The Beggar And The Buddha

This story is so rich with meaning. It allows us to truly embrace the principles of generosity compassion and kindness using the umbrella of humility in all that we do. It is a bright light to start your day with insight, wisdom and a loving heart.

Transcript

Hello my Insight Timer family.

My name is Nicole Karping-Pavas and I am the founder of Lotus Law and the Transformational Lawyer.

You can find me on Instagram,

Facebook and LinkedIn.

Today I wanted to share a very well-known fable from Thailand with you.

It's called The Buddha and The Beggar and the story is so rich with meaning.

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did the very first time I heard it.

And with that,

Let's begin.

There once was a homeless man and he'd been trying to gather food.

And it didn't matter how much he gathered and he stored,

He kept noticing that every day his food would disappear.

And one day he found the mouse that was stealing his food and he asked the mouse,

Why are you stealing from me?

I'm just a homeless man.

I'm a beggar.

I have nothing.

You can steal from so many other people,

From people richer than me and they won't even notice the difference.

Why?

Why are you stealing my food from me?

And the mouse then told the homeless man,

Well,

It's in your destiny.

You can only have eight items in your possession at any given time.

And no matter how much you beg and no matter how much you store,

That is all you'll ever be able to have.

The homeless man was shocked and said,

Well,

Why is that my destiny?

Why can I only have eight things at any given time?

And the mouse said,

I don't know.

I'm just a mouse.

That's a question you should ask the Buddha.

And the homeless man takes the mouse's advice and off he goes on a journey to find the Buddha.

And as he starts out in his journey,

It's quite late and he ends up at the gate of a wealthy family and he asks the family if he can stay the night.

They let him in and they ask him why he's travelling so late and where he's going.

And he says,

You see,

I have a question to ask the Buddha about my destiny and tomorrow I'll be on my journey.

And the family says,

Well,

If you're going to be asking the Buddha a question anyway,

Will you ask a question for us too?

You see,

We have a 16 year old daughter who can't speak and we just want to ask,

What do we have to do to get her to speak?

The homeless man thanks them for the shelter and says to them,

Of course I'll ask that question for you.

And the next morning he continues on his journey and he comes across the sea of mountains that he has to cross.

And as he ascends the first mountain,

He meets up with a wizard and the wizard says,

Where are you going?

Let me help you.

Come with my staff and I'll take you across the mountains.

And as they flag across the mountains,

The wizard asks the young man,

Where are you going?

Why are you deciding to cross these mountains?

And the young man says,

Ah,

I'm going to ask the Buddha a question about my destiny.

And the wizard says,

Oh,

Well if you're going to ask the Buddha a question in any event,

Can I please give you a question to ask the Buddha?

You see,

I've been trying to go to heaven for a thousand years and according to my teachings,

I should be able to go to heaven by now.

Can you please ask the Buddha,

What do I have to do to get to heaven?

Of course I'll ask a question for you,

Says the young man.

And as he continues on his journey,

He then runs into another obstacle,

Which is a river that he cannot cross as it's so wide.

Luckily though,

He meets a giant turtle who decides to take them across the river.

And as they're crossing the river together,

The turtle asks the young man,

So where are you going?

Why do you need to cross the river and the young man says,

I'm going to see the Buddha.

I'm going to ask him a question about my destiny.

And the turtle says,

Well,

If you're going to ask the question of Buddha in any event,

Could you please ask him a question for me too?

You see,

I've been trying to become a dragon for 500 years and according to my teaching,

I should have become a dragon by now.

Can you please ask the Buddha,

What do I have to do to become a dragon?

And of course the young man says,

He'll help him and he'll ask that question.

And he thanks him for taking him across the river and says,

I'll see you soon.

Eventually the homeless man meets the Buddha and the Buddha tells everybody who'd come to speak to him,

I will answer three questions for everybody here,

But only three questions.

The young man is surprised and a little bit concerned because,

Well,

He has four questions.

So he thinks carefully.

He thinks about the turtle,

The poor turtle that has been living for 500 years trying to become a dragon,

The wizard who's been living for a thousand years trying to get to heaven and that poor young girl who has to live the rest of her life not being able to speak.

