Wednesday, October 14, 2009
A Foolish Old Man Who’s Trying to Move the Mountain Away
I could still remember reading a story about “A Foolish Old Man Who’s Trying to Move the Mountain Away”. I was still small, small enough to not understand the deeper meaning about it.
This time, I would like to share the story and its meaning with all of you.
Long ago there were two enormous mountains resting in the province of ShanXi, known as TaiXing Mountain and WangWu Mountain. It was told that they were moved to here from JiZhou and HeYang.
Long time ago, there lived a foolish old man, going to be 90, who wished to somehow eradicate or move the mountains away as they were blocking the traffic and communication. This problem has always been troubling him and has given him a lot of inconvenience. And so, he got every of his family members and relatives together for a family meeting. He suggested to gather everyone’s effort and moves the mountains away to open up a road that directly links from the southern area of YuZhou up to southern area of HanShui. Then, the silent atmosphere broke into noisiness when everyone speaks the sound of agreement excitedly.
While everyone was agreeing to the idea, only the old man’s wife got worried. She gave her husband a glance and said: “How on earth are you going to move these two enormous mountains with the old and fragile bones of yours? Despite that, where are you going to put the rocks and soil you got from the mountain?” The moment she finished her words, their children and grandchildren vigorously answered: “We can put it on the northern shores!”
Being well determined and prepared, the old man, his children and his grandchildren started the first day of their work. They moved chunks of rocks, they dug the soil, and they transport them to the north with rattan baskets. Even their neighbour’s kid of 7 years old has come to help. Seasons come and go, but the old man’s family rarely goes back and rests.
However, a person named Zhi Sou who lived in HeQu thinks that it’s a ridiculous act of the old man. Seeing them digging day and night, he couldn’t stand it anymore. Then he came over to the old man, and advised him: “You are one foolish old man aren’t you? How do you expect to move these mountains when you can’t even move a tree at the age of yours?”
Hearing such a discouragement, the old man gave a sigh and answered him: “Jeez… Your mindset is extremely stubborn! Even the 7 year old kid is better than you. Of course it’s true that I might not be able to move the mountains away all by myself. But after I died, I have my children, then the grandchildren, and then my grandchildren’s children. The mountains can’t grow any taller, but we have our endless effort generations by generations. If we maintain our effort with our determination, why do we need to worry about other problems?” Zhi Sou was speechless with the old man’s strong determination and belief.
When the angel of the mountains found out about this, he worried someday, the old man might successfully remove the mountain. And so, he got back and reported to the god. The god was touched by the old man’s spirit and ordered the angel of great strength to carry the mountains away. One of it was put in SuoFang, and the other one at YongZhou. Since then, the road from the southern area of JiZhou to the southern shores of HanShui has been smooth and clear without a single mountain.
(End)
Words for the children:
What do you think after listening to the story?
This story teaches us to have determination and endless effort in fulfilling our goal and mission. Those who never thought of giving up in the journey of challenge will soon reach their goals.
Learn from the old man’s effort
However, we might be envied, criticized, or being laughed at along the journey of challenge. But we will be able to reach and touches everyone’s heart when we have such strong determination as the old man.
The old man wanted to remove the mountains for the sake of the people’s convenience (which is for the sake of people’s happiness). And so he started thinking about the ways to remove it (which became his goal and mission). After that, he has gathered everyone and discuss about it (which has also encouraged everyone). Lastly, they decided to move the mountains together (taking action together). On his journey, he was being laughed by Zhi Sou (who didn’t understand about the old man). But if we do everything sincerely, and share it with the others (courageously voice out your opinion), we will soon get recognition from the people (lastly, fulfilling our goal and mission).
For example:
Encourage the children to do shaka-buku with the old man’s story.
Just as the way we chant to shaka-buku our friends.
From the beginning, we want them to learn and believe in the Daishonin’s Buddhism for the sake of their happiness (which is for the sake of other people’s happiness). Then we make this our goal and chant in front of the Gohonzon (which became the goal we chant to achieve), and we start to encourage our friends to chant (encouragement and action). We might not be understood by all the people, some may misunderstand, and some may laugh at us (because they don’t understand). But if we treat our friends sincerely, and share the joyfulness of the Buddhism with them (courageously voice out our thoughts), we could touches their hearts with our effort (an endless effort and challenge).
We also learned about the Daishonin’s Buddhism of obtaining a victory after an endless effort and challenge in this story. This is because Daishonin said that it is easy to believe in the Buddhism, but to maintain is a difficult task. Thus, obtaining Buddhahood (Victory), depends on our effort to maintain.
