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Ananda
3115 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:45:47 PM
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THE SOUP OF THE SOUP OF THE DUCK
A relative came to visit Nasruddin bringing a duck as a gift. So the bird was cooked
and eaten.
Soon a stream of guests began to call, each claiming to be a friend of the friend of the
‘man who brought you the duck.’ Each one, of course, expected to be fed and housed on
the strength of that hapless bird.
The Mulla bore it manfully till the day a stranger arrived and said: “I am a friend of
the friend of the kinsman who brought you the duck.” And, like the others, he sat down,
expecting to be fed.
Nasruddin placed a bowl of steaming water under his nose. “What’s this?” asked the
stranger.
“This,” said the Mulla “is the soup of the soup of the duck that was brought me by
your friend.”
One hears of people who became the disciples of the disciples of someone who
experienced the Divine.
How can you transmit a kiss through a messenger?
p.s: sad but true i am one of those disciples :(.
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:47:21 PM
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THE SKY AND THE CROW
A tale from the Bhagawat Purana:
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 attack it viciously.
When the crow finally dropped-the meat, its pursuers left if alone and flew off
shrieking after the morsel.
Said the crow: “I’ve lost the meat and gained this peaceful sky.”
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:49:09 PM
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THE POISONED ARROW
A monk once said to the Lord Buddha, “Do the souls of the just survive death?”
Characteristically, Buddha gave him no reply.
But the monk persisted. Each day he would repeat the question; and each day he
would get silence for an answer till he could take it no more and threatened to quit unless
this crucial question was answered to his satisfaction, for to what purpose was he living
a life of renunciation if the souls of the just perished with their bodies ?
Then the Lord Buddha, in his compassion, spoke: “You are like a man, “he said,
“who was dying from a poisoned arrow. His relatives rushed a doctor to his side, but he
refused to have the arrow taken out unless he had the answer to these three vital
questions: First, was the man who shot him white or black? Second, was he tall or short?
And third, was he a Brahmin or an out-caste?”
The monk stayed on!
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:50:45 PM
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THE NARROW PATH
God warned the people of an earthquake that would swallow up the waters of the
land. The water that replaced them would make everyone insane.
Only the prophet took God seriously. He saved up a supply of water in his mountain
cave to last him till he died.
Sure enough, the earthquake came, the water vanished and new water tilled the
streams and lakes and rivers. A few months later the prophet came down to the plains.
Everyone had indeed gone mad, and attacked him, for they thought it was he who was
insane.
So the prophet went back to his mountain cave, glad for the water he had saved. But
he could not bear his loneliness so he went down to the plains once more. Again he was
rejected by the people for he was so unlike them.
The prophet then succumbed. He threw away the water he had saved, drank the new
water with the people and became one with them in their insanity.
The way to Truth is narrow. You always walk alone.
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:51:55 PM
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THE MONK AND THE WOMAN
Two Buddhist monks, on their way to the monastery, found an exceedingly beautiful
woman at the river bank. Like them, she wanted to cross the river, but the water was too
high. So one of them took her across on his shoulders.
The other was thoroughly scandalized. For two hours he scolded the offender for his
breach of the Rule: Had he forgotten he was a monk? How had he dared to touch the
woman? And worse, carry her over the river? And what would people say? Had he not
disgraced their holy Religion? And so on.
The victim took if gamely. At the end of the lecture he said, “Brother, I dropped that
woman at the river. Are you carrying her still?”
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:53:19 PM
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THE MAN IDOL
An ancient Hindu story:
A shipwrecked merchant drifted to the shore of Sri Lanka where Vibhishana was the
King of the Monsters. At the sight of him Vibhishana became ecstatic with joy and said,
“Ah! He looks just like my Rama. The same human form!” He then had royal robes and
jewels put on the merchant and woshipped him.
The Hindu mystic, Ramakrishna, says, “When I first heard this story I felt an
indescribable delight. If God can be worshipped in images of clay, should he not be
worshipped in people?”
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:54:18 PM
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THE GOLDEN EAGLE
A man found an eagle’s egg and placed it under a brooding hen. The eaglet hatched
with the chickens and grew to be .like them. He clucked and cackled; scratched the earth
for worms; flapped his wings and managed to fly a few feet in the air.
