Finding a Diamond on a Muddy Road

Two monks, Tanzan and Ekido, were traveling down a muddy road. A heavy rain was falling. Coming around a bend, they met a lovely woman in a silk kimono unable to cross the muddy intersection. Tanzan at once lifted her in his arms and carried her across. The monks walked on in silence. Hours later, Ekido could contain himself no longer. " We monks do not go near women," he said. "Why did you carry that woman?" Tanzan replied, "I left the woman there. Are you still carrying her?"

Reflection

Tanzan carrying the woman across the mud is a classic teaching about letting go of rules after the situation has passed. Ekido's continued mental grip on the event is the real burden. Tanzan's reply – 'I left the woman there; are you still carrying her?' – exposes how attachment to moral judgments creates suffering long after the act is done.