Story of Letting Go

Once upon a time, there were two monks. They were on the way heading back to the temple. They came to the bridge and found that it was broken. When they were just about to cross the river they met with a young beautiful lady. This lady also wanted to cross the river. The older monk offered to carry the girl on his back to cross the river. The young monk doesn’t agree with his senior act. Yet, he kept silence on it.

And so the monk carried the young lady on his back. Three of them crossed the river safely. As soon as they reached the bank of the other side of the river, the older monk let the girl down from his back. The lady thanked them and leaves. Both the monk carried on with their journey. The younger monk was totally disturbed and unease with the act of his senior. How can his senior ignore the rule of their teaching and have intimate touch with a beautiful young lady? He shouldn’t have done this. All the anger thoughts went through his mind as they continued on the journey. Hours later, finally this young monk unable to hold the anger back.

Furiously, he voiced out, “Senior, how can you carry a lady to cross the river? We shouldn’t touch the lady.” The older monk answered calmly, “I’ve let her down hours ago. How come you still carrying her?”

How true, many of us unable to let go of things that happened around us. We feel bad/ anger/ sad/ pity because we are unable to let go the thing/ issue inside our mind. We torture ourselves by hanging on to the thoughts just like the young monk did.

Maybe many of you have seen or heard this before. I have heard and read this many times, nevertheless, I find myself still acting similarly to the young monk. Most of the time, without realizing, I carry old thoughts that burden myself. And there also time, where I hang on to the current situations and grow accustom with it. And this story always a good reminder for me to check my current situation whether there are anything that I hang on to too much… anything that I should let go and continue to explore my life journey.