Years passed. One day, the eagle, now grown old, saw a magnificent bird above him
in the sky. It glided in graceful majesty against the powerful wind, with scarcely a
movement of its golden wings.
Spellbound, the eagle asked, “Who’s that?”
“Thai’s the king of the birds, the eagle,” said his neighbour. “He belongs to the sky.
We belong to earth—we’re chickens.”
So the eagle lived and died a chicken for that’s what he thought he was.
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:55:14 PM
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THE CONTENTED FISHERMAN
The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat, smoking a
pipe.
“Why aren’t you out fishing?” said the industrialist.
“Because I have caught enough fish for the day.”
“Why don’t you catch some more?”
“What would I do with it?”
“Earn more money. Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into
deeper waters and catch more fish. Thai would bring you money to buy nylon nets, so
more fish, more money. Soon you would have enough to buy two boats... even a fleet of
boots. Then you could be rich like me.”
“What would I do then?”
“Then you could really enjoy life.”
“What do you think I am doing now?”
Which would you rather have: a fortune or a capacity for enjoyment?
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:55:53 PM
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O HAPPY FAULT!
The Jewish mystic Baal Shem had a curious way of praying to God. “Remember,
Lord,” he would say, “You need me just as much as I need you. If you did not exist,
whom would I pray to? If I did not exist, who would do the praying?”
It brought me joy to think that if I had not sinned God would have had no occasion to
be forgiving.
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:56:22 PM
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THE DIAMOND
When the sannyasi reached the outskirts of the village and settled under a tree for the
night, a villager came running up to him and said, “The stone! The stone! Give me the
precious stone!”
“What stone?” asked the sannyasi.
“Last night Lord Shiva told me in a dream that if I went to the outskirts of the village
at dusk a sannyasi would give me o stone that would make me rich forever.”
The sannyasi rummaged in his sack and, pulling out a stone, he said, “He probably
meant this one. I found it in the forest yesterday. Here, it’s yours if you want it.”
The man gazed at the stone in wonder. It was the largest diamond in the world—the
size of a man’s head.
Ail night he tossed about in bed. At break of day he woke the sannyasi and said, “Give
me the wealth that makes it possible for you to give this stone away.”
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 2:56:56 PM
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THE DISABLED FOX
A fable of the Arab mystic Sadi:
A man walking through the forest saw a fox that had lost its legs and wondered how it
lived. Then he saw a tiger come with game in its mouth. The tiger had his fill and left the
rest for the fox.
The next day too God sent, the tiger to feed the fox. The man began to wonder
at God’s greatness and thought. “I too shall lie in a corner trusting the Lord to give
me ail I need.”
He did this for a month, and was almost at death’s door when he heard a Voice that
said, “O you who are on the path of error, open your eyes to the Truth! Imitate the tiger
not the fox.”
On the street I saw a naked child, hungry and shiver-ing in the cold. I became angry
and said to God, “Why do you allow this? Why don’t you do something?”
God did not reply. That night he said, quite sudden-ly, “I certainly did something. I
made you.”
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 3:03:42 PM
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| p.s: none of these stories are copy righted and you can find them for free on the net or in books such as "the song of the bird" by Anthony de Mello; the "Buddhist wisdom" in Arabic by Robert Kfoury, Georges Helou, Rima Saab; "Akhbar al Suffiya"... |
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cosmic_troll
USA
229 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 7:15:43 PM
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Thank you for sharing these wonderful stories, brother 
I found The Diamond to be especially beautiful.
Peace and Blessings to you |
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Parallax
USA
348 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 9:38:17 PM
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Ananda,
Loved them all...so much wisdom wrapped in such beautiful stories...thanks for the inspiration!!
Peace & Namaste |
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2009 : 02:11:05 AM
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hello Cosmic and Parallax, putting a smile on your faces is more than a thk you for me i am really happy you enjoyed those stories.
namaste brothers,
Ananda
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© Contributing Authors (opinions and advice belong to the respective authors) |
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a few short stories
