The Dragon and the Bodhisattva

[Guest guest]

Both Nora's Oak Tree tale, and Kochu's exhortation that we accept

praise and derision with equanimity, regardless of the consequences,

brought to mind a fable once related by the Burmese human rights

advocate and Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi:

 

THE DRAGON AND THE BODHISATTVA

 

Once there lived a dragon at the foot of the Himalayas, a fierce

dragon king that breathed fire and smoke and reduced creatures to

ashes with his incendiary glare. He was not unnaturally the terror of

all who dwelled in the region.

 

One day, while the dragon was in one of his less amicable moods, a

bodhisattva came by. The dragon king proceeded to give a fine display

of his propensity for violence, no doubt imagining that he would

succeed in terrifying the holy one (not that the dragon understood

anything of holiness) before reducing him to ashes.

 

To his surprise the bodhisattva showed no fear or apprehension, but

instead gave him a brief sermon on the joys of non-violence and

compassion. The dragon king was instantly converted to the path of

non-violence and decided that he would never again harm any being

under any circumstances.

 

Now, in an ideal world, that should be the happy end of the story. But

ours is not an ideal world. It is a world conditioned by impermanence,

suffering and the unresponsiveness of objects to one's wishes.

 

When it dawned on the children who lived within the vicinity of the

dragon's lair that the fire-breathing monster had ceased to bristle

with pyrotechnic ferocity, they began to approach it cautiously. Their

confidence grew until they felt bold enough to touch the dragon king.

On finding how docile and patient the dragon had become, the children

handled it more roughly. Eventually the children got into the habit of

ill-treating the dragon, making life miserable for him.

 

When the bodhisattva came by again, the dragon king complained of how

unhappy he had been since following the path of nonviolence. The

bodhisattva replied that this had come about because the dragon had

not balanced compassion with wisdom: When the children became unruly,

he should have shown his fire to stop them from proceeding to cruel

acts. The dragon king's failure to balance compassion with wisdom had

been harmful both to himself and to the children, who had been turned

into little bullies by his excessive forbearance.

 

....

 

Having completed the fable, Aung San Suu Kyi commented:

 

"If there is true loving kindness that regards all beings with equal

benevolence, and there is compassion balanced by wisdom, justice wi11

surely not be lacking. And it will be the best kind of justice, that

which is tempered by gentle mercy. ... Paradise on earth is a concept

which is outmoded and few people believe in it any more. But we can

certainly seek to make our planet a better, happier home for all of us

by constructing the heavenly abodes of love and compassion in our

hearts. Beginning with this inner development we can go on to the

development of the external world with courage and wisdom."

 

Source: Aung San Suu Kyi, Bangkok Post, 4 January 1998