STUDENT: My koan is "From where you are, stop the distant boat moving across the water." Rosm: Demonstrate your understanding of the spirit of it. (The student demonstrates.] That is good, but try it this way (demonstrating]. Do you understand the true spirit of this? STUDENT: Yes, the boat and I are not two. ROSHI: That is right. When you become one with the boat it ceases to be a problem for you. The same is true of your daily life. If you don't separate yourself from the circumstances of your life, you live without anxiety. In summer you adapt yourself to heat, in winter to cold. If you are rich, you live the life of a rich man; if you are poor, you live with your poverty. Were you to go to heaven, you would be an angel; were you to fall into hell, you would become a devil. In Japan you live like a Japanese, in Canada like a Canadian. Lived this way, life isn't a problem. Animals have this adaptability to a high degree. Human beings also have it, but because they imagine they are this or that, because they fashion notions and ideas of what they ought to be or how they ought to live, they are constandy at war with their environment and themselves. The purpose of this koan, then, is to teach you how to be at one with every aspect of your life.
Joel Pfeiffer's comment"do you know the power of knowing that it is ok to have problems? Baby's can not learn to walk without falling. failing is a part of life. With hard work anyone can overcome adversity if you are depressed it is because you are living life too idle. actions are the key to happiness."
Submitted October 30, 2019 at 10:54AM by acidrain69420 https://ift.tt/2q35FMB
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