Tales - For What Its Worth

1. The Tiger and the Gate

Sometimes we are confronted by the very nature of our beings. What some might find amusing, others find offensive. Our role is to be “part-of” and to contribute to a greater purpose.

The monk is walking on path. He meets a crying tiger. Tiger tells him he has no friends. His teeth are too big and people are afraid of him. The monk continues walking into town. He enters the town through a gate where he finds the people uneasy and afraid of strangers. They feel they are in danger because their gate is falling into disrepair.

A cherry falls from the mouth of a bird in a tree above. Monk thinks of the tiger. The monk convinces the tiger to face his fear of people and sit in front of the town’s gate providing security for its residents. In appreciation the townspeople adorn the tiger with flowers.

2. Fishing Music

You have everything you need – but sometimes you need look at things a bit differently.

Three monks are fishing in a boat. One’s pole breaks and he is sad because he can no longer make a contribution to the outing. Grace comes in the form of a bird that changes his situation ever so slightly. The bird pecks a hole in his broken fishing pole. The monk puts the broken fishing pole to his lips and magical music comes forth entertaining the monks as the engage in their arduous task of fishing. Grateful, they happily supply the musical monk with more than his share of the catch.

3. Love Echoes

Sharing is love and all love is good for us.

Our monk is dining on a lunch of sunflower seeds. He notices a bird suffering with a wounded wing unable to fend for food. He sacrifices some of his food for the welfare of the bird.

He falls asleep to take his mind off of his hunger.

A cherry that falls from the tree above awakes him. When he opens his eyes he sees that there is a bounty of sunflowers before him. The bird with which he had shared his meager lunch has broadcast the seeds through out the valley and now sunflowers grow abundant in beauty and nutrition.

4. Tomorrow

Today might not be your day; perhaps it there is some sadness or rain in your heart today. The joys of tomorrow are often born from the pain we experience today.

A monk walks through a field of tiny flowers being careful not to break a single stem. A solitary bird flies overhead. A threatening storm arises. Rain, thunder and lightning force the monk to shelter in a dark scary cave where only the eyes of frightening beasts peer back at him in the darkness.

The sun comes up. Our monk leaves the cave to find that the tiny flowers from the day before have been nourished by the rain and have grown to giant-sized, breath-taking, objects of beauty. A bird drops a ripe cherry at his feet.

5. Two Paths

Though our destinations may be the same, there are often many different approaches on our journeys.

Two monks travel through woods and find themselves standing before a torrential river flow. On one side stands a large mountain, across the river their destination, the abbey they are trying to reach.

The first monk decides to trek around the mountain. The second remains. A bird appears dropping a cherry as he sits in prayer. Suddenly the mountain erupts into a volcano spewing boulders across the previously impassable river. The monks are re-united in the abbey, the first tattered from his journey, the second less war-torn perhaps because of the power of prayer.

6. The Answer

The answer is not always obvious but always within reach.

The monk is on an arduous journey, over hill and dale, through the woods, aboard a flimsy raft crossing a hammering river. He is alone.

He grows tired and falls asleep beneath a tree. He dreams he is a bird, soaring over the landscape, untethered by what lies below.

A shooting star awakens the monk. A feather lies by his side. He gathers himself up and walks toward the fading light of the shooting star. Soon he discovers a path though the woods where he joins many other monks. Together they follow the path of the shooting star. Each monk has a feather in his hat.

7. The Mirror and the Serpent

Resist not evil.

A monk stands at the edge of a lake. On the far shore is a tree full of ripe cherries. A large serpent looms forebodingly in the monk’s path. The sun glints off of the serpent’s scales revealing their mirror-like qualities. The monk sees himself, but he also notices the grandeur of the world that surrounds him.

The monk fixates on the reflection of a bird with a cherry in his beak reflected in the serpent’s back. He boldly chooses a path directly atop the beast’s back. The serpent is spellbound as the monk walks up to him and climbs on his back.

The monk arrives unscathed at his destination across the lake where he dines on the abundant ripe cherries among the birds of paradise.

8. Stampede

It is often easy to forget we are human beings, not “human-doings.”

