Zen

I was just reading a Zen story about a master asking one of his young students to show him the sound one hand clapping makes. Now at first thought you may say this is easy. It's true. What sound does one hand clapping make? *grins*

Reading it I can see that when we are asked a question we immediately try to solve the problem. So can you demonstrate the sound of one hand clapping?

I thought of the student, could it have been that he was afraid that if he told his master that the sound would be silence? Could he have thought that he shouldn't know that answer so quickly? I think he simply went for the more complicated answer. Now I don't know much about Zen but I do know there is simplicity in it. Someone once told me that if you try to understand Zen then you miss what it is.

To me this story shows how difficult we try and make things also. Some times the answers are simple.

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Cerr's weekly discussion has made me think about teachers. I've had only a couple of what I would call teachers. As I've thought about it today I realize that we have many teachers in our lives. Some are there for such a short period of time that you don't realize they were even teachers. Not until you look back. Still I do feel like it's different levels of teaching that is what we notice most. Just like the Zen story I spoke of above the student can make it harder than it is. I should know, I'm one of those students.