The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life.
A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child. This made her parents very angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.
In great anger the parents went to the master, pointing fingers and screaming "You have dishonored our daughter!"
"Is that so?" was Hakuin's only response.
After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him. He took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else the little one needed.
A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth — that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fishmarket.
The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back again.
Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: "Is that so?"
4 comments:
Suzuki Roshi: "Not Always So".
James—not sure what you mean. Could you deconstruct this a bit?
Suzuki Roshi often responded to questions of great import with "Not always so". For instance, "Does the True Way lead to no-suffering?" was met with "Not always so". The question was absurd; the response was absurd. For him, ordinary matters (existential moments) were always so; extraordinary matters were not always so. Satori was looking across a room into a kitchen where his wife was preparing supper. But why do I tell what is already known?
Grok.
(Got it!)
;-)
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