A Wise Man

A wise man can deal with everything in life, even the greatest difficulties. Therefore, in life, we need to learn to have wisdom to guide us. Without wisdom we live in a world of darkness. There is no light to guide our way, so wisdom is the first thing that we need. One Chinese folktale gives a good example of the kind of wisdom we can develop to help solve the problems of daily life. Here is the story:

Once upon a time there was a king called King Jingkong who liked birds very much; and because of this he collected and raised many birds. He had a special liking for one of them. He let a man called Jochu take care of all the birds. One day Jochu was careless; he lost the bird which the king loved so much. When the king found out, he was sentenced to death. An old wise official, named Iangjue, heard the King pronounce the sentence. He said to the King,"Sir, I think before Jochu is killed, he should know what wrong he has done". The King agreed with this and Iangjue asked, "Jochu, do you know what wrong you have done? If not, I will let you know before you die. There are three things: firstly, you lost the King’s beloved bird; secondly, you make our King into a murderer; and thirdly, after you die, the world is going to blame the King,saying, "This king is very bad and cruel. He loves his bird more than his own people," and they will hate him for the rest of his life. You know, because of all this you deserve the death penalty!" When the King heard this, he said immediately, "No, no! Do not kill him! Let him go!" Jochu was spared because of the wisdom of Iangjue. Jochu gave many thanks to Iangjue. Iangjue said to him, "You are welcome. Next time you must be very careful, and mindful and take more responsibility for your job." Jochu said, "Yes sir, I will. And thank you once again for saving my life."

From this story, we can see how wisdom solves the problem. The problem – whether small or large – can be solved by wisdom. So the first thing we must do in our life is to gain education; to learn the wisdom to guide our life. Being clever is not enough to enable us to live a happy life. We have to be wise in order to live a happy life and to be able to solve the problems in our daily life. Always bear in mind that we must become a wise person .

Wisdom is the aim of the theoretical learning and the practice of Buddhism. The Buddha gave the highest importance to education which gives rise to wisdom. He always advised his followers to associate with wise people, saying, "Let a wise man admonish, instruct and shield you from wrong; he, indeed, is dear to the good and detestable to the evil" he added, "Do not associate with evil companions; do not seek the fellowship of the evil. Associate with good friends; seek the fellowship of noble men." What do you think of the Buddha’s advice?