Who is right?
Long ago, in a Buddhist temple, two monks argued about the content of a sacred text. Each wanted to be right, his own view seemed only logical to him, the opinion of the monk's brother as wrong.
All day long the words went back and forth, sometimes in a matter-of-fact form, occasionally also disparaging, but in the matter nothing moved, each monk wanted to be right, to assert himself, not to give in under any circumstances.
The other brothers in the monastery were increasingly burdened by the quarrel, the opponents were irreconcilable, each invoked a different passage in the text, which in his opinion would "clearly prove" his point of view. When the discord did not end the whole afternoon, a monk said: "I have enough of your bickering now, go and ask the master, our abbot is known for his wisdom, he will make a judgement, and after this word you shall finally keep peace"!
The first quarreler ran into the hermitage of the master and said: "Venerable abbot, I have been quarreling with my brother all day, it is about a passage in a blessed book, may I present you the passage, and my point of view about it"? "Yes, of course," replied the monastic leader.
The monk laid it all out, sparing no small malice toward his temple brother, but also explaining his version of the passage in question.
The abbot answered succinctly, "Yes, you are in the right." The monk went back triumphantly and explained the decision to each monastic brother, saying that he was right and the other monk was wrong.
The defeated monk did not want to accept this without complaint, he also went to the abbot's room and complained: "Master, how can this be, I refer to the words of another eminent teacher, why should I be in the wrong"?
The abbot just looked at the monk for a moment and again replied curtly, "Yes, you are in the right."
The second monk went back, reported the abbot's statement to his adversary. The quarrel began as it had ended; the positions had even hardened, both now invoking the abbot as well.
Now the monk who had sent the two to the abbot had really had enough, he went to see the monastery master himself to finally bring the unpleasant matter to a good conclusion, to have peace in the house again.
"Great master," he said, "why do you agree with both monks, only one can be in the right?
The white abbot also looked at the third monk only briefly, and again answered curtly: "Yes, you are in the right".
Only small minds always want to be right
- Louis XIV- French King (1638 - 1715)
The one who comes closest to the gods is the one who can keep silent even when he is in the right
- Marcus Porcius Cato, the Elder (Cato Censorius)- (234 - 149 B.C.)
Everyone is so right
- unknown - Source: Inscription on a house in Wertheim (Germany), quoted by Kurt Tucholsky (1907-1935).
Ghastly is the type of people who always want to be right. These are ready to condemn innocent people, saints, God himself, just to be right
Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)
You will be tomorrow what you think today
- Buddha –
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