The Soldier Who Grew Up

The military camp lay in the middle of a sun-scorched open field. An eighteen-year-old recruit stood among the ranks, his skin still tender and pale, his eyes full of anxiety. Today was the first day of the humiliation training. A senior soldier, five years ahead of him in service, approached. He wore only a simple soldier's uniform, yet the authority in his eyes was as vast as the ocean. He walked back and forth in front of the recruit, stopped, and shouted: "Don't you know how to stand at attention?" The young recruit hastily stiffened his body. His heart pounded wildly.

"Crawl around the parade ground for me!" The recruit stood frozen like a post. The senior soldier could not believe what he had just seen: "By orders, you're supposed to crawl?" The senior's eyes were cold as ice: "You won't crawl? Do you know that everyone is watching you right now?" He looked around; the other recruits had already bent their knees. He swallowed his tears and quietly knelt down.

The gravel cut into his hands, stinging with pain, and the sun scorched his back. Each lap of crawling was like a trial. The seniors were sent everywhere to complete a crawling mission. On the second lap, then the third, he could no longer remember which lap he was crawling. Sweat dripped down into the sand. He even felt his pride melting away like a small snowball. When he finished crawling and stood up, the senior soldier handed him a bottle of water. He took it but did not dare to drink first, afraid of making a mistake. Seeing this, the senior shouted: "Drink it! Don't act weak!"

Next, he was ordered to clean the toilets. The cesspit reeked heavily. He stood before the pit, holding a ladle to scoop out the waste. His heart ached, but he remembered the commander's words: "Anyone who stands and argues will be punished severely. Argue once, and you go to prison. Argue twice, and you will be shot." He held his breath, plunged in, and endured the filth. The senior coldly shouted: "Carry it out and dump it!" He carried the bucket of waste, his heart feeling as if it would break. Every day he did the work that people despised. He no longer thought of himself; he had learned to accept his existence as an obedient unit.

When the month of humiliation training ended, the young recruit stood at attention as he had at the beginning, gazing into the distance. He felt lighter in his heart. Pride was no longer a large thorn in his soul. He had come to understand that obeying orders is not weakness, but strength. From then on, he became a true soldier, ready to do anything, from standing guard to fighting the enemy. The army became strong precisely because of people who had completely destroyed their pride and contempt for others.

The Meaning of the Story

Humiliation training is a deliberate act to kill off the mind of pride. The soldier must abandon his ego in order to obey orders absolutely. In an army, if pride is taken as one's belief, the army will fall apart. Only through such harsh discipline can an army forge resilient and victorious warriors.

Adapted from a dharma talk by Venerable Thích Chân Quang