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LOST TRAVELER

Once upon a time, there was a traveler who would like to go to a city. Because of time

constraints, he decided to take a shortcut. In this way he needed to cross a forest. When he reached the

middle of the forest, he saw a tiger. The tiger saw him too, and started to chase him. Knowing this, he

ran as fast as he could. He realized that if he kept running, he would get caught by the tiger because

tiger could run faster.

While running, he kept thinking how he should avoid this tiger. He also dropped all his

provisions in order to move quickly and nimbly. He saw a well, not far, in front of him. He decided to

jump to the well thinking that the tiger would not follow him. Thus, he jumped and luckily there was a

big root of a tree that came out from the wall of the well. He quickly held and hung-on to it, so he did

not fall to the bottom of the well. He was right, the tiger did not follow him to jump but it kept waiting

by staying near the well.

He felt a big relief from being free from the tiger. When he took a look to the bottom of thewell, he saw three cobra snakes making hissing sound. Again, he felt so much relief because he could

avoid another deadly situation. He told to himself that he was a very lucky man.

Not only being tired after running to avoid the tiger, but he also felt very hungry. Thus, he

decided to take a rest on the tree root for awhile. He noticed two rats (black & white) biting the part of

the root, where he was resting, which close to the wall of the well. However, because he was feeling

tired he did not care much that those rats could break the root.

After a while, a strong wind blew through the big tree where he stayed on its root. The bee hive

that hung-on to tree branch which was on the top of the well broke, causing its honey to drip down

onto him. How lucky he was! First, he had escaped from two deadly situations. And now, when he was

very hungry and tired, delicious honey was dripping onto him.

Soon after he started eating the honey, he heard the sound of gunfire (bang! bang! bang!). He

thought that a hunter had probably shot the tiger. Not wanting to waste any time, he started to yell

(help! help! help!) hoping that the hunter would hear his calls. The hunter, tracking the tiger,

approached the well and heard the travelers shouts. The hunter told him that he had chased the tiger

away and then helped him by dropping a rope-ladder down the inside of the well. Grateful to the

hunter, the traveler said, Thank you so much, I will always remember your kindness.

However, out of greediness and ignorance, the traveler continued enjoying the delicious honeydrops, not thinking to hold the rope-ladder first. As the time went by, and the rats continued biting the

tree root, the tree root weakened and broke. The traveler fell to the bottom of the well without had a

chance to grab the rope-ladder. He was bitten by the cobras and died.

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The moral of this story:

We, ordinary people (puthujjana), always run in the round of rebirths (sa sra) in order to get

what we want (mostly trying to satisfy our greed of sensual pleasure). Not only do we not know the

fault of sasra, but we also are not aware that death (the tiger) is always chasing us. Every time the

sun goes down, we are one day older. It means that Every day brings us closer to death.

Due to of ignorance (moha), we cant see the law of nature. We think impermanence (anicca)

as permanence (nicca), suffering/dissatisfaction (dukkha) as happiness (sukha), and not-self (anatt) as

self (att). Although we try to hide (jump to the well) from death, we cant escape it. The law of

impermanence (anicca) will bring us to death eventually (venomous snake bites).

Forms of suffering, such as old age (with its gray hair, wrinkled-skin, poor eyesight, and

toothlessness), sickness, pain, etc., attack us constantly, day or night, just like the two rats chewing on

the tree root. Despite all of those evils, because of greed (lobha) we always crave (tah) for sensual

pleasure (honey drops) although we know it could drag us to lower realms (animal, hungry ghost/peta,demon/asura, and hell).

As we all know, a Buddha very rarely appears in this world. It is also a rare opportunity to

encounter the teachings of the Buddha (Buddha ssan). It is also very difficult to born as human being.

It is very difficult to be alive and especially to have a good life and good health. However, due to

craving forsensual pleasure (honey drops), we tend to forget to take the vipassan practice (the rope-

ladder) that was given by Lord Buddha (hunter) in order to free us from the suffering of sasra.

We always say that we dont have time to take the vipassan practice. We say, I will practice

when I finish my education or afterI have a stable job orafterI have a family or afterI havechildren or aftermy children get married or next week, next month, next year, etc. The right time

will never come if we dont give ourselves a chance. Nobody else can give us the right time either.

Thats true that it is very difficult to avoid sensual pleasure, let alone to be free from it totally.

However, now we have a very rare opportunity to do that. Dont l et this opportunity slip away, or it

will bring us remorse. At least, we should take vipassan meditation (hold the rope-ladder) to the level

that will free us from falling to lower realms (falling to the bottom of the well), while at the same time

we still can enjoy some sensual pleasure (honey drops).

If there is NO Buddha, NO vipassan, then NO one would know how to be free from sasra.

Thus, we all SHOULDpractice vipassan while we have this very rare opportunity.

After reading this vipassan dhamma, may all of you realize the importance of vipassan

meditation. May all of you be able to practice with ease and realize the Noble Dhamma (Magga, Phala,

and Nibbna) in this very life. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

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The 15th

of October, 2010

ITBMU, Yangon, Myanmar

Ashin Sikkhnanda