The Words of an Old Monk

Source: The Internet

This incident happened forty years ago.

I was in the 2^nd year of secondary school at the time. One day we were on a class outing riding bicycles. At dusk we arrived at Chai Ming Temple at Dragon Pond in Taiwan. This temple was right next to the mountain of a stream called Tai Han. We all sat on the large patch of grass in front of the temple, admiring the scenery and chatting amongst ourselves.

At the time we were all very thirsty, but in those days, high school students could not afford to buy soft drinks. We knew that temples often supplied tea and water, so we voted one of us to ask for drinks.

This schoolmate was Catholic. However, we saw him approaching an old monk in front of the temple with much respect. He pretended that he was a Buddhist and showed the characteristics of a Buddhist by naming Buddha’s name and clasping both hands together in salutation. Our plan worked very well. The old monk invited all of us into the temple and not only did we have tea and water to drink, we were also given cakes and biscuits to eat.

We were also given a tour of his study room; inside the study room, there were many string-bound books. The old monk immediately gave us a demonstration in Chinese calligraphy. In such wilderness, to meet such a kind-hearted, friendly and also knowledgeable old monk, we all felt that this trip was well worth our while.

When we were all saying thank you and goodbye to the old monk, he suddenly said, “Just wait one minute, I’d like to foretell your fortune by face-looking.”

All the students immediately turned around to let the old monk scan their faces. Finally, he pointed at one student and made a hand gesture asking him to stand in front.

The last word of this student’s name was “Ding”, we called him “Ah Ding”. After Ah Ding was picked, he obediently moved forward. The old monk patted him on the shoulder and said, “Your future is beyond any limitation.”

Ah Ding jumped with fright and he softly said, “Master, you must have made a mistake.” But the old monk was very insistent. He said with determination, “Your future is the brightest.” After this, he let us go.

On our way home, we did not want to discuss the old monk’s prediction. The reason was simple. It was true that Ah Ding’s academic and sports results were quite good, however, his family background was not too good. Out of our whole class, he was the only one who had to study at the special advanced course on teachers’ training, whilst the rest of the class would apply for universities. Ah Ding said that it was already a huge burden to the family for him to study at secondary school. It was impossible for him to enter university. There was a government grant for the teachers’ training course and after graduation, one could immediately go and teach at a primary school. This was why he decided to study the teachers’ training course.

In fact, we all knew that Ah Chuen was the student in our class with the brightest future. Ah Chuen carried a good overall appearance, he possessed leadership quality and style, he had a friendly personality, and he had good organisation ability. Although his academic results were average, his physical stamina was shocking. He was 1.8m tall and he was in the school basketball team. We could not understand why the old monk chose Ah Ding, and not Ah Chuen.

Ah Ding broke the silence. He said, “I guess the old monk must be old and confused, Ah Chuen has the brightest future, I’ll be a primary school teacher, how can I be the one with the brightest future?”

Forty years passed. Among our class, the majority of us had good careers; some of us became engineers, some became entrepreneurs, and I became a university professor. However, Ah Chuen and Ah Keung were the ones with the most successful careers. Ah Chuen became a Government Cabinet Minister and Ah Keung became a director of a construction company.

I was in charge of organising the old classmates’ reunion and I would often telephone all my old school friends. I could manage to find everyone with ease, except for Ah Chuen and Ah Keung. Ah Chuen’s secretary would always tell me that he was either in a meeting or that he was talking affairs with others. He often had to go to the Legislative Council to respond to some kind of interrogation. I discovered that if I went to the Legislative Council myself, it might have been easier for me to find him. Usually, his secretary would take my telephone number and say that the Minister would return my call. If the Minister did return my call, it would invariably be one week later. It was even more difficult trying to arrange for a reunion since the Minister had appointments booked almost every day. It would be at least one month later before he could see his old friends. 

Ah Keung was not much better than Ah Chuen. Although he did not have to attend the Legislative Council, he did need to look after his engineering projects and he had to socialise with his clients day and night.

The Cabinet reshuffled. Ah Chuen lost his cabinet minister seat. He was still very busy, however his influence and power were all stripped from him. Whenever I telephoned him, I could talk to him straight away. Sometimes, he would phone me himself and ask me out for dinner. A year ago, this was absolutely impossible.

What about Ah Keung?  His construction company continuously built new buildings and they were put on the market. But most of them remained unsold, the prices were slashed and even this had no effect. He was financially strangled. Someone told me that he almost committed suicide on several occasions.

What about Ah Ding?  He used to teach at a school near Dragon Pond, but retired from his post as a primary teacher a long time ago. He lived there since his retirement.

