Short story: The drunken Zen Master

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The old Zen master, Serpock Xedeashi, had been a Zen master, for the best part of forty years now. He liked to indulge in his old habit of getting drunk on Japanese rice wine, or saki, though, at least once a week, and sometimes it was more. He would always partake of a rather strong brand, with 25% alcohol content in it. The monastery made its own brand, which it called, "Haro Hiro Jiro Kiro." One day, a young monk, from another monastery walked past this drunken master, and said, "For Zen's sake, give up saki, old man." The old master's eyes rolled around playfully, and he replied. "For saki's sake, give up Zen, young man." Both masters looked at each other, and laughed loudly. "Saki for saki's sake is never saki. It must be drunk for the sake of the Zen in me, my young man," the old master added, as he took another sip on his wine. The young master then said in reply: "The drink has taken you away from Zen, by taking you from you." The drunken old Zen master put down his bottle of wine, and he never drank saki again. We do not need alcohol to see the depths of our Zen in; we must carry those depths of Zen, within ourselves to see them. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The young Zen monk helped the old Zen monk to face his Zen, not his wine.