A group of monks are carrying heavy jugs tethered on poles across their shoulders as they trudge up a mountain. Beside them a heard of passive zebras have become alarmed by the presence of a lion and begin to stampede toward the monks.

One monk notices a bird on a limb standing is stillness. As the other monks chaotically drop their jugs and make for safer ground he stands motionless.

The zebras charge around the still monk where he peacefully picks up his burden and continues about his task of caring water. Around him are the remnants of broken water jugs and carrying poles.

He hums along with the myriad of birds singing around him.

9. The Book

According to Jewish tradition Rosh Hashanah is the day when the names of the righteous are inscribed in the “book of life,” a tome kept by God himself in remembrance of the reverend. In an unusual culture mash up, we are given a glimpse into the pages of the book.

In the monk’s dream he walks through the pages of a book of gigantic proportion. Birds of all color fly about his head dropping abundant piles of cherries Looking at his feet we can read the an inscription, it says…” in the end, only three things matter. How much we have loved. How gently we lived. And, How gracefully we let go of the things not meant for us.”

10. The Nest

To serve is the divine plan of God. Sometimes it is challenging to trust the Greater Plan.

A monk fights his way through the thicket. His robe becomes tattered as scraps are torn from his garment and are left clinging to the branches and thorns that taunt him.

A beautifully feathered bird appears and gathers the scraps of cloth. She flies back to her nest with the remnants. In the nest, we see young hatchlings eager to become adult birds and build nests of their own.

The monk sees the beautiful nest of multi-colored cloth and stops in a moment of gratitude.

11. The Camel

Cast off the burden and ask to be willing to receive. We are sometimes overwhelmed but never given too much to handle. Often our salvation is as simple as asking.

Our monk is tasked with delivering an overflowing sack of cherries. The cherries spill everywhere as he drags along his cumbersome burden.

Nightfall comes and he rests. In his dream a beautiful turtle with a multi-colored shell appears. Soon the turtle is followed by a showy white stallion striding by. The monk reaches toward each but to no avail. Each passes and the monk is left with his burden.

When the monk awakes and a unsightly brown camel appears. The monk puts a cherry in the dromedary’s mouth and is carried off with his sack of cherries by the awkward animal.

12. The Bridge

Small acts of faith make up the bridge to the Promised Land.

The monk is standing in a field of grass before a huge gorge in the earth. On the other side of the divide in plain view is a tree full of ripe cherries. A bird on the wing drops a single reed at his feet.

The monk takes the reed, places it with another and begins to make a bundle. He casts the first bundle down into the gorge, then another and another. Soon he is able to walk over the previously impassable chasm on the bundles of small reeds.

He gets to the cherry tree where he eats his fill of the ripe fruit as the bird is seen flying in the background.

13. The Leopard in the Cage

Music releases the soul from imprisonment.

A powerful leopard is locked inside a cage with a closed door. As he stares out of the bars he falls asleep.

In his dream of a troupe of monks appear in a procession. They playing music and dispensing garlands made from cherries. In his dream, he joins the parade and dances along in the pageant.

When the leopard awakes, he is again confined to his cage, but we notice the door is now open and a necklace made from cherries is hanging from it.

14. Tsunami

It is often said we are all one. Each of us is but a wave in the ocean, recognizable as a single entity for but a moment, then receding back to our true nature as part of the sea.

The monks are gathered together in a great crowd by the edge of the sea. At their backs is a town. Each monk wears a differently colored hat. One monk in particular has a very noticeable, very large hat displaying a dazzling array of distinctive colors.

A tsunami arises threatening the town.

A bird perches on the monk with the multi-colored hat. As if on cue he throws off his hat and the other monks do the same. The hats land in pile interlocking together almost as a puzzle and form a wall.

The wall of hats spares the town the wall of oncoming surge of water. When the water recedes, we see the monks going about their business each with his hat firmly in place.

15. Quiet

Inside each of us is the small voice of God. Some call it intuition. Some ignore it, some live by it.

