Zen story: A fire in the Zen monastery stirred up panic all around

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The Zen monastery was recovering from a huge fire that had flown through it, with a ferocity that surprised even the head monk, who was usually unflappable. He too had panicked, and rushed out from his room, tripping over the monastery cat, in his haste, as he run out to the outside of the main hall, from inside where his room was located. Later, he told his students, that such panic narrows our vision. Calm acceptance of what is, is the Zen way, but when a fire is roaring, our Zen nature can become overheated by it too, at times, as his mind was also affected that day, by the imminent danger of the fire. Some people work well under pressure, but panic is more than pressure; it is more a survivalist thrusting of our mind towards safety. How does panic relate to danger? Danger creates panic, due to its linkage to the survivalist instinct, which overrides all else, if you let it do so. Love, in danger, is hard to keep going as panic creates fear, and fear will place a barrier in your mind to your heart of love. The Zen master resigned his position as Head monk at that monastery, and he spent another ten years, in deep contemplation of less fiery stuff, up in a mountain cave. Not only had he panicked on that day, now he had panicked again, and run away from his needed work of restoring the monastery, after the fire. Nothing is ever obtained by our running away from our real selves. Perhaps, it will take our Zen master here, more than that ten years to see that truth for real again too. This Zen master was only calm in calm times, and he panicked hard in a crisis. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The fire was very fierce, and panicked the Zen Master, into running away for his dear life.