Dhamma Talks - Rubber And Pencil :: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

Once upon a time there were two good friends. One was a pencil and one was a rubber. They went everywhere with each other and always worked hard together. The pencil had a duty to write and so it wrote down everything it could, all the time. The rubber had a duty to erase and so whatever the pencil wrote it always erased.

Time passed by and everything went on in this way until one day the pencil said to his friend, “I cannot stay with you anymore.” His friend asked why. The pencil then said, “Whenever I write anything, you just erase it right away.” The rubber said, “Friend, this is my job, it is not my fault.” From there they went their separate ways.

The time passed by and the pencil began miswriting. The beautiful writing became untidy and this made him think of his old friend, the rubber. As for the rubber, he was delighted that he didn’t have any more work to be getting on with. However soon he came to feel that as there was nothing to erase, his life had become meaningless, and so he thought of his old friend, the pencil.

Then one day they ran into each other again quite by chance. They decided there and then that they were no use without the other and so started to work together again. The pencil only wrote sparingly and wrote only that which was good. In the same way the rubber only erased those mistakes that his friend had made. In the same way is a pencil compared to memory (perception). At first it remembers everything, good or bad, but later it is trained to remember only that which is good.

A rubber is compared to letting go (forgetting). At first, it forgets everything, good or bad; when it lets go of everything, it loses everything, nothing is left, not even the good. But later it is trained to let go of only that which is bad.

As a pair wherever they went they were a success. The pencil remembered the good and the rubber erased the bad. If we can train ourselves in such a way, we can experience the benefits too.

The moral of the story:
-learn to live a good life
-learn to forget the bad thing
-learn to remember the good thing
-learn to forgive each other
-learn to share good experience
-learn to be satisfied with whatever dwelling

Corrected by Anagarika Abhipanno