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Once, there was a young man who lived with his father, and they relied on cultivating a small field to maintain their livelihood. Despite living in poverty, they led a peaceful life. The father was loving towards his son, and the latter was filial towards him.
As the years passed by, the father grew older and his physical strength gradually declined. Although their field wasn’t large, it was still very energy-consuming for a single young man to plough the entire piece of land. One day, the father took out a sum of money that he had scrimped and saved over many years and asked his son to use it to buy a cow from the town.
The young man walked for quite a while until he arrived at a riverbank. As he felt quite tired, he sat on a rock to take a rest. Then, he heard the sound of children playing from afar. Caught by curiosity, he followed the direction of the sound and spotted a few children hitting some “stones” with bamboo sticks, but the “stones” appeared to be moving.
After taking a closer look, he noticed that those were five tortoises， one of them was large while the other four were small. The children turned the tortoises over and spun them like tops. They even hit them with bamboo sticks to force them to stick their heads out.
The young man could not bear the sight of the abuse and said to the children, "Why are you guys abusing the tortoises? They are living beings just like you. They do get hurt and will be frightened!"
The children replied, annoyed, "We caught the mother tortoise and baby tortoises after much trouble. However, we want to treat them is up to us; it’s none of your business!"
Then, they deliberately abused the tortoises in even more cruel ways. The young man said to them again, "Children will be very upset when they see their parents being tortured. Likewise, the parents will be pained to see their children in misery! So please just let the mother tortoise and baby tortoises go!"
Unfazed by what the young man had said, the children proceeded to tie the five tortoises up with a rope and started swinging them. The young man asked the children what they intended to do with these tortoises in the end, and they said they wanted to sell them away. He asked how much they wanted to sell the animals, and they casually quoted a high price.
The young man touched the money in his pocket and thought: if he gave them the money, he would not be able to buy a cow anymore. However, eventually, he still decided to give all his money to the children as he could not bear to see the tortoises being tortured by them.
After the children had walked some distance away, the young man knelt down and carefully untied the tortoises. He carefully carried them one by one to the riverside. The creatures looked up at the young man and seemed sad and reluctant to leave him.
The young man said to the tortoises, “Now, off you go! If those bad kids come back again, you guys will get into trouble. Swim away quickly, so that I won’t be worried about you.”
The tortoises seemed to be able to understand what the young man had said and swam into the river. They turned back to look at the man again when they reached the centre of the river.
The reward of saving lives
When the young man returned home, he explained to his father what happened during the trip. After hearing what his son had said, the father responded joyfully: "You did a good job! Saving five lives with that money is more worthwhile than buying a cow! We still have healthy bodies, so we can earn back the money by working hard.”
In the middle of that night, the father heard someone knocking on the door. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see a cow standing at the doorstep! There was a note hanging on the neck of the cow with a message that went: “The tortoises collected bits of gold along the riverside and exchanged them for a cow to repay the kindness of their benefactor.”
Although this story is just a folktale, it vividly depicts two different kinds of attitude towards life: i)Treating other living creatures frivolously and ignoring their fear and pain ii) Loving all creatures and respecting their rights to live even though they may be of a different form (from human).
A compassionate heart that cares for all living beings is such a gentle and kind state of mind and a beautiful sight to behold! I hope that everyone will experience the beauty of nature and life in daily life, and create a peaceful and bright world with expansive, great love.
Extracted from Tzu Chi Taiwan’s newsletter (Issue 380)
Translated by the Tzu Chi Singapore translation team
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