Short Story: The Zen master loses his Buddha-like figure through his solving a koan

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The Zen master Colithe Froza was putting on weight. He was now up to 120 kilograms, at only 5 feet 6 inches tall. He was beginning to look like a Buddha. But, he knew that he had to lose some weight. He knew a koan to lift the weights off of our minds, and he expected that such a koan might work on his body too. He asked his body, "why do you like to eat and to get so fat?" He meditated on this, and awaited a reply. Then he imagined an answer as his gut talked to him and said, "You are fat because I am fat. Stop filling me up and you will be empty of fat then too." So, the master simply stopped eating, for several days, he fasted. He began to lose weight and he was so pleased with himself that he had a slice of his favourite apple pie, and so his fast was broken, and he went back to eating as before. "We should not try to diet, but not diet our trying," he said to himself. And so every week, the master fasted for two days, on Mondays, and Fridays, and over the period of one year, he shed most of his excess poundage. His koan had worked. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pexels.com The Zen master was starting to get a paunch, so he launched himself into a diet, by having a koan.