Short Story: A Zen master who empthasised the importance of health, in Zen practice

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The old Zen master, Werful Kewploski, used to be a fitness fanatic, and in his monastery, he ensured that all of his students followed some type of a fitness regimen, as well as their Zen training. He would tell his students that: “Exercise changes the health of your body, but it also changes the health of your mind, by bettering your attitude, and mood, too. From out of a fit body, comes a fit mind.” The old master used the ancient art of Qigong, to energise his students. In essence, Qigong is a set of breathing exercises, involving stretching and body movements, put together as a form. He had a gymnasium equipped with weights as well, as he knew that weight-bearing exercises were also required for maximum fitness levels to be obtained. Lastly, the old boy, had a running track in his monastery, with a special rubberised surface, that ensured that he, and his students, were cardiovascularly fit too. Love brings all things to a perfect positioning in us, and so with exercise, we should not hate it, but love it too. The old master never pushed his students past a certain point, where they would start to dread the exercise sessions, rather than enjoy them. He wanted each student to feel the rhythm of life coursing friendedly through them, without being forced through them. In regard to meals, he would not allow his students to eat anything either too early, nor too late in the evening. Eating should be curtailed to being within the light-filled hours only, not when it is dark, and this applied to both mornings, and nights. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com Zen exercise is carried out mindfully, so that you can exercise out, from a strong mind. It is harder to exercise with a weak mind. (Picture is of the old master, who was still in fine form, right up until when he died, at 95 years young.)