A monk walks through a grove of tall cherry trees with their fruit just beyond his reach. Hungrily he looks up. The monk tries to climb the tree but to no avail. He attempts to use a stick to knock the fruit free, but again to no avail.

Finally, as he sits in quiet, a small bird appears and begins to play in the branches. As the bird moves through the trees it knocks off fruit. The monk gathers the fruit and is seen sleeping at the trunk of a cherry tree. In his lap is a copious bowl of half-eaten cherries and pits.

He is smiling.

16. The Missing Bicycle

Fear not, you cannot lose anything – things are merely replaced.

A monk is riding his bicycle. He stops to rest leaning his bicycle against a tree. He falls asleep. When he awakes his bicycle has disappeared.

His attention is called to a bird flying by.

In the background behind the bird, a white stallion is grazing. The monk mounts the tremendous beast and rides off.

In the background we notice his humble bicycle leaning against a tree.

17. Grace

Saint Augustine said, “Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.” Will is the force we rely on to survive. It is our instinct but often not enough. Without grace will has no light, no direction.

In the village are many horses in a large coral. A gray horse drearily pulls a wagon in the foreground. Grace appears in the form of a bird and lands on the back of the gray horse.

Suddenly it appears differently and is noticed by the townspeople.

The gray horse is appointed to pull the ceremonial wagon of the high monk through the flag adorned streets of the town. On the wagon and on the banners festooned through the village we notice the image of the bird.

18. Happiness

True happiness is not gained, it is discovered. We all share in common a quest for happiness. We all long for happiness. What keeps happiness out of our lives is the closing of the doors of the heart. When the doors are closed the heart is not living and no happiness.

Two monks enter the monastery; each retires to a separate room. Nighttime brings a terrible storm. Winds howl, rain pours down and the night becomes as dark as coal save the light of the full moon.

One monk barricades his door and battens down his windows, shivers beneath his covers as the wind blows out his lone candle. He sits shivering in darkness.

The other monk opens his doors and windows as the storm rages around him. The winds blow through his room as he dances by the light of the moon.

The storm subsides and kitten enters his room and climbs in bed with him. The kitten is purring as they both fall into a deep sleep impervious the tempest around them.

19. The Path

The place is here, the way leads everywhere.

A monk sits in a room alit by a jar full of lightening bugs. He sits on a rug and is perplexed in prayer.

The door is broken and hanging from a single hinge on a jamb. It is dark and raining and there is a puddle next to him from the leaking roof. A baby is crying at a window the distance.

Two birds appear at his window. They are doing a mating dance. They knock over the jar of fireflies and the insects fly about the room.

The monk exhales. The rain stops. The baby’s mother takes the child to her breast. The door falls completely from its hinge and moonlight fills the dim room.

Although the monk is deep in prayer, we see his shadow cast upon the wall where he is dancing, with one hand waving free, dancing in great circles, dancing as if his very life depended upon…dancing, dancing, dancing

20. Your Steps Alone

In the end, each of us must find our own way. We are told to “pick up our crosses” and follow – not to “hop on” and be carried.

A pack of monks trudge down a wide path. One monk is distracted by the faint sound of birds singing. A secreted smaller path leads off to one side. Over hanging trees block the sunlight from hitting the forests floor there. The monk decides to explore this new route and breaks away from the others.

As he travels, eyes appear in the shadows watching his every step. The singing has gone silent. He traverses a river over a moss covered, slippery fallen log, below him alligators, snakes and fish with fierce teeth swarm. As he passes over the river, the log is taken by the torrent leaving him no way back.

The monk looks at his feet and finds a feather. He looks up and glimpses a bird on the wing. He hears music again.

Following the song of the bird he is led to an opening in the forest. There he finds a magnificent golden fountain. Birds frolic in its shower; ripe cherry fruit abounds from the branches of the trees in the clearing, a muse sits to one side playing a lute. A bird’s feather is at his feet.

21. Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse

One may gather what another may spill.

The monks are gathering water into jugs by the side of a well. Water splashes to the ground as they go about their work. One monk notices a thirsty elephant off in the woods behind a banana tree. A bird sits nearby in a banana tree.

