How to deal with critisism? - The story of a donkey

This story were told by one of the talks given by Ajahn Brahm and I find it very interesting to share with you all who are reading this. How to deal with critisism? The story below is not exactly extracted from Ajahn Brahm's story (i tambah sos abit). However the message is clearly intacted in here.

Long time ago, a donkey was walking quite contentedly through the forest. When absent mindedly, he fell into a well. He didn't injured himself at the bottom. A donkey couldn't climb out from the well, so there he was shouting "eeek ook eeek oook" in hope that people around would hear his cries. He was continuously shouting, until a farmer walking heard it. The farmer quickly ran and looked down into the well. And he saw the donkey. Crying for help.

The farmer remember this donkey was the one who stole and eat his plantation. And even destroyed his farms. At the same time, he thought of covering up the well before because the well was no longer use to him. Ah ha! The farmer thought of covering up the well with earth and kill the donkey at the same time! Ill-willingly, he took his big shovel and started to shove the earth into the well.

The donkey saw the dirts coming above and fell into the well. He started to get panicked and shouted even more louder "EEEKK OOOK EEEEK OOOK". The farmer laugh wickedly and thought the donkey deserved this. The earth keeps piling up in the well and the donkey couldn't do anything about it. He has given up shouting and started to just accept his fate of dying in the well. Not a while later, donkey thought " No No No! I cannot give up! I must live!". He started to shrugged around and jump up and down. He noticed that when he shrugged the dirts off his body and jumped up from the piling earth, he got a centimeter higher! "That's it!"

The farmer kept shoving the dirts into the well so attentively until he heard no cries from the donkey. He thought he must be dead by now, and continue to shove the earth into the well. Not long a while later, the donkey's ears appeared above the well. The farmer didn't notice that, as he was so busy shoving the dirts into the well without even looking at the well. When the earth was piled high enough, the donkey jumped out from the well happily! The farmer was shocked seeing the donkey! The donkey bit the farmer's ass and ran off.

Now, I'm sure you people who read this know the message behind this story. If not, let me enlighten you. Critisism are everywhere around us. People critisize us when we don't talk, people critisize when we talk, people critisize us when we do nothing. No one are free from critisism. Just like the donkey story, the dirts are our critics, the farmer is the critisizer and the donkey is us. If we don't learn to manage the critisism, we'll probably be dead "covered by the dirts". Don't just accept and reject critisism. Learn from it. The only reason why we get upset of critisism because we think that the critics might be true. Ajahn Brahm's teacher Ajahn Chah once told him, if somebody call you a DOG, look yourself at the back whether you have a tail. Look into yourself whether you are the person what the people critisize about you. If you don't have the tail, you're not a dog! If you are a "dog", accept it, shrugged the dirt off and learn from it. And you'll be one step higher to wisdom.

Once, somebody called me a selfish and immature person, the whole day i was thinking and pondering, and sucked myself in to these two words. I couldn't concentrate much in my works and couldn't sleep soundly. Because of just these two damn words. I might be a selfish person, I might be an immature person. I'm not sure whether this is a good attitude towards myself. Somehow or rather, everytime when i'm facing a problem, the solutions always lies in front of me. I picked up Ajahn Brahm's CD and saw How to deal with Critisism. And hell yea, that's what i need now! And I've learnt much from it. Thank you Ajahn Brahm! :)


Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!