Zen story: A real friend always remains a real friend

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The old Zen master had lived in the Zen monastery for all of his long life, and his friends were mostly only his fellow monks, and students. There was one other friend, though, who would visit with him, about once every six months, and of who, nobody in the Monastery knew who he was, but they had speculated amongst themselves, that it might have been a relative, a brother of their master, perhaps. The master, and his friend, would spend about an hour talking in his room, and then the friend would leave. Nobody knew what they had talked about, except for the master, and his friend, of course. And then, after many years of this friendship going on, one curious student, took it upon himself to hide under the master's bed, when he saw the friend approaching from a distance. He wanted to hear their conversation. The master sat down on his bed, and the friend sat in the master's one chair, in his room. For one hour they sat, and said nothing, and then the friend simply left. The master left his room, and walked some of the way with his friend to the gate of the monastery, and the student then made his escape from the master's room, from under his bed too. This friendship was really a friendship of the heart, and nothing needed to be said. They were truly friends of the heart, and their hearts were open to the silent interconnectedness between themselves. True friends are connected in heart, and every heart needs such a friend. The old master, after waving goodbye to his friend, turned around, and he walked back into his monastery. He found the student who had hid under his bed, and he simply said: "Love has its own way of communicating with another, but hidden beneath love, can be an empty mind too, if the love does not spill from the heart, but tries to work itself out from the mind, as to what it thinks is love. Feel love, do not think it." "Friendship is like a shady tree, on a hot day, but do not dig around its roots, to see where its shade might come from." Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The Zen master was a friend to all, including to his special friend.