Recently heard this great parable as told by Alan Watts:
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It’s like the story of the two Zen monks who were crossing the river, and the ford was very deep because of the flood.
And there was a girl trying to get across, and one of the monks immediately picked her up, and carried her across.
Put her down on the other side, and then the monks went one way and she went another.
And the other monk, who had been in a kind of embarrassed silence and which he finally broke, he said, “You realize that you broke a monastic rule by touching and picking up a woman like that?”
And he replied, “Oh, but I left her on the other side of the river, and you’re still carrying her!”
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Transcript: https://alanwatts.org/transcripts/the-veil-of-thoughts
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYXn8CClPmc