Monk to Master…
Q. Who am I?
Master…
A. There’s only one of us here!
The one you are is that which is.
As is the Reader.
Q. Where am I?
A. I will refer to the I you still think you are and not that I whom I just told you you were; as if you had grasped my last answer you would not have asked this.
Tell me, are your lungs part of you?
Monk. Of course.
Master. Then may I ask you what you would rather I took away from you; your lungs or all the air?
Monk. I cannot separate them, now I realise master!
Master. No, not yet, listen, you are right in that at least, yet further still; The whole universe; remove or change any element and you will cease to be able to ask me questions. While your lungs seem in fact to reach the extremes of our atmosphere, your true ‘I body’ is the entire universe and is ‘that which is’. That which is outside of all your reason, before space and time and breath and lungs and Where and who am I questions.
Q. Then what is the truth?
A. As that becomes clear you will laugh at how you could ever utter such a question. When it is known, then question and answer will be nothing but lines in a whimsical tale of the monk who realised not. As the truth becomes clear the question and answer are both clearly irrelevant, uninteresting asides to spontaneous living, and I’m going for sandwich.
Daily Tao is a reprint from Ta-Wan's blog, Daily Cup of Tao, which offers one post per day for an entire year. You also can read these posts in an ebook.
Q. Who am I?
Master…
A. There’s only one of us here!
The one you are is that which is.
As is the Reader.
Q. Where am I?
A. I will refer to the I you still think you are and not that I whom I just told you you were; as if you had grasped my last answer you would not have asked this.
Tell me, are your lungs part of you?
Monk. Of course.
Master. Then may I ask you what you would rather I took away from you; your lungs or all the air?
Monk. I cannot separate them, now I realise master!
Master. No, not yet, listen, you are right in that at least, yet further still; The whole universe; remove or change any element and you will cease to be able to ask me questions. While your lungs seem in fact to reach the extremes of our atmosphere, your true ‘I body’ is the entire universe and is ‘that which is’. That which is outside of all your reason, before space and time and breath and lungs and Where and who am I questions.
Q. Then what is the truth?
A. As that becomes clear you will laugh at how you could ever utter such a question. When it is known, then question and answer will be nothing but lines in a whimsical tale of the monk who realised not. As the truth becomes clear the question and answer are both clearly irrelevant, uninteresting asides to spontaneous living, and I’m going for sandwich.
Daily Tao is a reprint from Ta-Wan's blog, Daily Cup of Tao, which offers one post per day for an entire year. You also can read these posts in an ebook.
Learn about how my friend's one day with a Buddhist monk changed his life, helped him become a CEO and redefined his idea of success:
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why the fuck would you deem that success.
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