Our monk gathers the leaves from the banana tree and lines the path at the foot of the troupe of monks gathering water. As the water spills from the jugs it is captured by the leaves and diverted to the trunk of the thirsty elephant.

The elephant drinks, arises and comes to the aide of our water-carrying monk. The monk and his water are hoisted to the elephant’s back. Our monk, with the bird at his shoulder, is seen riding past the monks plodding along carrying their heavy water laden burdens.

22. Together We Can

Surround yourself with friends who believe in you.

A monk stands before a tree. In the tree is a hungry baby bird in a nest calling for its mother. The monk finds a worm and tries to cast it up into the nest but, to no avail.

He recruits a bunch of his friends to help him. Standing atop each others’ shoulders, they enable the monk to reach the nest and deliver the food to the crying chick.

As darkness sets in, the monks return to the village single file lead by the compassionate monk. The grateful mother bird is aloft and they led by the light of a swarm fireflies.

23. A song for Lillis
(And, sew you have done for me)

Charity for those who cannot help us is the true charity.

Our monk is walking on a beautiful fall day. Leaves of many colors are everywhere. He passes a house where women are sewing. He accidentally steps on a needle.

He continues on and passes a jail where an inmate stands in the barred window. His coverless bed sits in the background.

The monk stops to rest beneath a tree. He looks up and sees a bird playing in the foliage. A leaf falls. He takes the needle from his shoe and begins to sew a beautiful quilt from the multi=colored leaves around him.

He returns to the jail and passes the quilt to the inmate who wraps himself snuggly with it before falling into a deep sleep. In the prisoner’s dreams, he sits before a vast stockpile of candles, a bird is at his shoulder, he is handing them to monks lined up in a row.

24. Sail on My Sweet Angel

“Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.” Matthew, 10:12

A fire-breathing dragon emerges from the mountain, threating to consume three villages below. A monk sets out to warn the villages of impending doom.

At the first village, monks are busy pressing grapes into wine for an upcoming celebration and abruptly ignore his warnings. He leaves for the second village, not looking back.

As he approaches the second village, the monks a busy attending a worship service and the door to the temple is locked.

As our monk hurries down the path to the third village, he notices a bird standing atop a small drum. Taking the drum, the monk enters the center of town and begins to beat it wildly. The monks of the village take notice and follow our drum-beating messenger out of town to safety.

25. Judge Not

What if good and bad, right and left, up and down were all equal?

On a rock in the middle of a stream the monk sat clutching his staff. He gazes down and contemplating the beauty of magnificent multi-colored fish feeding on one side of the rock. On the other side, he notices a fierce snapping turtle.

As the turtle moved through the current to attack the fish, the monk sits in stillness.

In its effort to eat the fish, the turtle become entangled in the river’s undergrowth and faces certain drowning. The monk stands, puts his staff to the water. The aggressive beast attacks the stick and sets its powerful jaws on the monk’s staff.

A bird appears on a limb above the rock. The monk sets the turtle free. The turtle lays her eggs and proceeds down stream. The magnificent multi-colored fish and many offspring return to feast on the turtle’s eggs.

26. Candle in the Sun

Sometimes our talents need to be challenged so their rewards can be realized. What good is a candle in the sun when it is really needed in the darkness?

A monk sits in a room filled with worshipers. Each has a lit candle before him. He looks out the window, he notices dark smoke on the horizon.

He gets up, leaves in the direction of the smoke and enters a dark forbidding forest. The monk holds his candle aloft to light a path.

He comes upon a fallen fawn struggling to escape the inferno. Sharing the light of his candle the find their way to safety out of the forest.

As they enter the clearing they are bathed in sunlight. The fawn’s mother appears bearing a basket of cherries in her jaw. Together the three feast on the fruit as the denizens of the forest celebrate in dance in a circle around them.

27. We Are All Waves

We think of ourselves as rocks but we are really more like waves. We really are waves of energy bound in a unique way that provides form.

Our monk sees a crane far off at the edge of the lake sipping water. The ominous shadow of a tiger appears. The monk calls out a warning to the crane, but it cannot hear. The monk tries waving his hands but still the bird pays no attention as the shadow draws nearer.

