The Simple Way, Part 3

The Simple Way
The Life & Teachings of Zhouzi
by Scott Bradley

A Buddhist monk on his way to a monastery in the North asked if he might break his journey and rest a few days with the community. Rising long before dawn, as was his habit, he went to the hall where he meditated alone until first light when the monks began to assemble to break the fast. While the others wandered away to attend to their duties, he remained behind to study the sutras. Finally, when in the afternoon he saw monks laughing and idling in the shade of the trees, he sought out Zhouzi to express his outrage. “Master!” said he, “Surely none will attain enlightenment who behave in this way!”

“Surely you would know better than I,” replied Zhouzi, “for I know nothing of ‘enlightenment’ nor of how to attain it. Here, we seek only to be who we are. And that is always and only just as we are. How could we ‘attain’ what we already are? When all is affirmed, there is no need to become. Why would we divide what is always just One? Our way is simple and our methods none. Yet this simplest of ways is a transformative power, for all the world is transformed with a single ‘Yes!’”

A few days later the monk returned weeping tears of joy and exclaimed, “Master, it has happened for me! I have vanished into Unity!” And laying his begging bowl and the robe of his vocation before Zhouzi, he said, “Please, I humbly request to join this community.”

To this Zhouzi, also weeping, said, “Many have I seen realize the Simplicity, but few so quickly as this. You are most welcome among us, though I suspect your heart will soon lead you North. Yet while you are here amongst us, please share with others what might have prepared you for your leap.”

“Truly, Master, I know not what that might be, for looking now behind me, the meditation, fasting and the sutras were but a whiling away of the time until I realized Reality.”

“It is only for this that I would have you share them,” replied Zhouzi.

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