the reflections of abis.

Its been sometime I blogged, blame it on the project report submissions, anyways in terminator style ‘I am back!’ Today I like to share about zen stories. I have never heard about zen stories untill last week, my roomie kumar, a philosophical guy, introduced me to my first zen story. The intresting thing about zen stories are, you’ll never exactly understand what moral the story conveyed… You could interpret it as good as you could think and there are no real interpretations for the stories… However, the zen stories are supposed to convey ultimate universal truths… In typical zen story narration style, I wont continue this article beyond the story, you could google: “101 zen stories” for more… Here it goes…

Mokugen was never known to smile until his last day on earth. When his time came to pass away he said to his faithful ones: “You have studied under me for more than ten years. Show me your real interpretation of Zen. Whoever expresses this most clearly shall by my successor and receive my robe and bowl.”

Everyone watched Mokugen’s severe face, but no one answered.

Encho, a disciple who had been with his teacher for a long time, moved near the bedside. He pushed forward the medicine cup a few inches. This was his answer to the command.

The teacher’s face became even more severe. “Is that all you understand?” he asked.

Encho reached out and moved the cup back again.

A beautiful smile broke over the features of Mokugen. “You rascal,” he told Encho. “You worked with me ten years and have not yet seen my whole body. Take the robe and bowl. They belong to you.”