Walking through the jungle path he was a worm lying in the sun...he gently picked it up and placed in the shade on wet soil.
Walking on again he saw a wasp in a puddle, so he fished it out with a leaf and left it to dry.
He then came to a clear pool, where he saw a fish. Overwhelmed with compassion he scooped the fish from the water and lodged it in the branch of a tree..... to prevent it from drowning.
Fired with compassion he then looked for more creatures to help..
The moral is. when confronted with the suffering of others, particularly their mental suffering, we need to know what is likely to help. and what might make things worse..
The compassionate monkey
Re: The compassionate monkey
Good story but I think the part with the fish was added later
Just that! *smile*
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html
BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html
BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
Re: The compassionate monkey
Is it possible to conceive of a point being missed so utterly ?
Re: The compassionate monkey
Where angels fear to tread, there is Hanzze....
Re: The compassionate monkey
So what's the point? Avoid any kind of helpful intervention because there is a risk you will misjudge a person's need for help? Worth the risk, I'd say.
edit - I just saw the moral. The point about it being mental suffering is cause for pause, there is a tendency to want to play mental healer for people who open up here....
edit - I just saw the moral. The point about it being mental suffering is cause for pause, there is a tendency to want to play mental healer for people who open up here....
Kammalakkhano , bhikkhave, bālo, kammalakkhano pandito, apadānasobhanī paññāti
(The fool is characterized by his/her actions/the wise one is characterized by his/her actions/Wisdom shines forth in behaviour.)
(AN 3.2 Lakkhana Sutta)
(The fool is characterized by his/her actions/the wise one is characterized by his/her actions/Wisdom shines forth in behaviour.)
(AN 3.2 Lakkhana Sutta)
Re: The compassionate monkey
phil wrote:So what's the point? Avoid any kind of helpful intervention because there is a risk you will misjudge a person's need for help? Worth the risk, I'd say.
edit - I just saw the moral. The point about it being mental suffering is cause for pause, there is a tendency to want to play mental healer for people who open up here....
Re: The compassionate monkey
plwk wrote:Where angels fear to tread, there is Hanzze....
Ok here is the original story with no additions, as found in Idris Shah among others...
"A kindly monkey saw a fish in a pool and wanting to help, the monkey scooped the fish out of the water and placed it in a tree for safe keeping."
As you will see the "added bits" were everything else...
Re: The compassionate monkey
WIthout the other parts, that story I would believe *smile* but a monkey with so much awarness, seeing a worm needs shadow would not place a fish on a tree.PeterB wrote: "A kindly monkey saw a fish in a pool and wanting to help, the monkey scooped the fish out of the water and placed it in a tree for safe keeping."
How ever, it is a importand issue. Let me add a story:
Balancing Wisdom and Compassion
Wisdom must always be balanced by compassion, and compassion must be balanced by wisdom. We cannot have peace without this balance. I would like to share three stories to illustrate this.
One day, a violent dragon king met a Bodhisattva on the path. The Bodhisattva said, „My son, do not kill. If you keep the five precepts and care for all life, you will be happy.“ Hearing just these few words, the dragon became totally nonviolent.
The children who tended animals at the foot of the Himalayan mountains had been very afraid of the dragon. But when the dragon became gently, they lost there fear and soon began to jump on him, pull his tail, and stuff stones and dirt into his mouth. After a while, the dragon could not eat, and became very sick.
The next time the dragon king met the Bodhisattva, he shouted, “You told me that if I kept the precepts and was compassionate, I would be happy. But now I suffer, and I am not happy at all.”
The Boddhisattva replied, “My son, if you have compassion, morality, and virtue, you must also have wisdom and intelligence. This is the way to protect yourself. The next time the children make you suffer, show them your fire. After that, they will trouble you no more.”
Who was harmed when the dragon lacked wisdom? Both the dragon and the children suffered.
The balance of wisdom and compassion is called the middle path. Here is another story. Once an old farmer found a dying cobra in his ricefield. Seeing the cobra’s suffering, the farmer was filled with compassion. He picked up the snake and carried him home. Then he fed the cobra warm milk, wrapped him in a soft blanket, and lovingly placed the snake beside him in his bed as he went to sleep. In the morning, the farmer was dead.
Why was he killed? Because he used compassion and not wisdom. If you pick up a cobra, it will bite you. When you find a way to save the dying cobra without lifting it, you have balanced wisdom with compassion. Then you are happy, and the cobra is happy, too.
Here is the third story: There was a farmer who went into the forest with his friend to gather wood. When the farmer struck a tree with his axe, he disturbed a beehive, and a swarm of angry bees flew out and began stinging him.
The farmer’s friend was filled with compassion. He grabbed his axe and killed the bees with swift, mighty blows. Unfortunately, he also killed the farmer.
Compassion without wisdom can cause great suffering. We might even say, “It is better to have a wise enemy than a foolish friend.”
Wisdom and compassion must walk together. Having one without the other is like walking with one foot. You may hop a few times, but eventually you will walk very well - slowly and elegantly, step by step.
(from “Step by Step” by Maha Ghosananda)
Just that! *smile*
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html
BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html
BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
Re: The compassionate monkey
And who is THAT far...PeterB wrote:
The moral is. when confronted with the suffering of others, particularly their mental suffering, we need to know what is likely to help. and what might make things worse..
Re: The compassionate monkey
Me as much as anyone Anna.
Re: The compassionate monkey
I think Chogyam Trungpa called it 'idiot compassion', Peter.
Re: The compassionate monkey
Unfortunately, yes.PeterB wrote: Is it possible to conceive of a point being missed so utterly ?
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
Re: The compassionate monkey
All of those stories were about compassion without wisdom. Why weren't there any about wisdom without compassion?Hanzze wrote: ...
Wisdom and compassion must walk together. Having one without the other is like walking with one foot. You may hop a few times, but eventually you will walk very well - slowly and elegantly, step by step.
If you have wisdom do you automatically have compassion?
Re: The compassionate monkey
It is not automatic. You can have one without the other - with unfortunate results.
''Some religions believe that compassion or love (the two are very similar) is the most important spiritual quality but they fail to develop any wisdom. The result is that you end up being a good-hearted fool, a very kind person but with little or no understanding. Other systems of thought, like science, believe that wisdom can best be developed when all emotions, including compassion, are kept out of the way. The outcome of this is that science has tended to become preoccupied with results and has forgotten that science is to serve man not to control and dominate him.''
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/qanda07.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
with metta
Chris
''Some religions believe that compassion or love (the two are very similar) is the most important spiritual quality but they fail to develop any wisdom. The result is that you end up being a good-hearted fool, a very kind person but with little or no understanding. Other systems of thought, like science, believe that wisdom can best be developed when all emotions, including compassion, are kept out of the way. The outcome of this is that science has tended to become preoccupied with results and has forgotten that science is to serve man not to control and dominate him.''
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/qanda07.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
with metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---