Beating a Drum

[Jessie Fong]

Two Ways of Beating a Drum

Once upon a time there was a drummer living in a small country village. He heard there was going to be a fair in the city of Benares. So he decided to go there and earn some money by playing his drums. He took his son along to accompany him when playing music written for two sets of drums.

The two drummers, father and son, went to Benares Fair. They were very successful. Everyone liked their drum playing and gave generously to them. When the fair was over they began the trip home to their little village.

On the way they had to go through a dark forest. It was very dangerous because of muggers who robbed the travellers.

The drummer boy wanted to protect his father and himself from the muggers. So he beat his drums as loudly as he could, without stopping. "The more noise, the better!" he thought.

The drummer man took his son aside. He explained to him that when large groups passed by, especially royal processions, they were in the habit of beating drums. They did this at regular intervals, in a very dignified manner, as if they feared no one. They would beat a drum roll, remain silent, then beat again with a flourish, and so on. He told his son to do likewise, to fool the muggers into thinking there was a powerful lord passing by.

But the boy ignored his father's advice. He thought he knew best. "The more noise, the better!" he thought.

Meanwhile, a gang of muggers heard the boy's drumming. At first they thought it must be a powerful rich man approaching, with heavy security. But then they heard the drumming continue in a wild fashion without stopping. They realised that it sounded frantic, like a frightened little dog barking at a calm big dog.

So they went to investigate and found only the father and son. They beat them up, robbed all their hard-earned money, and escaped into the forest.


What do you think is the moral of this short story?

[ratanasutra]

The son doesn't respect and follow his father advice, he thought that his way is better and without discuss with the father he did on his own which bring damage to him and father.

As a good son, he should follow his father advice because the father is older than him, more exposure than him and the father raised him up.
As a good student, he should follow his teacher because the teacher teach him how to beat the drum, hence he can earn income from that and the teacher has more experience about the drum.

When someone who is senior and have more experience about it give us an advice, we should listen, not just throw it away. And if we have doubt and think our way will be better, we should talk it out and let discuss about it. Do not accept other people advice but when the time come we do different thing as it can be harmful and damaging. 

[bambi]

Well, I am still wondering why is the son arrogant and ignorant. The son's arrogance is dominated by his selfish ego and superiority. His own delusion caused him to view himself as more important. His father with experiences advised the son and yet he thought himself to smarter than his father. Isn't that arrogance? He had too much confidence and his foolishness caused them to be robbed.

I am sure there are many times, when someone who is wise tells us something, we totally ignore the facts they try to tell us. Just like when we were young and we ignore our parent's advice. Be wise and listen as they too have more experiences than us.

[KhedrubGyatso]

The moral is to be humble to  learn from those who are qualified, who knows more than us. The little boy , from his limited knowledge and experience thought   that  more sound or noise is better. He got that impression probably when they were at the fair where loudness matters in a noisy place.He may have seen dogs and birds running away when he beats the drum loudly. He lacked understanding like his drummer father that the manner one beats the drum can reveal one's thoughts or situation to learned humans .
His  intention was good, and I don't think it was arrogance. He lacked skills and knowledge and wrongly applied what he had learnt against enemies he is unfamiliar with.  Instead of scaring the bandits away by loud drum beating, he actually  betrayed himself and his father's situation to the bandits and they had to suffer the consequences.

[Jessie Fong]

The drummer boy did not want to heed his father's advice thinking that by beating his drum, he would chase away the muggers, not realising that the more noise he made he would attract the bandits, instead of the other way round. 

Had he listened to his father's good advice, they would not have lost their hard-earned money to the bandits.

He was ignorant not to listen to his father, a more experienced person.  When we have good advice from people who are more experienced, we should always listen and learn from them.

[biggyboy]

The boy did not heed his father's advice on the suitable manner of beating the drum.  The boy were in his 'best' opinion basing on the crowd that they had at their successful drumming event.  He then used the combination of both the beating of drum loudly and the large crowd analogy (to portray a royal procession passing by) as explained by his father.  Because his way of beating the drum were erratic, this has given way to attract the muggers to rob and beat them.

Moral of the story: It is wiser and important to listen to a much wiser and experienced people than ourselves.

[bambi]

The drummer boy did not want to heed his father's advice thinking that by beating his drum, he would chase away the muggers, not realising that the more noise he made he would attract the bandits, instead of the other way round. 

Had he listened to his father's good advice, they would not have lost their hard-earned money to the bandits.

He was ignorant not to listen to his father, a more experienced person.  When we have good advice from people who are more experienced, we should always listen and learn from them.

Its funny right? How someone can always ignore good advice when it is given? I remember when I was young, my parents would always scream at the top of their lungs because I went and did opposite of what they said. How smart! Even now after all these years, I am still getting advice but sometimes ignoring it. Ego and pride still around.  I thought that since I am grown up now I can make good decisions but I am wrong. Sometimes it backfires. Well, guess I will have to let go of ego and pride now.

[brian]

for me the moral of the story will always be " you have to listen to the one who is experienced" and being a young man, he must have thought he know it all and can undermine the father's advice. What happened soon after was a blatant example of egoistic. When you are not listening to the older or experienced one, it does not mean by you are better than anyone but this shows that you do not accept other's opinion. This sometimes can cause a devastating effect such as this. I feel for the son.

[Big Uncle]

The drummer boy did not want to heed his father's advice thinking that by beating his drum, he would chase away the muggers, not realising that the more noise he made he would attract the bandits, instead of the other way round. 

Had he listened to his father's good advice, they would not have lost their hard-earned money to the bandits.

He was ignorant not to listen to his father, a more experienced person.  When we have good advice from people who are more experienced, we should always listen and learn from them.

Its funny right? How someone can always ignore good advice when it is given? I remember when I was young, my parents would always scream at the top of their lungs because I went and did opposite of what they said. How smart! Even now after all these years, I am still getting advice but sometimes ignoring it. Ego and pride still around.  I thought that since I am grown up now I can make good decisions but I am wrong. Sometimes it backfires. Well, guess I will have to let go of ego and pride now.

Hahaha! That's true. When I was younger, I was more rebellious towards my parents, especially my mum. I dunno how come teenage raging hormones does that to us but it does. But then, some people remain rebellious for the rest of our lives. I too, agree that the young boy was inexperience but that's not his fault.

His fault came when his father gave him sound advice and he chose to ignore that advice. Ohh! Listening to good advice can sometimes save us a lot of heartache and problems. This is a good moral story really and it is especially applicable to those who have a compassionate Lama who constantly dispenses with good Dharma advice that can potentially save us from a lot of problems we could not have foreseen ourselves. Dharma is like that, it offers solutions that are long term instead of short term.