Stories from Buddhism: "Stupid" Mokelu

Guo Zheng

PureInsight | July 9, 2006

[PureInsight.org] In Moroco, in
India, around 500 monks lived in a temple which was located six to
seven miles away from the city. They were all strictly trained Picchu.
Among them, there was one elder monk called Mokelu who was famous for
his "stupidity." No matter how hard people tried to teach him anything,
he still did not get it. He could not even recite one single Zen
proverb.  Therefore, all the 500 Picchu looked down on him. Nobody
liked to be with him. So he was a lonely person.  



One day, the king sent envoys to invite all the monks to his palace.
Mokelu was ashamed of his stupidity. He was afraid of joining the
gathering. After everyone left, he was very sad. He found a rope, stood
under a big tree and wanted to end his life. At that moment, the solemn
Buddha appeared in front of him and scolded him seriously, "Mokelu,
instead of cultivating yourself diligently and finding out your
shortcomings, you are doing such a stupid thing."  Buddha stopped
for a few seconds and continued, "You were a cultivator with broad and
profound knowledge in your past life.  But you did not want to
teach others. You were very arrogant and scolded others. That is why
you are stupid in you current life as punishment. You can not blame
others for this. You have to deeply repent all your wrong doings.
Ending your life can not end your crime. "



Buddha's words woke Mokelu up. Mokelu felt very ashamed. He knelt down
in front of Buddha and repented all his wrongdoings. The benevolent
Buddha did not count his past wrongdoings against him and still
considered him to be a good person as long as he learned from his
mistakes.



Then Buddha patiently taught Mokelu the Fa and inspired his wisdom.
Since the time was also right, Mokelu was enlightened and achieved the
True Fruition. His wisdom was opened up suddenly. He was able to
understand Buddha's delicate Fa and could see everything. At that time,
Buddha knew that Mokelu was enlightened. He urged Mokelu to join the
king's gathering and teach Fa to the people there. When he was about to
leave, Buddha told him:" You had 500 disciples when you were the elder
of the Buddhist monastery. Those 500 disciples are the 500 Picchu who
are in the King's palace. Now you go there as soon as possible because
they are waiting for your guidance."



After bidding farewell to the Buddha, Mokelu came to the palace. The
party was about to begin. Mokelu saw a highest empty seat. He sat there
without any hesitation. Everyone thought that Mokelu must be insane
when they saw Mokelu's behavior. Nobody said anything in that
situation, especially in front of the king. After everyone finished
their meal, without any fear, Mokelu stood up and started to teach the
Fa to the 500 Picchu and the other people at the gathering with his
touching voice and solemn appearance. Everyone admired him.



The 500 Picchu were also ashamed. They had thought that Mokelu was stupid. But he was actually an enlightened being.



Translated from:

http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2006/6/25/38262.html

Add new comment