Teaching which will take you on the path to wisdom

One day Buddha was giving a spiritual discourse in a monastery. Many people had gathered there to listen to him, at the end of the discourse he concluded and said: “wake up, time is going out of hand. Don’t be late”. After the meeting was finished, he said to his beloved disciple Anand “Let’s go a little away”. Anand walked away with buddha. They had just reached the main gate of the monastery. When they stopped at one side and stood there to let people go out. People were coming out one by one after listening to buddha. Suddenly, a woman came out of the crowd to meet buddha.  She was in a hurry, and she said ,”O Blessed one, I am a dancer”.

Today, my dance was scheduled at a rich merchant's house but I had forgotten about it.

You said, “Time is running out, so I immediately remembered this.” Thank you for reminding me. After saying this she left, After she left A thief came towards

the buddha. He said, “O blessed one, I Will not hide anything from you”. I am a thief and I had forgotten that today I had to go for burglary in a house. But I remembered my plan when you said time is running out of our hands. Thank you so much for reminding me of my task. After that thief left, an old man walking slowly came to the buddha. The old man said O blessed one. Throughout my whole life, I ran after worldly things. I had been a very materialistic person. Today when you said wakeup time is running out of hand. Your words opened my eyes, Now I have realized that the day of death is approaching. Now I feel that I have wasted my whole life. From  today, I want to give up my all worldly attachments and try for Nirvana(Liberation). When everyone left, Buddha said to Anand.”Look, Anand! I gave the same discourse to all but meaning of my discourse was interpreted differently by everyone. That woman who was a dancer understood my words differently and she went for dance in merchants house. That thief came to different understanding and thus went for burglary in a house. This old man understood my words differently and decided to try for nirvana in rest of his life And in fact this old man understood my words in a correct manner. The more one has a bag, the more he receives charity. Similarly, for nirvana (liberation), the bag of the mind has to be worthy of it for this, it is very important for the mind to be pure. Because only a pure mind can understand the true meaning of a sermon.

If we observe we will find that we all are also like that dancer and like that thief We listen to many sermons and discourses. But we never try to go for nirvana (Liberation).  Because our mind is not pure. If we wish to achieve liberation then we need to purify our mind first. Only then we will be able to understand the true meaning of Buddha's teachings.