Posts Tagged ‘zen parable’
Courage
How do we truly become ourselves? Many paths lead us to who we are today and who we will become with the hope of, one day, becoming the person we aspire to be. We need the daring and the guts to hold firm to our convictions, even if it seems the whole world is against us. Perhaps even more difficult, we need the courage to change some of our own beliefs that have become obsolete or even proven wrong as it relates to who we are becoming and want to become. It takes courage to stand up to others, but it takes a really different kind of courage to stand up to that voice inside of us that says this is the way I’ve always done this– or the way my parents always did this– or how I was brought up — or… and it continues. I’m not there yet, but I keep trying.
Posted on Sunday, November 20th, 2011 | No Comments »
Obviously!
Some folks grow impatient when others state the obvious. They shouldn’t– really.I’m an obvious talker, therefore, when I hark back to a simpler approach or say something they very well should know or comprehend, but have, or chosen to overlook, I see in their eyes a glaze of irritation.
But I know something, and they know it too. That is, if they take a moment to think, they would realize that the obvious is frequently overlooked for some grander way. It’s like air. We don’t give it a second thought until we gasp for it when we have little warning of losing it.
Paraphrasing a Zen parable I read in Wayne Dyer’s latest book, Excuses Begone!, a wise monk called Birdnest, because of his fondness of meditating in trees, was visited by a governor of the province. He wearily traveled three days to ask his burning question. When the governor approached the monk, perched in a tree, he called up and asked, “Can you tell me the most important thing the Buddha ever said?” After a deliberate pause, the monk answered, “Don’t do bad things; always do good things!” The governor was agitated and angrily responded, ” I knew that when I was three years old!”
Birdnest concluded by saying “Yes, the three year old knows it, but the eighty-year-old still finds it very difficult to do!”
Posted on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 | No Comments »
