There was a young man in a village who was extremely good, but he had one fatal flaw: he often spoke ill of others. His parents and friends always advised him, and he always said, “What’s the big deal, it’s just a few words, what’s all the fuss about?” And then still I did what I did. Once a Zen master came to the village, the young man said a very disrespectful word to the Zen master, and when others criticized the young man, the young man said, “It’s just a few words, can’t I just apologize to him?” The Zen master smiled at this and said to the young man, “Let me tell you a story!” Many people, including the young man, gathered around the Zen master, ready to listen to his story. The Zen master paused for a moment and began to tell the story: There was a man who kept a bear that he had picked up from the mountains since he was a little boy, and he kept the bear all the time, but one day the bear spoiled a piece of corn at his neighbor’s house, and the neighbor came to his door. The neighbor came to his door. He was so angry that he picked up a stick and beat the bear, cursing him as he did so: “An animal is always an animal, I have raised you for nothing”. After the beating, he drove the bear out of the house. The next day, he regretted, but the bear had already gone into the back of the mountain. He regretted it, but he couldn’t find the bear anymore. On one of his hunting trips up the mountain, he came across a tiger, and unarmed, he closed his eyes. Suddenly he heard the sound of a struggle and he opened his eyes to see that the bear had returned. The bear drove the tiger away, and he happily went up to the bear and caressed him, saying, “Great, does it still hurt from the last time I hit you? Come back with me!” The bear said, “It doesn’t hurt anymore, but what you said still hurts, and it hurts a lot.” The dog and bear finished speaking and went back into the back of the mountain without looking back. When the Zen master finished his story, everyone marveled at the fact that the words he had said could hurt so much, but the young man looked disdainful. The Zen master took a few more nails out of his pocket and said to the young man, “Go and put these nails in the tree.” The young man did as the Zen master said and put the nails in the tree. The young man had just gone back when the Zen master said again, “Go and take down the nails.” Without saying anything, the young man went back to the tree and prepared to take the nail down. But it took the young man half a day’s effort and half a day’s tossing with all kinds of tools to remove a nail. The Zen master came to the young man and pointed his finger at the mark left by the nail and said, “Even if you pull it out, what can you do then? Doesn’t it still leave a deep scar on the trunk of the tree? Just like the bear in that story, although the pain left by the stick has long since disappeared, the words spoken by that man hurt it for life.” The Zen master looked at the young man again and continued, “Words that do harm to others are like nails, and though you can retrieve them, the hurt you leave behind is like the scars left by the nails on the tree that can never be removed.” Hearing this, the young man was enlightened, and he said, “I now finally understand what a deep kind of harm outbursts can do to others, and I thank the master for his instruction.” The Zen master nodded his head in agreement at this, and then drifted away. The deepest harm to others in the world is always words, and when we speak out against others, we are also driving nails into their hearts, and such harm can never be repaired!