Zrození tygra Knihy

Tentokrát jsem se, pro změnu, rozhodl dát malou ukázku opět z připravované knihy „Zrození tygra“, ovšem z její anglické verze, která se pomalinku, ale jistě rodí. Tak tedy "Učitel a žák".

THE TEACHER AND THE PUPIL

Once upon a time, there was a forgotten and isolated pagoda, which was nothing more than a small and neglected ramshackle building hidden in a remote corner of the Kompongcham Province, a home to a pitiful worshipping community consisting only of two Preya Put`s followers- the Master and his disciple called Chamron. Chamron was a very bad student. Not the brightest by far. And there was no wonder, for his master, an old monk, was a bit dim-witted himself.

On top of that, both of them were of an extremely lazy nature. They never went to see people in the surrounding villages and successfully managed to avoid all festivals, weddings and other occasions for blessings. They never even bothered to collect the alms- rice, meat or money. And in turn, people gave the pagoda a wide berth for the bad name the two eccentric monks had earned in the community.

But one day, the monks realised that they had got completely run out of rice and that there was absolutely nothing left to eat... and so the master and his disciple decided to set off for the market, psa, in the nearest town, riding their old elephant.

(You have learnt already that monks can`t eat people, tigers and elephants, and that they can`t ask for any meat at all, however, once it is offered to them, they shouldn`t refuse in order not to offend the benefactor...)

The master and the disciple had stopped to rest in a shade, and while the older monk was sleeping, Chamron decided to go to the market on his own.

“We waste so much time on shopping,” student Chamron grumbled quietly to himself as he was making up his mind that this time he would buy something that would last them for a really long time.

After some time, the older monk woke up from the stifling, dreamless, afternoon sleep, and the first thing he saw was his disciple Chamron coming from the market with... a huge bag full of salt.

“You fool!”, the master at once started to scold his pupil, “why have you bought so much salt? What a crazy idea! And where is food? A variety of vegetables, herbs, pork, rice?”

“Dear master, only now have I realised how much time we spend with this incessant travelling on the slow elephant from our pagoda to the market and back. That is why I have decided to buy something that is going to last for a very long time. Not like this stupid rice. The lady at the market confirmed that this big bag could even last a few years! Just imagine, my dear master, for many years to come, we won`t even need to go to the market, and we will be able to stay in our quiet and hidden pagoda doing nothing, exactly as we please... deeply immersed in our scholarly discourses on serious topics, like for example the correct order of days in a week or the importance of flies in the history of Buddhism.”

  

The master considered the matter once again and thought to himself: “That`s right! How wise my disciple proves to be. And how much wiser I must be being myself his master!”

But then he replied: “The only thing I`m worried about is that the bag is far too heavy for our old elephant to carry. So let me ride the elephant, and you, being my pupil, you should walk and carry the salt on your back.”

But after a while of nodding off, lulled by the swaying elephant`s gait, the master took pity on the old elephant, stopped and said to his disciple, who was carrying the heavy bag in the hot sun: “Our elephant is very old. We should be more considered and show our mercy. You are a bit lighter than me, not having been burdened by so many years and thoughts as I. Climb up onto the elephant and ride it, I`ll walk along and carry the salt.” 

The bag of salt was heavy and by some mysterious force, it was getting heavier with each step (or at least it seemed that way). And so the master walked slower and slower and soon fell behind Chamron by quite a long stretch. In the end, he couldn`t walk any further and stopped altogether.

And then a genius idea occurred to him- he could leave the salt there, under a tree, in the shade, and walk all the way to the pagoda- light as a feather, freed from the burden of the bag. There he can have a little sleep and come back again, rested and fresh, and ready to resume the arduous journey. How amazed he was by his own supreme wisdom!

But then his spirit sank again: “What if somebody steals the salt? We won`t have any food, and the whole effort will be in vain!”

The monk therefore decided to hide the salt. But where to?

First, he hid the salt into a bush. But which one was it? All of them looked exactly the same, and only a minute after he couldn`t remember which one it was he had chosen... it took him some time to find the salt again.

Then he thought it would be a great idea if he hid the salt into the top of a stately tree which was visible from afar, but he failed to climb up it, fell down on the dusty ground and the bag fell on him.

“Oh no! I must think of something else!”

And then Wisdom kissed him once again... But probably on the wrong part of his body, for it occurred to him to hide the salt into the river.

The monk returned to the pagoda, walking lightly and merrily. There he had a little rest before he headed back to the river to find the spot where he had hidden the whole bag of salt into the water.

But to his surprise, the bag of salt was empty, apart from one little fish which accidently wandered into the bag and got caught.

“Here is the villain! This malicious fish must have eaten all our salt,” the master shouted and was so angry that he decided to punish the fish for what it had done. He will take it to the pagoda, kill it and eat it...

And so, in the end, the two fools had something to eat after all...

“If only we had a pinch of salt,” sighed Chamron.

  

(anglický překlad Lucie Vinšová)