One day Buddha came to his disciples with a handkerchief. Perhaps some king gave him this scarf. Usually the Buddha did not accept such things, and now everyone looked in bewilderment and wondered why he was carrying a handkerchief in his hand, as if telling everyone: “Look, look carefully!”
Everyone stared at the handkerchief, but no one saw anything except the beautiful silk handkerchief. Then Buddha began to tie knots on it. After tying five knots, the Buddha asked:
- Is this the same handkerchief that I brought with me, or a different one?
Sariputta said:
-This is the same scarf.
- Sariputta, think again. That scarf had no knots, but this one has five. How can he be the same?
Then Sariputta understood the meaning and said:
- I understood everything. Although it is the same handkerchief, now it is in knots, like a suffering person.
- Absolutely right! All I want to show you is that a person who is tormented is fundamentally no different from the Buddha. I am just a handkerchief without knots! You are a handkerchief with five knots. These nodes are aggressiveness, greed, deceit, unawareness and selfishness.
Then the Buddha asked:
“I’ll try to untie these knots.” Look, will this help me untie them?
He pulled both ends of the handkerchief, and the knots became even smaller and tighter.
Someone exclaimed:
- What are you doing? This way the knots will never be untied. After all, the silk is so thin, and you are pulling so hard! The knots have become small and are now almost impossible to untie!
- Oh, you can understand everything so clearly about this handkerchief. Why can't you understand yourself? Aren't you in the same situation? You pull on your knots, so they keep getting smaller and smaller, tighter and tighter.
Then the Buddha asked:
- Who can tell me how to untie the knots?
One student stood up and suggested:
“First you need to come closer and see how the knots were tied.”
He looked at the handkerchief and said:
“The knots were made in such a way that if we loosened them and allowed them to become looser, they would come undone; it's not difficult. These are simple nodes.
The student took the handkerchief and carefully untied the knots one by one. Buddha said:
— Today's sermon is finished. Go meditate!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru