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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"




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