The Story Of
A Fighting Cock

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
in Houston, Texas, U.S.A. Nov. 12, 1993
(Originally in English)

You know the fighting cock, yes? There was a King of China. He loved cock-fighting. You know the two chickens, cocks fight together. And they bet on that. They still do it now.

It happened to be that the king, the king got involved in... He loved cock-fighting. He had one of the best cock-fighter raisers, so he gave him one to take care of, the best race. Take care of so that he would become a fighting hero, next champion, next time.

So that person kept raising him. Then after a month or so passed by, the King asked, "Is he ready, is the cock ready?

He said, "No, not yet.

The king said, "Why?

He said, "He is not even near.

The king said, "What happened to him?

He said, "Well, when he sees any cock around, you know, even very far away, he starts to show off and get excited. His wings hang there and his craws strut out, and everything like that. He is terrible, lousy.

So the king said, "Alright, continue to raise and train him. Another month or so passed by and the king asked, "Is he ready now?

He said, "No, no, no. He is better though. He still gets very excited when he sees all the cocks around. So, no good. He kept raising and again many months passed by. The king got fed up and forgot all about this useless chicken. Then one day the cock-raiser came to report to the king, "Now he is ready.

So the king said, "Why? Why? How do you know he is ready?

He said, "Because now even if all the cocks just see him from afar, and he doesn't do anything, they are afraid. You know, from afar, the other cocks already start to be afraid of him; and he does nothing. He just walks around, and the other cocks run away from him. So that's when he is ready. He doesn't look like a fighting cock anymore. He's just himself and everyone is afraid, yes. He is all power now.

So when all power is complete, it doesn't leak. No way to leak out. You don't know it. That's why in many of the sutras people say, "When you're completely enlightened you are very ordinary. Ordinary mind is the enlightened mind. They say like that.