A Zen Master at Creighton Authors: Instructor and Students in PHL 353 Intr. to Buddhism, Spring 2005

Zen Master (ZM): “The perfect Way is without difficulty, Save that it avoids picking and choosing. Only when you stop liking and disliking Will all be clearly understood.” When everyone recognizes beauty as beautiful, There is already ugliness; When everyone recognizes goodness as good, There is already evil. “To be” and “not to be” arise mutually; Difficult and easy are mutually realized; Long and short are mutually contrasted; High and low are mutually posited…

Creighton Student (CS): “I stayed up last night to write a first draft of a paper which was due two days ago. A drunk Creighton student came to my door trick-or-treating.” ZM: “To receive trouble is to receive good fortune.”

CS: That is so true. My good fortune came right after this. I went to sleep at 1:00am and fire alarm went off at 2:00am. ZM: “At dusk the cock announces dawn; At midnight, the bright sun.” CS: That is nice. But, at dawn, I have a 5ft stack of books to carry to class and six papers due last week. I worry about my grades. I have had no sleep. ZM: “Cut out cleverness and there are no anxieties!”

CS: How can I do it? It’s impossible. Anxieties are parts of my life. For example, I had a 20 page paper due on Monday that I couldn’t start until Sunday afternoon. It took me three hours to finish the first page and then I found out that, in fact, the paper should be 25 pages instead. How could I finish it? ZM: “No thought, no reflection, no analysis No cultivation, no intention; Let it settle itself.”

CS: I guess that you’ve never lived in the US. Here, if there in no parking, there is no parking. You have to circle around and around. It can never settle itself. ZM: “Yet though Wisdom lies outside affairs, it never lacks them. Though Spirit lies beyond the world, it stays ever within it.” Directions, Parking & Map

CS: Well, I would like to borough your wisdom to solve my problems right now. I can never find parking before my 8:00am class. I have already been late for the class. And, I lost my disk which has my presentation on it, and I have to present it today. How could I do my presentation? ZM: “Those who know do not speak; Those who speak do not know.”

CS: That helps. I’d like to sell my text books right now to buy your Wisdom. But, I bought a book for $180 dollars at the Creighton bookstore and I only got $15 for selling it back. ZM: “Money is an illusion. Real wealth is in beautiful moments.” CS: Yes. We do have a beautiful moment today. ZM: “Wisdom know not, yet it illumines the deepest profundity.”