Forgiveness & the simile of the two chicken farmers by Ajahn Brahmavamso

I stumbled across this story a few years ago, but after being reminded of it yesterday, I just new the community would appreciate it. The original story contains some "fowl" language (get it?!) so if you want to see that I will post the link in the spoiler below.



Forgiveness & the simile of the two chicken farmers

Once there were two chicken farmers and the first chicken farmer got up early in the morning to collect the produce of the night before. So he got his basket, went into the chicken shed, and filled the basket full of chicken poop and left the eggs in the shed. They took the poop back into the house, made a big stinky mess, and the family was very upset. That was a very stupid chicken farmer.

Then chicken farmer number two took his basket in the shed to collect the products of the night before and he filled the basket full of eggs! He was a very smart chicken farmer! He left the poop in the shed to rot and turn into useful fertilizer, and took the eggs in his house to make his family a delicious omelet for his family and sell the remaining eggs for some extra cash.

The meaning of this story is serves the purpose of this question. Are you a poop collector or an egg collector?

When you remember your past, what do you put in your basket? "Look what they have done to me, all the rotten things they said and did." All poop!

Forgiveness means letting the poop rot in the past and only collect the eggs. The wonderful things that happened to you in your life and all of the happy moments you've had...those are the things you should collect. Then you are a good chicken farmer.

So I ask you, what kind of chicken farmer are you?

If only telling the eggs from the poop were so easy in real life.

Many lessons come disguised as chicken shit.

Thus we acknowledge the poop, discard it, and continue our pursuit for the eggs that we were searching for in the first place.

I wouldn't suggest to completely ignore the poop, but just not to be so willing to hold onto it. I feel as if people shoot themselves with a second arrow when they say, "I am upset, sad, angry, or guilty because I found this crap, when I was looking for something else. I guess I am no good at this." End the story on a positive.

Find the poop, pick it up, be with it while its there, discard it and continue your search for the eggs in life.