Long ago, there lived a washerman who used to collect soiled clothes from the villagers, load them on his donkey and carry them to a river to wash them. He would spend the entire day by the river- washing, drying and folding clothes. While he finished his work, the donkey was tied to a tree near the river.

One day the washerman realized that he had forgotten to carry the rope that he tied the donkey with. It would mean a lot of extra work for him to go back to the village and get the rope. But if the donkey strayed away, that would be an even worse scenario. Both the options were equally impracticable. He approached a wise man who lived near the river and asked him for a solution.

The wise man advised him to act as though he was tying the donkey to the tree with a rope and then proceed with his day’s work. He emulated his action of tying the donkey to the tree with the rope and cautiously proceeded towards the river. The donkey, spent his day under the tree as he would normally do. The washerman kept looking towards the donkey to make sure the trick had worked, and was happy that it had.

In the evening, the washerman loaded the donkey with all the washed, dried and neatly folded clothes and instructed the donkey to move. The donkey wouldn’t budge. The washerman tried and tried, but the donkey stayed put. Finally the washerman, tired and distraught, went to seek the wise man’s help again. The wise man told him the simple technique to make the donkey move was to emulate the action of untying the donkey. The trick worked and the washerman took the donkey home.

End of story.

I heard this story in the context of the acceptance and understanding of bondage and illusions that we live in, so that we can untie the rope and make efforts to get out of them.

But the beauty of stories like this is that, for each person, it can mean a different realization. We can:
put ourselves in the donkey’s shoes,
put on the washerman’s sandals
or
use the wise man’s hat.

I hope this brings you a realization that you are seeking right now.

Image by nurbs999 from Pixabay

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