The Monk
A man is driving down the road and his car breaks
down near a monastery.
He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and
says, "My car broke down. Do you think I could stay
the night?"
The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner,
even fix his car.
As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange
sound. A sound not Like anything he's ever heard
before. The Sirens that nearly seduced Odysseus
into crashing his ship comes to his mind.
He doesn't sleep that night. He tosses and turns
trying to figure out what could possibly be making
such a seductive sound.
The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound
was, but they say, "We can't tell you. You're not a
monk."
Distraught, the man is forced to leave.
Years later, after never being able to forget that
sound, the man goes back to the monastery and pleads
for the answer again.
The monks reply, "We can't tell you. You're not a
monk."
The man says, "If the only way I can find out what is
making that beautiful sound is to become a monk, then please, make me
a monk."
The monks reply, "You must travel the earth and tell
us how many blades of grass there are and the exact
number of grains of sand. When you find these answers,
you will have become a monk."
The man sets about his task.
After years of searching he returns as a gray-haired
old man and knocks on the door of the monastery. A
monk answers. He is taken before a gathering of all
the monks.
"In my quest to find what makes that beautiful
sound, I traveled the earth and have found what you
asked for:
By design, the world is in a state of perpetual
change. Only *** knows what you ask. All a man can
know is himself, and only then if he is honest and
reflective and willing to strip away self deception."
The monks reply, "Congratulations. You have become a
monk. We shall now show you the way to the mystery of
the sacred sound."
The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the
head monk says, "The sound is beyond that door."
The monks give him the key, and he opens the door.
Behind the wooden door is another door made of
stone.
The man is given the key to the stone door and he
opens it, only to find a door made of ruby.
And so it went that he needed keys to doors of
emerald, pearl and diamond.
Finally, they come to a door made of solid gold. The
sound has become very clear and definite. The monks
say, "This is the last key to the last door."
The man is apprehensive to no end. His life's wish
is behind that door!
With trembling hands, he unlocks the door, turns the
knob, and slowly pushes the door open. Falling to his
knees, he is utterly amazed to discover the source of
that haunting and seductive sound......
But I can't tell you what it is because you're not a monk.
