A Single Mouse and a Lifetime of Trouble

In a secluded cave deep in the mountains of India, there lived an old hermit who had practiced for many years. His life was utterly simple: a single robe, an alms bowl, and a small store of wheat kept in a sack to eat little by little. Because the cave was far from any village, each alms round required a very long walk, so whatever food he received, he carried back and saved to use over a week or ten days.

For a while, all was peaceful. Then one day, the mice in the cave discovered the sack of wheat. They gnawed through the sack and carried the grains away, one by one. When the hermit woke to find wheat scattered everywhere, his heart filled with irritation. He thought, "As one who practices, I need little, but if I lose my wheat, I will have nothing to eat. I must find a way to solve this."

After many days of struggling with the problem, he decided: "I need a cat. The cat will catch the mice, and I will have peace." So on his next alms round, he asked for a kitten and brought it home. At first, things seemed fine. The cat caught the mice, and the wheat was protected.

But then a new problem arose. The cat did not eat vegetarian food. It refused his rice with salt and his boiled vegetables, and it grew thin, crying piteously. The hermit had to think again. "The cat needs milk. And to have milk, I must keep a cow." So he asked for a cow and brought her home to live with him.

Now his work multiplied many times over. He had to cut grass for the cow, milk her, and find shelter for her. When the cow fell ill or gave birth, he had to run about tending to her. His time for practice grew shorter and shorter, and he began to feel exhausted. Yet he could not let go of any of it, for if he gave up the cow, the cat would have no milk, and if he gave up the cat, the mice would destroy his wheat again.

One day, a kind lay Buddhist came to visit. Seeing how weary the hermit was, he said, "Venerable sir, you practice while tending the cow, feeding the cat, and doing all this work. Why not let my daughter stay and cook for you and help with these small tasks?" The hermit gladly accepted. The daughter remained, preparing the meals, caring for the cow, and feeding the cat.

But it was not proper for a woman to live alone with a monk in a cave, so he had to build a small hut for her to stay in. Then a few young novices came asking to study the path, and he had to raise more huts and provide their meals as well.

Within just a few months, the quiet cave had become a small settlement, filled with the murmur of voices, the bellowing of the cow, the mewing of cats, and the laughter of young novices at play. The hermit no longer had time to sit in meditation, and no longer had any space for quiet. Looking around, he sighed, "All of this began with a few mice. I wanted to solve one small trouble, and without realizing it, it dragged along a whole mountain of bigger ones."

The Meaning of the Story

This story warns us of the danger of being unable to endure small hardships. When we meet an obstacle, if we rush to solve it by creating many new things, we will be swept into a whirlpool of ever-accumulating needs, losing the simplicity and peace we once had. Sometimes, enduring a little scarcity and a little inconvenience is the best way to protect a life of practice.

Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thích Chân Quang