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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: sonamdhargey on April 07, 2013, 01:36:27 PM

Title: When Tired
Post by: sonamdhargey on April 07, 2013, 01:36:27 PM

I found a zen story as follows:

A student once asked his teacher,

"Master, what is enlightenment?"

The master replied,

"When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep."

So do any of you get it? I still don't get it.

Title: Re: When Tired
Post by: WisdomBeing on April 13, 2013, 09:27:22 AM

i guess you should ask a Zen practitioner about this koan! Personally, it seems to be a focus on the 'now', though as i understand it, the Vajrayana tradition advises us to not focus on our physical needs so if we look at this koan in a literal sense, it would be contradictory. I mean that if we are hungry, we don't necessarily have to eat now or if we are tired, we do not necessarily have to sleep now as these physical needs are all in the mind, which is often deluded. Often when we think we are tired, we are not as tired as we think (does that make sense!) :)

Anyway, if you do find out what a zen practitioner thinks of this koan, do let me know.

Title: Re: When Tired
Post by: Jessie Fong on April 13, 2013, 05:58:22 PM

My take on this -- enlightenment as in this story is reaching the level of understanding a situation and having the wisdom to take appropriate action to arrive at a solution.

Thus --

When thirsty, drink
When dirty, wash


Does it make sense?

Title: Re: When Tired
Post by: fruven on April 14, 2013, 05:03:29 PM

If we are too hungry our mind can be preoccupied we wanting to eat. If we are too tired our mind become preoccupied to wanting to sleep. The mind become distracted to these two. Since we have to eat and sleep soon or later why wait? Satisfied these two needs and our mind can focus back on what it is current to be doing, that is meditation.

Title: Re: When Tired
Post by: bambi on April 15, 2013, 05:15:21 PM

I still find that Zen Buddhism is something hard for me to relate to as it is really not easy to understand koan. I am sure that one must go through certain amount of teachings and understanding to interpret such koan.

My guess would be, Enlightenment can be attained but lets focused on the present, now. Do the best we can now, and work towards it. Instead of asking about Enlightenment, transform now and do what one must to achieve it.

Title: Re: When Tired
Post by: diablo1974 on April 16, 2013, 02:25:28 AM

it does make sense.
When thirsty, drink
When dirty, wash
Its refering to meditate on the present.