A bear who had been wintering welcomed the arrival of Spring by making the journey to his favorite berry patch, only to find that Spring runoff had flooded a stream along the way, carving out his normal path, but accumulating uprooted trees and eroded mud some ways downstream, forming a dam. This afforded an easier crossing than before, but did not lead to his old trail. Crossing here, the bear followed a trail that seemed to have simply appeared and found himself in a much larger berry patch. The bear was quite content.
A hunter awoke one morning and sighted a deer just beyond his range. He attempted to quickly reduce the distance, but this only succeeded in causing a commotion that startled the deer and sent it fleeing into the forest. Realizing his mistake, the hunter climbed a tree near where he had seen the deer and spent the night. The next morning, he awoke to find the deer grazing just below him.
A man and his son encountered a rattlesnake sunning itself on a path. As they approached, it poised as if to defend the fork in the path just beyond it. The son snatched a branch from the ground and prepared to strike it. His father held him back, saying “If you strike it, it will only serve to anger it, likely with negative consequences for you. Instead, we will wait. The snake will move toward one fork, indicating that we should take the other.” After a short while, the snake appeared to bow before moving toward one of the forks. The man bowed and he and his son followed the other fork.
A man who had spent considerable time away from his wife approached a wise man, complaining of relationship troubles. The wise man turned him around and said “Face away from me and tell me how many fingers I am showing you.” The man said “I do not know.” The wise man responded, “What sort of face am I making?” The man said “I do not know.” The wise man continued, “What color are my eyes?” By this point, the man got irritated and turned to face the wise man. “Why do you ask me such ridiculous questions, the answers to which I can not understand without being able to perceive them?” The wise man responded, “that is not what you keep telling your wife.” The man realized his mistake and thanked the wise man for leading him to enlightenment.