Aug 18 2009
Zen Parable about Non-attachment
Image by mimiliz at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/801028
Here is a wonderful Zen parable about non-attachment. Before reading this story, I thought of non-attachment as extreme passivity. But to a Zen Buddhist, non-attachment is anything BUT passive; rather they take action when necessary, but they do so in the PRESENT moment. Their “present moment” actions ensure that they always take the appropriate actions for each individual circumstance.
Think about it.
Most of our actions and reactions to life events are based of memories (if only subconsciously) of similar events from our pasts. As a result, we don’t react to situations appropriately as the situations warrant. Consequently, we are not able to think and see clearly enough to really solve the problem.
Not so, for Zen Buddhists.
Here, in my own words, is my favorite Zen parable about non-attachment—or living in the NOW.
Two months start to cross a river when a beautiful, naked woman approaches them and asks them to help her to cross the river. The younger monk is horrified because monks are prohibited from having any type of contact with naked women. Without hesitation, the older monk picks her up and carries her across the river. The two monks go on their way, but the younger monk cannot stop thinking of the awful “sin” that the older monk had committed at the river. They walk for about a mile when the older monk turns to the younger monk and says, “I carried that girl across the river a mile ago and left her at the bank. You are still carrying her.”
How many of us carry around our emotional baggage from years ago, when we should have “left it at the bank?”
