Zen short story: The master cared right up until his death, for his students

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The old Zen master, Jolith Zerploxke, was near death, and he asked his students if there was anything that they wanted to know now, and which, he might have left inadvertently unexplained to them. Only one student spoke up, who put his own need for an answer above the need for the master to now roll over and die, and not be overly aroused by such a question as his was. The student said, "God is as dead to us, as you will be now. Why do we live, and die?" "Why is life such a struggle to live, and why do I have so little interest in living it?" The old master found the strength to sit up on his bed, and to answer his student like this: "Interest comes alive in you, when you allow God to sit inside of you, interested in you, because that interest is being drawn to you, by you loving God." "God is love, so you have to love him into existence in you for him to be real to you." "Yeh, please prove his existence to me now, and ask him to give me a great wisdom, and a great healing power, please, so that I might take your place here, as the next Zen master, here," replied the student. The master smiled, as he also winked, and replied: "God reaches into you at all times, but you have to reach into him too." "And, when you reach into God, your own reach increases, and so God's wisdom lives in you then too." "Love God, and God's reach will be in you, allowing you to touch others with that same love, which is always healing to all it touches." "Put God first, and not yourself, as I am showing you to do right now too." And with that, the old man, laid back down again on his bed, and died. A new Zen master was chosen for that monastery, by the head monk of another monastery nearby, though. He was aware that the old master's students still had too much "me" in themselves, instead of "we", to allow them to lead anyone in the Zen way. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The Zen master gave of his best to his last breath alive. He always gave his all to life.