Today I’m going to share with the group a story that I like. It’s Buddhist in origin, but in the end there is a moral here for everyone I think.
There was a western monk who was sitting outside in a forest one night with a group of village-born Laotian monks. The westerner looked up into the sky and noticed a star he had never seen before. On closer inspection, he noticed that the star was moving. He realized the star was actually a satellite, and he pointed it out to his fellow monks to observe.
“What’s a satellite?” they asked.
He began explaining how satellites circle the earth, and came to discover that the monks did not know that the Earth is round. In fact, the “uneducated” monks seemed to find it to be a rather amusing and impossible proposal. The westerner took it upon himself to begin explaining various concepts of astrophysics and he picked up a smooth, round rock. Shining his flashlight against it, he demonstrated the passing of days and seasons as the Earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun.
The monks listened with rapt attention, but the westerner could tell that, deep down, they didn’t really believe him. At last, a quiet old monk spoke up. “So, you know that the world is round,” he began, “and you know that the Earth circles the sun. But ultimately, what good will all your knowledge do you?”
The western monk stopped and found that the older monk was right. All in all, his education did not make him happy, or give him peace. Nor was his intellect likely to help him gain enlightenment. The westerner came to understand that only wisdom is important – only that which enables inner peace and liberation from suffering.
And kids, the moral of this story is,
If you want to be truly happy, don’t pay attention in school.
Bye for now.
and wear silk under pants
G. M. J.