Baideon and the Dish

The dish had just been set down on the table. The light gleamed on its smooth, glossy sauce, and an irresistible aroma drifted through the air. The man's eyes lit up, and a feeling of craving arose in him quite naturally. This was his favorite dish, and his mind immediately circled around one single thought: "I must enjoy it right away."

But then another thought flashed through his mind, slower and deeper this time. He thought of the cook, who had painstakingly prepared each ingredient and arranged everything with such care. A touch of gratitude flickered in his heart. Yet if one were to think even further, could one also consider where those ingredients came from? From the sacrifice of some living being, one that may well have suffered pain. And once he realized this, the dish before him was suddenly no longer a simple experience of taste. It had become a "debt."

This was a story his teacher had once told him. The teacher said that when looking at the same piece of raw beef, a human being and a wolf see it with completely different feelings. The human feels fear, while the wolf dreams of paradise. Between an ordinary person and a noble one, the distance is even greater than that.

He recalled his teacher's teaching: there are three kinds of people when they see a delicious dish. The first kind, the most shallow, knows only whether the dish tastes good and whether it is worth the money spent. The second kind thinks a little more deeply, feeling grateful for the effort of the one who cooked it. The third kind, the most profound, sees behind the dish the blood and tears of sentient beings, and then asks how they must live in order to repay that debt.

He suddenly felt uneasy. For so long, he had taken pride in belonging to the kind of person who thinks more deeply. But looking back now, perhaps he had often stopped at that first feeling of "delicious," forgetting all the deeper layers beyond it.

His teacher had once said, "To trust your own thinking a little less is already a step forward on the path of practice." Today, those words rang out more clearly than ever before. He felt he needed to become humble again, and to recognize that there are noble ones whose vision is far more exalted and far more profound than anything he had ever imagined.

The Meaning of the Story

The same thing, the same situation, yet depending on one's level of wisdom and virtue, each person will have completely different thoughts and perceptions. Ordinary beings are often governed by instinct, selfishness, and fleeting emotions. Those with greater virtue know to think of the efforts of others and to feel grateful. But the noble ones see even deeper. They see cause and effect (karmic law), they see their connection with all living beings, and they ask themselves what their responsibility to this life truly is. The lesson is to hold our own views a little less tightly, to humbly recognize our own limitations, and to strive in our practice so that our vision may grow deeper, broader, and filled with greater compassion.

Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thích Chân Quang