Beautiful stories
Topic: Philosophy
I came across these stories in a Philosophy mailing list. Liked them immensely.


Excuse me" said the an ocean Fish
"You are older than I so can you tell me where to find this thing called
the Ocean?"
"The Ocean" said the older fish "is the thing you are in now"
"Oh this ? But this water. What I'm seeking is the Ocean." Said the
disappointed fish as he swam away to search elsewhere.
He came to the Master in sannyasi robes. He spoke sannyasi language: 'For
years I have been seeking God. I have sought Him everywhere that He is said
to be: on mountain peaks, the vastness of the desert, the silence of the
cloister and the dwellings of the poor'

"Have you found him" the Master asked

"No. I have not. Have you?

What could the Master say? The evening sun was sending shafts of golden
light into the room. Hundreds of sparrows were twittering on a banyan tree.
In the distance one could hear the sound of the highway traffic. A mosquito
droned a warning that it was going to strike.... And yet this man could sit
there and say he had not found Him.

After a while he left disappointed, to search elsewhere.

Stop searching, little fish. There i'snt anything to look for.

All you have to do is look.

---------------------------
Said the monk, "All these mountains and rivers and earth and stars-where do
they come from?"

Said the Master, "Where does your question come from ?"

Search within not without.
---------------------------

Diogenes the Greek mystic was dining on bread and lentils. He was seen by
the philosopher Aristippus who lived in considerable comfort by fawning on
the king.

Said Aristippus." Learn subservience to the king and you will not live on
lentils"

Said Diogenes ,"Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to cultivate
the king."

---------------------------
A village girl became an unwed mother and after several beatings revealed
the father was the Zen Master living on the outskirts of the village.
The villagers angrily trooped to the Master's house rudely disturbed his
meditation, beat him up, denounced him as a hypocrite and told him to keep
the baby.
All the Master said was," Is that so".

He picked up the baby, made arrangements with the woman next door to look
after the baby at his expense.
His name was of course ruined and all his disciples abandoned him.

After a year, the girl could not bear the lie any longer, broke down and
confessed that the father was the boy next door.

The villagers trooped to the Master, bowed profoundly to beg his pardon and
asked to take the baby back.
All the Master said as he handed back the child was, "Is that so "

The Awakened Man!

----------------------------
A fisher man and his wife got a son after many years of marriage. The boy
was his parent's joy and pride. Then one day the boy fell ill and even
though a fortune was spent on medicines and treatment the boy died.
The mother was heart-broken. There were no tears in the father's eyes.
On being reproached by his wife for his lack of sorrow he replied," Last
night I saw a dream that I was a king and father of 8 sturdy sons. Then you
woke me up.
Now I am greatly puzzled. Should I weep for those boys or for this one?"
---------------------------------

The normally very voluble Master one morning awakens and goes into silence.
This unusual
behavior and anguished expression on his face prompts his disciples to
enquire the reason.

Said the Master," Last night I had a dream that I had become a butterfly,
flitting from one flower to another basking in the sun and flying with the
wind."

Asked the puzzled disciple," So why the anguished silence?"

Replies the Master, "If my dream of being a butterfly seemed so real, then
why is it not possible that right now it is the butterfly dreaming that it
has become a Master. And if I am just a dream of a butterfly, the end of
whom is in the awakening of the butterfly then all that I have been
teaching you to be kind, to be compassionate, to be just, to learn the
scriptures.... All have no meaning.
The truth lies with that which remains as constant whether in a dream or in
awakening. To seek that is the Way. Rest is for the fools."

Oh you who so much are bothered with the affairs of this world ,with the
issues of this life, with the pursuit of joy and avoidance of sorrow, is
the world real or a dream of a butterfly?
-----------------------------------------------

A salt doll journeyed for thousand of miles and stopped at the edge of the
sea.
It was fascinated by this moving liquid mass, so unlike anything it had
seen before.
"What are you" asked the salt doll.
"Come in and see" replied the sea with a smile.
So the salt doll waded in. The further it went, the more it dissolved till
there was only a pinch of it left. Before the last bit dissolved the doll
exclaimed in wonder, "Now I know what I am ".

Dissolve your ego( which is nothing but your 'values', your education, your
'shoulds' and your 'should nots', your scriptures, your morality, your so
called religion ,your seeking of pleasure and avoidance of sorrow, your
planning for the future, your running to reach somewhere)
and discover your essence which was all ways there, which is all that you
truly ever have.
-------------------------------------------

A crow once flew into the sky with a piece of meat in its beak. Twenty
other crows set out in hot pursuit and began to attach it viciously.
When the crow finally dropped the meat, its pursuers left it alone and flew
off shrieking after the morsel.
Said the crow, "I've lost the meat and gained the peaceful sky"

Said the Master," When my house burnt down I got the moon at night"
------------------------------------

When the sannaysi reached the outskirts of the village and settled under a
tree for the night, a villager came running up to him a shouted "the stone!
the stone! Give me the precious stone!"

"What stone?" asked the sannyasi.
"Last night Lord Shiva appeared in my dream that if I went to the outskirts
of the village a sannyasi who would have just come would give me a stone
which would forever make me rich."

The sannyasi rummaged his bag and pulling out a stone said," He probably
meant this one. I found it in the forest yesterday. Here it is yours if you
want it."

The man gazed at the stone in wonder. It was the largest diamond in the
world.

All night the man tossed about in his bed. At dawn he ran to the sannyasi
and woke him
and said, "Give me the wealth that makes it possible for you to give away
this stone."
--------------------------

Two Buddhist monks on their way to the monastery, found an exceedingly
beautiful woman at the river bank. Like them she also wanted to cross the
river but the water was too high.So one of them took her across the river
on his shoulders.

The other was thoroughly scandalized. For two hours he berated the other
for his breach of the Rule. Had he forgotten he was a monk? How dare he
touch the women. Did he not remember he was a monk? And worse carry over
the river? And what would people say? Had he not disgraced their Holy
Religion? Etc etc.

At the end of the lecture the first monk replies, "Brother, I dropped that
woman at the river side.
Are you still carrying her?"