The Monk And The Merchant: The Weight Of Memories

The tale of the monk and the merchant tells us of a humble village where harmony reigned, even if it cannot be said that there was abundance. The inhabitants were kind and lived with a strong sense of community. Nearby, there was a monastery inhabited by monks, very attentive to the needs of the village.

Wheat was sown in the monastery and the harvest had been good that year. The abbot had asked one of his monks to put aside some sacks of grain and take them to the village with a cart. The monks would have shared that food, because only by sharing – thought the abbot – can one enjoy the abundance with joy.

The monk, solicitous, took care of the assignment with the utmost care and collected many piles of wheat with his own hands. He put them back, one by one, on the cart. When he finished loading, having accumulated an enormous quantity of sacks, he thought of the joy of the village in seeing him arrive.

The monk and the merchant

The following day the monk got up early to bring the grain to the village. He noticed that the wagon was very heavy, but he paid no attention to it. What mattered was to bring the greatest amount of sacks to the people of the village. He secured the load well and tied the three strongest horses in the monastery to the cart.

Thus he took the road to the village which was five kilometers away. It was a radiant morning and the monk was traveling with his heart full of joy thinking of the good load he carried. He was moved by the mere thought of the gaze of all those needy people. Certainly it was a long time since food had ceased to be enough for everyone . He was absorbed in these thoughts when something startled the three horses. Without knowing how, the monk lost control of the vehicle and was unable to take it back. Soon the wagon broke off and began rolling down the hill.

A merchant was passing by, also on his way to the village. Fate would unite the monk and the merchant forever.

The weight of a misfortune

Everything happened very quickly. The monk did not know how, but the cart overwhelmed the merchant. When he saw him lying on the ground, in a pool of blood, he ran desperately to help him, but it was useless. The merchant was already dead. From that moment it was as if the monk and the merchant had, by magic, become one person.

It wasn’t long before some villagers came to the rescue. He handed them the grain and returned to the monastery, with a shattered soul. From that day on he began to see the merchant everywhere. If he slept, he dreamed of it. When he was awake, he kept thinking about him. The image of the dead haunted him.

He then asked the teacher for advice, who replied that he could not continue to live in this way. He had to make a decision to forget. The monk said it was impossible for him. He felt guilty of that death because if he hadn’t loaded the wagon so hard, perhaps he could have kept control of it.

The monk and the merchant: a teaching

The monk’s life continued in this way for a few months. He never stopped feeling terrible remorse and the more he thought about it, the more guilty he felt. It was the teacher who finally made a decision. He sent for the man and told him again that he couldn’t go on living like that.

He then gave him permission to take his own life. The monk was surprised at first, but realized that in fact he was left with no other choice. The problem, however, was that he did not have the courage to commit suicide. The master reassured him: he would take care of it himself, cutting off his head with his sword. The monk, resigned, accepted.

The abbot sharpened his sword well, then asked the monk to kneel and rest his head on a large stone. The man obeyed. The master raised his arm and the monk began to shiver and sweat cold with terror. The master forcefully lowered the blade towards the man’s neck, but stopped a few millimeters from his head.

The monk was paralyzed. The abbot asked him: ” Have you been thinking about the merchant in these last few minutes?” “ No,” replied the monk. “I thought about the sword that would sink into my neck.” The master then said to him: “Do you see that your mind is capable of letting go of a bad memory? If you have succeeded once, you can do it again ”.