This morning after breakfast, Head Monk requested the monks to assemble in the examination room that was behind the main meditation hall. The examination room had rows of benches that seated two monks per bench.
Once the monks were seated on the benches, Head Monk distributed a single page to all of them.
On the page was the picture of a man, standing on top of a hill, with his hands on his hips. Just below him was a field that had men and women on it. These people were seen bending down, planting seeds in the field. The man was shown with a speech bubble, as if speaking loudly to the people below him.
The interesting part was that while all the monks had received the identical picture, the monks seated on the right side of the benches had a question that read, ‘Write down a positive description of the picture you see’; whereas the monks seated on the left side of the benches had a question that read, ‘Write down a negative description of the picture you see.’
Head Monk announced that the monks had ten minutes to answer the question. After that, the monks would exchange their sheet with their bench neighbour to review and comment on each other’s answers.
Once the question was answered and the monks had exchanged their sheets, they were surprised to read a completely divergent response to the question by their neighbour, as compared to their own response!
Honest Monk seated on right side had written, ‘The man was a generous farmer, explaining to the villagers how to plough their fields, using his own field as a test bed.’ Seated to the left of Honest Monk on the same bench was Humble Monk, who had written, ‘The man was evil. He exploited men and women. Standing on the hill, he was insulting innocent people, by urging them to work harder than they could.’
On another bench, Angry Monk who was seated on the right side had written, ‘The man allowed free farming on his own farms. The villagers were free to farm his land and take what they wanted. He was a saint.’ Business Monk seated on the left had written, ‘The man was a manager of a communist regime. All the farms and its produce were owned by the state. This man was barking orders to poor, repressed people, reminding them of their doom.’
Once all the monks had settled down and truly understood the value of this exercise, Sensei clapped twice and said, “We can see any situation in a positive or negative context and then find words and emotions to explain it. If you want to remain positive you can. Just see what you see, with positivity. Then, the right thoughts and words will come to you, to justify what you feel.”
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