The Kite and the Bowl of Rice

That evening, golden sunlight fell gently through the canopy of the forest. A boy of about twelve or thirteen sat huddled on a bamboo platform roofed with leaves, his eyes fixed on the distant mountains tinged with purple. The wind slipped through the leaves, carrying the scent of damp earth and the clear song of forest birds. The boy sighed, brushing the strands of hair from his forehead, his heart full of distant dreams.

The boy's name was Minh, the child of a poor farming family at the edge of the forest. Since childhood, Minh had loved the magical tales his grandmother told by the firelight: sages soaring through the clouds, immortals appearing to bestow miraculous powers. Each time he heard these stories, he would gaze up at the deep blue sky, longing for the day he would have wings to fly freely wherever he wished, escaping this ordinary life of mere rice and clothing. But then, his stomach would growl with hunger, and he would have to climb down from the platform, open the cupboard, and eat rice with salt. This scene repeated itself again and again, like a circle turning endlessly between dreams and reality.

One afternoon, Minh sat on the platform, arms wrapped around his knees, gazing into the distance. He whispered to himself, "If only I could fly up into the sky, to faraway lands, and never have to worry about food or clothes again. But then... what would I fly with? I don't have wings. Or maybe I should become a sage and go deep into the forest to practice?" He looked down at his bare feet covered in mud, then up at the sky again. Suddenly, his mother called from below the tree, "Minh! Come down and eat! You must be hungry!" Startled, his stomach rumbling, he answered, "Yes, Mother, I'm coming down right now!" He scrambled down and ran into the kitchen, where his mother was scooping rice into bowls. She looked at him and smiled gently, "Why do you always sit up there on the platform? Is something the matter?" Minh lowered his head and said as he served himself, "I just wish I could fly up into the sky, Mother. It's so boring here—nothing but rice and salt, nothing fun at all." His mother sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder, "My child, dreaming of flying high is a good thing, but you must eat your rice first. Without rice, you won't have the strength to fly."

Minh sat quietly, eating and thinking. He realized that no matter how lofty his dreams, he still had to live with practical things: eating, drinking, sleeping, resting. But he did not want to give up his dream. He asked his mother, "Mother, is there a way to fly high and still not worry about food and clothing?" His mother smiled and replied, "Look at the kites in the sky over there. They fly high because of the string that connects them to the ground. Without that string, they would fall. It is the same with you, my child. If you want to fly high, you must hold firmly to the ground, to practical things like eating well, studying, and working. Then, little by little, you will find your way to fly."

As Minh listened to his mother, something lit up within him. He understood that lofty dreams are not something apart from reality—they begin from footsteps on the ground. He made a decision: each day, he would work diligently, study, and spend time sitting in meditative concentration, focusing on his breath as a way to connect mind and body. He began by sitting in silence, attending to each incoming and outgoing breath, feeling the life flowing through his body. Gradually, he no longer felt the conflict between dreams and reality. He still dreamed of distant horizons, but he also learned to treasure every bowl of rice, every night's sleep, every step upon the earth.

Many years later, Minh became a practitioner of the path—not by rejecting life, but by living it fully. He never forgot his mother's lesson: the kite flies high because of the string that ties it to the earth. And he understood that the Buddha's teachings (Dharma) are the same: they offer humanity a lofty goal, yet they begin with the most practical of things—with the breath, with love, with forgiveness. He often told this story to his disciples, so they would never forget that the path to the light always begins right where they are standing.

The Meaning of the Story

The Buddha's teachings (Dharma) show us that lofty goals such as nirvana, or the heavenly realms, are not distant things. They are built from practical daily actions: knowing how to love, knowing how to forgive, knowing how to live with mindfulness in every breath. Do not reject real life to chase after illusions, and do not cling only to the practical while forgetting your beautiful ideals. Connect the two, like the kite and its string, so that you may fly high and yet remain steady.

Adapted from a dharma talk by Venerable Thích Chân Quang