Short story: A zen story about the zen of zen.
@innertalks (21081)
Australia
May 5, 2021 12:07am CST
The old Zen master, Maulick Maulvener, was getting old, and he wanted to pick a successor for himself, as the head of the monastery.
He set up a series of tests for each one of his students to take, and the one that consistently scored best on them, he'd decided that he would pass on his mantle to them.
And so, the first question on his test sheet, was this one:
What is the Zen of Zen?
The best answer that he got was that the Zen of Zen is not the Zen of Zen, but the Zen of Zen of Zen.
This meant that we go on learning in Zen forever, and that we never attain a final Zen moment, when we know it all.
This student was given the privilege then of becoming the successor to this old master.
He wrote on the master's tombstone:
Here lies the Zen Master of the Zen of Zen of Zen, now emptied of his Zen, but still full of the Zen of Zen.
He added too, these few quotes of his old master, whom he still loved dearly, as he missed his presence ever more.
What was never Zen is still Zen. Let Zen be itself in you. Never try to Zen with Zen.
It was the love in this student, that the old master had really seen, as love is the Zen of Zen.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
"The old Zen master was the Zen of his Zen."
5 people like this
4 responses
@DocAndersen (54407)
• United States
5 May 21
it is a journey, and you capture it well here. There is always something to see on the other side when we climb the mountain!
2 people like this
@innertalks (21081)
• Australia
5 May 21
Yes, even halfway up the mountain, we can still learn on the whole journey too. Then, if we climb down our mountain, and climb up another, it is all a part of our Zen learning too.
@innertalks (21081)
• Australia
6 May 21
@DocAndersen And on every other step, you can learn something too, then too.
It might take a long time to get up to the top that way, but at the top, if you had digested all of that knowledge on the way, you might not be so exhausted, as by making the run, more quickly. Every step should count, and we shouldn't try to take two steps at a time, too often, I would say too.
2 people like this
@DocAndersen (54407)
• United States
6 May 21
@innertalks in Thailand there is the mountain with 1000 steps, each step has a Buddhist saying carved into it. you can learn on the first step!
2 people like this
@Prabhatsingh (3537)
• India
5 May 21
A lot of Zen.
and it literally sounds like
Zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen master zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zne zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen master zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zne zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen master zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zne zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen master zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zne zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen master zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zne zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen master zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zne zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen master zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zne zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen master zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zne zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen master zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zne zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen zen. 
2 people like this
@innertalks (21081)
• Australia
5 May 21
Now, that really is a lot of zen, enough to put me to sleep zzzzzenzzzzingly, so.
You saw my attempt at humour, zen, I mean then?
@innertalks (21081)
• Australia
5 May 21
@Prabhatsingh Zen, thanks, zen. It was a zen moment that zenned me into doing that. I get zenned with zen, now and zen.
@just4him (307408)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
6 May 21
@innertalks Thank you. I agree. We need to love as God loves us.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21081)
• Australia
6 May 21
@just4him Yes, if we can love as God loves, for sure, we would also be following his will then too.
God's will for us is gift-wrapped in his love for us too.
@innertalks (21081)
• Australia
5 May 21
It's all a double entendre.
In Christian terms, if we have love in us, as we do, because God is in our heart, we need to be that love, and to bring it to life in us too. It is no good just talking about love, and not living it.
If the Holy Spirit is in us, guiding us, we still need to recognise this, and to take, or to follow its advice, so we do God's will, otherwise, we might just ignore it.
Zen here is just another way of putting this. If we have Zen in us, we need to be the Zen, and act on it too,
We need to live in the spirit of the spirit!
2 people like this
@innertalks (21081)
• Australia
6 May 21
The summit is there, but we need to climb it for real in life, to make it real to us in our consciousness.
Peace and love pave the way for us, in climbing to our summits
@innertalks (21081)
• Australia
7 May 21
@Shiva49 I hope nobody finds gold, on the moon, or on Mars.
There will be another gold rush, to plunder it all, I am sure.
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26228)
• Singapore
7 May 21
@innertalks Yes, one step at a time.
We have climbed many a summit in our history and still countless left to climb.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
But after returning from space, Armstrong said that wasn't what he had planned to say. He said there was a lost word in his famous one-liner from the moon: "That's one small step for 'a' man." It's just that people just didn't hear it."
I do hope we won't blow it or blow up due to our hubris and division.
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