A young man sets out from his parents’ home to seek his fortune in the world. His father, a warrior, taught him the skills of the blade, and as a parting gift, he left him a fine sword made from hardened steel.
On the road, the young man meets several robbers. But his blade is sharp and his moves are quick, so he easily cuts them in half. He comes to a town and stops at a tavern for a drink. After a while gets into an argument with a stranger. Eventually, the stranger insults him, so the man draws his blade and cuts him apart.
On the way to his guest house, he noticed a woman being scolded and harassed by a man. Again, he draws his sword and cuts the attacker’s head off. The woman is grateful and decides to marry him. He gets a job at the palace guard, where he quickly rises to the rank of samurai.
One day, however, he gets into a fight with his wife, and in his anger, he takes out his sword and kills her. When he realizes what he has done, he decides to leave town and seek shelter at a Zen temple. The Zen Master comes out to meet the man and asks: “what is your business?”
“I seek enlightenment”, the man responds.
“Then why do you bring a sword?” asks the master.
Without saying a word, the man takes his sword and cuts a wood block clean in two.
“Your blade is sharp”, says the master, “and you can cut apart myriad things. But can you put them back together?”
“I cannot!” the man responds and gets on his knees to seek admittance to the temple.
Once admitted, he immediately applied himself very hard and spends many nights in the temple library, studying the words of the old masters. When the other monks meditate, he mentally rehearses the answers to all the koans he’s read.
But while his formidable strength is well regarded by the other monks working in the fields and at the temple mill, his enlightenment makes no progress. Each time he meets the master in the great hall, he gives him a test, but no matter how clever his responses, he never passes.
One day, our man has had enough of this. After failing yet another test, he grows impatient with the master and draws his sword and cuts his head off. “I’ve had enough of your stupid, made up puzzles and riddles” he says as he leaves the great hall. “You’re a liar and a fraud.”
Realizing that word of his deed will probably get around and the monks and townspeople will likely seek revenge, he flees to the forest to commit harakiri. As the sword enters his stomach, he experiences enlightenment.
COMMENTARY
The depth of emptiness is vast and deep as the ocean. If you only look at the waves, you miss the entire thing.
Submitted June 06, 2019 at 06:43AM by Joe_DeGrasse_Sagan http://bit.ly/2Ii0kGA
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