Such ness

Once, a disciple was bragging about his master to the disciple of another master. He claimed that his teacher was capable of all sorts of magical acts, like writing in the air with a brush, and having the characters appear on a piece of paper hundreds of feet away.

"And what can YOUR master do?" he asked the other disciple.

"My master can also perform amazing feats," the other student replied. "When he sleeps, he sleeps. When he eats, he eats."

~ ~ ~

A student once asked his teacher, "Master, what is enlightenment?"
The master replied, "When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep."

~ ~ ~

“Sitting quiet, doing nothing” is considered as a great virtue in Zen. Zen is a way of life and not solely a state of consciousness. Yielding to the flow of life, with such ness is one of the prime goals of a Zen master. My poem illustrates that theme further.

Such ness

The autumn comes once in a year,
And passes as Nature’s rule per
Leaves fall down just by themselves
While trees meet their very true self

No one calls spring to spring there,
Leaves and trees are silent mere
Sprouting buds do lament not
That world outside is big and hot

Tree asks not leaf particular,
For every leaf is pattern regular
Leaf asks not tree particular,
As every tree is one similar

Leaf does pass its life as leaf,
Tree does pass its life as tree
They see not, if flower is attractive,
To change the role and be reactive

And leaf does grow just old to die
Tree does wonder not how & why
It let autumn do natural magic
To meet itself, beyond any logic

Nature, thus does work as it does,
Nature thus does it as it such
No big rules, no great work, as it
Just being itself, doesn’t do much.

Few more Zen sites are here and here.

“If not NOW, when?

Once a beggar asked for some help from Yudhishthir. Yudhishthir told him to come on next day. The beggar went away. At the time of this conversation, Bhima was present. He took one big drum and started walking towards city, beating the drum furiously. Yudhishthir was surprised. He asked the reason for this. Bhima told him:” I want to declare that our revered Yudhishthir has won the battle against time (Kaala). You told that beggar to come next day. How do you know that you will be there tomorrow? How do you know that beggar would still be alive tomorrow? Even if, you both are alive, you might not be in a position to give anything. Or, the beggar might not even need anything tomorrow. How did you know that you both can even meet tomorrow? You are the first person in this world who has won the time. I want to tell people of Indraprastha about this. Yudhishthir got the message behind this talk and called that beggar to give the necessary help.

A very powerful question to ask to oneself:

“If not NOW, when?