One of my favorite zen stories:
There is the story of the man who had murdered ninety-nine people before he met a holy man. Thereafter he retired to sit beneath a tree beside a well traveled path. One day a warrior on his way to conquer the next town stopped before the man and demanded he move from his place beneath the tree. When the man refused, the soldier drew his sword, and the man rose from his place and murdered the warrior with his hands. He had killed a hundred men, but in killing the last he saved a hundred souls who would have died in the town. Immediately upon killing the soldier, the murderer was released from the karma of his acts and achieved satori.
So it goes.
3 comments:
I hear satori goes nice with yellow rice.
“Karma does not bind one who has renounced work.”
- Bhagavad Gita
I guess I'm still working on my karma. Like Zeno's Paradox of Dichotomy, it will take an infinity of steps to work out my Karma. I say I'm half-way there, but soon I'll be half-way through the remainder, and so on. I'll never get there.
Gita says, if I read it correctly, "Give up and quit your job, slack off, pull the wool over your own eyes and relax in the safety of your own delusions, and poof, there goes the Karma!"
Oh how I long for the Shining Path of Least Resistance.
Slack saves, my son. Remembering your original face rocks!
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