What would you do?

Here’s a story:  There was a man who wanted nothing in life except to cultivate his relationship with the great Divine.  He lived in the forest, had no possessions, meditated and prayed.    Though not belonging to any spiritual affiliation, one could say that he lived as a monk.  He honoured one rule more than any: to never lie in his thoughts, words or actions.  This would surely guarantee him a one way passage into the heart of his beloved God. 

One day a man raced through the forest with terror in his eyes.  Hide me! Hide me!  he shouted.  I am being chased by hunters and if they catch me I will be killed.  Will you hide me?

The huntedThis posed a dilemma for the monk.  He stood silent for too many seconds, deep in thought about which course of action he should take.  Unable to wait any longer, the terrified man climbed the tree above him to hide. 

The monk thought:  If he kept the man’s whereabouts secret, he would have to lie to the hunters and loose his only goal in life.  If he told the truth, the man will be killed.

So here’s a question:  If you were the monk, what would you do?         

I told this story to my six year old and asked the same question.  Such a choice made him smile a lot.  I imagined him in the forest smiling in front of the terrified man while he thought about what he should do.   His answer?  Well, I’ll tell you at the end.

The rest of the story goes like this:  The hunters came and demanded that the monk tell them where the man was.  The monk’s silence made them threaten to kill him if he didn’t speak up.  He decided to speak the truth.  This is a test, he thought, where God wants to see me speak the truth even under the greatest pressure.   He pointed upwards to the tree.  The hunters extracted the terrified man out of the tree and summarily diced him up in front the monk.

Many years later the monk finally met his mortal demise and arrived before God, whom he had been One of the hunterspraying to and meditating upon all his life.  The monk described to God how pure he lived his life and with the greatest devotion to him.  His character never succumbed to a lie, even when God tested him.  The monk asked God for permission to enter his realm and refrain from returning to the wheel of life and death once again.

Not so fast, said God with his breathy, feminine Anglo-Chinese accent.  That’s how God would speak, don’t you think?  You have blood on your hands; you could have prevented the death of one of my children.  Permitted into the kingdom of heaven, you are not.  He goes from Chinese to Yoda there, doesn’t he.

Loose the Yoda; back to the Anglo-Chinese:

God continued:  The path that you chose when you wished to realise enlightenment was not given by me.  You created it out of your imagination.  Compassion for your fellow man’s wellbeing comes before any selfish desire for your own realisation.

This story came to me when I reflected on the week I just had.  I saw too many circumstances where people strained to achieve their own end, at the expense of sharing their time or means with others who needed them. 

And my son’s answer to what he would do when confronted by a terrified man who hid in the tree above him? 

He would climb the tree next to the tree that was was harbouring the man and sit the whole situation out. 

Who needs to stand there and wait for murderous hunters to arrive?!