Tongston A Shoe Mender

There was a shoe mender called Tongston. He had a wife and a small child. One day suddenly his wife died. He felt very sad. But he started loving his child and bringing him up. When the boy was seven years old, he too died of snakebite.

Tongston lost all his interest in life. He used to sit in his house and watch through the window. He could only see the feet of the people walking. He could recognize all the shoes he had mended.

One day, a monk came and asked him to stitch his boots. Tongston replied that he had given up his job. The monk heard his whole story and said, “You want to live for your own happiness.” Tongston asked him ” What else should I live for?”

The monk said, ” You should live for Nirvana.” “How should I live for Nirvana?” Tongston asked.

The monk said, “Give up craving for desire, personal gratification and selfish living. By this you will get Nirvana”

Tongston got interested. He asked for more teaching. The monk went on teaching.

Tongston was also mending shoes for the king. The king saw his new life and asked him about this transformation in him.

Tongston narrated everything. The king asked him to bring the monk. The monk came and the king was very much impressed.

One day the king asked the monk, “What is happiness and how can it be obtained?”

The monk replied,”There is no absolute happiness. All happiness is temporary followed by suffering. Indeed dukha is inherent in our lives. It is due to our craving for individual satisfaction that we fall into dukha.”

The king asked how to get over it? The monk replied, “by noble 8 fold path. They are right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right recollection and right meditation.”

The king asked, “What is suffering?” The monk replied, “Birth, ageing, disease, death and every desire unfulfilled”

“How to avoid suffering?” the king asked. “It is by stopping the thirst,” replied the monk. “Can I also see Buddha?” the king asked.

“Why not? Sit along, with expectation – he will surely come.”

The next day the king sat in the room all alone looking at the window. Till noon, no one came. It was winter cold. An old man came with a spade to clear the snow. He had not enough cloth. He started talking to him for a while and gave him a cup of tea.

Then came an old lady with a child. The king gave her food and some milk to the child.

In the night he had a dream in which he saw Buddha. Buddha told him, I live in the form of these sufferings. Serving them is serving Me.