Love and charity for the whole human race, that is the test of true religiousness. Where it is dark night for the (sense-bound) world, the self controlled (man) is awake. It is daylight for him. . . . And where the world is awake, the sage sleeps. Where is the world awake? In the senses.
It is grand and good to know the laws that govern the stars and planets; it is infinitely grander and better to know the laws that govern the passions, the feelings, the will, of mankind.
When man has been sufficiently buffeted by the world, he awakes to a desire for freedom; and searching for means of escape from the dreary round of earthly existence, he seeks knowledge, learns what he really is, and is free.
Teach yourselves, teach everyone his/her real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come, when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.
A Zen Story - Theme Total Detachment
It is grand and good to know the laws that govern the stars and planets; it is infinitely grander and better to know the laws that govern the passions, the feelings, the will, of mankind.
When man has been sufficiently buffeted by the world, he awakes to a desire for freedom; and searching for means of escape from the dreary round of earthly existence, he seeks knowledge, learns what he really is, and is free.
Teach yourselves, teach everyone his/her real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come, when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.
Source – notes taken from the editorial of Prabuddha Bharata Magazine June 2018
A Zen Story - Theme Total Detachment
A beautiful Japanese girl and her parents lived near the cottage
of the Zen master, Hakuin. One day her parents discovered she was with child. They
were angry and ashamed and wanted to know who the father was. After much harassment,
the poor girl named Hakuin. When the parents complained to the master, all he would
say was, "Is that so?”
The child was born and was brought to Hakuin, who took very good
care of it.
A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told
her parents the truth — that the father of the child was a young man who worked
in the fish market. The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to
ask his forgiveness, and to get the child back again.
Hakuin was willing to let the child go. All he said when he
heard about the real father was, "Is that so?"
The Master whose ego
was dead had no reputation to lose or regain. He had attained total detachment.