Short Story: The Zen koan of stomping

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The renowned, and rather well respected, old Zen master, Dolphin Sherklocks, was known to stamp his foot heavily upon the ground, whenever he wanted to emphasize the main point of his talks, in his talks. The students used to wait for this moment, as it provided entertainment value for them, and they also used to wager small bets about the time when this would happen within, or during his talk. The old master was giving a talk on boredom, and how being bored was the antithesis of Zen. It stopped all progress, as an enquiringly active, not-bored mind, was needed to move past the point of Zen, into the point of love. Just as he said the second instance of the word, "point", he stomped his foot, hard on the ground. The students all looked smugly at themselves, to see who was smiling the most, and so who had won the bet for this talk, for today. The old master, this time though, looked over at this winning student, and he simply said to him. "The point of my stomping is not a game, but a point of movement in your heart, not a point for winning with your mind. Leave this Zen campus, and never return my friend, until your own heart is in the right place, and any other student who thinks they are like this student can leave right now too." Nobody else left. The very next day, though, the student, who had been asked to leave, surprised the group by his giving the talk for the master that day. His lesson was complete, and the master having found him desolate on the banks of the river that night had promoted him to the post of next to the master, or his most likely successor, as being stomped on had stomped the pompousness out of his mind, and it had allowed his heart to open, even as the canny old master knew that it would do so, as this student was indeed ready to move past his mind into his heart now too. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com Great Zen masters know their students often better than a student actually knows themselves.