If It’s Not What You Want, Just In One Thought

 

A water picker has two buckets, which are hung from two ends of the pole. One bucket has cracks and the other is intact. After every long-distance haul, the intact bucket can always deliver a full bucket of water from the stream to the host’s house, but when the cracked bucket arrives at the host’s house, there is often only half a bucket of water left. .

For two years, the water picker has just picked one and a half buckets of water every day to his master's house. Of course, the good bucket is very proud of being able to fill the bucket with water. What about the broken bucket? It is very ashamed of its own shortcomings. It feels that it can only take half the responsibility, so it is very sad.

After a while, the broken bucket finally couldn't help it. It said to the waterman by the creek: "I am ashamed and must apologize to you."

"Why?" asked the waterman. "Why do you feel ashamed?"

The broken bucket replied: "In the past two years, because of the water leakage from my side, I can only send half a bucket of water to your host's house. My flaws caused you to do all the work, but only received half of the results. "

But the water bearer didn't care. He said, "Well, let's go back to the host's house in the future. Please pay more attention to the flowers blooming on the roadside."

Sure enough, when they walked on the hillside, their eyes lit up in front of the broken bucket, and they saw many colorful flowers, bathed in the sun, full of flowers on the side of the road, this sight made it a lot happy! But when they reached the end of the path, it was uncomfortable again, because half of the water leaked on the road again! The broken bucket again apologized to the porter.

The water picker said gently: "Have you noticed that there are flowers on both sides of the path, but the side with the good buckets has no flowers? I understand that you are flawed, so I make good use of the ones on your side. Flower seeds were scattered on the roadside, and whenever I brought water from the stream, you watered the flowers for me all the way! During this time, these beautiful flowers decorated the host’s table, and I was also rewarded by the host. This It's all your credit! I am too late to thank you, why do you have to apologize?

If people demand extreme and perfection, they will only reap a sense of inferiority and loss. This world is originally a "worshiping world", a world where there will always be shortcomings but not perfect. At the same time, it is also a world that can tolerate you and endure your many shortcomings. From the Buddha's point of view, there is no imperfect thing, it cannot be called a perfect "human world"; without the wisdom to forgive imperfections, it cannot be called a perfect "life".

Learn to look at perfection and imperfection from another angle, like Zen masters and wise men, and adopt a wise attitude that is both open-minded and pragmatic.

Accept your imperfections. People often say that "man will conquer the sky." Many things in real life are beyond our control, such as our birth, family situation, appearance, etc. Some people have many inherent advantages, while others can only run into obstacles everywhere. For these basically unchangeable things, only accepting is the best choice, so that you can be more considerate and look at yourself and your life more clearly.

Zen masters often warn sentient beings: "If you are unhappy, you only have one thought." The truth of life is "unsatisfactory things are nine out of ten." Therefore, don't worry about things you can't control and change. You don't have the ability to stop the established things, but you have the ability to control your attitude towards things.

Accept the imperfections of others. There was a man who was single all his life looking for a perfect woman. When he was 70 years old, someone asked him: "You have been traveling all your life, haven't you ever met a perfect woman?" The old man said sadly, "No, I met a perfect woman." The man again Asked: "Then why don't you stay with her?" The old man replied: "Because she is also looking for a perfect man." Everyone has different definitions of perfection. If everyone is asking for their relatives, friends, and lovers. Perfect, everyone can only die alone. "If the water is clear, there will be no fish, and if people are observant, there will be no evil." Don't always focus on the defects of others, and accept others' shortcomings and deficiencies openly to be qualified to enjoy the warmth brought by the kindness and kindness of others.

Reasonable use of imperfections. The world is not perfect, and life has shortcomings. Leave some regrets, but it makes people sober and inspiring. There is a Zen poem that says: "The flowers are not fully bloomed and the moon is not yet full, and the flowers are still waiting for the moon to think about it." Once the flowers are fully bloomed, they will soon wither; once the moon is fully round, it will soon be missing. It is better to be wise and open-minded to enjoy the beauty of "expectations and longings" in my heart when "the flowers are not fully bloomed, and the moon is not full". Furthermore, if it is used in the right place, imperfections may instead become a boost to perfection.

There is no absolutely perfect thing in the world, and even perfection itself means shortcomings. Therefore, whether our heart is clear or not, and whether our life is calm and comfortable, sometimes depends on our perception and use of our own imperfections.