At one time, there were 500 students learning from this grandmaster, Ekaku. 499 of them were good when it came to their behaviours; however, only one boy,Tom, was a headache-character from the pointviews of all the other 499 students!
Tom had always been dirty on his clothing, had the proclivity to lie; worst of all, this boy Tom had had the liking for stealing something from others.
In the beginning, most of the students had been tolerating Tom's bad moralities, they exhorted Tom earnestly to change his poor conducts into the good ones---because their grandmaster Ekaku had been teaching them the lessons of "tolerance, mercy and wisdom"; not only in the master's lectures, most importantly, in master's everyday true actions!! Nevertheless, this boy Tom had "never" changed his headachy personalities.
Time and time again, this trouble-maker had never stopped his wrong doings. Finally, all of the 499 students lost their patience, rushing forward with furious emotions before their master Ekaku, protesting, "Grandmaster, we cannot endure this trouble-maker any more, you must kick Tom out away from our Holy-Temple; otherwise all of us choose to leave!" This great grandmaster Ekaku responded calmly, "Dear children, I understand."
The following week, the master Ekaku had done nothing towards that poor boy, Tom; this way, the emotions among many students were being growing more and more indignant!
Until the tenth day, this great grandmaster Ekaku convened a general assembly, all these 500 students participated in this meeting.
In the very beginning five minutes, the great grandmaster Ekaku was keeping silent---because Ekaku must make certain that all of them cooled their emotions down; only in that kind of condition, all the students could pay "very close" attention to what he himself was about to say.
After this period of "quietude of wisdom", the great grandmaster Ekaku began his speech, saying, "Among all of you, 499 learners are as good as gold! It means: If these learners leave away from this Temple, they will lead a pretty good lives; because they possess good moralities. However, here only one learner-------this poor boy, Tom, he has no abilities to differentiate "right from wrong" and "good from bad". Under such consideration, if I kick him out of this Temple, obviously, our society will not accept this kind of child; it means: This poor child, Tom, will eventually be forced into "underworld", engaging in illegal activities; ultimately, Tom will produce even much more detrimental damages towards our society."
Ekaku continued his speech with "mercy and strong determination", saying, "Therefore, I will keep this poor child---Tom---at the side of me learning from myself, until Tom can "distinguish" right from wrong and good from bad, that day, I will allow Tom to leave; even if it means that all of the 499 learners choose to leave from this Temple right now---I will never change my decision!!"
After listening to Ekaku's statement, all of the students were so deeply touched into their very hearts! As to Tom, his face was being covered with full of tears.
The last results:
1. No any student chose to leave out of this Temple; on the contrary, more and more people came before this great grandmaster Ekaku learning from him---because of "his incredible tolerance"!
2. From that day on, this headache-character Tom completely transformed his bad conducts into the good deeds!
3. 20-year later, Tom became another great master on "Zen and meditation"--------especially, Master Tom was being equipped with "the excellent tolerance"!!
ns 15.158.61.11da2
