deathpoet's blog: "zen stories"

Once there was an old monk who was traveling to a far off temple. His journey took him through the jungle. While he was walking, he heard, far in the distance a tiger. Not thinking too much of it, the old man did his best to hurry along. Some hours later, when the sound of the tiger grew closer, the monk thought it best to begin to climb uphill, hoping this would turn the tiger aside. This did not work and the monk could hear the tiger had gotten much closer. Upon reaching the to of the hill, the old monk found himself at the edge of a cliff and there was no way back down passed the tiger. Looking for a way to escape the old man looked down the side of the cliff and there he spied a branch. Twisting out along the branch was a strawberry vine and at the end of the vine the largest, reddest strawberry he had ever seen. While the growl of the tiger came ever closer, the old man climbed down to the branch, and though it creaked in weakness, the old monk crawled out to its edge. The tiger reached the top of the cliff looked down and called out to the monk. "Old man," the tiger roared, "come up here and I will make your end swift and painless!" The monk reached out and plucked the strawberry. He smiled and drew a sigh of contentment, "That is the most delicous strawberry I ever tasted." he said to himself.

There was once an old man who had a fine strong son. The father and son were poor and had little except for an exceptional stallion. One night, the son forgot to close the gate to the corral and the stallion ran off. The next day the old man's friends and neighbors came to console him on his bad luck. The old man smiled and said, "Good luck, bad luck, who knows?" For the next day, the stallion returned and brought with him a great herd of horses. Now the old man's friends and neighbors came and congratulated him for his good luck. Again the old man only smiled and said, "Good luck, bad luck, who knows?" For the next day, the son was thrown while trying to break the horses and both his legs were broken. Again the old man was consoled and again he responded, "Good luck, bad luck, who knows?" For that very day, soldiers came through the town conscribing all the young men into the army. They took a look at the son with his two broken legs and they left him alone. Good luck, bad luck, who knows?