Forty years after graduating from secondary school, we decided to have a gathering. We all agreed not to bring our wives, as we wanted to get together to remember the good old days some forty years ago. Ah Ding invited us to gather at his place because he was the only one who lived in a village.

Almost all the classmates from Taiwan attended the reunion. Everyone chatted happily. One thing that interested me was that our concerns were not about each other’s differences, whether one was successful or rich, as this was no longer the subject that mattered; rather, the subject often revolved around our own bad health. For example, someone had pain in the waist, someone had pain in the back, someone shared the experience of a heart operation, while another was even greater – he had his kidneys replaced – scaring and frightening everyone. The most memorable thing that was on everybody’s minds was that forty years ago we would play basketball in the afternoon every day. If we now played basketball under the great sun in midday, we would all fall down and die.

In the afternoon, Ah Ding told us that he had been acting as a volunteer in an orphanage since his retirement and worked voluntarily for 8 hours a day. He invited us to take a visit to the orphanage. It was only now we all discovered that he was indeed a very busy man.

Within one short hour, Ah Ding patiently listened to the little girl’s complaint. She complained that a boy harassed her. Although her nose was wet and running and her face was streaming with tears, within seconds, both of them were playing together like best friends. Another boy tripped to the ground and hurt his knee, so Ah Ding helped to put antiseptic solution on it. Within this very hour, he had three phone calls: one was from someone looking for a job for his son, one was about making arrangements for a child returning from hospital, and the third call was from someone applying for a copy of a handicap prospectus on behalf of a child.

To all of us, Ah Ding’s job was the most admirable. Our Mr. Cabinet Minster was surrounded by a group of children who wanted him to read them a story from a book (recommended by Ah Ding). Mr. Cabinet Minister thought he might just be able to fabricate it. He could not have guessed that he was corrected several times by the children, showing that the children had obviously all read the story several times and had recited it by heart. Our millionaire, Ah Keung went to take a look around the kitchen and he did not come back out. He stayed and peeled green beans, his face showing a look of satisfaction and happiness.

Someone suggested that we should re-visit the Chai Ming Temple before we went home. Forty years ago, the area was just farmland. Now everything had changed. The place was much busier and more lively. Luckily, the Chai Ming Temple was not affected. It still quietly overlooked the Tai Han stream. We arrived at dusk, a big red sun was setting behind the opposite mountain range.

Returning to the old place, we all had thick white hair, and could not help but feel a touch of sadness. The hustles and bustles of former times would never reappear; they were replaced by a grave silence. The Cabinet Minister felt the sadness most and said, “I’m most afraid of watching the sunset. Every time I see the sunset, I recall all good things associated with it, but I’m nearer to dusk.” Everyone understood how disappointed he was after he had to step down from his ministerial role. However, he was not the only one, we were all reaching the age of retirement.

I believe that we all must have been thinking back to what the old monk had said to Ah Ding all those years ago, “You’ve the brightest future”, I still couldn’t understand what he meant.

Whilst we were all sharing a moment of idleness, one classmate who studied Mathematics turned around and said to Ah Ding, “I finally understand what the old monk meant. We’re all busy and work hard every day, and it’s all for ourselves. Since it’s only for ourselves, we naturally aim to be successful, however, this is self-satisfaction and achievement. No matter how big this may be, this does have its limitations. Even though one of us may become the President, one day he’d have to step down. As for you?  Your speciality is looking after these children. I believe you’ve a feeling of achievement every day. This kind of satisfaction and achievement is unlimited. It can go on forever. Unlike Ah Keung, he worries about the economic state of affairs every day. Where there’s a downturn, he’s unable to talk about any kind of satisfaction or achievement. It’s no wonder the old monk said that your future has no limits. His prediction is so accurate.”

Ah Ding did not say a word. It seemed that everyone agreed with what had just been said.

On the return journey, I said to the classmate next to me, “Why did the old monk not make himself clearer at the time?  It has taken us forty years to finally understand.”

My classmate said, “Forty years ago, even if the old monk had explained in detail, could you have understood, a person without the root of wisdom like yourself?”

In fact, I was not the only one who failed to understand. We were all children at the time, how could we have understood such philosophical sayings. It was no wonder that the old monk did not make himself clear. But I did have a feeling that he surely knew we would return 40 years later. Only then could we understand what he had said.

Postscript:
I believe that those committee members of the Charity Funds Association and volunteers, after reading this essay, will have ‘a smile in the heart’ because, in fact, Rinpoche gives us the same encouragement ‘Your future is the brightest’!