This is a wonderful parable about three monks in a Taoist monastery who had different opinions on a matter involving a snail.
“Once, two monks were walking in the garden of a Taoist monastery. Suddenly, one of them saw a snail crawling on the path.
The second monk, his spiritual brother, inadvertently almost stepped on it, but the first one stopped him. He bent down and picked up the creature. ‘Look, we almost killed this little snail. And yet, this creature is life, and through it, the Tao that we must follow. This snail must live and continue its cycles of incarnation.’ And he carefully released the snail into the grass.
‘Fool!’ the second monk became angry. ‘By saving this useless snail, you endanger the lettuce beds our gardener cares for. For the sake of saving the life of some snail, you are destroying the labor of one of our brothers.’
A third monk, who happened to be nearby, watched their dispute with curiosity. Since they could not reach an agreement, the first monk suggested: ‘Let us take this question to our teacher; he is wise, let him decide which of us is right.’
So they went to their teacher, followed by the third monk.
When they arrived, the first monk explained how he had saved a sacred life that embodies thousands of future or past existences. The teacher listened, nodding his head, and then declared: ‘Yes, you are right, and that is exactly what you should have done.’
The second monk was outraged: ‘But how can that be? Is it right to save a snail that destroys the vegetables? The snail should be crushed to save the garden that gives us delicious food every day!’
The teacher listened, nodding his head, and said: ‘That is true. That is what should have been done. You are right.’
Then the third monk, who had remained silent until that moment, grew indignant: ‘But their points of view are opposites! Can they both be right?’
The teacher looked at him for a long time. Then he shook his head and said: ‘That is true. You are also right.'”
This parable reached me at a time when I was struggling because I lacked a clear opinion on a matter important to me, acknowledging the rightness of different viewpoints simultaneously. To be honest, this made me feel not just confused, but quite stupid. Now I know that the conflicts we see in the external world are nothing compared to the conflicts we have within ourselves. The true place of our battles is within us, and the external world of snails and gardeners merely reflects it.
Kameliya
