There was once a woman water-bearer in China, whose daily task was to carry two pots of water from a pond up the hill to a merchant’s house. She did the laundry there using the water.
When she was young, she made two identical pots and painted one red and the other blue. She was proud of her pots. Every day, she would hang the pots at either end of a pole and walk to the pond with the pole across her neck and shoulders. She would fill both pots with water, carry the pole with the pots up the hill to the merchant’s house, and do the laundry.
Years went by and the woman was getting old, but she continued her daily routine using the same two pots. One day, she noticed that there was a thin crack in the blue pot and some water was leaking out. In fact, between the pond and the house, half the water was getting lost. She still had enough water for the laundry though.
Some more months passed. One day, as the old woman was about to fill the blue pot in the pond, she heard a voice. She was surprised to find the blue pot talking to her. “I am very sad. I am now useless,“ said the blue pot. “Half the water that you fill up at the pond is leaking away. See, the red pot has no crack and it does not waste any water. That pot can be proud of itself. I am ashamed of my crack. It is time for you to throw me away and get a new pot.”
The old woman smiled and told the blue pot, “You need not be sad at all. I will take you along the path and show you something.” As she walked along the path, she asked the blue pot: “What do you see on the right side of the path?” “There are beautiful flower plants,” answered the blue pot. “And what do you see on the left side of the path?” asked the woman. “There is some grass, but no flower plants,” answered the blue pot.
“There is a reason why,” said the woman to the blue pot. “Once I realized that you had a crack and water was leaking, I always placed you on the right side. I also planted some seeds of flower plants on that side. Every day, you were actually watering the plants through your crack. Without your help, I would not be having these beautiful flowers. Thank you and I still need you with the crack to water the plants!”
“All of us have our cracks and faults,” the old woman continued. “We are what we are and even a fault of ours could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Without you being just the way you are, I would not have got all the flowers!” The blue pot was overcome with joy.
Background: This story is often found in collections of Zen stories. You can also find animated versions on YouTube.
The lesson of the story is not to just accept and perpetuate our faults. It is not to be overwhelmed by what we consider to be our faults and see if we can turn them to good use, especially for the good of the world – if that does not work, surely correct the fault.
Wonderful story and beautiful to read it again. Thank youy
Wonderful story! Thank you so much for sharing it!
I agree. We may have faults, no doubt. But it must no be overbearing to the extent of creating difficulties and being burdensome on others. So long as it is hurting no one and we have faults that are god ordained, let us accept it with grace. But if the faults can get corrected, lets believe to get them shaped as it may have more virtues than not. But somethings are beyond our reach and we should let go as a part of the detachment process.
There is an interesting eastern philosophy called Kintsugi. Its’ the Japanese art of repairing pottery that are broken rather than replacing them. Its’ about giving importance of the flaws of the pottery rather than trying to get a new one. ‘Kin’ means Gold and ‘Tsugi’ means repair. There’s an interesting you tube video on how this can be applied to human relationships..
https://youtu.be/EBUTQkaSSTY