Here’s something I gleaned from The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment in the Land of the Tattered Buddha by Stephen T. Asma.

This is a parable told by the highly revered Khmer monk Maha Ghosananda, perhaps the holiest person in all of Cambodia – three time nominee for the Nobel peace prize.  Asma notes, “the Dalai Lama actually prostrates himself on the ground in a sign of deep respect and worship when he visits Venerable Maha.”  Okay, enough with the foreplay.  Here’s the parable as written in Gods Drink Whiskey.

The Dragon meets a bodhisattva on the road one day.  The bodhisattva tells the Dragon that he should not kill anymore and should instead adopt the Five Precepts and care for all life.  The bodhisattva inspires the Dragon, and afterwards the Dragon becomes completely nonviolent.  But now the children who attend the animal flocks nearby, seeing that the Dragon has become gentle, lose all fear of him.  And they began to torment him, stuffing stones and dirt into his mouth, pulling on his tail, and jumping on his head.  Soon to Dragon stops eating and becomes very sick.

When the Dragon encounters the bodhisattva again, he complains, “You told me that if I kept the Precepts and was compassionate, I would be happy.  But now I suffer, and I am not happy at all.” My son, if you have compassion, morality, and virtue, you must also have wisdom and intelligence.  This is the way to protect yourself.  The next time the children make you suffer, show them your fire.  After that, they will trouble you know more.”

Asma spells the lesson — work to be compassionate, but don’t be stupid about it.  Trungpa would call the Dragon’s actions idiot compassion.  Chao Chou tries to uphold the Precept of Not Indulging in Anger but remembers that the ground we share can burn very hot.  The Lotus Land isn’t always a smilely place.