Just Two Wrods

[Jessie Fong]

Read this short Zen story and share with us, if you were given the exception to the rule, what would be your 2 words and why?

Would you say "Stop complaining"?
or "That's enough"?
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Just Two Words

There once was a monastery that was very strict. Following a vow of silence, no one was allowed to speak at all. But there was one exception to this rule. Every ten years, the monks were permitted to speak just two words. After spending his first ten years at the monastery, one monk went to the head monk. "It has been ten years," said the head monk. "What are the two words you would like to speak?"
"Bed... hard..." said the monk.

"I see," replied the head monk.

Ten years later, the monk returned to the head monk's office. "It has been ten more years," said the head monk. "What are the two words you would like to speak?"

"Food... stinks..." said the monk.

"I see," replied the head monk.

Yet another ten years passed and the monk once again met with the head monk who asked, "What are your two words now, after these ten years?"

"I... quit!" said the monk.

"Well, I can see why," replied the head monk. "All you ever do is complain."

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My Guru said : Complaints without doing something about it is just speech negative karma.

[Tenzin K]

Interesting!

I agree with the head monk, in that scenario after 30yrs the only thing that important or in monk’s mind is only dissatisfaction. But surprise me he can hold on up to this far.
By knowing the problem and not doing anything is not going to help us in anyway in fact things will get worst up to a point where we self-declare that we give up! If we keep such attitude we will quit all the time and move from one place to another, thought that we will find a place that suit us but we forget that we have set perspective towards what we want and forget that what we need.
Follow diligently what our Lama teach and instructed. Stop complaining and work on the things that we want to complain because we created the karma for things to happen to us, no one else so if we don’t deal with it, it will just roll on like a snow ball come to a point again be are unable to cope with it.

My two words: DO IT!

[rossoneri]

Very true. At times i over heard multiple conversation on the next table in multiple occasion in a restaurant, all i heard is people talking about somebody who does this and that to him/ her. Not saying that i never complain but i tried to minimize it as much as i can. What is the point when you convey your point of view to your friend which is not in your situation? If you think your point of view is right, why don't you go have a decent discussion with that particular individual and have a healthy meaningful discussion or debate.

[bambi]

Wow! After 30 years and the monk is still complaining? lol.. Something is definitely not working well with the monk. If all they did was just vow of silence and meditation, the monk must not be doing his homework. We are all the same at one point but with Dharma and the understanding of it, we change for the better. Focus on the outside and not on myself. There must come a time where you tell yourself to stop complaining and do it! What is the point of complaining and not looking for a solution? Then we will be stuck in the same situation before knowing Dharma. How can Dharma teach us to be worse than we were before?  Lets stop complaining now and do what is right!

[RedLantern]

Discouragement comes easy sometimes.Our natural tendency is to feel defeated when things are tough and start complaining.When  something goes wrong,we tell ourselves we are unable to cope and begin t complain.
Complain leads to negative thinking and we feel defeated.Stand on our promise and activate our faith ,not sight .Do not get caught up in circumstances.
Thirty years is a long time to still keep on complaining,it does show that he does not do his practice well.He should find a solution to his problems instead of complaining repeatedly.

[brian]

This shows that the monk still did not change his view for the past 30 years being a monk. A monk is supposed to be giving up all attachment and have no qualms to suffer for others at the expense of his own comfort and despite the fact that he have only two words to say in ten years, he chosed the negative words (complaining words) rather than positive words. It could have been easily be "hello" or "fine" or any other words like "compassion" or happiness". This shows that his perception towards being a monk, being unhappy because he suffered all through this 30 years in life. My two cents worth. Nevertheless, I admire his tenancity in still able to take the "two words in 10 years" regulation. That itself speaks volume for one's practice.

[AnneQ]

My instinct after reading this post was to laugh at the incongruity of the story but after a moment of reflection, I am inclined to note that sadly enough many people do live their lives like that. Instead of taking responsibility and focusing on the positiveness of even having a life to live, let alone a monk's life, people tend to choose to become a victim of their circumstances and feel sorry for themselves. And if left unchecked, we would continue to live like this till our deathbed. It takes much more effort and work to get ourselves off our self imposed quagmire than to feel sorry and pity ourselves. Because being this way requires less effort and no responsibility. It is always easier to live this way, in our comfort zone and continue to criticise than to step up, get control of our lives and take risks. So the monk took the easy way by just surviving the monastery, criticising and never making any effort to improve his situation, and continued to live like that for the next thirty years because it is easier that way.
Sounds like how some of us live our life?

