The Mani Man

"There was once an old man in far eastern Kham known as the Mani Man because day and night he could always be found devotedly spinning his small homemade prayer wheel. The wheel was filled with the mantra of Great Compassion, Om Mani Padme Hung. 
The Mani Man lived with his son and their one fine horse. The son was the joy of the man’s life; the boy’s pride and joy was the horse.

The man’s wife, after a long life of virtue and service, had long since departed for more fortunate rebirths.
Father and son lived, free from excessive wants or needs, in one of several rough stone houses near a river on the edge of the flat plains.

One day their steed disappeared. The neighbors bewailed the loss of the old man’s sole material asset, but the stoic old man just kept turning his prayer wheel, reciting “Om Mani Padme Hung,” Tibet’s national mantra. 
To whoever inquired or expressed condolences, he simply said, “Give thanks for everything. Who can say what is good or bad? We’ll see.”

 After several days the splendid creature returned, followed by a pair of wild mustangs. These the old man and his son swiftly trained. 
Then everyone sang songs of celebration and congratulated the old man on his unexpected good fortune. 
The man simply smiled over his prayer wheel and said, “I am grateful…but who knows? We shall see.”

Then, while racing one of the mustangs, the boy fell and shattered his leg. 
Some neighbors carried him home, cursing the wild horse and bemoaning the boy’s fate. 
But the old man, sitting at his beloved son’s bedside just kept turning his prayer wheel around and around while softly muttering gentle Lord Chenrezig’s mantra of Great Compassion. 
He neither complained nor answered their protestations to fate, but simply nodded his head affably, reiterating what he had said before. “The Buddha is beneficent; I am grateful for my son’s life. We shall see.”

The next week military officers appeared, seeking young conscripts for an ongoing border war. 
All the local boys were immediately taken away, except for the bedridden son of the Mani Man. 
Then the neighbors congratulated the old man on his great good fortune, attributing such luck to the good karma accumulated by the old man’s incessantly spinning prayer wheel and the constant mantras on his cracked lips. 
He smiled and said nothing."



The above story came just in time for me. I was worried about something but as what the old man had said, “Give thanks for everything. Who can say what is good or bad? We’ll see.”