The Tailless Dassie

            Long ago, the Lion was the only animal with a tail.  One day he decided that all animals should have a tail like him and got tails made for all the animals in his kingdom.

          When the tails were ready he summoned all his subjects to his cave palace so that he could hand out the appendages.  All the animals went except the dassie.  The dassie felt too lazy to go and asked a monkey going by to fetch his tail for him.

          The Lion had selected a small furry tail for the dassie. When the monkey explained that the dassie could not come and had asked him to bring the tail, the Lion gave it to him.

          The monkey has given a nice long tail as he was going home it occurred to him that the tail would look better if it were a bit furry towards the end.  So he attached the dassie’s tail to it.

          The dassie was very disappointed when he learnt that the monkey had kept his tail for himself, but he was too lazy to pursue the monkey to try to get his tail back and that is why he remains tailless to this day.

                   Be a lamp!

          You must be your own lamp,

          Be your own refuges.

          Take refuge in nothing outside yourselves.

          Hold firmly to the Dharma as a lamp and a refuge

          Do not look for refuge to anything besides yourselves.

                                                From the Nirvana Sutra