[Tammy]

Hahahaha... Looking around there are definitely many such silly monks ! All they ever said are complaint and never put in any effort to make changes and change the situation. and yet many of them blame others for not doing anything to change the situation. I fell sad for them.

[sonamdhargey]

IMHO the moral of the story is no matter how we seem to do something day in day out it does not make us improve unless we want to improve. If our mind is just focusing on the negative aspect of everything then we end up being negative our whole life and just blaming others. It is not the number of years that is important but the understanding and the will to make a difference and change for the better that matters most in this case.

[Aurore]

There was a saying that goes ... "Do not speak - unless it improves on silence."

Well, in this case the moment the monk gets a chance to speak, only words of complain comes out of him. Imagine if there are no vow of silence in this monastery, this monk will be committing negative speech complaining daily which can also affect other's minds and perhaps not even last for 30 years!

As the vow of silence is to help one to control their speech, there are several reasons for taking the vow of silence:-
• One refrains from lying or misleading others by speech
• One becomes more aware of the inner state of mind
• To increase clarity of the mind
• To increase control over one's mind

As you can see, there are many benefits to it, but one must know why take this vow and benefit out of it rather than seeing it as some kind of punishment and the moment there is a freedom of speech, it's misused. 

[DS Star]

There is a similar story in Dhammapada.

The Story of Thera Tissa

While residing at the Jetavana monastery in Savatthi, the Buddha uttered Verses (3) and (4) of this book, with reference to Thera Tissa.

Tissa, son of the Buddha's maternal aunt, was at one time staying with the Buddha. He had become a bhikkhu only in his old age, but he posed as a senior bhikkhu and was very pleased when visiting bhikkhus asked his permission to do some service for him. On the other hand, he failed to perform the duties expected of junior bhikkhus; besides, he often quarrelled with the younger bhikkhus. Should anyone rebuke him on account of his behaviour he would go complaining to the Buddha, weeping, very much dissatisfied and very upset. The others also followed him to the presence of the Buddha. The Buddha told them not to harbour thoughts of enmity, for enmity could only be appeased by not harbouring enmity.

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Verse 3: "He abused me, he ill-treated me, he got the better of me, he stole my belongings;"... the enmity of those harbouring such thoughts cannot be appeased.

Verse 4: "He abused me, he ill-treated me, he got the better of me, he stole my belongings;"... the enmity of those not harbouring such thoughts can be appeased.

At the end of the discourse, one hundred thousand bhikkhus attained Sotapatti Fruition.

[dondrup]

There are four non-virtuous actions arising from our speech i.e. lying, divisive speech, hurtful speech, and idle chatter.  Hence observing the vows of silence is a method to avoid committing these negative speech karma. 

In the context of hurtful speech, Atisha said when we are on our own we should be especially watchful of our mind, and when we are with others we should be especially watchful of our speech.

In the zen story, had the monk not spoken, he could have avoided the negative speech karma! Since he had chosen to speak thrice over thirty years, he could have spoken something more meaningful e.g. Namo Amitabha! The benefits of reciting Buddha Amitabha’s name is beyond words!

[vajrastorm]

This complaining monk is a stoic - suffering (though 'complainingly') for thirty years!And not quitting before that.

Nonetheless, I guess it is possible for a mind that is so full of himself to do battle with his own self-cherishing and strong attachment to comfort and good food for a full thirty years. However, in the end, owing to lack of renunciation from the very start, he lost the battle .
 
Yes, in self-reflection, I would say that the battle with my deeply habituated attachment to comfort and sense pleasures, for example food, is a daily one.Even though I am a vegetarian, i still look for tasty food. If i were to be truly renounced, i would just be content with whatever is easily available. I wouldn't make so much fuss about excessive heat or cold or a hard or soft chair or cushion,when I am doing my practice, would I?   

[pgdharma]

What a waste of devoting 30 years of his life to be so discipline to undergo a silent retreat, yet his mind is not strong enough and has not transformed all this years.  He still has negative thoughts and speech. However, just imagine if he is not on silent retreat, he will be complaining all this 30 years which may even hurt or offend others thus creating even more negative karma.

[Jessie Fong]

What a waste of devoting 30 years of his life to be so discipline to undergo a silent retreat, yet his mind is not strong enough and has not transformed all this years.  He still has negative thoughts and speech. However, just imagine if he is not on silent retreat, he will be complaining all this 30 years which may even hurt or offend others thus creating even more negative karma.

Yes I agree with you ... what a waste.

But on reflection, could it be that after so long a period, he practically lost his ability to speak? And was only attached to his bed and food? And when he could not see any improvements, he just quit?

And how come the head monk could speak more than two words?