Leave her at the river bank
‘Leave her at the river bank
Don’t carry her around’
The Buddhist taught the young disciple
As they walked from town to town.
‘We’ve done our sacred duty
By helping her across
It doesn’t help her or us
To keep her on our backs.
She is a pretty maiden
But that’s all history now
There are other, better things
To focus on somehow.
The vow of celibacy we took
Doesn’t mean we close our eyes
But train our minds to focus
On our sacred goals.
All we see is truly good
Although our minds can mess it up
Let’s not obsess but move along
Why dredge the depths when we can reach the sky?’
This poem refers to a story about a Buddhist master and his disciple who come to a river to discover a pretty young woman who needs help to cross. The older man carries the woman on his shoulder and continues his journey. The younger man is scandalized and keeps referring to her hours later. The master turns to his disciple and says ‘I carried her across the stream and left her on the bank, but you have continued to carry her for the past few hours.’
