This is my favorite Zen parable...*smile*
I first read it in a book about Buddhism, in the chapter about Buddhist philosophies, one of which is never to judge anything as "bad" or "good" too quickly. Doing so requires us to respond to everything around us, using our heart AND our mind, both in perfect balance. Many of us learn this as we age, but often begin, as toddlers, reflexively responding out of pure emotions of joy, anger, sadness, etc..
IT'S FEATURED IN THIS INSPIRING BOOK: "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior" By Dan Millman
THE ZEN LESSON GRACES THIS BOOK TOO: "Tao: The Watercourse Way" by Alan Watts
HERE'S A CHILDREN'S BOOK FEATURING THE FABLE: "Zen Shorts" by Honor Caldecott
The Farmer's Horse
There is a story of a farmer whose horse ran away. That evening the neighbors gathered to commiserate with him since this was such bad luck. He said, "May be."
The next day the horse returned, but brought with it six wild horses, and the neighbors came exclaiming at his good fortune. He said, "May be."
And then, the following day, his son tried to saddle and ride one of the wild horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. Again the neighbors came to offer their sympathy for the misfortune. He said, "May be."
The day after that, conscription officers came to the village to seize young men for the army, but because of the broken leg the farmer's son was rejected. When the neighbors came to say how fortunately everything had turned out, he said, "May be."
The yin-yang view of the world is serenely cyclic. Fortune and misfortune, life and death, whether on small scale or vast, come and go everlastingly without beginning or end, and the whole system is protected from monotony by the fact that, in just the same way, remembering alternates with forgetting. This is the Good of good-and-bad.
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