Zen inspirations

How many times have we trusted someone and have had that trust broken? How many times have you agreed to help someone (albeit reluctantly and against your will) knowing you are being taken for a ride? And to sum it up how many times have you said, “Never again ’and gone ahead and repeated and then regretted it?

In the last couple of months, I have lent some strangers some money, and going by my past experience, I was stupid to expect them to pay me back. I did this in spite of a better sense prevailing over me. I berated myself for being foolish and was reminded of a quote by Einstein, “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results”. Yet, I was proving the theory right.

I have struggled to change myself for years, to be more worldly and practical, to fight against my basic instinct to help someone (you only get hurt) or to just keep my mouth shut( especially knowing how much trouble it has got me into )! . In my mind, I have played up situations , where I say “no” to people, where I only care about my needs, yet in real time and life, I end up reacting exactly the way I promised myself I won’t. Then I read this story and it brought a smile to my face; for we all are slaves to our basic instincts and believe me you can read all the self-improvement books, try everything, but the inherent qualities that you are born with never changes. You can mask them, you can distort it, subdue it, but it is like the dormant volcano – always ready to erupt. So, here is this fabulous Zen anecdote that has made me accept myself and to let go.


Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. The monk saved the scorpion and was again stung. The other monk asked him, "Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know its nature is to sting?"
"Because," the monk replied, "to save it is my nature."