There was
a carpenter — and a good carpenter he was, indeed — who liked to put everything
off until a later time. As soon as someone asked him to make something, he
would answer with, “Okay, I’ll do it tomorrow!” When he was young, his fellow
villagers used to urge him to get married but he would always reply, “Of
course, I will do so… tomorrow!”
He always
had a lot to do so he kept repeating, “Of course, I’ll do that tomorrow!
Tomorrow!” Sometimes he did what he had promised to do, sometimes not, but he
wasn’t upset anyway. One morning, someone placed an order with him. Our
carpenter replied with his usual, “OK, I’ll do that tomorrow!” But the client
exclaimed, “What do you mean? You’re old now, aren’t you? What if you die and
don’t fulfill my order?” The carpenter was startled, “Hm, that’s right. How old
am I?” He paused to count his age and… gasped in bewilderment, “Oh! I’m sixty!
Where has my whole life gone?”
An
elderly monk said, “There is no tomorrow in the spiritual life. You’ve got to
rescue your soul NOW!”
Prepared
by the Catalog of Good Deeds
CONVERSATION