The group had been on the road some days when a messenger came running up to them and said, "The priest of our village has died. We need someone to take his place." The village seemed a comfortable sort of place and the priest's salary was a handsome one. One of the monks was seized with pastoral concern for the people. "I should not be a Buddhist," he said, "if I did not stay on to serve these people." So he dropped out.
Some days later they happened to stay at the palace of a king who took a fancy to one of the monks. "Stay with us," said the king, "and you shall marry my daughter. And when I die, you will succeed to the throne."
The monk was attracted to the luster of kingship, so he said, "What better way to influence the people of this kingdom than to become a king? I should not be a Buddhist if I did not seize this opportunity to server the interests of religion." So he dropped out too.
The rest of the group went on their way and one night, in a hilly region, came upon a solitary hut that was occupied by a pretty girl who offered them hospitality and thanked God for having sent the monks to her. Her parents had been murdered by mountain bandits and the girl was all alone and full of anxiety. Next morning, when it was time to leave, one of the monks said, "I shall stay with the girl. I should not be a Buddhist if I did not practice compassion."
The remaining tow finally came to a Buddhist village and found, to their horror, that all the village had abandoned their religion and were under the sway of a Hindu theologian. One of the monks said, "I owe it to these people and to the Lord Buddha himself to stay on here and win them back to the faith."
The fifth monk eventually got to the Lama of the South.
We had a wonderful New Year gathering last night in Titirat's house. Her house was so beautiful and clean, like a resort in Thailand. Her cooking and hospitality was superb like a first class Thai restaurant. These four gals are the yoga instructor trainees; all with superb qualities of hearts and zeal for life. Their smiles are radiant...every time this kinds of company, smiles, sharing...make our life so rich and worthwhile. I hope we all can rejoice more of this kinds genuine and warm relationships in otherwise our so dull and flat-tire kinds of daily living...
I have trained quite numbers of yoga instructors previously too...but I don't know where all they went, except Wee Vien and Angie...we had such good times too while the trainings were on...but life is such, there are always unforeseen challenges, changes keep coming up to be able to live our inspirations fully. But what to do. That's life, constant flux of coming and going...wherever they are, whatever stage they are going through in their life, I just wish they are all fine and occasionally would remember those good days like this one...Happy New Year to all my previous yoga trainee gals, too!!
