Setting Her Down
Learning To Let Go
Two monks were walking to their monastery when they stopped to cross a small river. It had rained and the river was swollen, its current moving faster than normal. There was a young woman standing on the side of the river who was unable to cross on her own. Upon hearing her request for help, the elder of the two monks immediately went to her, lifted her in his arms, carried her across the river, and set her down on the other side. The two monks then continued along their way in silence.
In the evening, the younger monk could no longer contain himself and went to the elder monk and exclaimed, “Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman.”
The elder monk answered “Yes, brother.”
The younger monk then asked, “But then sir, how is it that you lifted that beautiful woman at the river?”
The elder monk smiled and said, “I set her down on the other side, but are you still carrying her?”
This is one of my favorite Zen stories that illustrates a unique trait of the human mind called Attachment. Many times, we become attached to a momentary event and find ourselves breathing life into it, keeping it present within our minds, or perhaps creating an imaginary storyline even though the event no longer has any real physical existence.
