The Cat Killer Samurai

A Samurai was fishing alongside a river. He caught a fish and got it ready to cook when a cat, hidden under a bush, jumped and stole his catch. That made the Samurai Mad ! He drew his sword , ran behind the cat and cut him in to halves.

The Samurai was a Buddhist, and he felt great guilt for having killed the cat.

While he walked back home, the wind blowing in the trees was singing to him : “Meeow”

His footsteps on the trail were sounding “Meeow”

The people he crossed on his way seemed to whisper: “Meeow”

Ant it got worse....

His wife and friends would now meow to him all the time !

Everywhere, constantly, he was bombarded with Meows...

He'd dream of Meows at night, and during daytime, each and everyone of his thoughts and acts would become Meow.

He himself became Meow...

It was getting worse and worse. The obsession was following and torturing him without interruption. Until one day, as he could not handle all these Meows, he entered a Temple to seek the advice of an old Zen master. 

He begged : “Please, Please help me. Help me ! Free me from this...”

The Master replied :“You are a Warrior, how could you let yourself go so low ! If you cannot get rid of all these imaginary meows by yourself, the only thing you have left is death. You have no other solution but to commit Seppuku, right here and right now.”

And he added :

“But as I am a monk and feel compassion for you, I'll be your second. As soon as you'll begin slicing your stomach, I'll chop your head off with my sword to put an end to your misery. “

The Samurai agreed, and despite his fear of death, got prepared for the Seppuku ceremony. When everything was in place, he knelt in seiza, grabbed the ritual tanto with both hands and aimed it toward his belly.

Standing behind him, the Master said :

“Now is the time, proceed !”

Slowly, the Samurai laid the tip of the blade on his abdomen.

At this very moment, the Master asked :

“These Meows, do you still hear them ?”

“Oh no, not now, not at all !... ”

“Well, if there's no more meows, then there is no need to die”

We let ourselves be worried by little things and let them ruin our lives. But our problems usually are not as important as we want to believe they are. They are just like the Meows of the story.

When we face Death, what is really important ?