The Tale of Two Monks

Tang and Huo Zhi, two friends at a monastery are making a three day of trek of silence, contemplation, gratitude and self-acceptance from their temple to one of their sister temples almost 40 miles away.

Though they would be alone together in the wilderness, both were accomplished hunters and gatherers, the area was safe, the route was easy and peaceful and the weather quite mild - both of the monks were quite looking forward to the trek.

As the two friends packed the last of their supplies, they muttered their last words, wished their fellow monks and teachers well and set out on their journey.

Within hours, they fell into a lulled, quiet silence as the leaves crunched softly under their slippers and being so in tune with each other, they could both feel the quiet contentedness of the other and both were happy to be getting away from the tedious chores and routine of the temple to simply bask in the joy of nature and travel and companionship

As evening fell, the two wordlessly went off of the path and found a small creek. Tang started to fish while Huo Zhi started a fire and set up a small shelter for them using an old piece of wind sail, and then cleared a sleeping area for them, stuffing their cloth sacks and blankets with leaves in order to make a comfortable sleeping area.

When they entered the tent, Tang noticed that his friend had placed several of Tang's favorite smelling flowers in a small bowl and placed it on his blanket, providing the tent with a lovely aroma. Tang smiled at his friend and held his hands in gratitude and both slept soundly that night.

To return the favor the following morning, Tang woke up early and using some of their supplies was able to make a lavender bread that he know was a treat for Huo Zhi. Upon smelling the delicious aroma, Huo Zhi woke up in excitement and smiled and embraced his friend for the kind gesture and the two , after bathing in the creek, began their next day's trek.

They made excellent time and were feeling blissful, both losing themselves in meditation while taking in the beautiful scenery of the mountains, forest and hills - as the dewy morning chill fell for the warmth of the early afternoon, Huo Zhi took out a small tangerine from his bag, peeled it and gave half to his friend, who accepted it with a large smile. Both of them quietly enjoying a small game of seeing how far they could spit out the seeds. Huo Zhi won this time, making their lifetime score 932 to 838.

A few hours later, they stopped for lunch, this time it was Huo Zhang who prepared a hearty stew of dried vegetables and fruit while Tang cleaned up and made some tea from local herbs. The friends ate and were silent in their gratitude for their blessings losing themselves for an hour in quiet bliss and stillness of their surroundings. Suddenly, Tang had to sneeze and Huo held his mouth to avoid the laughter at the accidental release of sound. Both friends smiled brightly to each other, sharing in the joined experience of controlling the body until they had resumed full control.

Towards the evening of the second day, they had their first tough decision to make. They had two more hours to go before crossing the great river. Normally the river was no more than waist high and it took maybe 20 minutes to cross - however - if there was heavy rain the river could risk flooding and get up to about their heads, even potentially requiring swimming and could take up to an hour to navigate carefully.

While both were proficient swimmers, it would be risky to try this at night - the skies looked ominous but they could not tell when the rains would begin, nor how long it would pour. They could either set up camp now and ride out the potential storm and hope that it had stopped by tomorrow, which meant they would not arrive until very late the following evening - or they could risk it now and get the worst part behind them and arrive nice and early at the temple tomorrow to refresh themselves.

After both of them thought for a few minutes, they simultaneously nodded to each other and both knew they made the same decision. Go for the river now.

As they grew closer, their moods began to sink. Within an hour the clouds grew more ominous and they were now simply too close to the river to find a dry place to camp. It would not be pleasant, but this was their decision and both looked forward to simply passing the river and getting the most uncomfortable part of the trek behind them.

The rains began, mild at first but within minutes it was a torrential downpour. From time to time they took shelter in the trees, holding their blankets and cloaks against the wind and doing what they could to keep warm. When the rain slacked off, they would quickly make their way closer, both of them eager to get past this one obstacle. Between being soaked by the rain and their upcoming trek through the river, they would not be camping and after crossing would simply walk to the temple until they arrived, hopefully by early morning.

