By Paulo Coelho
During the civil war in Korea, a certain general and his troops were advancing implacably, taking province after province, destroying everything in their path. The people in one city, hearing that the general was approaching and knowing his cruel reputation, fled to a nearby mountain.
The troops found the houses empty. After much searching, though, they found one Zen monk who had stayed behind. The general ordered that he be brought before him, but the monk refused to go.
Furious, the general went to him instead.
‘You obviously don’t know who I am!’ he bawled. ‘I am capable of stabbing you in the chest with my sword without so much as blinking.’
The Zen master turned and replied calmly:
‘You obviously don’t know who I am either. I am capable of letting myself be stabbed in the chest by a sword without so much as blinking.’
On hearing this, the general bowed low and left.
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Cool!
Checkmate!
That is beyond cool. A bully is only a coward in the end.
Its so true that the only way fear has power is if you allow it to. This story reminds of the stance Ghandi took. He didn’t become evil to overcome evil, he became brave.
What was it that Jesus said.. “to conquer death you only have to die”.
Kathleen,
U see the bully, he was a bully by reputation; but don’t you see the greatness of the man, probably what helped him become a general. The general who bowed was no less than the monk, chap could have easily stabbed that fellow as one would expect someone who is reputed to be bully; but no the man bowed to greatness and in the process demostrated that he too was great !
Was Gandhi also of the caliber who could see bullets thrust into him without so much as blinking, well almost !!
Breath taking…wow! hahahahahahah….
tera mera rishta purana …our relationship is timeless…
i now feel so strongly about the history of all titles that divide us from one another. How is it that human beings born equally into a natural universe, came to diminish themselves and cede power to others?
Hola Paulo : Escribia para saludarte y comentarte que el blog esta en ingles y para poderlo leer tengo que recurrir a un traductor , solo la parte de la bruja de portobello tiene version en español,ojala se pueda hacer version en castellano de todo el blog,gracias de antemano , !!muchas felicidades y un fuerte abrazo!!
Hi Aditya - No, I don’t see greatness in a man who destroys everything in his path. You can come into high power through intimidation, that’s not greatness in my eyes. I’ll grant him that maybe he respected bravery in the end.
The man became ‘great’ - he bowed in humility.
Yes, because he had been humiliated in his own eyes and that of his soldiers - not the only road to humbleness, but one just the same and he saw the greatness of the monk’s humble acceptance and lack of fear.
What if he walked away, tears in his eyes, totally seeing everything he believed in change before his very eyes. Confusion, despair, at seeing all he had done in the past…in the name of loyalty, ‘patriotism’, and love.
He may have looked around and saw the world as it was when he’d been a child, when some invaders had done the same to his town and friends and he’d been afraid for the rest of his life.
What if he bent weeping on the floor praying for forgiveness and understanding….and it was granted him, with grace…and he followed back to the Monk and became his disciple.
In a world where, yes, the warped societies of man, have us bowing to another…either in respect and love…or fear and or humiliation…no two roads are the same, neither is the view from the road.
Thank you, sir
love to all
sir,i am from INDIA.
besides sharing the same robust growth of economy ,our motherlands also share a few common passions…like football ,though according to my knowledge we rank somewhere above 110 in the FIFA ranking.but its the love for the game that matters.
like millions others around the world i am a huge fan of your work.
my personal favorite is THE ZAHIR.
i am a little embarrassed to call myself a poet in front of someone of your supreme stature,but i do write.
and i am highly inspired by the various works of KHALIL GIBRAN.
i am also an amateur artist,right now my medium is skin [i am a tattoo artist,though i am planning to delve deeper into the so-called mainstream arena] and want to create something on the lines of a fusion between the various forms of art like poetry,paintings,sculpture,music.
i dont know if or not i would have the immense strength to realize my dream but what i want to say is that your books give me HOPE.
so THANK YOU sir.
Dearest Paulo,
What made the monk and the general great, was their lack of fear. But i feel that, somewhere inside the general, he had some sort of fear of death. Although i do not agree with the ways of the general, he i can see he had some sort of greatness for merely bowing down to the monk. He saw that the monk had no fear, completely no fear, and he was willing to accept death as it came, and i think in that moment, the general realised the monk was far greater than him, he truely had strength, and he bowed out of respect and humilation, for he was supposedly said to be the most fearless. This story does remind me of Jainism and the ways of Gandhi.. I don’t believe that violence is the way, and living off other peoples fears to make yourself greater, is not true greatness for me. Love, is the way. It can conquer anything. And there is great strength in non- violence, only once you learn to accept death or anything else for that matter, and not fear it, at all, can you say, you’re truely great. You don’t need to kill or fight to make you fearless. Mwah!
Thank you for being.
Yajna
Kathleen & freinds !
the general was ‘reputed’ to be a ‘destroyer’ how much was myth we know not ! at times of war rarely one ever hears of the greatness of enemy generals. assuming that he was a ‘destroyer’ how would have zesus met him, how would have buddha met him ?
one who sins against others is taking a tremedous burden on his/her soul ( the soul burns and one can feel it ), why they do it, our pschys are complex and so are our ‘complexes’
Before anyone says that maybe Zesus could gorgive, he was ’son of god’ and this and that, but i am a mere mortal, I seek revenge & retribution - then such a person should at least be honest and stop praying to the son of god; the prayer is in our actions, how we meet freinds how we treat our enemies, …..
without malice to one and all, i write as I talk to myself, for me there are no ‘others’ so take no offense even if my words appear harsh sometimes !
aditya
Hi Paulo, you are to say the least- amazing. As in your site. You too I am sure.
Your story got me thinking about peace. See for world peace to be, one needs to be peaceful first. I believe in the “rubbing-off” effect, where peace in one person can morph to the next person, and the next, and so on. And in my case, I think peace comes when I realize I don’t have to justify myself… I don’t have to fear what others think or do or feel if I don’t give them something to find.
Anyway, I think the general loves the monk very much. No one does an outburst like that if they haven’t reached a certain level of comfort with one another… in my point of view.