I posted that quote a few months back.
It pretty much summarizes my worldview, but it's not the complete quote, not is it the whole story.
The Japanese Zen master Bankei lived in the 17th century. One day another Zen master's students came to him and said, "Our master has a mantra that gives him the power to perform many great miracles. What miracles can you perform?"
"My miracle is that when I'm hungry I eat, and when I'm tired, I sleep," Bankei replied.
Bankei had no sense that the 'magic tricks' of other Zen teachers trumped his own everyday mind. He was content to do 'nothing' while other teachers performed 'miracles.' Their teachings are forgotten, but Bankei's are immortal.
I wonder how he kept his abs in shape with that regimen.
1 comment:
I just randomly searched this phrase in quotation marks, and found your post. Thank you immensely and eternally for caring about such things. I absolutely love japanese culture, have studied the language (my japanese language skill is terrible, but i try to improve). and was terribly lucky to have lived in tok-yo (edu) briefly in '07ish for work. My only remaining hope in life (i'll be 68 in a couple months) is to travel to asia again, even for an instant.
I was also lucky enough to travel a few other places in asia, and have many entries into prc, where I will also still claim friendships, but for time and space. Sadly I've never been to india, which might be my next call, my gods willing and where the asian quest may have begun, in my understanding.
When I began my quest about 4 decades ago, I was afforded the luxury of studying asian culture, learned the classic form of the japanese tea ceremony, and was able to read works of various life masters, among many other similar luxuries.
This quote was in those days mentioned to me as perhaps having been reconstructed for humanity by lao-tzu, perhaps uttered by bodisattva (my memory and spellings are eternally suspect) in his travels across what are now india, china, japan, etc. upon reaching the side of a river and stumbling upon a subject who appeared to be writing'letters' in the sand while exclaiming (such as) "can't you see! My letters are appearing in the sand on the far side of the river"....
And this my dearest friend, fellow traveler, and sifi (not just the story, but the apparent discrepancy) are one of the things I absolutely love about asian culture in general. It is a discrepancy I would not wish to clarify. Travel safely when possible. Craig 510-502-9233
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