One Zen monk, Bokuju, was passing through a street in a village. Somebody came and struck him with a stick. He fell down, and with him, the stick also. He got up and picked up the stick. The man who had hit him was running away. Bokuju ran after him, calling, ”Wait, take your stick with you!”

He followed after him and gave him the stick. A crowd had gathered to see what was happening, and somebody asked Bokuju, ”That man struck you hard, and you have not said anything!”

Bokuju is reported to have said, ”A fact is a fact. He has hit, that’s all. It happened that he was the hitter and I was the hit. It is just as if I am passing under a tree, or sitting under a tree, and a branch falls down. What will I do? What can I do?”

But the crowd said, ”But a branch is a branch, this is a man. We cannot say anything to the branch, we cannot punish it. We cannot say to the tree that it is bad, because a tree is a tree, it has no mind.”

Bokuju said, ”This man to me is also just a branch. And if I cannot say anything to the tree, why should I bother to say anything to this man? It happened. I am not going to interpret what has happened. And it has already happened. Why get worried about it? It is finished, over.”

This is the mind of a sage – not choosing, not asking, not saying this should be and this should not be. Whatsoever happens, he accepts it in its totality. This acceptance gives him freedom, this acceptance gives him the capacity to see. These are eye diseases: shoulds, should nots, divisions, judgments, condemnations, appreciations. 

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twilight zone thoughts, by Art~

 A good Friend of mine, Mr. Crow (an ex-Warden) a very creditable and honorable man and I were having a conversation and he told me about a dream he had while sleeping; He stated that he was at his house, got into his car and drove toward town. On the road, a police officer pulled him over and as the officer asked him for his driver’s license it was discovered that he had forgotten his wallet at home. The officer agreed to allow him to drive home and get his wallet while the officer followed him.

When they arrived at his house they went inside and began looking for his wallet. The thing that was strange was that his living room was different from his real living room. It was huge and had many couch’s and reclining chairs. They looked through so many different types of furniture for his wallet till they finally found it. Mr. Crow said, It wasn’t my living room, but in my dream it was.

Then, a few days later, while awake, he and Ms. Rouse (another good Friend of ours) went shopping for new furniture, because Mr. Crow had moved. When they got to the furniture store, Mr. Crow said he was stunned, The store was the exact same room in his dream. His living room in his dream was this furniture store, how can that be. Twilight zone stuff. I know Mr. Crow as being of solid mind and as truthful as they come.

I know I have had these Deja vu dreams. Walk into a room and say: “I have been here before, it was in my dream!” But, how can this be? How can we go to a place in our dreams and then go to them while awake. Do we truly create our world through our dreams? A fact is a fact.

I would truly like to hear your story or comment on this topic!

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have a dreamy day

(~_~)