shadsampatti:a story

[Guest guest]

Sacred space has always been a favorite column of mine in the Times of

India and their latest one is both beautiful and relevant to the

ongoing theme of self-development with the six-fold virtues.

 

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Hakuin Zenji, an 18th century Japanese Zen master, was known for his

piety. It so happened once that an unmarried girl from his

neighbourhood got big with child.

 

When questioned by her parents, she named the monk as the father of

the unborn child. Enraged, the parents minced no words and lambasted

the monk severely.

 

Hakuin Zenji would neither refute nor accept the allegation. " Is that

so? " was all he would reiterate. When the child saw the light of the

day, it was brought to Hakuin Zenji.

 

The monk would now find food for two, though in the wake of his soiled

reputation, he would, many a time, receive more barbs than food.

 

By the time the year was out, the girl-mother could stand it no longer

and revealed the identity of her lover, a fish market help, to her

parents.

 

The parents apologised to the monk, repeatedly begged his forgiveness

and the cu-stody of the child.

 

The sage handed over the child to them, mumbling a whisper: " Is that

so? " Innocence is neither defensive nor offensive, neither reactive

nor proactive.

 

When first the monk said, " Is that so? " , he perhaps meant: " Is this

what these people believe? " As he was aware of who he was, he was like

an alien to their belief system.

 

He didn't depend upon their opinion to define himself. To him the

charges were irrelevant offscourings that called for no response

either in yes or no.

 

While his reputation played see-saw, he turned around and spoke to

existence: " Is that so? " A man of piety owes his allegiance only to

existence.

Disaster Management Of A SageAdd to Clippings

Ajit Singh

 

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When the child was brought to him, he took yet another existential

dispensation. A sage does not question anything dished out to him by

existence.

 

Any hesitation would be tantamount to a disregard of existence. J

Krishnamurti would call such an attitude " choicelessness " but a sage

does not choose even " choicelessness " because that would mean losing

his inner dyna-mics, his inner balance.

 

In Zazen Wasan, Hakuin Zenji's song in praise of zazen, he sings: " We

stand beyond ego and past clever words/ Then the gate to oneness of

cause-and-effect is thrown open " .

 

What the child needed immediately was a father's love and protection

and not the gossiper of idle village folks. Being in present was his

metier.

 

And so he baby-sat the child till the day he was asked to part with

it. Had he not deve-loped any bond with the child? We don't know.

 

We only know that he remained rooted in the fulcrum of his inner

balance. For him depth of living was more meaningful than any length

of living.

 

For length we scour the past and the future but depth happens in the

hear and now. There was no knee-jerk action from him, only a lover's

plaint to existence: " Is that so? " , that is to say, What is this joke,

now?

 

The sound of one hand clapping is a beautiful gift of Hakuin Zenji to

Zen. This koan like any real koan cannot be solved. But it is an

existential treat to be experienced.

 

We who bobble in the ambit of bubble chambers created and sustained by

a ceaseless flow of frivolous thoughts, would do well to work on it to

get a glimpse of Hakuin Zenji's envious, yet accomplishable, state.

___________________

 

Pranams

Hari OM

Shyam

[Guest guest]

Shaymji, thanks for the beautiful story. I am already feeling monk-

like under its spell.

 

However, I am a little bit confused too. We, Advaitins, do agree

that there is at least a 'seeming' choice of action granted to us.

In Shankara's own words, kartum shakyam, akartum shakyam, anyatAva

kartum shakyam (can do, cannot do, can do differently).

 

Each moment is Consciousness unravelling Herself in front of us. The

child and its alleged paternity were Consciousness unravelling before

the monk. There is a beauty in understing all happenings this way

and accepting them totally without resistance. We are then honouring

the very Consciousness we are. In the explanation to the story, the

word Existence, I suppose, denotes this Consciousness.

 

Well, from the point of view of Advaita, there was no harm for the

monk to have denied the charge, as that is the truth. In doing so he

would then have been exercising the seeming freedom of action granted

to him by the very same Consciousness (Existence). Then that denial

would not be an attempt of the dreaded ego to salvage its pride. It

would only be an obeisance to Consciousness. Someone else, perhaps

the grandparents themselves, would then have taken care of the child.

 

Don't we Advaitins also pray for the will to change those that we can

change and the ability to understand those we can change and those we

cannot? Why couldn't the monk try to change the situation if that

was possible before embracing it as an obvious inevitable?

 

Would you agree?

 

PraNAms.

 

Madathil Nair