Five Zen Parables To Trip Up The Mind

“Great Teachers can lead you to the doors of understanding, but it is up to you to enter.” – Lao Tzu

The Monks and The Woman

Two celibate monks, forbidden from even glancing at a woman were traveling to a monastery when they came to a river. The river was very flooded and was impossible to cross without getting wet. They had just decided which would be the shallowest path across the river when the monks noticed a woman a little way along on the same bank, also trying to find a way to cross.

Since the woman was having great trouble and being the gentleman that he was, one of the monks offered to carry her across on his shoulders. She accepted and they began to wade across; they reached the other side where he set her down, she thanked him and went her own way. The monks carried on in silence. ‘Why did you carry that woman across the river?’ The monk asked the other in dismay, ‘We are not allowed to talk to, touch… even let our eyes fall upon a woman let alone carry her! What were you thinking?’ The other monk listened with a smile upon his lips, then softly said. ‘But I put her down when I crossed the river. Why are you still carrying her?’