A couple was taking their evening stroll in the park when they heard, "Woof!" "Woof!".
The husband said to the wife, "Hmm ... there's a dog nearby."
The wife replied, "Nah. That's a cat."
The husband said again, "It's a dog. Listen carefully."
Getting annoyed, the wife replied, "It's a cat"
"Woof!" "Woof!"
"Stupid woman!" thought the husband as he impatiently said, "It's a dog!"
"Stubborn man!" thought the wife as she, too, insisted rather angrily, "No! It's a cat!"
Turning to face his wife, the husband barked, " I say it's a dog!"
She looked at him squarely in the face, "I say it's a cat! " She hissed back.
"OK, let's look for it and I'll prove to you it's a dog." The husband challenged fiercely.
"Sure! Why not? and I'll show you it's a cat!" The wife scratched back.
They turned angrily away from each other and started searching.
After half an hour of futile searching, the husband, feeling exhausted, sweaty, hungry and thirsty, turned and looked at his wife who's still busy searching.
As he stood and watched the perspiration trickling down her face, he remembered their courtship days. A deep sense of remorse swept through him.
Walking behind her, he slipped his arms round her waist and whispered in her ear, "Darling, I believe you are right. It's a cat. And it probably ran off when it saw us coming to look for him. Shall we stop searching?"
With tears in her eyes, the wife turned and rested her head on his chest, holding him tight.
"Thank you. It was a cat, right?" She cried softly, gently.
"Yes, it was. You hungry? Shall we get something to eat?"
She looked up into his eyes and nodded her head as he wiped away the tears from her face.
Holding hands, they walked down towards the beautiful sunset together ...
Unknown to the couple, perched high up on one of the trees was a bird who saw and witnessed the whole incident.
The bird thought to himself,
"Silly humans! What's there to search? I'm neither a cat nor a dog. I'm a bird!"
As he, too, spread his wings, soar to the sky and headed for home, woofing away. .
"Reality and Truths are NOT what they seem to be."
"After anger and hate, what follows is sorrow, sadness and pain.
Be careful.
Love, Harmony, Compassion and Wisdom are more important than being right."
"To understand things, we have to accept first.
For without acceptance, there can be no understanding, no realisations.
Being open does not mean accepting other's beliefs.
Being open means accepting that what (i.e the beliefs) we had held so dearly and strongly for so long to be the Truth, may actually be, Un-True.".
.
"It is not only greed or attachment to pleasures caused by the senses or attachment to wealth and property, and the wish to defeat others and conquer countries;
But also attachment to ideals and ideas, to views, opinions and beliefs that lead to calamity and destruction, and bring about untold suffering to whole nations,
In fact, to the whole world."
- Venerable Dr K. Sri Dhammananda
