Thought Cloud!

Friends, there is a meaningful story about a famous Zen Master Tozan....

It seems the Gods wanted to see him, but they couldn't see him because he was just an emptiness. They would enter into him from this side and that, they would pass through him, but he was nowhere to be found. He was a ‘nothingness’.... completely empty of himself. the Gods were quite curious to see this empty man, so one day they played a trick.

As Tozan was returning from his morning walk, the Gods picked up a handful of rice and wheat from his kitchen and threw it on his path. In a Zen monastery this is almost a sin because it is very disrespectful to the rice and wheat. 

Everything in the existence should be respected as it is divine and this principle has nothing to do with our ordinary economics. In a Zen monastery nothing is wasted. One has to be careful and alert.

So, the Gods played this trick. When Tozan saw the rice and wheat thrown on his path, he could not believe that, any of his disciples could do this....”Who could be so careless and disrespectful?”

This thought arose in him and suddenly his ‘self’ was there. The gods could see him because, now the ‘emptiness’ was no more empty. Suddenly there was a thought, an idea had crystallised, an attitude, a mind had entered. For a moment a cloud appeared in the blue sky and the Gods could see Tozan....

....And then the cloud disappeared because the thought disappeared....!

Moral of the Story ...

Friends, whenever there is a thought, there comes the mind and a cloud arises. And there is not only one cloud, but many thoughts and ideas and millions of clouds which continuously haunt us, covering us in multiple layers of clouds. The inner sky is completely hidden and one can't even have a glimpse of it.

Just a small curious thought, 'Who could be so careless?' but that was enough! 

For example, when one sees the morning sun and thinks, 'How beautiful!' This small fragment of a thought creates an inner pressure, which needs to be released by verbalizing this experience to others. Only then one feels good that one has expressed it to others. And if we cannot find anybody, the thought will haunt us more.

Friends, our mind is thus continuously over-flooded with thoughts, ideas, emotions and sentiments, which do not allow us to achieve the essential ‘emptiness’. Thus for most of us life always remains in chaos.

Have a Great Day Ahead Friends!