Words for the adults:
I discovered the true meaning of this story while I was reading an article of a Malaysian artist named Huang Xiao (here’s something about her).
The person “Zhi Shou” in the story represented those people who think themselves as a clever person. Whereas the word “fool” of the foolish old man in the story signifies “passion” and “sincerity”.
This goes the same to our faith. Those who have a sincere and pure heart are the ones who could maintain their faith while those who think that they’ve been taking up their faith for so many years would make them great, are the ones who slow down in faith and ended up losing it.
Looking at the foolish old man and his heir in another perception
What’s your opinion after reading this part of the story?
Hearing such a discouragement, the old man gave a sigh and answered him: “Jeez… Your mindset is extremely stubborn! Even the 7 year old kid is better than you. Of course it’s true that I might not be able to move the mountains away all by myself. But after I died, I have my children, then the grandchildren, and then my grandchildren’s children. The mountains can’t grow any taller, but we have our endless effort generations by generations. If we maintain our effort with our determination, why do we need to worry about other problems?” Zhi Sou was speechless with the old man’s strong determination and belief.
I found out that there’s one good point in this part that we always wanted to talk about. It’s the old man’s strong determination and his act of teaching his heir about his thought and idea. If his thought were to carry on generation by generation, soon the mountains could be removed. This is just the same as our organization. We could only get the chance to know about this Buddhism just because of the first president, Makuguchi, the second president, Josei Toda who continued the first president’s idea, and the third president, Daisaku Ikeda who carries on the first and second presidents’ idea. By this moment you should have known, it’s the spirit of mentor and disciple.
Thus, we must continue linking Sensei’s heart to the Future Divisions’ heart together and let them cultivate the spirit of mentor and disciple.
Touch the shoten zejin with a sincere heart
The old man touched the God and angels in the story who happen to signify the shoten zejin in our Buddhism. But of course those super powerful angels don’t really exist in the real world, but it’s a metaphor telling that there might be someone that’s more powerful than us to come to our aid. This shows how we could touch the heart of the people around us. Thus, let’s ask ourselves if we had given our best effort when we needed protection and aid. Have we touch the shoten zejin to help us?
President Ikeda’s guidance:
Let’s touch the shoten zejin with our strong prayer and action. Victory and defeat is very strict in Buddhism. If we give up halfway, then we will not be successful. For once you gave a courageous prayer and action, there will be many people who turned into your shoten zejin and be your comrades.
Shared by,
Heroism.
This time, I would like to share the story and its meaning with all of you.
Long ago there were two enormous mountains resting in the province of ShanXi, known as TaiXing Mountain and WangWu Mountain. It was told that they were moved to here from JiZhou and HeYang.
Long time ago, there lived a foolish old man, going to be 90, who wished to somehow eradicate or move the mountains away as they were blocking the traffic and communication. This problem has always been troubling him and has given him a lot of inconvenience. And so, he got every of his family members and relatives together for a family meeting. He suggested to gather everyone’s effort and moves the mountains away to open up a road that directly links from the southern area of YuZhou up to southern area of HanShui. Then, the silent atmosphere broke into noisiness when everyone speaks the sound of agreement excitedly.
While everyone was agreeing to the idea, only the old man’s wife got worried. She gave her husband a glance and said: “How on earth are you going to move these two enormous mountains with the old and fragile bones of yours? Despite that, where are you going to put the rocks and soil you got from the mountain?” The moment she finished her words, their children and grandchildren vigorously answered: “We can put it on the northern shores!”
Being well determined and prepared, the old man, his children and his grandchildren started the first day of their work. They moved chunks of rocks, they dug the soil, and they transport them to the north with rattan baskets. Even their neighbour’s kid of 7 years old has come to help. Seasons come and go, but the old man’s family rarely goes back and rests.
However, a person named Zhi Sou who lived in HeQu thinks that it’s a ridiculous act of the old man. Seeing them digging day and night, he couldn’t stand it anymore. Then he came over to the old man, and advised him: “You are one foolish old man aren’t you? How do you expect to move these mountains when you can’t even move a tree at the age of yours?”
Hearing such a discouragement, the old man gave a sigh and answered him: “Jeez… Your mindset is extremely stubborn! Even the 7 year old kid is better than you. Of course it’s true that I might not be able to move the mountains away all by myself. But after I died, I have my children, then the grandchildren, and then my grandchildren’s children. The mountains can’t grow any taller, but we have our endless effort generations by generations. If we maintain our effort with our determination, why do we need to worry about other problems?” Zhi Sou was speechless with the old man’s strong determination and belief.
