A Monk's Journey: A Short Story Of Finding Buddha

This short story was about a monk who wanted to find Buddha, so he set off to find him. While he was on the boat, he saw his dead body floating and, according to the reading, he began the process of liberation. I believe this short story is about finding oneself and feeling relieved that they’ve reached that goal. In this case, this monk believes that Buddha is a person, and he sets this goal to find him. The journey was about realization and finding out that Buddha isn’t exactly a specific person—he can be the Buddha. A Buddha is someone who is free of everything that’s negative. The corpse represents his reality, his present state, and by facing that reality, it helped him set free.

The reading was really short, which was unexpected. The short story was really interesting; it provided deep concentration in order to grasp the meaning of it. Once I got the meaning, I found it really interesting the way this short story portrayed what Buddha is in such a few words. I was having difficulty in figuring out the meaning of the dead corpse, and the reason why the story mentioned “…the beginning of his liberation.” But with the use of context, I summarized that the corpse was the reflection of the monk.

When reading the story, a few things came to mind regarding Buddhism.

I’m not familiar with the religion and the beliefs that they hold. For example, why do they wear those robes? What are their practices? I wonder what they pray for, and why they always sit cross-legged. Do they have a god that they pray

to?

The story did inspire me to look more closely in myself, and to work on the things that are bringing negativity into my life. The bad things in life are what bring a person down; it’s like an invisible string that keeps pulling us back from reaching our intended goal. I believe this reading is trying to tell us that we can’t move on until we face our reality, if we don’t, then we can never move on.

I could definitely relate to the monk. When I was in my second year in college, my major was computer science. I’ve always thought I would become a computer scientist, but once I started taking the required courses, I was in a situation where I dreaded going to class—I didn’t enjoy it as much I thought I would. I remember taking a psychology class during my freshman year and found out that I really enjoyed learning about the subject. Once I switched majors, I felt relief because I was finally at peace of what I really wanted to major in. Everything felt right, again.

Overall, the reading helped me realize the meaning behind the word Buddha, and how happiness and freedom are two important elements in their beliefs. Like I’ve mentioned before, the reading was about confronting reality, and by doing so, we could move on. If we’re not happy with ourselves, then we need to face that problem to continue with a path that makes us happy.