Stories · Zen Stories to Quiet the Mind

The Monk Who Set Her Down

12 min · Zen and Tao · Letting go · Wisdom

During the rainy season, two travelling monks come to a flooded crossing. One lifts a stranger across and forgets it at once; the other carries the act in his mind all the long way home, until a single quiet sentence at dusk teaches him the lightness of empty hands.

Retold from a traditional Zen story.