Well, another beautiful mornin'; a few high clouds and amazingly mild temps. They say the winds, like ta come up, but that'd be more normal than the temps; winds just a fact a life, spring time New Mexico.
Quite amazing, these days, my internal "garden" and external "playground"; all seems packed with meanin' and full of wonder. Makes me feel a little bit like that character in the movie, "what's his name and the temple of doom"; not that I feel the shadow of doom, looming over me, but listenin' to my heart and noticin' my dreams, wakin' and walkin' with the critters, bits and pieces of news and comments from friends, seems just as fascinatin' and plenty excitin'.
Got to thinkin' about a story, past few days; Japanese. There's a tradition among some of asian schools, of givin' a student a sort of puzzle, in the form of a short story or question; sometimes called "Koans". Well, I got thinkin' about this one and, puzzle on top of puzzle, I never even considered it a puzzle!
It's a really simple story of someone askin' an old monk what he did before enlightenment; the monk answerin', "chop wood and carry water". The same person, then asked, "and what did you do after enlightenment?". The old monk answerin', "chop wood and carry water". Now, there's a lot of "hoopla", in western culture about enlightenment, often presented like a "great earthquake" of a moment. On the otherhand, I've heard, from some I consider to be truly and deeply enlightened, that this may be a sadly, misleading case of "P.T. Barnum" in "spades".
So, here's my, otherwise, dawnin' consideration of our old monk, my original smug assumption, that nothing changed; oh, so Zen! But, lately it occured to me, "what a clever little story"! Could it be, that part of the beauty of the story, is the consideration of the person askin' the question, who would seem to be an "outside observer" and the way the old monk answered the question was perfectly honest and true to the question, the asker and their, once removed point of view? Could it also be true, that, contrary to my "oh, so Zen" take on the story, that there is a glaring omission, or question I failed to accept? "So, reverend monk, you mean to tell me that absolutely nothing changed; oh, so Zen, or not, that's a big #@"?*&$+; waste!"
"No", our old monk might say, "but that's not what you asked".
Time to feed the cowboy. Have a great day!
Best,
Wonderful story, Jeune! Excellent to ponder.
ReplyDeleteHauling water and chopping wood done with light shining from the heart is more beautiful than climbing the marble steps into a mansion with the heart in cold dark shadows. We are really inside out sometimes. :) Hope you had a great meal! :)
Also, that's an amazing photo up top!
DeleteThat's what gets folks into so much trouble and misunderstanding. What we say, what we hear may or may not be the same as what the other person said. So much room for miscommunication. I can see why you like horses so much. They're clear. If you "listen" to them, they speak as eloquently as the old monk, maybe even more.
ReplyDeleteThis has been said to death, but we are a culture smoothered by communication/miscommunication; tweets, twitter, TV, facebook, iphones, ipads, email accounts, cell phones, land lines, satellite phones, and communication methods I haven't even heard of yet out here in the backwoods .... and we hear things "differently" depending on where we're at in life. Sometimes all of this communication is spread and caked on us like noisy mud so that it muffles our own insides with external info constantly coming at us. I hope the person asking the question of the old Monk sat quietly and watched the old Monk chop wood and carry water ... these things don't always go so well, axes slip, water spills ... how did the Monk react when that happened? Hopefully, the question asker helped. A change shows up in meditation or chopping wood. Sometimes, it's good to take a mass communication break so one can learn something ... LOL! I look to my canine friends ... we communicate on a simpler, more honest plane that can elevate my Spirit when nothing else comes close. :)
ReplyDelete