I'd like to share with you another story, a pretty cool story, a story that came from a Buddhist master of mine from China that one time we shared stories together; I told him a Taoist story and he shared a Buddhist story. This is the Buddhist story he told me.
He told me about a little monk, a little child monk, who one time got a common affinity, he was given a seed. The master who gave him the seed said "This is the seed of kindness. Those who have common affinity, the one who have common affinity, as long as they wait for the flower to blossom, they will become Buddha instantly."
Well, this was a magical seed that slowly started to root in the earth and slowly the sprout started to come out with two very long leaves which grew up and became like orchid leaves. The season passed when the flower was supposed to blossom, but the flower buds were still only a little green. The monk did not feel impatient in his heart. Year after year the little monk grew taller and bigger and older but the leaf of this flower was still like the first year and never changed no matter how many seasons passed, it was still just a beautiful green. Later the environment had great changes and the green grew lesser and lesser and water became lesser and further away, and the wind and the sand became rougher, blowing more harshly and the temple had fewer and fewer pilgrims come until in the end there is only one monk, this little monk, who stayed in the temple. Well, this little monk, everyday had to walk about 20 miles to go out to get food going to every house to ask for food. Every day he had to walk 10 miles to fetch water. Meanwhile the well got deeper and deeper and had less water. The monk, on the way home carrying the water, would often feel the crows follow him and circulate around him. The monk knew what this meant, and would often stop, put down the water and walk close to the crows and wait until the crows drank water and then would continue his journey back to the temple. Later on the crows were not afraid of him and directly would just stop at the edge of the bottle of water and walk while the little monk carried the water and the crows stayed with him and drink.
After the crows drink, the monk even watered the field, the grass along the pathway. So the flower of kindness became more and more green and the sprout started to show up. The little monk every day dreamt of the blossom of the flower and saw that all the colorful petals of the flower smelled with a wonderful flower fragrance. In the morning when he awoke he could always smell and taste the fragrance of the flower. The wind and the sand blew more roughly and the green grew lesser, and the few blades of grass on the pathway were all buried by the sand. But the little monk set up a little straw house to protect the kindness flower so it would not be buried by the sand. In the evening he would sleep inside the straw house and wait for the flower to blossom, then he would be able leave the flower.
One night a sand storm brought a boy into his straw house. This little boy carried a very weak sheep, the sheep was dying. The monk had great mercy but didn't know what to do with it. The little boy saw the very green leaves of the flower in the corner of the house; his eyes turned very bright and he said "my little sheep never ate green leaves in his life." The little monk was getting stuck, he looked at the flower and saw that the sprout was ready to blossom. He saw all the colorful energy surrounding the sprout and when he looked at the little sheep, the little monk inside was saying "oh, wait, wait, wait, until my little flower blooms, then I can save you." But the boy was torn and knelt down to him and said "Save me, save this little sheep." So the little monk sighed a heavy sigh and said "I have no common affinity with Buddha", so he closed his eyes and slowly reached out to grasp the two soft green leaves and was ready to pull the leaves off the flower to feed the little sheep. Well, he didn't even use any strength, the whole flower, blossom and all, came right out of the earth. Came out, just came right on the earth and the monk felt like his physical heart also came right out from his chest. At the moment the boy got the flower, at that moment, all of a sudden, the flower started to blossom; the little monk saw all the beautiful colors of the flower, smelled all of the fragrance, and this fragrance filled the whole room.
This is the story that the Buddhist monk shared with me. He said that if you want to be successful, then you just have to have the patience to be disciplined. Sometimes all you need is one more step, to be more patient. It may be that one step more and the exchange could be very successful. You can wait for a long time to be successful and only just a little more, one step more, to be successful.
I think we can learn from this little monk about how disciplined he is to stay with it and yet in the end he still was merciful and not stubborn. In the end he was willing to give up his chance to be Buddha, and because he was willing to give up he was able to be successful. So he became a Buddha. This is what the little monk taught me about.