Stories about parable
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about parable from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Four old men outside in the rainStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Chinese parable: wealth, success, love and harmony stand as old men in the rain; the family can invite only one in first — harmony must enter or the other three will not stay.
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four old men and the four old men were outside in the rain. It couldn't have been in Australia, not Western Australia anyway, because we don't have rain anymore. But it were outside in the rain and it was cold and they getting wet and soaking. And the owner of the house, not the owner of the house, the woman of the house, she looked out the window and they saw these four old men there getting soaked. And so she invited them in. And they said, "No, we can't come in until your whole family comes home." And you decide which one of us to invite in because you can only invite one of one of us in. And if you invite the correct person, all four of us will come in. If you invite the wrong person, only one will come in. And this was the story. So when everybody came home, then the family had a meeting. They said, "These four old men are getting soaked outside. You've seen them outside, but they won't come in until we decide which one of them to invite first. And if we get it right, they'll all come in." And the four men were called wealth, success, peace, and harmony. And so the father said, "I work so hard. And even though I work hard, it's very difficult to make any money. The government takes most of it in tax. And what I bring home after tax is so many, many uh bills to pay." You know, life is so hard. So, what do I really want? I want wealth. And the wife said, "Oh, no. I want success. I want just my family and you to be successful in life." "Success is much more important than wealth." "No, it isn't," said the father. "Wealth is more important." "No," said the wife. "Success, wealth is more important." And the daughter said, "Shut up, you two. All I want is some peace." And they said, "That's actually quite true. We need some peace in the house." So he said some peace and the father said well some wealth could be good too and the mother said no no no I really really think success is the best and so the three of them started to argue and then the son said look all I ever want in my house between my mother my father my sister and me is some harmony that's really what I want and so they all thought actually I think you are correct so they invited harmony first into their house and when they invited did harmony in, he told them they'd made the correct choice. Because when harmony comes into your house, then following right behind comes peace. And with peace, you'll also find success. And with success, you'll also find wealth. So all the four old men came into the house following harmony. It was a wonderful story about the priority of having harmony
- Good, bad — who knows? The king's fingerStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A king scratches his finger hunting; the court doctor only says 'good, bad, who knows?' When the finger worsens and must be amputated, the king jails the doctor. Later, captured…
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it was a story of the king you went hunting you know this is a good dad who knows story a golden oldie but is so powerful King when hunting and when he was hunting he scratched his finger and when he scratched his finger there was a doctor in his entourage and so he called a doctor over doctor my fingers been scratched can you please have a look at it and the doctor looked at it and just put a bandaid on it and the King said is it gonna be okay it's my finger and she would ask her doctor is it gonna be okay and the doctor said good bad who knows that's pretty wise isn't it you know it didn't impress the King that much so when he got back to the palace after enjoying himself on the hunt by that time the finger was red it was infected so the king called the doctor over again and said doctor look at my finger it's got worse and so the doctor took the band-aid off put some ointment on I put a proper bandage and I cleaned it out put a bandage on and of course the the King asked again is it gonna be okay is it okay and the doctor you said good bad who knows so the key was a bit perturbed but he's very busy so he just let the stupid doctor go away but a couple of days later I mean his finger was so bad you know that the doctor had to amputate it that's how infected it was and of course you know if that happened to you you'd sue the doctor you know you get a lawyer and take them to court or whatever and get some compensation in those days it wasn't suing you just put that doctor in prison in the bottom of the palace and he put the doctor in prison himself say you stupid doctor law what's happened to my finger all this good bad who knows business and so what do you think about that there may be in jail I know where the doctor who applied to their King being in jail good bad who knows that crazy doctor you can run there so that they've left the doctor in jail and of course in a couple of weeks later when his finger was healed he went back to his favorite pastime hunting in the forest and this time he was a bit heedless he was following some sort of animal and got separated from the rest of his entourage and got lost in the forest lost in the forest wandering around he actually got captured by this forest people these indigenous people and they were so totally startled beyond his control they didn't know he was a king they just captured him they happened to be one of their holy days so they took him to the priests to be sacrificed so their God a human sacrifice so they tied him up and the priest was doing all the mumbo-jumbo and the dancing up and down and stuff and then he got out the sacrificial knife it was about to snow slit the Kings well there's only the last moment the very last moment that the priests realized the king was missing a finger and he said stop everybody if we make a sacrifice to our God we have to sacrifice somebody perfect he's not perfect enough he's missing one finger set him free so because he lost one finger and he wasn't perfect enough to be sacrificed to a god they set him free and he realized that doctor what a wise man he was I lost a finger I thought it was bad but as he was good because if I had all my ten fingers I'd be dead by now so soon as he as soon as he found his way back to the prison he went in the bathroom as he went straight to the prison straight to the doctor's cell and opened the lock himself and said you're free I'm so sorry what I did know you were right and he told him the story and I said it was good I lost my finger otherwise I wouldn't be here today I'd be dead sacrificed but the doctor was remorseful he felt so guilty about what he did