Lord Buddha and the Handkerchief

Once, Lord Buddha came into the assembly of the monks.

The disciples were sitting and waiting for him. They were puzzled to see that Buddha had come with something in his hand – a handkerchief. They all looked at the handkerchief and wondered: there must be something special in it.

Buddha sat on the platform and instead of starting speaking to the assembly he looked at the handkerchief, and started tying a few knots in it, five knots in all.

The whole assembly watched and wondered – what is going on? And then he asked the assembly, “Can anybody tell me: is this handkerchief the same as it was before the knots were tied?”

Sariputta said,” This is a tricky question. In a way the handkerchief is the same because nothing has changed, but in another way, it is not the same because now these five knots have appeared which were not there before. As far as the inner nature of the handkerchief is concerned; its nature is concerned – it is the same - but as far as its form is concerned it is not the same any more. The form has changed but the substance is the same.”

Buddha said,” Right. Now I want to open these knots.”

And he started stretching both ends of the handkerchief farther away from each other. He asked Sariputta.” What do you think? By stretching farther will I be able to open these knots?”

He said, “No my Lord. In fact, you will be making these knots even more difficult to open because they will become tighter.’

Buddha said, “you are right.

Now tell me: what should I do to open these knots? How I can untie them again?”

Sariputta said, “Master, first I would like to see how these knots were tied in the first place. Unless I know how they have been tied, it is difficult for me to find any solution.”

Buddha said, “Right, Sariputta. You are blessed, because that is the most fundamental question to ask. If you are in a certain fix, the first thing is to find out how you got into it - before trying to get out of it. Without asking the most fundamental and the primary question, you will make things worse.”

And that’s what most of us are doing.

We ask, “How can we get rid of the five vices; Kaam, Krodh, Lobh, Moha and Ahankaar- that is lust, anger, greed, attachment or possessiveness and ego” - without asking, “How in the first place we get into them?”