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Dharma Tales
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Buddhism has both single impact and multi levelled tales. Personally I find too many Dharma tales are singular. However here is one worth a moments chuckle ...
Worse than a clown
There was a young monk in China who was a very serious practitioner of the Dharma. Once, this monk came across something he did not understand, so he went to ask the master. When the master heard the question, he started laughing loudly. The master then stood up and walked away, still laughing. The young monk was very disturbed by the master's reaction. For the next three days, he could not eat, sleep nor think properly. At the end of three days, he went back to the master and told the master how disturbed he had felt. When the master heard this, he said, "Monk, do you know what your problem is? Your problem is that YOU ARE WORSE THAN A CLOWN!" The monk was shocked to hear that, "Venerable Sir, how can you say such a thing?! How can I be worse than a clown?" The master explained, "A clown enjoys seeing people laugh at him. You? You feel disturbed because another person laughed at you. Tell me, are you not worse than a clown?" When the monk heard this, he began to laugh.
http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/story/story.html
Do you have any favourite zen, jataka or other tales to share?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jataka_tales
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