Teachings and Traditions Remain, Original Meaning Lost

Many years ago a master and his disciples were sitting while the master spoke and shared his wisdom.

While he the master spoke, he and his students kept getting distracted by the master’s beloved pet cat who kept walking through them and meowing, disturbing the teachings.

To deal with this one-time disturbance, the master told his students to take the cat and go tie it to a pole outside.

When the students returned, they were all able to finish the day’s lecture in peace.

The next day the students opted to tie the cat to the pole again, just to make sure he didn’t disturb the lecture this time as well.

This practice continued every day over the next few years until the cat died. The master deeply loved cats so he soon adopted another cat. The students made sure to tie the new cat to the pole as well, making sure it didn’t disturb their lectures.

Eventually the master passed away and one of his students became the new master. The practice of tying the cat to a pole continued out of habit.

Years passed. Decades. Centuries. Millenia.

Over time, this small habit evolved into a long-standing tradition, passed down from generation to generation, of making sure there was always a cat tied to a pole outside the building while lectures were being given.

Elaborate stories had developed about how for thousands of years, legendary masters had been tying cats to poles while speaking. This was the way things had always been done. It was a sacred, holy tradition.

Today the teachings have spread all across the world and people continue, to this day, to buy cats and tie them to poles outside while giving their lectures.