John liked to play with his friends. One day they decided to play hide-and-go-seek in the park. The friends soon got tired, and they all went to sit under a nice mango tree. All of a sudden a large mango fell from the tree. John got it and was ready to eat it, when his friends started talking. His friends told him that they should share the mango since they all played together. John apologized and the friends shared the mango happily. There was a monkey in the mango tree that was watching this. He was happy that the friends were sharing, so he dropped 7 mangoes from the tree. The friends thanked the monkey, and went home to share the mangoes with their siblings. Retold From the Buddhism: A Graduated Course Series Giving: There was once a very kind man and a very greedy man were walking together. All of a sudden they stumbled across a deitee. He promised the men that he would grant each of them the wish of either recieving all the time, or giving all the time. The very kind man decided he wanted to give all the time. While, of course, the greedy man wanted to be recieving all the time. The deitee said," Ok," to the kind man,"I will make you a billionare so you will have plenty of chances to give to others." Then He turned to the greedy man and said," I will make you a beggar on the streets, so you will have plenty of chances to recieve." Think about this story the next time your giving or receiving a gift. Told by Banthe Pemaratana, at the November Talk |