Zen short story: A train journey. A surprising meeting of minds, and of hearts too.

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The Zen master, Dolphintz Repockske, was taking a train journey, to visit his old mother, in a faraway city, from where he usually resided, in his Zen monastery, as the head monk there. A fellow passenger looked across the seat to the Zen master, and said to him, "You look like a Lama." The master replied, "No, I am a Zen master, not a Tibetan Lama." The passenger looked more quizzingly at the master, and retorted: "Well, perhaps you are more a Llama then, but you look as if you would not have much kick to you, though." The master smiled widely, at this attempt at some humour. "The word 'Lama' means heavy one, and a Llama would be heavy too, but we Zen Buddhists, are not heavy, at all. Most Spiritual gurus are the same, full of heavy principles too." "We try to lighten the world, with enlightenment. Being peaceful, and relaxed, allows us to remain light in our minds too." Suddenly, the Zen master began singing in a high pitched, but sonorous voice, more like a chant really, as the words could not be separated, or distinguished separately, in what he was saying. The other passenger laughed loudly, and said, "So you are a chanter too?" "Growing up to yourself doesn't involve chanting, you know, as that is of the mind, try humming, as that vibrates down to your heart." And with that remark, this mysterious passenger upped, and left the train, as it had now stopped, at the next stop. The Zen master smiled again to himself. "Well, I'll be," he said to himself. "The guy does seem to know more than he was at first letting on." We should never prejudge anyone that we meet, or think something of them too early, as we might often be surprised by who they really are, as was this Zen master too, who had just met the Dalai Lama himself. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com A surprise meeting can sometimes enlighten us in newer ways than that what we think that we have already achieved. We should not stop at enlightenment, thinking then that we have reached the peak of ourselves. Enlightenment is only the first step to full awareness, which must include the heart, and which cannot just be obtained with our minds only.