The Rabbi And The Monk

Post sayings and stories you find interesting or useful.
Post Reply
User avatar
Pannapetar
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:05 am
Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Contact:

The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by Pannapetar »

A nice little story I read some time ago:

A rabbi once met a Buddhist monk. The monk invited the rabbi into his temple, but the rabbi refused saying, "I am not allowed to enter a house of idol worship". The monk asked why. The rabbi answered, "Because worshipping an object is an affront to G-d".

The monk took a small Buddha statue out of his pocket, looked at the rabbi with a calm smile and threw the statue onto the ground, smashing it to pieces.

The monk asked the startled rabbi, "Now tell me, would you do that with your Torah scrolls? If not, who is it that makes idols?"

(Told by Aaron Moss)
User avatar
Ben
Posts: 18438
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:49 am
Location: kanamaluka

Re: The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by Ben »

Thanks Thomas
Great story!

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
User avatar
Cittasanto
Posts: 6646
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:31 pm
Location: Ellan Vannin
Contact:

Re: The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by Cittasanto »

it reminds me of a zen story of burning buddha statues.

LOL

can I pinch this story for a blog
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
User avatar
tiltbillings
Posts: 23046
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:25 am

Re: The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by tiltbillings »

That is a good story.

I like this story of the Christian missionary who approaches a Chinese monk who is sitting quietly in a temple and asks of the monk, "What are you doing?" The monk says, "You would say I am praying." The missionary then asks, "What are you praying for?" The monk says, "Nothing." Puzzled, the missionary asks, "Well, then, to whom are you praying?" The monk answers, "To no one." Perplexed, not understanding this at all, the missionary turns to leave and as he is walking away, the monk calls to the missionary and says, "And don't forget, there is no one praying."

I heard this years and years ago. Have no idea of the source.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
User avatar
Macavity
Posts: 110
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:36 am
Location: Thailand

Re: The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by Macavity »

tiltbillings wrote:I heard this years and years ago. Have no idea of the source.
Perhaps Dorothy Figen, though I don't know where she got it from.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... bl085.html
User avatar
Jechbi
Posts: 1268
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:38 am
Contact:

Re: The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by Jechbi »

Then there's the one about the rabbi, the priest and the chicken who walk into a bar ...





never mind
Rain soddens what is kept wrapped up,
But never soddens what is open;
Uncover, then, what is concealed,
Lest it be soddened by the rain.
dilexi
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2009 3:55 am

Re: The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by dilexi »

tiltbillings wrote:
I like this story of the Christian missionary who approaches a Chinese monk who is sitting quietly in a temple and asks of the monk, "What are you doing?" The monk says, "You would say I am praying." The missionary then asks, "What are you praying for?" The monk says, "Nothing." Puzzled, the missionary asks, "Well, then, to whom are you praying?" The monk answers, "To no one." Perplexed, not understanding this at all, the missionary turns to leave and as he is walking away, the monk calls to the missionary and says, "And don't forget, there is no one praying."

I heard this years and years ago. Have no idea of the source.
Was putting off meditating just now. This story made me smile, and laugh, and then want to meditate. Thank you. :smile:
:buddha1:
-dilexi
User avatar
acinteyyo
Posts: 1706
Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 9:48 am
Location: Bavaria / Germany

Re: The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by acinteyyo »

I like tilt's and pannapetar's story. made me smile :smile:

:thanks:
Thag 1.20. Ajita - I do not fear death; nor do I long for life. I’ll lay down this body, aware and mindful.
User avatar
gene
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2010 1:03 pm

Re: The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by gene »

Yes indeed. Both made me smile. :)
Although the teller of pannapetar's story took some artistic license. I don't think Theravadin robes are capable of concealing buddha statues!
User avatar
Tex
Posts: 703
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:46 pm
Location: Austin, TX, USA

Re: The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by Tex »

gene wrote:Although the teller of pannapetar's story took some artistic license. I don't think Theravadin robes are capable of concealing buddha statues!
I remember reading on "the other site" a year or two ago the very same story, only the rupa the monk smashed was at the entrance to the monastery (I had pictured the monk picking up some three-foot tall stone Buddha with both hands over his head and smashing it to make a tremendous scene and then very quietly making his point to the aghast rabbi!).
"To reach beyond fear and danger we must sharpen and widen our vision. We have to pierce through the deceptions that lull us into a comfortable complacency, to take a straight look down into the depths of our existence, without turning away uneasily or running after distractions." -- Bhikkhu Bodhi

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." -- Heraclitus
User avatar
gene
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2010 1:03 pm

Re: The Rabbi And The Monk

Post by gene »

Tex wrote:
gene wrote:Although the teller of pannapetar's story took some artistic license. I don't think Theravadin robes are capable of concealing buddha statues!
I remember reading on "the other site" a year or two ago the very same story, only the rupa the monk smashed was at the entrance to the monastery (I had pictured the monk picking up some three-foot tall stone Buddha with both hands over his head and smashing it to make a tremendous scene and then very quietly making his point to the aghast rabbi!).
lol Texans do like to think big. ;)

Nice anecdote as this story is I hope its circulation won't enourage hot-blooded young buddhists to take up statue-smashing to make a point about Buddhism's stance on idoltry. If I'm not mistaken I read somewhere that destroying images of the Buddha incurs bad karma. The Afghan Taliban was overthrown not long after its destruction of the Bamiyan statues. :(
Post Reply