A student asks a master, “Master, what is the meaning of life?”
“Why do people insist that life has a meaning?”
Some questions, especially existential inquiries, are best answered with other questions
since they all channel thoughts down the same path toward enlightenment.
Satoru
When it was my turn I also have a favorite toast,
“Here’s to swimmen with bow legged women.”
The first time I used this toast I surprised everyone as two monks and the master lost control and sprayed the tea from their mouths. The circle of novices, monks and observers grew quiet and looked from the master to back at me. The air was pregnant with the pause in teaching and conversation. After an eternity of moments my master nodded his head to me in approval. Learning abstruse subjects full of life’s questions can be serious. But we must also remember to enjoy learning and have fun.
Satoru
During a “westernized” tea ceremony my master would always recite the same three toasts.
His favorite and most profound was;
“ To this moment and the moment next to come.”
Satoru
A man goes to the Himalayas seeking truth and enlightenment. He spends weeks searching the hills for a reclusive master. He finally finds the master and asks that he be apprenticed to the master to find enlightenment. The master takes him down to a stream and bids the man to kneel besides the waters. He takes the mans head and holds it under the water. The master asks,
“Do you want to find enlightenment?”
The man now released answers, “Yes.”
The master again asks the question,
“Do you wish to find enlightenment?” as he again holds the mans head under water. This ritual is repeated all afternoon. Finally, after the master holds the man head under water for a particularly long time, to the point of almost drowning the man, the master asks the same question. This time the man, exhausted and almost drowned says, “No.”
What does this story mean or convey? One interpretation is that he didn’t really want to obtain enlightenment. Another is that the price for wisdom is usually too high. Another is that we do not really want to change our beliefs because we have too much invested in them. Another answer is that no one really, however baptized, wants to or can change. What does the story mean to you?
Satoru
A Way To Live – ZEN 