Zen story: The enlightened beggar
By emptychair
@innertalks (23739)
Australia
August 28, 2021 7:40pm CST
A beggar once approached the esteemed Zen master, Rukas Zerjukhle, and asked him for a handout.
The master said:
"Wake up from your beggarness, by asking me for Zen, not money."
The beggar, thought to himself,
"Well, what have l got to lose."
"Give me, Zen, o, great master,"
he said.
The master flicked him a gold coin.
"Here it is."
he replied.
The beggar got Zen, and was immediately enlightened.
The beggar saw that Zen was as gold to him, as he accepted its truth as gold, and not just as a means of support, or as money.
He must live from the Zen mind of gold in himself, not from the beggerness mind, of no gold.
He must love life to life, not beg life from others, and lose his own love for life, in the process.
We must see our own Zen gold, and then start spending, and living from it.
This is living Zen, by living life, from the goldness of love, in our own Zen.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
Sometimes the shine of someone else's gold will help reveal our own gold to ourselves too.
4 people like this
3 responses
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
31 Aug 21
i live with four beggars who each choose to beg in different ways. In all cases, there is a need and a want. separating begging for want and need is the role within the world we undertake to master!
2 people like this
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
1 Sep 21
@innertalks there is a great song by Gordon Lightfoot, in it there is a line. You know its a shame, when you get feeling better when your feeling no pain.
it is loosely about drinking.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23739)
• Australia
1 Sep 21
@DocAndersen "Give me a wave I can ride upon, come and show your strength to me."
and,
"I'm a little nuts. I'm a lot nuts. All I know is that in the midst of the madness of this world it's my therapy. The music touches my heartstrings."
-- Gordon Lightfoot
I like statements like that that contain contrariness, matched head to head, but then the head-matching, brings something new out of our head too, a sudden realisation of the truth in his statement.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (98005)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
29 Aug 21
That is just what I do going from rags to riches and back again with my writing, Sometimes more sometimes less but I can get by and so I keep on trying and keep on hoping and mostly keep on believing,
2 people like this
@innertalks (23739)
• Australia
29 Aug 21
Yes. It must be hard to depend on a cash flow from uncertain sources.
All, we can do is to keep writing, never give up on the writing, and to keep hoping that one strikes somebody as gold, some time in our future too.
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (28380)
• Singapore
29 Aug 21
The photo did not shine on this post of yours.
The beggar was a changed man not due to the material wealth of the gold coin but the underlying zen did have its effect. Truth and awareness shine in different ways and we should not get carried away by the outward glitter.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23739)
• Australia
29 Aug 21
Thanks, siva. The article took a long time to load, and I didn't think it had loaded, but it looks like the picture was lost in the vaults somewhere. I checked the words were there, but I didn't notice that the picture was not there.
I added it back again now. I hope it is shining forth now, with the gold, from the man's chest, shining through too.
Yes, the beggar was helped to find his own gold, and to see the worthiness of it too, and then to have the courage, thereafter to live from it, as well.
A real Zen transformation, made with the spin of a coin.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23739)
• Australia
30 Aug 21
@Shiva49 Yes, we all need to just pull our outer prejudices aside, and reveal the true gold in our inner selves, and then live from it fully too.
If we could all do that, what a rich world, we would all live in.
@Shiva49 (28380)
• Singapore
30 Aug 21
@innertalks All that glitter is not gold comes to mind but here there is a hidden message, treasure!
We can all transform ourselves into a life of meaning and fulfillment.
But we miss the plot and get carried away by the glitter and outward shine.
And like here too, people wait impatiently to grab their pound of flesh when a rich man lives it up - looks like it is up for grabs from this inviting image!.
1 person likes this