Finally, the monk throws himself into the pond. His splashing produces waves that lap the lake’s edge. The crane sees the reflection of the tiger in the waves, is alerted to the danger and takes off.

The shadow of the tiger diminishes as the wet monk stands on the far bank watching.

28. Don’t Think Twice, Its All Right

Don’t think less of yourself, think less about yourself.

A monk sits on the side of a mountain rapt in meditation. In his daydream, a flock of black grackles are squawking at his feet. A single disagreeable bird stands guard.

A beautifully plumed bird appears, flouting its finery and commanding attention from all nearby. A large hawk flies above and notices the commotion.

In an instant, the grackles take to the wing and there is silence.

The monk awakens. He looks to see a single beautiful feather lying on the ground.

29. Money

Have you ever felt bad when you had a lot of money?

A monk trudges a steep inclined road to the monastery. On his way he passes a monk carrying a heavy burden of logs. Our monk helps him with his load and is invited to sit and warm himself by a fire.

He travels further and meets another monk overloaded with a burden of heavy water jugs. He helps the monk and is offered a drink.

As he goes further, he meets a monk dragging a sack full of coins. Again, he assists the monk and is rewarded with a gold coin.

The monk enters a village and throws his coin into a fountain. The fountain’s waters are transformed to wine and a festival celebration erupts among the residents replete with music, dancing, food and fireworks.

30. The Stallion Within

If you do not go within, you go without.

Three monks sit in a circle winnowing wheat. It is dark.

One sees a shooting star. He stands and in the window sees a white horse glistening in the moonlight. The monk leaves the room and mounts the horse riding in the direction of the star.

The horse stops at the edge of a deep canyon. A bird flies overhead. The monk gathers himself. He gives the reigns a fierce tug and the horse is lifted to the other side of the canyon.

Off on the horizon is a glow. As he approaches he sees a village. A celebration is in full swing. He dismounts and joins in the revelry. The horse wanders off.

31. The Seed, Garden and Gardener

The idea is the beginning, and then there is the creator and the creation. They are all one.

The lone monk gathers up a hoe, a bag of seed and heads off with his wheelbarrow.

He walks up and down hill and valley. He passes a field full of rock where many monks are toiling and heads on.

He passes a field scorched by the sun where only cacti grow. A group of monks are huddled under the shade of a large tree.

Finally he stops at a clearing near a pond. In the pond is a bird. A school of tiny fish is swimming at its side. He sews his seed in this field. He gives some seeds to the swan and casts some seeds to the fish.

The garden grows robustly, the bird grows into a magnificent swan and the fish multiply abundantly.

The monk rests in the shade of a cherry tree planted at the edge of the garden. Many more monks join him and he is no longer alone.

32. Heaven Is In Your Mind

You don’t have to “go” to heaven; you are “in” heaven. The key is in your mind.

The monk travels through the forest. He is eating from a bowl of cherries. The monk comes across a large treasure chest secured by a large padlock. A fox sits on the chest.

Try as he might, he cannot open the box. The fox offers a key in exchange for the cherries.

The monk gives the cherries to the fox and receives the key. He opens the chest and to his surprise the chest is full of keys.

33. The Light

Holy is thy name and thy name is love.

The monk sits in darkness in prayer. A bird appears and drops a candle at his feet. The monk takes the candle and begins his journey following the bird on a path. In front of him and behind him he notices monks also carrying candles.

The monks convene in a clearing they are joined by still many others. Their candlelights combine and create a shining beam upward toward heaven.

In the night sky a bird takes wing and a new star is born from beam of light.

He monks and bird join in songs of celebration.

34. The Way Up

There is no wrong path. Each path arrives at the same destination. For we humans destiny is spiritual enlightenment.

The monks resume their journey. They are travelling up a mountain path in single file. Dogs are chaotically running at their feet.

On one side is the shear side of the mountain, on the other the abyss. Each monk proceeds forward clutching a candle.

From the bird’s-eye view we see a path of many monks carrying candles encircling the mountain, their candles reflected in the stars of the night sky. In the night sky the stars spell out the word “peace.”

