A Zen Story
Zen Buddhism
In a remote village of Japan there lived a teenage boy named Koji, who lived with his family in the village. The boy was always inquisitive in nature and as he grew older his inquisitive nature grew even stronger. He would visit the elders in his village and engage them in deep conversations about the true nature of reality, the origin of man, his true nature, his place and purpose on the planet and other deep metaphysical inquiries. One of the elders he visited noticed that the boy was brilliant and what he was seeking was enlightenment and advised the boy to visit an old zen master who lived in a certain monastery up in the mountains and he would help him get enlightened.
The boy was eager to get enlightened and have the answers to his ever mind troubling questions, and so without wasting time he embarked on a journey to the monastery the following morning. On reaching the monastery he sought an audience with the old zen master who was happy to receive the boy as a guest and promised to have a sit down with the boy the following morning. The following morning the old zen master and the boy (Koji) sat down and had a conversation;
Koji: Hello Master, I'm Koji and I'm from a remote village down the mountain. I seek enlightenment and one of the elders from my village said you can help me with that, what do I have to do to get enlightened and how long will it take me to become enlightened?
Master: “Welcome Koji,” the master said, then went silent for some few minutes like someone thinking about an answer to Koji’s question. “We are all enlightened by nature and enlightenment is not something that can be brought about by us because this would imply there is a different us that would bring about the enlightenment to us. Involving ourselves in certain spiritual disciplines is the roadmap back to our original enlighted Self. The spiritual discipline will take 10 years to become enlightened.
Koji: Master I don't understand, if we are naturally enlightened then why do we need a spiritual discipline to become enlightened? How long would it take to become enlightened if I became more committed?
Master: We are born and raised in a society and as we grow old we develop an image of ourselves that is not ourselves, that involves our name, nationality, family, career and other forms of identity that conceals our original authentic self. To become enlightened means to rediscover our Authentic Self by peeling off this illusory images of ourselves, and the spiritual discipline helps in peeling off what we are not to leave only the original Self. If you are more committed it will take 20 years to be enlightened.
Koji: How long will it take if I become more and more devoted to the spiritual disciplines?
Master: If you become more and more devoted it will take 30 years to be enlightened?
Koji: Master, why does it seem to take more time as I become more devoted and committed to becoming enlightened?
Master: This is because as you become more committed you only have one eye on the path and the other on the goal which is enlightenment, and if you only have one eye to walk the path then you are more likely to stumble more and more on the path unlike when you have both eyes on the path. To get to the goal faster requires forgetting about the goal and focusing both eyes on the path, realising you already have the goal and you are only removing the stumbling blocks to the goal.
Zen Buddhism involves a dialogue between the master/teacher and the student, at first the master insists that he has nothing to teach and that the student already has what he is seeking. The students is normally not convinced that the master has nothing to teach and continues the quest of wanting to know what the master is “concealing” from him.
The master employs a method of direct pointing to show the student their enlightened nature without the use of scriptures. The master has already seen through the folly and uses the analogy of “A fool who persist in his own folly will soon be wise” by accelerating the student's own folly to make him see through it and discover his authentic Self. At the end when the student is enlightened he realises the master was being honest by saying he had nothing to teach because when the veil of ignorance is lifted off he realises he always had what he was seeking all along right under his nose.
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