In a quaint village, there lived a couple troubled by their son’s perpetual anger. Seeking a solution, they brought him to a renowned monk who offered an unconventional method to address the issue.
The monk, known for his wisdom, asked the parents to leave their son in his care for a day. Intrigued, the boy agreed to follow the monk’s instructions.
The monk assigned the boy a peculiar task – to mold two hearts out of clay. Despite initial frustration and annoyance, the boy persevered, creating two hearts by day’s end. The monk then instructed him to take one heart to a potter to be heated in a furnace and colored as he wished.
Excitedly, the boy returned with a beautifully colored heart, only to be handed a hammer by the monk. The monk directed him to strike the colored heart, shattering it. Crestfallen, the boy questioned the purpose of his efforts.
Undeterred, the monk handed him the second heart and instructed him to repeat the process. To the boy’s surprise, the second heart, marked by the hammer, remained intact.
Perplexed, the boy declared the exercise a waste of time, but the monk implored him to understand the deeper meaning. He explained, “Just as the clay hearts represent your real heart, the furnace symbolizes the heat of anger. A hardened heart, like the first one, shatters easily under life’s blows. But a softened heart, though marked by hardships, endures.”
The monk continued, “Anger hardens the heart, making it fragile. To withstand life’s challenges, soften your heart with love and forgiveness. Humility, not anger, is the key to resilience.”
The boy, now enlightened, promised to embrace this wisdom. As he left the monk’s abode, he carried not only the lesson of the clay hearts but also a newfound commitment to controlling his anger and improving his behavior.
