A Matter of Taste

Photo by Steven Martin
The master didn’t attend any church — not because of any adverse feelings — but just because he didn’t feel the need or desire to go. He would sometimes visit to see old friends but that was it. The ceremony was unimportant to him.

The master had a new disciple who was a regular churchgoer. He began to skip church when he saw that the master didn’t bother to attend. Pretty soon he began to feel pretty bad and guilty about it.

When the master learned about this, he said to the disciple, “Of what use is it to copy my actions without my motivation? If you simply stop going to church in imitation of me, that doesn’t do you any good. The monkey who strums a guitar doesn’t become a musician.”

8 Replies to “A Matter of Taste”

  1. You always have great lessons, and inspirational thoughts. I think that this is like do what I say and not what I do?

  2. It’s more like, “don’t blindly follow whatever I do.”

    It’s not “do what I say” because the master didn’t tell him to do anything.

  3. Hi! I drop by your blog once in a while to read the stories and I just wanted to say this is my favorite so far. It’s short yet very powerful and speaks to both secular and religious people at the same time.

  4. Hi… I’m a new visitor ^^ I love your topic here. Very nice ^^ That monkey is cute πŸ™‚ I remember one preacher once said in our church “Monkey see, monkey do” Happy blogging!

  5. Hello.
    Great blog. Inspiring, a good alternative to non sense blog like mine :). And sincere one at that. the best part is, you’re from Davao. keep it up.

  6. I like this little lesson. It reminds me of what I call people who buy too many fancy gadgets just for what other people will think of them. A monkey with a machine gun. They have no use for some of these things, and they don’t even understand them. This doesn’t apply to most people, just a few I have met.

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