Short Story: The Rabbi resigns as a Rabbi, and becomes a Buddhist monk instead
@innertalks (21024)
Australia
October 27, 2020 7:44pm CST
Rabbi, Anton Breshnev, had been a Jew, for all of his life, and he had been a Rabbi, for over 20 years now too.
Something happened that upset him though, and so he gave all of this up, and he became a Buddhist monk instead.
For another 20 years, he was a Buddhist monk, living in a Buddhist monastery, when out of the blue, his old teacher, and mentor, Rabbi Lionel Grendstone found him, and asked him what he thought life was really all about.
"Was life for him, or was he for life?"
Anton, thought about this unusual question, and answered:
"Well, it has been for me, I think, that's the way that I have tried to live it, anyway. I try to get as much as I can out of life. Life is for me."
"Yes, a selfish motive,"
the old Rabbi said.
"Think about it for another 20 years, and your life will be gone, as mine nearly is now too."
"We should not look for something to live for, but for something to live through us."
"Life created us for its own reasons. Match that reason with your life, and that is living a life of love."
"We have not got our own independent purpose."
"Looking for one, always fails, and wastes your life for you."
"Sure do your best, but not for yourself, but for life itself."
The old Rabbi, had been wound up.
"Maybe he had thought about these things for 20 years,"
Rabbi Anton thought to himself.
Rabbi Anton realised now that life was not about himself, but about life itself.
He went out, and he bought himself a horse, and he went around on his horse, from village to village saying,
"Do not put your cart before your horse, be the horse instead."
Did Anton get the right message from his former Rabbi, or did he mess the message up again?
Perhaps he should have said,
"Be the cart, and let the horse just pull you."
We are the cart; the horse is life itself.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
Are we the horse, the cart, or the rider?
7 people like this
7 responses
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
28 Oct 20
A gullible rabbi, I should say. I doubt that he was actually a rabbi.
2 people like this
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
28 Oct 20
@innertalks Spiritual tourist - that's a new term for me.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21024)
• Australia
28 Oct 20
Yes, his heart could not have been in it to abandon it like that. He was what some people call a spiritual tourist.
He was not really sure what he wanted, and the older mentoring Rabbi showed him that, but still he, the younger Rabbi, couldn't see the horse for the cart...lol...
He was unsure of himself, and so a bit gullible, as you say.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21024)
• Australia
28 Oct 20
@eileenleyva Yes, it is someone that shops around different religions, without getting serious in any particular one of them.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21024)
• Australia
28 Oct 20
Ha, ha. Yes, we most certainly are humans.
I meant of course, are we like horses, having to pull a heavy load through life, working hard all of the time, or are we more like the cart, that carries a heavy load in it too, but in a different way. It is pulled along, by something else, but it still carries its weight through life.
Or, finally, are we more just a rider, a spectator, just here for the ride, atop of something else, doing the pulling, the heavy work, or carrying the heavy load, for us?
Are we more freeloaders, than real workers, really pulling our load too, putting in as much as we should be to life?
I meant of course, are we like horses, having to pull a heavy load through life, working hard all of the time, or are we more like the cart, that carries a heavy load in it too, but in a different way. It is pulled along, by something else, but it still carries its weight through life.
Or, finally, are we more just a rider, a spectator, just here for the ride, atop of something else, doing the pulling, the heavy work, or carrying the heavy load, for us?
Are we more freeloaders, than real workers, really pulling our load too, putting in as much as we should be to life?1 person likes this
@innertalks (21024)
• Australia
28 Oct 20
@piyushbhatia1 Ha, ha. We all have our own particular role to play in life, or do we?
Some people think we do, others think life gives us our role itself.
1 person likes this
@piyushbhatia1 (11698)
• India
28 Oct 20
@innertalks Great. I do not know about other roles
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (73427)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
28 Oct 20
I would say the horse it take a lot of motivation and positive thinking to get through life and I is best that we do the work ourselves instead of just being pulled along or sitting along for the ride,
2 people like this
@innertalks (21024)
• Australia
28 Oct 20
Yes, I would tend to agree, that we have to do some work here, and yet somebody wrote a whole book, entitled, that 'life is easy", and is meant to be like just a walk in a park, on a sunny day.
Perhaps, it is more a ride, that we let it be, and so we create any hard work ourselves.
I cannot see any other species making hard work of it with their thoughts, anyway. They just do what they do.
A tree just grows.
Perhaps it does struggle to grow sometimes, but it never complains.
It just continues to do its thing in life, as a part of life, and grows in life, as a part of life, not struggling too much, by thinking that it is on a separate journey, which it has to struggle with too, like we do sometimes.
@just4him (306216)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
29 Oct 20
@innertalks That's good. It makes for good story telling.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21024)
• Australia
28 Oct 20
Thanks. I like to provoke thoughts with my writing, if I can.
2 people like this
@Hannihar (129470)
• Israel
28 Oct 20
@innertalks
So did he go back to be a Rabbi or what?
2 people like this
@innertalks (21024)
• Australia
28 Oct 20
No, he became a wandering gypsy type, wandering from town to town, not wanting to be a part of any religion at all after that.
@innertalks (21024)
• Australia
28 Oct 20
Very good! I did not think of this fourth possibility.
Maybe there are more possibilities in this scenario too.
Maybe, I am actually the flea, biting the horse, on its rear end too.
In this way, I am really the one responsible for its forwards movement, not its backwards movement, which it leaves on the road.....lol....
2 people like this
@innertalks (21024)
• Australia
29 Oct 20
@Shiva49 Yes, we probably will never know for certain, but maybe there is some transmigration of spirits going on, who knows.
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26202)
• Singapore
29 Oct 20
@innertalks At times I hear if we don't behave, we can be incarnated as some "lowly" species, but do we know then we were human earlier?
The best way is to be true to oneself. That way, we honor and keep in mind our creator close to our hearts.
“The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves.” ? Swami Vivekananda
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26202)
• Singapore
28 Oct 20
Some are the horse pulling others enjoying their ride, a few are the cart letting others ride them while the rest are the riders controlling the horse.
We cannot go against nature but seamlessly align ourselves with nature and that way our ride here will be smooth.
I alternate in my life, mostly the cart and allow others even nature take its own course.
Most here are beast of burden and that includes me but I have had lucky breaks to relieve the stress and pain.
I have seen some being the horse or more appropriately the donkey, the bearer of burdens, on which others unload their excess baggage without a second thought. I have seen some so enslaved to a point they accept it as fate!
We do have some leeway, but have to conform to life overall. Selfishness has limits and we are brought down to earth with a thud if we overindulge in it.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (21024)
• Australia
28 Oct 20
Nicely summarised, siva.
I had to laugh at one reply above, that suggested that there was another possibility too.
I hope that we are more than being just God's cannon fodder, or the horse's droppings too.
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26202)
• Singapore
29 Oct 20
@innertalks In earlier times, especially, many were treated as the scum of the earth, not worth a second look, less human. Others used to treat them with utter disdain
At least now, the awareness has increased.
The first step towards a higher consciousness is to treat others the same way we like to be treated.
When our hearts are pure we have made it welcome for our creator.
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26202)
• Singapore
29 Oct 20
@innertalks That make me recall “There’s a well-known Malay saying that goes ‘If you see a snake and an Indian, kill the Indian first.’ Please don't get carried away Steve!
Our level of consciousness cannot be divorced from how we treat another, even other species are our fellow travelers. We all carry some baggage tough to shake off.
Our past cannot be wished away but we can learn and right our wrongs. Now we cannot kill a snake even as they have role to play in nature and stay true to their self.
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