A Zen priest asked his teacher how many times and how long he should meditate to reach ultimate mind status. The teacher asked back the priest why he meditate. The priest answered that he does to reach ultimate status of mind. Suddenly the teacher brought a roof tile and started to grind with a cloth. The student priest asked what teacher was doing. The teacher answered. "I am grinding the roof tile to make a mirror." The student priest said. "Teacher, you cannot make mirror out of roof tile." The teacher stood up and told the student. "What you are asking is same as asking how long you should grind a roof tile to make a mirror from it."Regular meditation in Buddhism Temple
"A roof tile can never be a mirror no matter how long or how many times you grind it." This is interesting statement. The teacher is saying that meditation does not help to reach ultimate mind status. Then why the meditation? There is no correct answer for this kind of Zen questions. My interpretation is that instead of thinking about how long or how many times of meditation, you should consider to change yourself to be mirror material from a roof tile. And the meditation is not that method. What is more important is you find mirror material to grind to be the mirror. We sometimes make mistake which is more important find the mirror material or grinding it, don't we?The story continued. "The teacher asked the student priest "When your ox carriage stopped which you whip, the cow or carriage?"
Related post:
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/04/strong-is-not-strong-because-his_30.html
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/04/strong-is-not-strong-because-his.html
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Shaw Funami
Fill the Missing Link
4 comments:
Hi Shaw,
Interesting post on mind control! My interpretation is that there are many ways to view a situation.
Also, many ways to solve problems....at times we tackle the issue from the wrong perspective.
It is easy to misinterpret the situation and take the wrong action! Thank you for your interesting post!
Pete Baca
The Car Enthusiast Online
Hello Pete,
It gets interesting. It sounds really contradictory. But they contains some kind of truth in them. Stay tuned!
Thank you for your comment.
Shaw Funami
Fill the Missing Link
Hi Shaw ..thanks for the thoughts on meditation and the example of making the mirror ..
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters
Hi Hilary,
The story is to tell people not to put court before horses. It actually says which you are rodding horse or court. Thank you for your comment.
Shaw Funami
Fill the Missing Link
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