There's comfort in knowledge, and fear in the unknown. Perhaps the world is a dark place." The little monk said, "The world is not a dark place, no more than it is a light one. There are shadows, but I don't think you need fear them." As they walked through the forest, the moon hid behind a cloud. The man asked, "Are you a wise man?" The little monk replied, "I may be a fool, but I know I am only human. The only wisdom I have is knowing that I don't know anything." The man said, "This must be very difficult for you." The little monk nodded and said, "In my youth I wanted to know all about everything. Now I know that my head is too small to hold all the thoughts I have." A little while later they heard a scream. The man asked, "Did you hear that?" "Yes, I heard it," the little monk said. "I wonder what it was?" "It might have been a fox, or a rabbit, or maybe even a mouse," the little monk said. "The animals of the forest don't make any sound that humans can recognize." The man stood in the darkness and listened. He said, "I don't hear any sounds now." The little monk said, "I guess it's gone. Listen, the wind has stopped. Maybe a storm is coming." The man sat down on a tree stump and said, "You're right. The wind died." The little monk walked into the light. "What were you doing?" he asked. The man said, "I was sleeping." "When you say you're going to do something, do you do it?" the little monk asked. "Of course I do." "Then why don't you do it?" the little monk asked. "You just go around in circles, telling yourself you're going to do something, but you never do anything. What's wrong with you?" The man said, "You're a very strange little man. If you don't like the way I am, why do you stay with me?" The little monk replied, "It's simple. I know the difference between you and me. I am a human being, and you are not. What would you do if you met yourself in a dark forest?" "I wouldn't stay with myself," the man said. "You see, you don't understand. We're all the same in this world," the little monk said. "Why are you so unhappy?" The man said, "I don't know." "What is it you don't understand? You were alive a thousand years ago; why did you die and come back to life? It makes no sense," the little monk said. "Why can't you see that you are a man of peace? "Life is a constant joy. The more you make a show of it, the happier you will be. You talk about your wife and your children, and all the things you did with them before you were born. But you don't realize that you are already in heaven; you don't know where heaven is, and you don't know that you have already experienced it. And you walk around, saying you are miserable. What's wrong with you?" The man said, "I never really noticed that I was miserable. Can you help me?" "Yes, you can," the little monk said. The man said, "Will you show me where heaven is?" "Yes, I will show you," the little monk said. He looked up at the starry sky, then he turned to look down at the ground. He asked, "Where do you think heaven is?" "Heaven is up there in the sky," the man said. "Where else would heaven be?" "In the forest," the man said. "Where else would heaven be?" "In the mountains," the man said. "Where else would heaven be?" "In the sea," the man said. "And then where else?" "In space," the man said. "Where else would heaven be?" "In the heavens." "Where else?" "In this house." The little monk said, "Where else? In your very body. You must be the most miserable man in all the world." The little monk turned and walked into the darkness. The man walked around in a circle and cried, "Where is heaven?" The little monk turned and asked, "How do you expect me to find heaven? I am as lost as you are." The little monk turned and walked into the darkness. The man said, "You're too old to be lost, and you're not old enough to die. I must be the most miserable man on earth." # An old monk was walking down the path toward the ocean. A young monk was walking down the path toward the ocean. "Where are you going?" asked the young monk. "I am going to the ocean," replied the old monk. "What are you going to do there?" "I am going to preach," said the old monk. "I have a feeling that you will not succeed," the young monk said. "Are you a good preacher?" "I am an honest monk," said the old monk. The young monk said, "I know many good monks, but I don't know any honest ones. You say you are honest, but you're old and ugly, and you talk too much. You will not be a success, and everyone will hate you." "You are a very good young monk, but you have not seen the ocean," the old monk said. "What do you think about when you're walking alone in the woods?" "I think that in every person there is something beautiful and good. And I think about being like my ancestors, and about being like my parents and my brothers and sisters. When I hear birds, I think of peace; when I hear the wind, I think of love; when I see flowers, I think of happiness. "I also think of my dreams. I think about what I will do when I grow up. I pray to Buddha every morning, and I pray to the ancestors every night. And when I am by the ocean, I always feel very sad and lonely. "I will always love you, the young monk," the old monk said. "But you have yet to taste the salt of the ocean, and you do not have the strength or the wisdom to be alone in the forest. This is the truth." The young monk said, "I cannot be like you, for I am the happiest monk in all the world. I thank you for telling me this, and I will not forget it." The old monk said, "I know you will forget it, and so I must remind you of it again." # A father was telling his son about a man who lived in a hollow tree. He told him that the man lived alone in the hollow tree, and no one knew where he came from. The father said, "He lived in the hollow tree for hundreds of years. He lived in it in the time of Kublai Khan, and he lived in it in the time of Noah." The boy said, "If nobody knows where he came from, what does his name mean?" The father said, "His name is _Yeh_ , which means he is alone." A mother said, "When my children were young, I taught them to go into the forest and be alone. It wasn't that I didn't want them with me. I didn't want anyone else in my life. I told my children to go into the forest and be by themselves, to be with their own spirits. But now they've all grown up. I am the last one in my family. My husband died when he was young. I had children and then they were gone, one by one. Now there is only my son, and he isn't very interested in me." Her son said, "But we need you, Mother." She said, "But we don't need you. We don't need anyone." The young man said, "But how are we going to eat? I can't make a living. I can't make friends. What will we do?" His mother said, "If you don't like this hollow tree, go somewhere else. It's not my fault." The little monk was traveling alone across a desert. A great fire suddenly appeared in the middle of the desert. The little monk asked, "Who made that fire?" "It's the fire that lives in the heart of every living being," said a stranger. "The fire that lives in the heart of every living being is the fire of God, and it burns in every place and in every creature." The little monk said, "Where does it come from?" "From within, from the earth, from heaven, and from God," said the stranger. "And it returns to its source. "What is its source?" "God," said the stranger. "Every drop of water in the oceans, the