35. The Gift

As bad as things seem, we are never given more than we can handle.

A mountain is covered with a spiral of monks ascending its peak. Each monk is wearing a hat.

A monk sits to rest and it begins to rain a deluge. The monk sits down and protects his light with the brim of his large hat. After the rain subsides, the blazing sun comes out. Again, the monk gathers himself under the shade of his hat’s brim. As the monk journeys on, he finds a cherry tree with ripe fruit. He gathers the fallen cherries in his hat and eats from it his fill.

He rejoins the procession of monks ascending the mountain.

36. Heaven on Earth

There are three places…here, there and the space between. The space between is the dash on a tombstone reflecting the time spent here on earth.

The monk walks through the village and comes upon a church. A light comes from the windows. Inside of the church worshipers are celebrating. Outside of the church is a graveyard. The monk sits to rest leaning against one of the tombstones.

As the sun goes down, night overtakes the graveyard and he hears a faint music. The monk squints in the darkness to see ghosts dancing in the moonlight.

Dawn brings the morning sun, the monk stands and impressed on his back is a line, the dash from the tombstone on which he was resting.

In the village he notices a similar mark on the back of every resident.

37. Dailey Bread

The highest truths embrace similar characteristics. In the end, these are all that matter. In the end this is all we really need and want.

The monk is drawn to the edge of the mountain by the sound of ringing bells. He sets off on a journey through a village where a celebration is in full swing. Eschewing the party he follows a path to a single bell that is ringing. Inscribed on the bell is the word “Truth.”

Again he hears a sound. Again he is led to a village were the villagers are feasting on a bountiful harvest. Again he passes through. On the path he comes to the source of the sound. It is a bell inscribed with the word “Joy.”

Once more he hears ringing and once more he is led to a village where the residents are imbibing in copious amounts of recently decanted wine. He follows the sound beyond the village to find its source. It is a bell marked “Love.”

The monk sits by a tree. In his ears echo the ringing of the bells. Birds fly above. He is smiling.

38. The Monk and the Dervish

There are many rooms in the kingdom of heaven and many different doors to enter them as well.

A monk carefully tends his flower garden day and night. In the morning he carries water to his plants, in the heat of the sun he hoes and weeds each row. At night he carefully keeps the pests at bay.

Across the valley, a dervish is in his flower garden. He doesn’t water, cares not about the weeds nor the insects. Rather his choice is to dance day and night around the blooms. He dances in the sun and dances in the rain, he dances with the pests of the garden.

A muse breezes by. She picks a flower from the dervish’s garden and one from the monk’s.

As she holds them both near. The two flowers appear identical. She loves them both equally.

39. We Whales

The whale is a creature that lives in the sea. It can swim deeper than any fish. Its every motion is designed for living in water. Yet, it must breathe air. We live on the earth but our soul breathes the air of the spirit.

The monk is fishing in a small boat. He catches a large fish.

A great whale comes and swallows the monk, the boat and his fish, dragging them to the depths of the ocean. In the darkness of the belly of the beast the monk lights a candle and begins to sing to his captor.

The smoke from the candle fills the beast’s cavernous stomach.

The whale returns to the surface, belching out the monk, the candle and his boat, the whale takes a deep breath and returns below the sea.

The monk finds himself on a beach, with his boat and a bounty of fish surrounding him.

40. Remembrance

We are here only to remember; to “re-member;” to join back together with all people and things around us. Together we are infinite.

Two monks sit on a hillside in darkness presiding over the presence of a full moon.

One is large and thin. The other short and stout. One is dressed in finery. One is clad in rags. One’s hat is trim and fine, the other’s is a bit bedraggled.

Yet, the shadows cast by the moonlight are identical.

41. Amen

Thought begets deed and deed begets experience. To know anything one must first believe something.

Three monks ride along on horses in the night. They come to a raging river. On the far bank is a warm village with lights aglow.

The first monk sees the torrent and reacts with fear, knowing that he and his mount would surely drown should they try to forge the river.

