Zen story: The old Zen master got some Zen sense knocked into him
By emptychair
@innertalks (23061)
Australia
August 4, 2025 8:47pm CST
The old Zen master was sitting under a tree, when a branch snapped off, and fell down on him, and knocked him out.
When he finally came too, a good while later, he quipped to himself.
"Another branch of Zen has opened up in me."
and then, he further mused to himself too.
"Do not Zen so much that this branch overwhelms you, but be aware of its presence at all times, so as not to be bowled over by its presence in your life."
"On the other hand here, the old Zen koan about a tree falling over in a forest, and whether it makes a noise, has been finally solved here too."
"It makes a noise for anyone around to hear, and for anyone not around, not to hear. Noise to be understood requires an observer."
The old Zen master smiled widely, as he was glad for the experience, as he always was with any experience that came to him.
He always tried to extract a Zen lesson from every one of his life experiences, be they good, or bad ones, and we all should try to do the same.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
See the Zen all around you, and learn from it talking to you with its wisdom.
2 people like this
2 responses
@innertalks (23061)
• Australia
5 Aug
Yes, we need to try and expand our wisdom, learning something from everything that happens to us, and around us, in our lives.
@Shiva49 (27473)
• Singapore
5 Aug
Even ordinary folks should try for increased awareness through observing and imbibing life experiences.
Then we realize all are just par for the course - nothing bad or good but just knocking sense into our existence and enriching it.
I realize that what is happening around the world are the majority reacting to the actions of mavericks and trying to save their skins in a highly volatile world with leaders with itchy fingers ready to press the nuclear button.
Ultimately life is a game of musical chairs with us hopping to find an empty one till our luck runs out!
At least you have an empty chair all for yourself!
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23061)
• Australia
5 Aug
Yes, we should all try to better ourselves from one day to the next as much as we can by observing life, and becoming more aware of what is really going on within each life experience.
Most people do just react reactively, and do not ponder more deeply about life.
As we get older, we can lose some of the ability to ponder, but hopefully our awareness might still be there, even under a cloud of dementia, and our soul is still there working for us too.
Ha, ha. Most of us have many chairs that we can use in our own house, but to make sure we sit down in our soul's chair, and live our life with our soul driving us, is a harder ask for most people.
@innertalks (23061)
• Australia
6 Aug
@Shiva49 When we are in the middle of a big issue, it is hard not to fret, as anxiety about the outcome, bites us annoyingly.
If we can stay peaceful in our connection to our soul, and to the bigger picture view, we can sweep some of the angst aside, realising its true position in it all, as actually serving us in our greater living, in some way, or another.
@Shiva49 (27473)
• Singapore
6 Aug
@innertalks Life kicks us around without respite till our last breath - dementia or otherwise.
I have experienced a bigger issue putting into shade many smaller ones.
That means our mind gets pre-occupied with needless worry.
A soul connection could soothe our existence here telling us our life here is temporary.
Then why fret?
1 person likes this
