Hello All –
In her book “There Is Nothing Wrong With You,” Cheri Huber
paraphrases an old Zen story as follows:
“ A woman went to a Zen monastery. She was so thrilled to be there – such a holy place, a place
of enlightenment
The first sitting period, she walked mindfully up the steps
of the meditation hall. As she was preparing to bow deeply before entering, she
noticed a shocking thing. There,
at the top of the steps, was a bucket of filthy wash water with a mop
protruding from the murky depths.
“That’s awful!” she exclaimed, truly horrified, and went in
to meditate.
The next morning the bucket was still there.
“That’s disgusting,” she muttered, “this is Zen?” and went
in to meditate.
The next morning, the same bucket. She exclaimed, “I can’t believe this! This is ridiculous. Someone should do something about
this,” and went in to meditate.
The fourth morning, there was the bucket, hardly improved by
the days of neglect. The woman
looked at the bucket and thought, “I’m someone,” and took it away and cleaned
it. “
I imagine that you had some kind of reaction when reading
this story. Perhaps it was “What does this have to do with me?”, or “Boy, I can
totally relate! People should
clean up after themselves!” Maybe
your reaction went along the lines of “As usual, the women have to clean up
after the men!”
But the purpose of the story was not about placing
blame. I think it was about
developing awareness and taking responsibility.
Do you think the following two scenarios are related to the
story?
Scenario 1 :
A month ago, a woman invited her social club over for lunch
and the date was now only 3 days away. She had asked her husband repeatedly to mow the lawn; it
looked bad then and now it looked really terrible and she was embarrased to
face her neighbors. What would her
friends from the social club say if they saw how neglected her yard was? Each time she had asked her husband to
mow the lawn, he always said that he would get around to it. But he always seemed to be too busy at
work. And now time was running out
and she was disgusted.
Scenario 2:
For almost a month, now, a man had been arriving home from
work and finding that dinner hadn’t even been started yet, let alone ready to
eat. He worked long hours on his
job and expected that his wife would appreciate his efforts to support the
family by providing hot, delicious meals.
When he asked her about the situation, she complained about being tired,
especially as the children weren’t feeling well. He didn’t think that was much of an excuse and angrily
turned on the TV.
Are there other scenarios in your life similar to
these? Do you find yourself
getting upset with others? Looking
for fault? Casting blame? Has that ever improved anything?
Have a great week!
Kevin
Reminder: If you are unsure about the meaning of the
idioms used in this message, please refer to "Idioms, Figures of Speech,
and Proverbs" posted on this blog in August 2013. An alternative is
to look at http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com
That was a good story to read and grasp. In my opinion it applies to both scenarios.
ReplyDeleteOff course there was many scenarios like this in my life. But I learned a while ago the same wisdom that was included in this story. Nonetheless I do occasionally forget that wisdom and I have to meditate to regain it. Do you?
Oh sure. I find myself daily forgetting this lesson. Well, they say that age brings wisdom; someday I hope to see that come true in my case. As you say, related scenarios abound in our lives - many opportunities to remember this lesson, I think.
Delete