

The Monk and the Strawberry

There’s a Buddhist parable about a monk who is walking through a field when he is confronted by a fierce tiger. The monk backs away, knowing that just beyond him is a cliff and just below that cliff is the sea. The monk is caught between the beast and sea, and so he chooses to lower himself over the cliff on thick vine. As he does, he is filled with gratitude that the vine can hold him. After his prayer, the monk looks over and sees, growing through the rock on the cliff, a spindly vine with leaves and one bright, red strawberry.  He looks up to see the tiger snarling at him and looks down to see the waves leaping and lurching below him. And then the monk plucks the strawberry from its vine and puts it into his mouth, savoring the sweetness.