Zen short story: The Zen master who reached above his reach, and died
By emptychair
@innertalks (23746)
Australia
January 30, 2022 12:18am CST
The old Zen Master, Riklo Jerbosku, had been the head monk at the Doget Monastery, for the last thirty years.
He was now 75 year's of age, and he had just been diagnosed, by his doctor, with Alzheimer's disease.
He wondered to himself about how he could still remain the resident head Zen Master, and still give his weekly lectures to his group of students too.
One student, who was a master hypnotist, told the Zen Master, that Alzheimer's, only affects one's brain, not his mind, nor his soul.
He said that he could hypnotize the master, and the brain would be bypassed, and so, his soul would then directly channel its message, through his mind, through his voice box, and the state of his brain would not matter so much then at all.
The Zen master agreed to this, and he scheduled a trial talk, to be given like this, on the very next Friday night.
The students were all curious to see what he would say, in such a hypnotised state.
The old Zen Master started to talk in a voice that did not sound like his own usual voice.
It was deeper, and more guttural, in its tone.
Here is what he said:
"Life pivots on the axis of its body, until, a direct connection to something outside of life is made."
"Such a connection must be made in good time, never forced, as here, to occur."
"When force is used, there are always repercussions, of some sort, as there is here for me too."
With that last line, the Zen master keeled over, and died.
There is always such a price to pay for unearned wisdom, gained before you are ready, and which therefore destroys your mind, brain, and body, as it did here, for this Zen master too. His soul lives on, though, as do all souls.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
The Zen master took a chance, and lost his life by his doing so.
3 people like this
2 responses
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
30 Jan 22
Thanks, yes it was sad.
Perhaps, like you said, the Zen master should have just done his best with what he had, rather than try to push past where he was, in that risky way, which he never knew much about, but he trusted that his student knew what he was doing, when he took the risk, and did what he did.
@askme123 (6223)
•
30 Jan 22
@innertalks I am scared of hypnotism. Have you ever been hypnotized?
2 people like this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
30 Jan 22
@askme123 Yes, when I was much younger, I did try it a few times, as I wanted to see if it could help me to "remember" a past life memory.
It did help me to do that, but at the end of the day, it still never proved conclusively to me that that was what I had had.
Perhaps, it was just a visualisation, a waking dream, or some other phenomenon, but it was an experience at the time, which I think that I could not have gotten otherwise.
I "recalled/relived" a few past lives, in what seemed to be a really real way.
I was an Egyptian slave in 3023 BC, helping others to build pyramids there in Egypt. I could feel the lash of the whip on my back, that is how real it felt for me then.
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (28406)
• Singapore
30 Jan 22
Slow and steady could be well learned and earned than leapfrogging over the reality of life and it’s inherent experiences.
A lesson for others benefit too and also for the Zen master with his soul enriched with how his life ended here rather prematurely.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
30 Jan 22
Thanks, siva.
Yes, we can all learn something useful for ourselves from the lives of others too.
Here, I am sure that the student, who performed the hypnosis, on his master, would have remembered this event, for the rest of his life too, and learnt a lot from it too. It's a big final lesson for him from his master too.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
31 Jan 22
@Shiva49 If we look, but do not look deep enough, that seldom prevents the mishaps too.
We need a deeper, realer, look not just a cursory, passing glance.
The Pollies would do well to remember that.
They just look at the latest polls, and push past having a deeper look at any subsequent long term consequences, of their actions.
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (28406)
• Singapore
31 Jan 22
@innertalks Look before we leap is better heeded when we do something which can have dire consequences like in this case.
1 person likes this
