Two Monks: A Short Story On Living In The Moment

Two traveling monks reached a river with a strong current where they met a young woman. The woman asked them if they could help her across the river, and even though the monks had vowed to avoid contact with women, the older monk picked her up and carried her across the river.

The younger monk couldn’t believe what happened as they continued on their way.

Hours had passed and the younger monk, still wondering about the event, was unable to hold his silence and said, “Brother, our spiritual training teaches us to avoid any contact with women, but you picked that one up and carried her!”

“Brother,” the older monk replied, “I set her down hours ago, why are you still carrying her?”

This story shares a message about living in the present moment. So often we all carry around past hurts, holding grudges, or even carrying past joys that may be unattainable to reach again, when all this does is hurt ourselves. Maybe we even carry around a past pain of someone else, and try to remind them of past hurts, but what good does that do?

Do you invest your money into things that only bring you misery? Not purposefully, so why would you invest misery into your mind?

We all go through tough times. People betray us, they try to sabotage us sometimes and we can’t understand why. We can choose to hold onto the past but it will only weigh us down from experiencing a wonderful present moment. Let us choose to let go of what doesn’t help us and concentrate on the present moment. This moment, right now, is where happiness is to be had.