Image source: Instagram - compassion
There once was a master who used to house and teach a few students in his temple. One fine day, someone reported that one of his students had stolen something from some other student and that there was unrest amongst the students to punish him. He promptly ignored it. The same student committed the same act again after a few days, and the master ignored the unrest this time too. When it happened for the third time, the rest of the students decided to sign a petition and send the master an ultimatum that if this student was not expelled from the temple immediately, they would all resign and leave the temple together.
The next morning, the master organised a special lecture for all the students in the temple. He gathered all those who had signed the petition and told them, "You are all very wise, and already know what is right and what is wrong. So you may go and lead your life out there on your own. But think about this little guy. He's so far from wisdom that he doesn't even know right from wrong. Who will teach him if I don't? You all can leave the temple if you wish to, but I cannot expel him." Saying thus, he retired to his quarters.
No one left the temple that day, or in the days to come. As it turned out, all of them had something to learn from the master. All of them.
For me, this story does not stand out for pointing to the reader what's 'right' and what's 'wrong'. In all common sense, the rest of the students who wanted the thief to be evicted from the temple were obviously 'right', the student who stole was 'wrong' and the act of demanding the student to be expelled also seems 'right'.
But you see that what the master did was far more subtle. He did not act on the idea of expelling the 'wrong' student because, if you think about it, that’s more like a reactive measure and won’t solve any 'problem' really, except maybe just make the temple-stay more comfortable for the other students for some time. Instead, he keeps the student with him on the premise this is actually the student who is more in need of a teacher than anyone else. Also, in doing so, he made the ‘right’ students see that there's something beyond 'right' and 'wrong' that they had not realised, something else beyond just labelling somebody's (including our own) actions, thoughts and emotions as 'right' and 'wrong' and acting on the judgment. And having missed out on that, these students were also not really 'right' and also had 'something' to learn from the master yet.
Trip on that for a while...
It’s really true that you don't know what you don't know.
<Another blog along similar lines - Compassion>
In all honesty, I prefer having personal chats rather than back and forth in the comments' section. If you feel like you want to have discussion with me regarding the content on my blog or anything else, please connect with me on my Instagram here: Chetan Narang - Instagram
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