To the vast majority of our readers (22 and counting) this post will mean nothing - and I mean nothing, not "No Thing", which is zen-speak for letting go of all pointless, ultimately painful preoccupations with the fleeting material world.
However, as someone who had my existential cage rattled today, I feel the need to share an oft-shared zen parable, attributed to the Buddha, but possibly apocryphal:
"A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted."
There it is, that rarest of zen parables - one whose meaning is easily understandable on the face of it: you never know when the vine's gonna snap, so get the strawberry while the gettin's good.
...it's been a really weird week...
Posted by: eliza | September 26, 2006 at 12:54 PM
Q: Why don't Buddhists vacuum in the corners?
A: Because they have no attachments.
Posted by: Paul Bales | September 27, 2006 at 05:08 PM
q: How does the Dalai Lama order a Hot Dog?
a: Make me one with everything.
Posted by: Bill Lipp | September 27, 2006 at 08:18 PM