The second monk sees logs bobbing in the raging current and thinks that if he and his horse try to cross the river, surely the swift moving logs would dash them to death.

The third monk sees the river and he sees the logs floating in the surge. Also, he sees a warm village on the far bank. He rears his charger back, pulls the reigns tight and the horse leaps to a floating log and in a second fell swoop, jumps to safety on the far shore.

42. Beware of Darkness

Bless everything; hold no resentment and you will be rewarded with kindness.

As the monk is traveling with his heavy load, the sun sets and darkness surrounds him. He lies down beneath a tree. He imagines snakes, spiders and other kind of scary vermin.

All he can see is a million eyes staring back at him in the night.

The monk begins to play his guitar. He sings a lullaby. The eyes staring at him fall shut. He falls asleep.

Morning comes. He awakes to the sound of a million birds signing to the sunrise. A bowl of cherries is beside his guitar.

43. Go to the Light

Fear is constrictive, fear makes us go within ourselves and shut out the world. Fear is the inverse of life.

In the village is a house that is over-grown with vines. Its fence is broken and no light comes through the windows.

A broken wagon sits in front. No one dares go near the home. It is said to be haunted. The villagers go out of their way to avoid it.

A monk sits before the house in meditation. A bird flies past and lands on it roof. The monk follows the bird and enters.

There in the middle of the room is a hobby horse. He mounts the rocking horse and begins to ride. Birds come streaming from the closet in the room and begin flying around his head. He raises a hand, and smiles. He rocks harder and begins to laugh crazily.

The monk is seen walking down the street late at night with a smile on his face.

44. Let Your Dreams

Intuition is knowledge that comes from within rather than from without. Trusting intuition is a spiritual discipline.

The monk awakes in an empty village. He roams the town looking for life.

He walks the streets and comes upon a red stone. He puts the stone in his pocket and walks on.

At the end of the road he sees a lone musician sitting with his unstrung harp. He goes to the musician and gives him the red stone.

As he walks away he hears the sound of a harp playing. He smiles as he daydreams of angels in his head as he walks away.

45. Fishing

In the realm of the spirit, only dead fish go with the flow.

The monk is traveling on a path that crosses a mighty river. He looks down and sees the river thick with fish battling to get up stream.

A bear is harvesting fish for its cub at the river’s edge. The bear swipes at the water with its mighty paw merely wounding a fish.

The fish rolls over and is swept down stream by the current. The monk takes the dead fish, blesses it and leaves it for the circling black birds.

He looks back in the stream and it is teaming with fingerlings swimming back to the ocean.

46. The Monk and the Hermit

The hermit is not necessarily antisocial; perhaps he is merely following a drummer that only he can hear.

In the village a celebration is full on. Lanterns are strung across the thoroughfares, women carry large baskets of fruit on their heads. Men play music, couples dance. A poor monk sits alone his clothes are tattered…

A bird appears with a cherry in its beak. The monk follows the bird to the top of a mountain. There he finds a dark cave and enters it. In his solitude, he dreams of his friends that he left behind. He dreams of the musicians, the food and the dancing.

A storm arises. Lightning casts large scary shadows on the cave’s walls. The monk awakes and spies a small hole in the cave’s wall. He reaches in and pulls out a gold coin.

He looks from the cave and sees the sun. It is the identical to his gold coin.

47. Blowing Bubbles

Breath is the messenger of the spirit, the spark of life is transferred in a breath. The first step in a child’s conception is often a kiss.

A monk sits by a babbling stream where bubbles come from the flowing torrent. Across the stream is a village in the shadow of a large volcano. He notices a spark and smoke coming from the volcano’s cone. He stands to warn the folks in the village but they cannot hear him save the sound of the bubbling water.

A bird arrives on the wing. It lands on his shoulder. A bubble of water passes the monk’s ear and the bird pecks at it with her beak. The bubble pops and the monk hears the music of the stream.

Leaning down the monk shouts cries of warning deep into the bubbling waters. Bubbles arise and are carried toward the village. As the bubbles spontaneously burst in the town, faint cries of warning are emitted. The village is alerted and its residents quickly flee the impending doom.