A Touch of Zen (5)

Posted by Grownup_Frankie on Tue 13 Dec 11, 11:41 PM to Grownup_Frankie's blog.

(As best I can remember it...)

A samuria warrior goes to see a zen monk.

'Master, tell me the difference between heaven and hell' he asks.

'Oh, not now, not now, I'm far too busy meditating to waste my time answering stupid questions from someone like you,' replies the zen master.

Which, as you can imagine, annoys the samuria, who isn't used to being spoken to like this. He is more used to people being in fear of him, to be honest, because he has a notoriously short fuse. And a very sharp sword, don't forget.

'How DARE you speak to me like that,' he says, drawing his samuria sword in one flashing motion and raising it above his head, poised and humming in the air, ready to deliver the killing stroke. 'NOBODY speaks to me like that! I'll cut your HEAD off for that!' he yells at the little old monk.

At which point the monk looks up into his enraged face and says 'THIS is hell'.

The samuria pauses. He thinks about what the monk has said.

Slowly, he lowers his sword arm, puts his sword carefully back in its scabbard.

'I....I was so angry with you just then,' the samuria says....'I was...I was ready to kill you.'

'And that is heaven,' says the monk.

......

For Dryad, who also told a nice thoughtful story tonight, about what we can learn if we observe ourselves just as we might observe another person.

Replies

14 Dec 11, 12:05 AM
misunderstoodslave
UK(OL), 2 yrs

I like this. It's about self-knowledge and catching yourself in the moment and changing your course of action. Stuff I'm not very good at, but would like to be.

14 Dec 11, 12:10 AM
dryad_x
UK(YO), 7 mths

What a good story, thank you!! I'm starting to rely on you to keep me balanced(ish)

I keep thinking, remember what Frankie said... don't get angry...wouldn't want to be them... ect. Okay, and then losing my rag anyway, but it helps!

14 Dec 11, 12:13 AM
dryad_x
UK(YO), 7 mths

Mistletoeslave wrote:
I like this. It's about self-knowledge and catching yourself in the moment and changing your course of action. Stuff I'm not very good at, but would like to be.

And about how rage, though seemingly directed outward, is destructive to the self, whereas self-knowledge, even when not flattering, is peace.

14 Dec 11, 1:09 PM
angellover
UK(CM), 3 yrs

dryad_x wrote:

Mistletoeslave wrote:
I like this. It's about self-knowledge and catching yourself in the moment and changing your course of action. Stuff I'm not very good at, but would like to be.

And about how rage, though seemingly directed outward, is destructive to the self, whereas self-knowledge, even when not flattering, is peace.

so true...

The highest fences we have to climb, are those we have built within our mind

14 Dec 11, 8:52 PM
Grownup_Frankie
UK, 4 yrs

Something I get from that story is how our actions dictate to us who we are, to the point where we may simply not question our actions any more, this is what we DO, this is who we ARE, and we can only act like this.

But is you do step outside yourself to observe yourself, you will see that we are NOT our actions, our actions are a matter of choice, so we can choose to act differently.

Its that 'theory of self' thats so hard to break ties with - that 'habit of self' we are used to. Warts and all, as they say.

You can often observe your actions and see that they are actually just a choice of actions in your style of arguement...(hang on, hang on, I feel another blog coming on.)...