Skip to main content

The Zen in "Letting go"



When I was taking Philosophy in Grade 13, I remember having to write an essay with extremely vague instructions. Essentially, our teacher Mr. Smith, instructed us to write a 3 page philosophical paper. This was his exact and only instruction. I swear the first question asked was, "Mr. Smith, what's a philosophical paper?" But I suppose, that's exactly what he wanted us to discover on our own?! Anyways, that essay was one of the reasons why I got early acceptance into Waterloo. It was my first and unfortunately the last time I ever received 101% on something. The bonus 1% was given out to students who impressed Mr. Smith. I felt really special because I was the only one. (All Bragging rights reserved for life)

Aside from this wicked grade and early acceptance in to loo, I truly learned a life long lesson. Like most students in high school, I started working on my assignment the night before it was due. I spent most of the night researching on Yahoo looking up "philosophical topics"and "how to write a philosophical essay". I was struggling and needless to say procrastinating on ICQ. Shortly after 12 and right before I almost gave up, I came across a series of Zen stories. Some of them were pretty cool while many flew right over my head. The one that stood out the most and the one I used for my assignment was about letting go. I don't know what it is about this story that has resonated with me for so long. But it has been a part of me for a very long time.

The story was about a senior monk and a student monk on their way back to the monastery. There were puddles everywhere along the way as the weather was quite bad and it was raining all day. They were about to enter a path that was pretty flooded and covered in broken branches when the senior monk noticed a woman in distress. This woman seemed injured and unable to cross the path. After realizing that she was hurt and unable to walk, the senior monk carried her across the path to safety. The student monk was shocked but he kept his reaction to himself as they continued in silence on their way back to the monastery. Later that night, the senior monk noticed the student monk was a bit distracted. So he asked him if everything was alright. The student monk replied, "Sir, I don't mean to question you. But as monks we cannot touch a woman!" The senior monk responded, "yes, brother you are right". The student monk then asked again, "but then sir, how is it that you lifted that woman and carried her across the path?". The senior monk smiled, and responded "brother, I lifted that woman, carried her across the path and left her in safety. But it is you that are still carrying her"




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nozick's Experience Machine

Have you ever contemplated brain lobotomy after an embarrassing moment, a bad break-up, or finding out something you wish you never did? I never really thought about it until a friend brought it up. For those who don't know, a brain lobotomy is a neurosurgical procedure that consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex (courtesy of wikipedia).It's a procedure used to control or reduce the effects of a whole bunch of mental disorders. In a nutshell, it disassociates emotional attachment to painful memories. I'm sure if it were an effective and successful procedure it would be as common as Botox. Sure it looks painful (seriously gory and painful) but let's pretend it's not. My question is, if the practice was safe, affordable and widely available would you consider it? Would you want to disconnect your feelings and emotions from a particular distressing memory? I like to believe that there is a whole lot of unnecessary bullshit I have put up...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Negative on Negativity

I can’t help but live a miserable life if all I am doing is thinking negatively . Negativity robbed me of my ability to transform, grow, succeed, have faith, love, live and to feel each moment. Getting it all back was difficult. But it started with wanting it. Then, to desire for it.  Practice it. Adapt to it. And then live by it. Start with feeling again. Meditate on how to feel. Meditate on how it would feel to feel again. To feel alive. To feel thirsty and hungry for success, balance and completeness. To feel happy when you wake up. To feel content with your life. To love your job, to love others and to love the life you live. Wake up… not just for your job. But to wake up to your life and to live your life. To love your life. To feel this incredible energy around you. An energy that thrives off you and others around you. Feel it.   Start with wanting it. Then practice it. Live it. Every day. You should also check out:  Meditation and it's benefit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Old Shelves

I never truly understood the saying “forgive and forget”. It is hard enough to differentiate our feelings from someone or something that hurt us, let alone forget it all together? I must admit, I haven’t quite mastered the skill of forgiveness, which according to my work mom (yes, I had a work mom when I worked at Rogers!) meant the same thing as forgetting. Work mom also pointed out that I have a tendency to hold grudges. But I know that if I’m holding a grudge it’s because I’ve made it quite clear that forgiveness has not been granted to you. This whole paragraph pretty much sums up my issues related to grudges and forgiveness- clearly! It’s something that I know I need to work on. Part of the People Detox is letting go and you can’t let go of someone or something if you’re planning on holding a grudge. It’s a catch 22 for me, I want to let it go, but I don’t know how, maybe I can figure out how, but will it be convincing enough?! Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City wrote, “Can you...
Post a Comment
Read more