Song of the Day: West Coast Blues - Wes Montgomery
Quote of the Day: "Chance favours the prepared mind." --Louis Pasteur
Thought of the Day: The song of the day is one of my favorite Wes Montgomery tunes, love his soloing on this track. I played guitar on this tune a few times with my old jazz group, the Jazz Action Committee. Sweewawa and I have lately been debating about the merits of organized religion, and have as part of this discussion been sharing some Zen stories. Over the couple of years I'm eager to explore further the ancient philosophers thoughts on organized religion and also to delve into studying Zen Buddhism. I hope in these continued studies / discussions to arrive at a shared "conclusion" about what role spirituality will play in our lives. For starters I'll share now on this blog a cool Zen story I just encountered:
A man travelling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself over the edge.
The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man then saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other.
How sweet it tasted.
Cheers, Dr. Kowawa
1 comment:
That was one of the first story about Buddhism I ever read. Can't remember the all the symbolisations, but I think the abyss represents death, the tiger is misfortune, the thin and slippery vine represents hope, and the sweet dew is the joy and achievements in life.
Point of the story being: Life is fragile, existence is fleeting, while death is omnipotent and perishing is permanent. Surviving itself is a rather futile struggle, just like grabbing onto the vine that's bound to break sooner or later above the abyss, let alone the fact that there's a tiger watching you from the cliff.
But the honey dew make people forget about their fundamental worry and enjoy their moments, just like we all take pride in having a good job, loving spouse, smart kids, fancy cars, big houses and etc.
And in the end, what comes comes, what breaks breaks. Can Buddhism or anything offer me a hand from the cliff? I don't know. But the powerful analogies left a deep impression on my mind since an early age,that, I do know.
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