Zen is most often associated with koans / riddles like “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” It is not a religion, but a way of life —of direct experience to awaken our true nature of compassion and wisdom. The Zen approach is that reality cannot be described or analyzed, and is best presented in stories and poems.
The Zen tradition developed in China as a blend of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and Taoist thought. It stems from the Buddhist principle that we we can all awaken and be “buddhas” – Jewish buddhas, Christian buddhas, Hindu buddhas, Islamic buddhas, Ashanti buddhas, secular buddhas….
Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, author, mystic, social activist and scholar of comparative religion and interfaith dialog. One of his books, The Way of Chuang Tzu, is an anthology of poems and stories representing “the thought, humor, gossip and irony” common in Taoism in the third and fourth centuries BC. Merton spent decades reading different translations of Chuang Tzu’s work to choose these pieces. He says they most resemble Ecclesiastes in the Christian Bible and the renunciate life of St.Therese of Lisieux.
Here are excerpts:
GREAT AND SMALL
You can break down walls with battering rams,
But you cannot stop holes with them.
All things have different uses.
Fine horses can travel a hundred miles a day,
But they cannot catch mice
Like terriers or weasels;
All creatures have gifts of their own.
The white horned owl can catch fleas at midnight
And distinguish the tip of a hair,
But in bright day, it stares, helpless,
And cannot even see a mountain.
All things have varying capacities.
Kui, the one legged dragon,
Is jealous of the centipede.
The centipede is jealous of the snake.
The snake is jealous of the wind.
The wind is jealous of the eye.
The eye is jealous of the mind.
Kui said to the centipede:
“I manage one leg with difficulty:
How can you manage a hundred?”
The centipede replied:”
“I do not manage them.”
REFLECT:
What thoughts come up for you reading this?
THE NEED TO WIN
When an archer is shooting for nothing,
He has all his skill.
If he shoots for a brass buckle,
He is already nervous.
If he shoots for a prize of gold,
He goes blind
Or sees two targets.
He is out of his mind.
His skill has not changed. But the prize Divides him. He cares. He thinks more of winning Than of shooting— And the need to win Drains his power.
APPLY:
Go a week without competing in any way.
Monitor your outcomes.
The Way of Chuang Tzu, Thomas Merton, New Directions, 1965.
