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Zen.
"To win 100 victories in 100 battles is not the highest skill.
To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill."
--- Sun Tzu
If you ask someone if they have heard of Zen, the answer is usually yes. But ask what Zen is, and the answers usually vary greatly. The idea of Zen is popular, but the practice of Zen is not so popular in the sense that relatively few people actually, consciously, practice Zen.
Saying that one practices Zen is ultimately the same as saying one breathes or eats or works. However, the fruit of Zen practice is an awareness, a heightened sense of feeling and sensitivity that one develops in doing what comes naturally.
Zen can be thought of as both a very strict and demanding discipline, and as an attitude, an outlook or approach to life. Zen has no philosophy of its own. It is simply a method of learning, of observing, and of experiencing what you do every day, anyway. Zen is not a religion. It is a set of values and beliefs. A practitioner of Zen does not give up his or her faith. Zen, if anything, makes one's convictions stronger, whatever they are. A Zen story:
A tea master inadvertently gave insult to a samurai who challenged him to a duel. The tea master asked for time to prepare, and was granted one day. The tea master went to a swordsmanship teacher and told him of his plight. The swordsman told him that at best he could help him die honourably and with dignity. He asked the tea master to first serve him some tea. The tea master, thinking that this might be his last chance to perform his discipline, focused to a level surpassing anything he had done before. The swordsman told him, "Tomorrow, hold your sword overhead and face the samurai with the focus that you just had when you served me tea. When he approaches, strike with all you have and you may both die simultaneously."
The next day, the tea master did as the sword master told him. The samurai sensed the tea master's spirit and apologised for challenging him and called off the duel.
When you eat, just eat. When you walk, just walk. When you sit, just sit. Your body knows how to do that already. In life, approach the situation for what it is, and nothing more. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. A Zen story illustrates this:
Two monks were travelling in the rain, the mud sloshing under their feet. As they passed a river crossing, they saw a beautiful woman, finely dressed, unable to cross because of the mud. Without a word, the older monk simply picked up the woman and carried her to the other side.
The younger monk, seemingly agitated for the rest of their journey, could not contain himself once they reached their destination. He exploded at the older monk. "How could you, a monk, even consider holding a woman in your arms, much less a young and beautiful one. It is against our teachings. It is dangerous."
"I put her down at the roadside," replied the older monk. "Are you still carrying her?"
Here, the old monk picked the woman up and put her down. That is all. No mediation by the intellect. He just did it. His mind, other than to work his muscles, was not a part of the experience. Yet the rules of his order prohibited his behaviour. Did he do the right thing? Was it appropriate?
Morality is judged by intention. That is, subjective intention. It is clear that to take life is immoral. But in the context of a volcano erupting and killing hundreds of people, it is hardly appropriate to judge this as immoral. Why? Because we do not think of the volcano as intending to do the damage. On a grander scale, it is not appropriate to make judgements of any act of Nature for the same reason. Nature (its manifestations) just happens. It just does. The old monk just did it.
One day, as a Zen master strolled through a field with a disciple, a pheasant started from a nearby bush and, in fright, darted awkwardly into a thicket. Seeking to impress the master with his powers of observation, the student, with sarcastic certainty, remarked, "Birds are so weak and defenceless."
The Zen master swung his walking staff and rapped the student sharply across the shins. "Fly", he commanded.
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