Short Story I love these dialogues between Buddha and his estrange cousin as there is so much wisdom here to be extrapolated if you can from this short story. I am retelling what I have heard in my own words so please forgive me if you know the story already and find gaps in it. Buddha was asked by his estrange cousin: “What have you gained from the years of retreat?” The Buddha replied, “Peace”. His cousin remarks “Peace is won in the battlefields by the power of using swords.” Buddha responds by saying “You have won the battle but not the minds. So if you have not won the minds, what have you won.” His cousin is now raging with anger and ask Buddha “What have you won during your long retreat.” Buddha says “I didn’t go to win, I went to lose and I have lost everything in the process.” His cousin is bewildered and says with smirked on his face “You abandoned your royal privileges and comfort, what do you expect to gain, of course you lost everything.” Buddha smiles and says “You are right, I lost everything, I lost attachment, I lost anger, I lost pride, I lost jealousy and I lost greed. After losing everything there was nothing left to lose and peace was what I got in return.” This was infuriating for his cousin, he yells “so you are telling me I am feeding the anger and I am not.” Buddha says “no I am not telling you that, you are saying that.” and with that he walks off leaving his cousin raging with anger.

Posted by Tenzin YW at 2023-06-18 11:24:13 UTC