301-Who is right?- Buddhism in daily life

Who is right?


Long ago, in a Buddhist temple, two monks argued about the
content of a sacred text. Each wanted to be right, his own view
seemed only logical to him, the opinion of the monk's brother as
wrong.


All day long the words went back and forth, sometimes in a
matter-of-fact form, occasionally also disparaging, but in the
matter nothing moved, each monk wanted to be right, to assert
himself, not to give in under any circumstances.


The other brothers in the monastery were increasingly burdened by
the quarrel, the opponents were irreconcilable, each invoked a
different passage in the text, which in his opinion would
"clearly prove" his point of view. When the discord did not end
the whole afternoon, a monk said: "I have enough of your
bickering now, go and ask the master, our abbot is known for his
wisdom, he will make a judgement, and after this word you shall
finally keep peace"!


The first quarreler ran into the hermitage of the master and
said: "Venerable abbot, I have been quarreling with my brother
all day, it is about a passage in a blessed book, may I present
you the passage, and my point of view about it"? "Yes, of
course," replied the monastic leader.


The monk laid it all out, sparing no small malice toward his
temple brother, but also explaining his version of the passage in
question.


The abbot answered succinctly, "Yes, you are in the right." The
monk went back triumphantly and explained the decision to each
monastic brother, saying that he was right and the other monk was
wrong.


The defeated monk did not want to accept this without complaint,
he also went to the abbot's room and complained: "Master, how can
this be, I refer to the words of another eminent teacher, why
should I be in the wrong"?


The abbot just looked at the monk for a moment and again replied
curtly, "Yes, you are in the right."


The second monk went back, reported the abbot's statement to his
adversary. The quarrel began as it had ended; the positions had
even hardened, both now invoking the abbot as well.


Now the monk who had sent the two to the abbot had really had
enough, he went to see the monastery master himself to finally
bring the unpleasant matter to a good conclusion, to have peace
in the house again.


"Great master," he said, "why do you agree with both monks, only
one can be in the right?


The white abbot also looked at the third monk only briefly, and
again answered curtly: "Yes, you are in the right".


Only small minds always want to be right


- Louis XIV- French King (1638 - 1715)


The one who comes closest to the gods is the one who can keep
silent even when he is in the right


- Marcus Porcius Cato, the Elder (Cato Censorius)- (234 - 149
B.C.)


Everyone is so right


- unknown - Source: Inscription on a house in Wertheim (Germany),
quoted by Kurt Tucholsky (1907-1935).


Ghastly is the type of people who always want to be right. These
are ready to condemn innocent people, saints, God himself, just
to be right


Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)


You will be tomorrow what you think today


- Buddha –


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