A group of five monks were travelling through a forest. They discussed among themselves and decided that they would meditate on a candle and would keep silent while passing through forest.
The first monk took a candle out of his bag and lit it. Now the group quietly started walking through forest, meditating on the flame of candle. In the middle of forest, there were strong winds and the candle extinguished.
The first monk cried, "Oh no, the candle is extinguished."
The second monk shouted, "We needed to meditate and keep quiet. Why did you speak!"
The third monk became angry and said, "Can't you both keep quiet and lit the candle again. Such a shame on both of you."
The fourth monk said, "Learn from me, I did not speak anything like three of you."
The fifth monk, however, kept quiet and continued walking through forest. After a while, they came out of forest. The first four monks had realized that they were not able to control themselves and said something, breaking the meditation. Hence, after all of them came out of forest, they humbly asked the fifth monk the secret of his silence.
The fifth monk said, "It is not that complex. You need to observe the happenings and need not to react to every situation.
The first monk could have easily lit the candle again, instead of complaining for the problem.
The second monk could have just observed the first monk and instead of judging the first monk, could have guided him to lit the candle or could have lit the candle himself.
The third monk need to observe the emotion of anger building inside and instead of getting angry could have understood the situation of other monks and could still remain quiet.
The fourth monk could not control his ego that he remained silent while other three monks could not. He could have kept quiet and just enjoy meditating on the candle. We have decided to meditate on the candle, it does not matter if the candle was burning or not."
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