Stories-inspirations

The text was a short Buddhist parable about four monks who decide to meditate for seven days in a row. During that time, none of them is allowed to talk. No-one makes a sound for the whole first day, but during the night the only lamp in the room sputters and goes out. The first monk can't help himself, and shouts: 'Oh no! The light's gone out!' The second monk replies: 'Be quiet: we're not supposed to say anything!' The third monk says: 'Well if we're not supposed to talk, what are you doing?' And the fourth monk laughs and says: 'Ho ho ho! I'm the only one who hasn't talked yet: ooops!'
T One interpretation is that, if we blame other people, it's very likely that we are also to blame ourselves.

A man was leading his donkey during the night when the donkey slipped down a deep hole and couldn't get out. After trying for some time to pull it up, the man gave up and decided to fill in the hole so nobody else would fall down. He started shoveling earth down the hole onto the donkey. But when the donkey felt the earth on its back, it decided it was too young to die, and shook off the earth, and trampled it under foot. After doing this many many times, the donkey gradually got higher and higher, and finally it managed to climb out of the hole.
According to the writer, this story teaches us that when things go wrong and people seem to be throwing dirt at you, you should just treat it as a learning experience: just shake off the dirt and trample it under your feet. Every little defeat will be a small stepping stone to ultimate victory.

from UTS newspeaks