A Man Is Driving Down The Road

A man is 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 sed***d 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.”