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.