The Story of 4 Monks

Good Morning Beautiful Souls.

For the last few days, I have been attending a lot of professional and social meetings, my observation these days is people have become very impatient to hear another person's viewpoint. Everybody in the meeting feels he/she is a master of every subject.

On the same subject, I am recalling, and sharing the story of 4 monks.

Four monks decided to meditate silently without speaking for two weeks.

They began their assigned task with full enthusiasm and no one said a word the whole day. 

By nightfall of the first day, the candle began to flicker and then went out. 

The first monk yelled out, "Oh, no! The candle is out." 

The second monk said, "Hey! We are not supposed to speak!" 

The third monk said in an irritated voice, "What is this? Why did you two break the silence?" 

The fourth monk smiled and said, "Wow! I'm the only one who hasn't spoken."

 Lessons learned

Each monk broke the silence for a different reason, each of which is a common stumbling block in our inner journey, distraction, judgment, anger, and pride. 

The first monk got distracted by one aspect of his experience (the candle) and forgot what was more important - the practice of sighting without reacting.

The second monk was more worried about others following the rules than actually practicing himself. He was quick to judge without noticing that he was guilty of what he was condemning. 

The third monk let his anger towards the first two monks influence him. The singular eruption of anger ruined the effort of the day. 

The fourth monk lost his way because of stature. He was convinced he was superior to the others, proving his ignorance. 

Why did the fourth monk speak at all? He could have simply maintained his silence and he would have been successful in his endeavor. But if he had, chances are that the other three might have continued to argue and not even noticed his silence. Some people are like this in our world.

Their motto is If I am doing something good, but no one notices, I might as well not be doing it at all ." They believe that the reward is not in the endeavor but in the optimistic recognition of that effort.

There is a beautiful quote it says It is the province of knowledge to speak; it is the privilege of wisdom to listen."

As we understand to completely listen, witness and observe without being impulsively responding with distraction, judgment, anger, and pride, then we understand the true meaning of silence.

The problem with today's generation people is that we all have forgotten the language of silence, we have forgotten to talk from the way of the heart. We have completely forgotten that there is a life that can be lived through the heart. We are too much hung up in our heads, and because we are too much in our head we cannot make any sense out of other people well beings.

Requesting the readers to please comment their thoughts and keep inspiring bloggers like us to bring more knowledge to you.