Looking For A Story

August 14, 2008 2:19 PM

I am losing my mind trying to find a wonderful story about monks that I read ages ago:

The story was written as a kind of parable and was set on a mountain so steep that there was only one way up and down. At the top of the mountain was a temple run by monks and the story talked about how climbing and descending to and from the temple became more and more elaborate and ceremonial until it was intolerable.

At the end of the story a monk tosses a rope over the side and climbs down, and a more 'learned' monk comes over and says something to the effect that they need to bless the rope (thereby indicating the cycle is to repeat)

posted by Vaska to Media & Arts (1 answer total)

There's a very similar, but not identical, story in this book: The Backdoor to Enlightenment by Za Rinpoche. It starts on page xv of the introduction. You should be able to read the whole story with the 'Search Inside' feature.
posted by dixie flatline at 3:06 PM on August 14, 2008