Zen short story: The Zen master's pet canary

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The Zen master, Arzen Riposhki, had a pet canary, which he liked to talk to every day, around his breakfast time. He told his students that such talk relaxed him, and it got him away from reason, and the frustration, with living from a mind of only thought, for a short while. He loved this small bird, until, one overzealous student took it upon himself to feed the master's bird with some mushrooms, that he had picked from the field. The bird got sick, and died overnight, and the master found his pet canary, dead in its cage, the next morning. The master said nothing to the student, who he knew would be feeling bad about this incident. He placed the canary in its nesting box, and buried it in the garden of his monastery. But, after one week, had passed, he said something to that student then. He said that: "Life might be fleeting, and some things are not under our control, but we should check with others, as some things, not under our control, could be under their control, if they know more about the situation than what we do." "Be more careful in future, and check first, before you do something that you think might be a good thing to do, because, such seemingly good things are only stroking your own ego, usually, and might not be good overall." "Ego is an addiction, as most are obsessed more with their own self, than with anything else. Zen lets you drop your ego, back into your heart, so that love comes first again then, instead of the wanting need for some type of gratification, even if it is just kudos for you looking after the Zen master's pet bird, by your feeding it innocently, but killing it, just the same." "How much ego do we need, then, as we do need some ego working for us in our lives?" "Never more than love!" "You can either be a freely moving vehicle for love, to work its works through, or a restricted captive to your ego, instead." Photo Credit: The photo used in this article belongs to the author of this piece. The master's dead canary caused him to cry over it too. Zen masters actually cry more than most others ever do, over things like this. He knew that it could have been prevented, from its ending like this.