340-The Unequal Brothers- Buddhism in daily life

The Unequal Brothers

A very wise father had two sons who could not have been more different. Outwardly they were very similar, but in character they were complete opposites.

One son was an optimist, his brother was basically skeptical. One was always cheerful, the other was taciturn and constantly absorbed in his thoughts.

One brother liked to read a lot, the other did not even look at books, while one brother danced, the other covered his ears. One was cold, the other always had heat, one was good at school, the other had no interest in his education.

Two unequal brothers!

The father decided to analyze the characters of his sons.

When a big party was coming up, the father started an experiment. In the night he went to the rooms of his sons. In the optimist's room, instead of gifts, he laid out old horse droppings, and in the pessimist's room he spread gifts on the floor.

In the morning he heard shouting in the house, he then went to check on his sons.

The pessimist was upset and unhappy, the father asked: "what's wrong, why are you unhappy, don't you like the gifts"? The son answered him: "now I have all these toys, but they will break in the course of time, I will lose them. Therefore I am unhappy"!

The optimist sat in his room and blissfully looked at the horse droppings. The father asked: "what's wrong, why are you happy, you didn't receive a gift"? The son answered him. "if you put horse droppings in my room, it means you are giving me a horse, doesn't it"?

A pessimist is an optimist who has thought too much. Pessimists either experience pleasant surprises or are always right.

Optimists are not always right either, but they live more happily.

A Buddhist, however, is a realist who has gone far beyond pessimism and optimism.

The utopian sees the paradise, the realist the paradise plus snake.

- Friedrich Hebbel - German playwright - 1813 to 1863

Optimist: another word for fool

- Gustave Flaubert - French writer - 1821 to 1880

For myself, I am an optimist - it doesn't seem to do much good to be anything else

- Winston Churchill - British statesman of the 20th century - 1874 to 1965

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