The Squirrel Who Filled the Sea

A great ocean, in a sudden violent storm, swept away a squirrel's newborn babies from the shoreline nest where they had been sleeping. Grief-stricken and furious, the tiny squirrel declared that she would empty the entire ocean with her own paws to get her children back, and began scooping water and flinging it onto the sand, one pawful at a time.

Every other animal who saw her called out that her task was plainly, obviously impossible — the ocean was simply too vast for any single creature, however determined, to make even the smallest dent in it. The squirrel, exhausted and heartbroken, did not stop, continuing her hopeless labor through the entire day and into the night.

The Bodhisattva, witnessing her extraordinary, seemingly futile devotion, was moved by a love and determination so absolute that it refused to accept any limit at all, and used his own power to calm the sea and return her lost babies safely to shore. The other animals, watching this unlikely resolution, understood that determination born from genuine love sometimes moves forces far greater than itself simply by refusing, against all sense, to ever stop trying.