The Stone Story

originally posted at: http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/sammultoy/article?mid=11765
credit to: ling gan


the links to the video clips:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODM2MjAwNDg=.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nFfn3sUIQg



"An Instant Touching Moment"

Recently, there was a friend of mine who was fired by his boss. Seeing him that unhappy, I asked him to go hiking together, hoping to cheer him up. From the beginning of the trip, he was telling me about his old boss' meanness and injustice. We haven't even hiked that far, but he was already so tired, so we had to go back. I was just going to relieve his boredom, but who would have known that he could get so fiery. So I decided to tell him this story.

The Stone Story

There was a school in a remote village whose two of its students were in a fight. Once the teacher heard this, she ran out and found out what was going on. But they were still fighting. So she yelled at them, "Stop!" The students stopped and behaved once they saw their teacher. But she still could see their faces were flaming with rage. She didn't immediately punish them, but instead she asked them a question. She said, "In your heart, do you still have others that you're mad at?" The two students nodded their heads. Then the teachers gave out a bag to each of them and said, "I won't punish you today, instead I'll play a game with you guys. For the whole week, you have to think of the people you're mad at or you hate, write their names on a paper, and then go to the riverside to find some stones and stick the paper on the stones. The more you hate the person, the more you have to find a bigger stone to stick the paper on. If you don't really hate the person, then just find a smaller stone. You have to put the stones in the bag and bring it everyday for me to check, OK?" The kids agreed at once, because they were playing games instead of being punished. After school, they went to the riverside, competing to find stones. On the next day, they brought their bags that were filled with stones back to their school. They were discussing with each other, who had the most stones, and whose bag was the heaviest. Day after day, they had much more stones, and their bags were getting heavier and heavier. And one day, one of them couldn't take it anymore, and raised his hand to tell the teacher. "Teacher, it's very heavy and hard." The teacher was smiling and silent. The other student said, "Bringing the stones everyday is even heavier than bringing our textbooks, it's burdensome." The teacher just couldn't help but smiling and she said, "Why don't you just put your bags that are full of stones down?" The teacher was teaching them how to forgive others and not to cherish grudges like treasures in their hearts nor to put them on their shoulders. Because at the end of the day, the ones that are suffering the most are themselves. After she said that, one of the students went to the riverside and put back the stones. The others then followed. They decided not to bear grudges anymore everyday.

It's good that these children finally understood that the more grudges you have, the more harder it will be for you to live. Actually if we don't hate others and bear grudges, our lives would be much happier and more relaxing.

"Knowing how to let go to enjoy freedom"