the prince and the dog

There was a young samurai prince, quick to anger, quick to act. One day his father, the feudal lord was to visit the emperor and left the prince in charge. While the father was away the prince was visited by a messenger bearing bad news that the prince did not want to hear. In his anger the prince beheaded the messenger. Upon his return and learning of this the father took a deep breath and spoke to his son, the prince. "Why did you do such a thing my son?" The prince replied " he would not listen to me when I told him to be silent, father". A tear in his eye the father banishes his son " do not return, my son, until you discover what it is that you lack". Angry the prince storms off into the night. Years pass, the prince is still wandering and has the company of a dog. "Father I still don't understand" he says as he settles to sleep. Then the dog begins barking, "quiet" the prince yells. For a moment the dog ceases to bark then resumes, "I said to keep quiet" the prince shouts louder. The dog pauses a moment then resumes, furious the prince draws his sword and in a flash the dog is silent. " foolish beast if only you had listened to me", as the prince moves to leave he feels a sharp pain in his leg. He looks down to see that he had been bitten by a venomous serpent, as he lay there dying the understanding comes to him, "I see it now, father, what I was lacking."

There is a lesson in every encounter and we shouldn't be too quick to dismiss what another is trying to tell us. I regularly experience this in my work. When one of the people I support attacks me I ask and investigate what is wrong as they may be unable to effectively communicate this in any other way at this moment. We all communcate differently and with differing levels of skill and it is an important lesson to learn if we want to act with compassion and understanding. Sometimes however choice is taken away from us and in order to protect another or ourselves we have no choice but to act quickly.

In this story though, the prince's lack of restraint caused his banishment and his death, had he held back then the messenger would be alive and his father would not have banished him....had he held back and examined things he would have discovered that the dog was trying to warn him (just like the messenger)...instead he let his anger control his actions and eventually paid for it with his life...

Throughout life there are times when quick decisive action is needed, there are also times when the ability to restrain oneself is needed...inaction can lead to death just as easily as swift action...