Zen story: When is a message really a message, and not just a happenstance of our own mind?

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The old Zen master, Wartrop Zerboscki, was in a large library, when suddenly on the other side of the room, a large book, fell off of the shelf there, and landed with a large thump onto the floor. The Zen master went over to the book, and picked it up. It was a book of 1001 Zen koans, written by some scholar, who had spent time digging them out from various Zen temples, that he had visited over many years. The Zen master, opened it up, and he read the following koan to himself. "If a book opens itself upon falling, at a certain page, does this mean anything, other than the randomity of the event?" The Zen master looked at his fallen book, which had not opened at any page, but which had landed unopened. The Zen master smiled to himself, while thinking to himself. "An unopened book tells us nothing, but at least a book, open at a certain page, if it encourages us to read what is on that page tells us at least something new, at that point in time." "So, meaning must always come from the action of an open mind; never can it come from the inaction of a closed mind." Happy with his meditative thinking, he then placed the book, back on its shelf. Anything of the mind remains happenstance, unless it is linked to the love, and its meaning, in the heart. An open mind allows this connection to take place. A closed mind never does. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com Love can do nothing with a closed mind, which shuts it out.