As they crested the final hill, they saw with dismay that the river was already flooding and looked to be about neck level. They smiled grimly at each other and both mentally prepared for an unpleasant experience, tying up their bags securely, finishing some of their rations that the river would destroy and doing quick arm and stomach stretches to prepare to swim if they had to.

As they reached the river, they were surprised by a sudden sound. A young woman, no more than 16 or 17 was limping over to them. In a hurried, panicked voice she indicated a small bag of fish and bread she had secured from a local town and was making her way home when she had fallen and hurt her ankle. She was too scared to try and cross the river and did not know what else to do. She pleaded with them for help. Tang looked and saw her dress was completely torn across the right leg, exposing her porcelain skin showing a little bit of blood and a large purple bruise.

Huo Zhi nodded and grabbed her stuff, wrapping it efficiently in his own cloak and placing it high above his head. The girl, originally suspicious began to calm down as Tang smiled gently at her and offered her a tangerine, nodding to explain they would help her, he chewed some herbs quickly and made a quick paste, handing it to her awkwardly motioning to place it on her ankle and averting his eyes from her bare skin.

As the woman, who had introduced herself as Sima, got close to the river, Tang saw the fear in her eyes and realized she could not swim. With her injury, fear, torrential downpour, wind and darkness, she would likely panic and potentially harmself more, if not drown if she tried to make it.

Thinking about it only for a second, Tang turned his back on Sima and kneeled, indicating she should hold her other pack above her head, and then board him with her knees resting on his shoulders. Originally a little hesitant, she eventually settled, and careful to not put any pressure on her injured ankle, Tang became to walk and eventually swim across the river. He could feel Sima's fear, but she held still, careful to not squeeze too tight nor to move too much.

When they reached the other side, Huo Zhi's face was white with a combination of anger, fear, worry and shock. He helped his friend make the last few yards, grabbing his bag, but the moment he could, he raced back up to the bank and waited with his back turned.

Sima hugged Tang in effusive gratitude, pointed to where some sounds and smoke indicated a few houses were very nearby and said that was her home. She asked if they would come with her to dry themselves and eat, but Tang smiled broadly and shook his head no. Huo Zhi made no response.

Bowing to each other one last time, Sima began limping gently to her village, her wares intact and ensuring she was okay, Tang finally turned to his friend and they began the last portion of their journey. They were both exhausted but as the temple was only 6 hours away, decided to just keep going so they could eat and rest in comfort when they arrived.

Tang could feel the waves of judgment and displeasure from Huo Zhi but refused to let it bother him. He was enjoying the last few hours of silent contemplation and lost himself in deep meditation, only stopping when at last, Huo Zhi stopped him as they saw their temple at the sun began to rise.

Huo Zhi pulled more dried fruit out of his pack and after several moments of prolonged silence, grudgingly handed a dried plum to Tang without looking at him, Tang tried to smile at him but Huo refused to make eye contact.

Finally, they entered the temple grounds and Huo stood in front of Tang, angry and shocked - he spoke for nearly 5 minutes without interruption, saying that he cared about Tang, but why would he do that? It was against the rules to engage with the opposite sex and she was a minor and had exposed her bare skin, he had touched her and she had touched him, he would need to do purification rituals - he didn't want Tang to get in trouble and he was worried about what this would mean for Tang.

Tang let his friend express himself, smiling internally at the mix of care and worry in his friends voice while also trying to unravel the annoyance he felt with Huo Zhi's judgment.

He finally realized that Huo Zhi had stopped speaking and was searching Tang's eyes, waiting for a response.

Tang took a deep breath, smiled and put a hand on his friend's shoulder and said only one thing:

"My dear friend, how lucky I am that you are so concerned about me - but I wonder something. I saw someone in need and carried her. I did not consider her skin, or her age and when the need was done, I let her go. I wonder why YOU are still carrying her?"

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