Abbot Benneng of Bodhi Academy

s story starts a long, long time ago...

...

"The toad was a devoted lover, daring to provoke evildoers for his beauty;

He went to the Jade Pool to seek a miracle cure, willing to exchange his life for the swan's;

He knelt before the Queen Mother for three thousand years, finally obtaining a golden elixir to revive the swan's soul;

He scattered his own bones, blood, and flesh to rebuild the swan's body;

But when the swan recovered, she still longed for another;

From then on, the toad transformed into a golden cicada, valuing only gold, not people..."

The handsome monk, with his hands in a prayer position, quietly recounted a rather clichéd and old-fashioned story.

Essentially, it was about the self-pitying journey of a toad who was a sycophant, or perhaps, in a more sympathetic term before "sycophant" became a pejorative, deeply affectionate.