A Nice Story

We were gathered one wet evening in the kitchen with nothing to do. It was then that Head Nun pulled up a chair and started telling us stories from the life of the Buddha. I love to listen to Head Nun’s stories. They always carry some moral or lesson to be learnt.

Here’s one of my favourites. It’s about how to handle insult and yet maintain compassion.

One day Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up to him and began insulting him. "You have no right teaching others," he shouted. "You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake."

Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead he asked the young man "Tell me, if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong?"

The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, "It would belong to me, because I bought the gift."

The Buddha smiled and said, "That is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you have done is hurt yourself. If you want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and become loving instead. When you hate others, you yourself become unhappy. But when you love others, everyone is happy."

The young man listened closely to these wise words of the Buddha. "You are right, O Enlightened One, "he said. "Please teach me the path of love. I wish to become your follower."

The Buddha answered kindly, "Of course. I teach anyone who truly wants to learn. Come with me."

It was a nice ending to a nice story.

“So, Vege Cat,” said Head Nun, turning to me. “If a dog were to bark foul words at you, what would you do?”

Well, quite frankly, I would jump on his back and bite his ears off, but Head Nun was asking me that question, so I answered meekly, “I would smile back at him and walk away.”

“Aren’t you going to bite his ears off?’ she asked. All eyes turned on me. One nun even had a horrified look on her face.

I was stunned. The woman could actually read my thoughts!

“Er .. no, they would be too hard to bite,” I stammered, looking away from her gaze.

“Very good!” she said, a cheeky smile on her face. “So remember (addressing the other nuns) – always act with love and compassion like the Buddha, regardless of whether you’re a human being - or a cat.”

And with that, our story telling session ended.