A man was driving down the road and his car breaks down
near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the
door, and says, "My car broke down. Do you think I could
stay the night?"
The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, even fix
his car. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange
sound. A sound unlike anything he's ever heard before. The
Sirens that nearly seduced Odysseus into crashing his ship
comes to his mind. He doesn't sleep that night. He tosses
and turns trying to figure out what could possibly be making
such a seductive sound.
The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was,
but they say, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk."
Distraught, the man is forced to leave.
Years later, after never being able to forget that sound, the
man goes back to the monastery and pleads for the answer
again.
The monks reply, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk."
The man says, "If the only way I can find out what is making
that beautiful sound is to become a monk, then please,
make me a monk."
The monks reply, "You must travel the earth and tell us how
many blades of grass there are and the exact number of
grains of sand. When you find these answers, you will have
become a monk."
The man sets about his task.
After years of searching he returns as a gray-haired old man
and knocks on the door of the monastery. A monk answers.
He is taken before a gathering of all the monks.
"In my quest to find what makes that beautiful sound, I
traveled the earth and have found what you asked for: By
design, the world is in a state of perpetual change. Only God
knows what you ask. All a man can know is himself, and only
then if he is honest and reflective and willing to strip away
self deception."
The monks reply, "Congratulations. You have become a
monk. We shall now show you the way to the mystery of the
sacred sound."
The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head
monk says, "The sound is beyond that door."
The monks give him the key, and he opens the door. Behind
the wooden door is another door made of stone. The man was
given the key to the stone door and he opens it, only to find
a door made of ruby. And so it went that he needed keys to
doors of emerald, pearl and diamond.
Finally, they come to a door made of solid gold. The sound
has become very clear and definite. The monks say, "This is
the last key to the last door."
The man is apprehensive to no end. His life's wish is behind
that door!
With trembling hands, he unlocks the door, turns the knob,
and slowly pushes the door open. Falling to his knees, he is
utterly amazed to discover the source of that haunting and
seductive sound......
But, of course, I can't tell you what it is because you're not a
monk.