A young man went to a hermit, requesting to be his disciple.
The hermit asked, “Who are you?”
The young man replied, “I am vinaya. I am 37 years old. I come from a far place. I search for enlightenment. I have been traveling looking for an enlightened spiritual teacher.”
The hermit said, “You have told me your name, your age, your birth place, what you do, and your purpose ..., ““Who are you?”
The young man went back home.
A long time ago a sage visited a village. There the sage wisely asked several villagers to come with him. When they were already quite far from the village, he asked each follower to find rod-shaped pieces of wood. When all of them had each brought what was asked, he retrieved and placed the woods on the ground. Then, he started chanting some prayers.
Not long after he finished praying, the tip of all the rod-shaped pieces of wood were miraculously covered by fire. The sage enlightened them with the power of fire, handed each of the amazed followers the burning torches and left.
The followers went back to the village with torches in their hands. There they shared the power of fire to the still mesmerized villagers. Some time after, as they were no longer afraid of the dark, the followers went on separate ways to other villages to further share the power of fire.
As the days passed, the villagers discovered more of the power of fire that they built shrines for them.
The shrines are still around, but rarely do they remember the sage who created it.
One day.his prized stallion escaped and ran away. Many neighbors came, after hearing the news. “What a misfortune, what a great loss,” the neighbors said. “Do you think so ?” the wise man replied.
After several days, the stallion returned, accompanied by several wild horses. As horse was highly valued back then, the neighbors said, “What a luck, ...what a blessing,”. “Do you think so ?” replied the wise man.
The next morning, the wise man's only son tried to tame the wild horses. He was skillful but unfortunatelly he got thrown off when he tried to tame the last wild horse..He broke his legs and would not be able to use it for quite some time. The neighbors came to express their sympathy to which the wise man said “Do you think so ?”
Few days after, a huge rebelious group started riots in several areas. A strict law was passed nation wide, requiring young men to serve the army. Not long after, officials arrived at that village to bring the young men from that village away. The officials neglected the wise man's only son as they saw that he was crippled.
The neighbors stated how well things had turned out for the wise man .The wise man said “Do you think so ?”