The Art of Zen Living

There’s an old proverb, it goes something like this.  A Zen Master was asked how his life changed when he became enlightened.  He replied “Well, before enlightenment, I would carry water and chop wood.  After I became enlightened, I carry water, and chop wood.”

It’s an interesting statement to meditate upon.  What I’m going to write next is just my take on this, I don’t claim that I’m right or wrong, just that my conclusions means something to me.

The subtle subtext is that before he became enlightened, he did those things because he was told to, without understanding why.  Once he became enlightened, he understood that those were the things that needed to be done.  Buddhism is both straight forward and convoluted.  It’s this duality, perhaps, that I find appealing.  Buddhism asks us to accept and embrace our own duality in order to transcend our duality.  The irony is that once we do transcend our duality, what we do is what we’ve always done.  We just do it differently.  I think I’m more confused now than when I started writing this, so I hope I’m not being too convoluted.

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