And he looks towards himself and he thinks,

I'm just a homeless beggar.

I can just go back home and continue begging.

Perhaps that is my destiny.

And as he looks at everybody else's problems,

His problems suddenly seems so small.

He feels so sorry for the turtle,

The wizard and the young girl.

And he wants to ask their questions instead of his.

And so he does.

And the Buddha answers.

The turtle is unwilling to leave the shell.

As long as he's unwilling to leave the comfort of his shell,

He will never become a dragon.

The wizard,

Well,

He always carries his stuff and never puts it down.

It acts as an anchor keeping him from heaven.

And as for the young girl,

She'll be able to speak when she meets her soulmate.

And the homeless man bows down to the Buddha,

Thanks him and begins his journey back home.

As promised,

He reunites with the turtle and he says to the turtle,

Hey,

You just have to take off your shell.

And once it's off,

You'll become a dragon.

The turtle takes off his shell and inside the shell are the most priceless pearls found in the deepest parts of the ocean.

And he gives us all to the homeless man.

And he says,

Thank you.

I no longer need these because I'm a dragon now.

And he flies away.

The homeless man then reunites with the wizard on top of the mountain.

And he says,

Listen,

All you have to do is put down your stuff and you'll be able to go to heaven.

The wizard does this by giving his stuff to the young man.

And as he does this and he says,

Thank you,

He ascends to heaven.

The young man now has wealth from the turtle and power from the wizard.

And he goes back to the family that gave him shelter.

And he says to them,

I asked the Buddha and the Buddha said that your daughter will be able to speak when she meets her soulmate.

And at that moment,

The daughter comes downstairs and says,

Hey,

Is that the man that was here from last week?

And as you guessed,

The young man and the young girl find their soulmate.

So this story tells us so many things.

There are so many lessons to be learned here.

But this is my take on the story.

This is what I get out of it.

Like the turtle,

If we want to transform,

To evolve,

To grow,

We have to be willing to come out of our comfort zone.

Just like that caterpillar who leaves its warm safe cocoon so that it can spread its wings and embrace being a butterfly.

Once the turtle released himself from his shell,

He was able to transform and transcend and to fly towards his destiny.

And so often we are exactly like the wizard,

Wanting to change things,

But still so fixed in our views and our opinions and our ways.

The wizard was so attached and anchored and so used to gripping his staff that he didn't realize that the only way he could be set free was to put it down,

To let it go.

And how often do we fix Satan a problem,

A grudge,

A story?

And as much as we say to ourselves,

Oh,

I want to let it go,

I want to get rid of it,

We cannot.

We fix Satan it.

We regurgitate.

We think about it all the time.

We anchor ourself to that situation,

To that way of being.

But if we were able to put things down,

When we learn to let things go,

To forgive,

We're able then to set ourselves free.

And as for the beautiful love story,

When we act unconditionally,

Without expectation of a reward,

Of getting something out of doing something,

When we act just out of the goodness of our heart,

We are then rewarded.

That's the natural law.

What goes around comes around,

And sometimes in the most unexpected of ways.

The story is all about embracing principles of generosity,

Compassion,

And kindness,

And all done with a sense of humility.

Humility is the key to success.

Humility requires us to be curious,

To ask why,

To listen,

To question,

And then to do all of that without judgment.

When we can act without judgment,

We stop taking things personally.

We can then be objective to see things from a higher perspective,

Like that young man did when he looked at his problems,

And they seemed so small compared to those of other people around him.

When we act with humility and we become humble,

We are then able to put other people first.

And when we are able to do this,

We are rewarded.

Thank you for listening,

For sharing your time with me this morning or this evening,

And I want to leave you with this message.

You are important.

You are enough.

You are perfect just the way you are.

Namaste.

Reviews

❤️🩵❤️

Great story, well told— thank you!✨🙏🏼✨

A beautiful teaching, beautifully told. 🙏

Incredible

Thank you so much. You told that story so beautifully. ❤️

What a wonderful, inspiring story! Know that I'll passit on to my students too for years to come. Thank you so much fir sharing it! 🙇🏻‍♀️🙏🏻✨

Beautiful, Thank You 🙏💜