Short story: The demented Zen master

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The old Zen master, Artop Freskoski, was already old and feeble, but now he was suffering from dementia too. He was thoughtful about this condition, wondering if it would affect his enlightenment too. He had been enlightened for over 50 years, and he knew that such real enlightenment was far more than just being a state of mind; it was a state of heart too. It was being connected to your soul, and to God, in such a way that this connection brought you wisdom, truth, peace, and love, in your living. If, he lost hold on the clarity of his mind, would he also lose some pureness of heart too, in his living. He had witnessed some people, suffering from dementia, around him, who had changed, and become rather evil, in their living then, swearing, and cussing, life, in nearly every word, that come out of their mouth. They could often become violent too, in their interaction with life, and with others, too. Physical states have no affect on our soul, but the connection between our soul, and us, can be dampened by a mind that cannot maintain the connection peacefully through itself. This connection can be felt still in our heart, though, so we could rely on that more. Consciousness, and awareness, levels might diminish, but maintaining a connection to God, via faith, and love, can help us to still live with some empathetic connection to others. The Zen master was sort of comforted by these words of Dogen, a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk, writer, poet, and philosopher: "To study the Way is to study the Self. To study the Self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever." But to forget the self because of dementia was something else again, and it frightened the old Zen master a bit too. One of his students then said to him: "We can only make the best use of our mind, as it is in this moment. Keep going on, and do not let the state of dementia define who you are." The old Zen master smiled at the words of his student, and he decided there, and then, to hand over the head Zen master role of this Zen monastery to this student, and he would just stay on, working as best he could, in the background. He knew he could still be happy, and himself, within any state of mind, as he was really the higher self, his soul, not just his mind-self alone. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The old Zen master needed a boost from his student to better accept his condition of dementia.