Short Stories for kids on Buddha’s wisdom
Short Story one: The burden of the mind
Once upon a time , Buddha was walking with a disciple. They had both taken celibacy vows. They vowed not to marry or to be in the company of female friends.They were not allowed to even talk to women. They had decided that this was the path to God. They wanted to focus on enlightenment.
The disciple and Buddha were travelling from one village to the other through a dense forest filled with animals and birds. Buddha was explaining to the disciple the purpose and meaning of life.
They came across a river. The river was deep and the currents were fast. The Buddha and the disciple were very strong swimmers and decided they could swim across to the other side of the river bank. Just as they were about to enter the river a young woman came running and pleaded for help in crossing the river.
The Buddha without a moment of hesitation took the lady on his back and swam across the river. The lady thanked them and left. The disciple and the Buddha walked in silence for a long time after that. They reached the village they had set out for and were about to retire for the day, when finally the disciple asked him the question that had been bugging him for the entire time during the walk from the river to the village.
“Oh great Buddha! I don’t mean to be impertinent. But, a question has been at the back of my head for a long time. We have taken celibacy vows and yet you took the lady with you in the river. Isn’t it against our principles?”
The Buddha laughed and explained,” Son! I left the lady at the bank when I helped a fellow human in need. You are the one who is carrying her in your head .”
The disciple finally realised that it wasn’t the exact words of the vow that matter but the spirit and that our thoughts are a bigger burden than any other physical burden we may have.
Short Story Two: Clear as water
One day the Buddha was meditating under the tree. One of his disciples was also with him. He needed Buddha’s advice on something.
Buddha finished his mediation and asked the disciple what he wanted. The disciple said, “ I am very angry today. My brother is refusing to take care of our old mother, I have the sole responsibility for this. I mean to have a word with him. But I am not sure what to tell him. I came seeking your advice on this.”
Buddha, instead of responding to this question said can you please fetch me a bowl of water from the pond nearby. The disciple was a bit confused, but since the Buddha had requested something, he immediately took the bowl and went to the pond to fetch the water. He saw that some animals had walked across the pond and the water was muddy. He returned to the Buddha and said the water was not in a drinkable state.
The Buddha said ,"let us meditate.”
After some time, the Buddha asked the disciple to get water. This time the water was clear and the disciple could get water for the Buddha.
Buddha drank the water and said,'' Your mind is like the pond and when you have angry thoughts the mind becomes useless just like the muddy water. But give the mind some time and let the anger calm down and your mind will give you the answers.”
The disciple agreed. Because he had spent a lot of time near the Buddha in meditation and in fetching water, his anger had calmed down and he realised that he had never spoken to his brother about taking care of their mother. He was sure that if he spoke to his brother, he would agree.
He then sorted his issues with his brother with a calm mind
Short Story Three :The treasure that lies ahead
Once a disciple came to the Buddha and said he wanted wealth. He was tired of being poor.The Buddha said, look at the line of trees, each one has a treasure chest buried under it. You can take it and become a wealthy man.
The disciple was very happy and got ready to dig the treasure looking for a shovel. The Buddha said, there are two conditions though and you must abide.
The first condition is that you can take only one treasure chest. The second condition is that you have to start from this end and you can go from this end to that end. But once you go in one direction, you cannot turn back
The disciple agreed and started digging the first tree. He came upon the treasure chest within a few minutes of digging. This chest was filled with silver and semi precious stones.
He thought for a while and decided to move further. Upon digging beneath the second tree, he found a chest filled with gold. He thought for a while and decided to go further.
Every chest gave him something more than the previous one.He came to the second last tree. It was the biggest chest so far and filled with the largest diamonds he had ever seen. The wealth this would create would be enough to feed his whole village for an entire lifetime.
But, he still wanted more and went to the last tree and dug and to his utter shock, he found a small chest and in it was written, “ Opportunities will keep coming your way, you can take them. But extreme greed always leads to downfall.”
The man learnt his lesson and left the place with nothing. But he worked hard and was never greedy after that and led a comfortable life
Why Short Stories for kids:
Short stories help us in teaching moral values to kids. They help us in teaching behaviour rules for kids. They also help us in mtivating children in the correct direction. If you are looking at ways to inculcate good manners and behaviour and motivate children, do take a look at our motivational posters