When the angel of the mountains found out about this, he worried someday, the old man might successfully remove the mountain. And so, he got back and reported to the god. The god was touched by the old man’s spirit and ordered the angel of great strength to carry the mountains away. One of it was put in SuoFang, and the other one at YongZhou. Since then, the road from the southern area of JiZhou to the southern shores of HanShui has been smooth and clear without a single mountain.
(End)
Words for the children:
What do you think after listening to the story?
This story teaches us to have determination and endless effort in fulfilling our goal and mission. Those who never thought of giving up in the journey of challenge will soon reach their goals.
Learn from the old man’s effort
However, we might be envied, criticized, or being laughed at along the journey of challenge. But we will be able to reach and touches everyone’s heart when we have such strong determination as the old man.
The old man wanted to remove the mountains for the sake of the people’s convenience (which is for the sake of people’s happiness). And so he started thinking about the ways to remove it (which became his goal and mission). After that, he has gathered everyone and discuss about it (which has also encouraged everyone). Lastly, they decided to move the mountains together (taking action together). On his journey, he was being laughed by Zhi Sou (who didn’t understand about the old man). But if we do everything sincerely, and share it with the others (courageously voice out your opinion), we will soon get recognition from the people (lastly, fulfilling our goal and mission).
For example:
Encourage the children to do shaka-buku with the old man’s story.
Just as the way we chant to shaka-buku our friends.
From the beginning, we want them to learn and believe in the Daishonin’s Buddhism for the sake of their happiness (which is for the sake of other people’s happiness). Then we make this our goal and chant in front of the Gohonzon (which became the goal we chant to achieve), and we start to encourage our friends to chant (encouragement and action). We might not be understood by all the people, some may misunderstand, and some may laugh at us (because they don’t understand). But if we treat our friends sincerely, and share the joyfulness of the Buddhism with them (courageously voice out our thoughts), we could touches their hearts with our effort (an endless effort and challenge).
We also learned about the Daishonin’s Buddhism of obtaining a victory after an endless effort and challenge in this story. This is because Daishonin said that it is easy to believe in the Buddhism, but to maintain is a difficult task. Thus, obtaining Buddhahood (Victory), depends on our effort to maintain.
Words for the adults:
I discovered the true meaning of this story while I was reading an article of a Malaysian artist named Huang Xiao (here’s something about her).
The person “Zhi Shou” in the story represented those people who think themselves as a clever person. Whereas the word “fool” of the foolish old man in the story signifies “passion” and “sincerity”.
This goes the same to our faith. Those who have a sincere and pure heart are the ones who could maintain their faith while those who think that they’ve been taking up their faith for so many years would make them great, are the ones who slow down in faith and ended up losing it.
Looking at the foolish old man and his heir in another perception
What’s your opinion after reading this part of the story?
Hearing such a discouragement, the old man gave a sigh and answered him: “Jeez… Your mindset is extremely stubborn! Even the 7 year old kid is better than you. Of course it’s true that I might not be able to move the mountains away all by myself. But after I died, I have my children, then the grandchildren, and then my grandchildren’s children. The mountains can’t grow any taller, but we have our endless effort generations by generations. If we maintain our effort with our determination, why do we need to worry about other problems?” Zhi Sou was speechless with the old man’s strong determination and belief.
I found out that there’s one good point in this part that we always wanted to talk about. It’s the old man’s strong determination and his act of teaching his heir about his thought and idea. If his thought were to carry on generation by generation, soon the mountains could be removed. This is just the same as our organization. We could only get the chance to know about this Buddhism just because of the first president, Makuguchi, the second president, Josei Toda who continued the first president’s idea, and the third president, Daisaku Ikeda who carries on the first and second presidents’ idea. By this moment you should have known, it’s the spirit of mentor and disciple.
Thus, we must continue linking Sensei’s heart to the Future Divisions’ heart together and let them cultivate the spirit of mentor and disciple.
Touch the shoten zejin with a sincere heart
The old man touched the God and angels in the story who happen to signify the shoten zejin in our Buddhism. But of course those super powerful angels don’t really exist in the real world, but it’s a metaphor telling that there might be someone that’s more powerful than us to come to our aid. This shows how we could touch the heart of the people around us. Thus, let’s ask ourselves if we had given our best effort when we needed protection and aid. Have we touch the shoten zejin to help us?
President Ikeda’s guidance:
Let’s touch the shoten zejin with our strong prayer and action. Victory and defeat is very strict in Buddhism. If we give up halfway, then we will not be successful. For once you gave a courageous prayer and action, there will be many people who turned into your shoten zejin and be your comrades.
Shared by,
Heroism.
Labels: n. Story palace
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