The Pretty Lady and the two Monks

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were travelling together.
They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge damaged. They had to
wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the
damaged bridge and couldn't cross the
river. The big monk offered to carry the pretty lady across the river on
his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of
the big monk.

"How can big disciple brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid
all intimacy with females?" thought the little monk. But he kept quiet.

The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk
followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down
and they parted ways with her. All along the way for several
miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He
was making up all kinds of accusations about the big monk in his head.
This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And
the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation.

Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any
further, he burst out angrily at the big monk. "How can you claim
yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female,
especially when she is very pretty? All your teachings to me
make you a big hypocrite."

The big monk looked surprised and said, "I had put down the pretty lady
at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her
along?"

[This very old Chinese zen story reflects the thinking of many people
today.We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us
and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes
they cause us to be bitter or jealous.

But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away. We
keep on carrying the baggage of the "pretty lady" with us. We let them keep
on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot
of agony. Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of
the baggage of the "pretty lady".

We should let go of the "pretty lady" immediately after crossing the
river, immediately after the unpleasant event is over. This will immediately
remove all our agonies. There is no need to be further hurt by the
unpleasant event after it is over. It is just that simple.]