Ancient Zen Legend Of The Pond

The ancient Zen legend of the pond tells us that there was an enchanted kingdom in which no human being had ever been. All vices and virtues lived in relative harmony. Everyone liked to play in a large garden, which was always full of light and heady and mysterious scents. Sometimes the vices and virtues spoke to each other for a long time, and even when they disagreed there were never conflicts.

This ancient Zen legend tells us that there were two inhabitants of the garden with whom it was difficult to deal: anger and sadness. They both had many friends. Anger ran from place to place with envy, resentment and jealousy. Sadness, for its part, was not so sociable, but it shared its time with laziness, conformity and distrust.

Both anger and sadness were extremely sensitive. It was difficult for them to tolerate the sun, the rain, day or night. In addition, they were also extremely sensitive. One could hardly speak to them.

In the presence of something they did not like, they began to grow, grow and grow. Sometimes they left no room for anyone else. That is why the other inhabitants of the pond dealt with them with extreme caution and preferred not to spend much time with them.

The ancient Zen legend and competition

Anger and sadness used to roam the same places. They both loved swamps and pristine forests. By chance, one afternoon they decided to take a walk near a wonderful crystalline pond in the garden.

They began to talk, and lazily sadness told anger that they had heard rumors of a treasure hidden in the pond. The illusion swore that he was buried there and that his value was incalculable. Obviously, pessimism did not believe it.

Anger, which always reacted without thinking, defied sadness. He told her that she too had heard similar stories and offered her a competition to make it more interesting. They had to randomly choose a part of the land in which to search; whoever found the treasure would keep it. Sadness thought he might lose, but I accept the challenge anyway. She also thought that if she found the treasure she would feel less sad.

The two divided the land and began digging. The anger acted as if the world was about to end, it dug with so much energy that in less than three hours it had already completed its piece of land. She was furious at the thought that the treasure could be found in the land part of sadness.

This ancient Zen legend tells us that sadness took its time. He would dig for a few minutes, then think and sigh. It ended after a week, as anger watched her ready to explode. Neither found the treasure.

Moral of Lo Pond

This ancient Zen legend tells us that both anger and sadness realized they had been deceived. After moving the earth so much they were filled with mud up to their ears, and all this work for nothing. At this point, since they were close to the crystalline pond, they thought about taking a bath in its waters.

Anger reached the banks of the pond and he took off his clothes. Very angry she threw herself into the pond whose waters became turbid in a few minutes because of the so much mud that covered it. Sadness, as his habit, thought about it for a while before taking a bath. Then he approached thinking how clear the water was up to a moment before.

Surely the situation would have worsened if she had jumped. This thought made her cry for a while. However, knowing that she had no other choice, she too took off her clothes and threw herself into the waters of the pond.

According to this ancient Zen legend, anger threw itself into the waters of the pond with fury, splashing water left and right. The sadness, meanwhile, had remained in a corner. She didn’t like to move and thought the splashes of water from her anger were enough to clear the mud.

In reality the water was completely cloudy. The dirty liquid ended up in the eyes of the anger that stormed out of the pond to put on his clothes. Because he could not see well, however, he mistakenly put on the clothes of sadness.

How the legend ends …

When sadness came out of the pond, he found the clothes of anger and put them on. After all, she didn’t care. Since then anger has worn the clothes of sadness and sadness those of anger.

The minstrels of the place said that neither of them had noticed the different size of the clothes they were wearing, because anger is only a disguise of sadness and the sadness of anger.