Boulder was always spiritually alive, and one day I noticed a flyer tacked to a utility pole on the Boulder pedestrian mall advertising a two-day intensive meditation retreat in the neighboring town of Broomfield. Since we had never attended a retreat hosted by a Zen master before, we decided to go.
It was conducted in a large home on a pretty piece of property surrounded by beautiful trees and flowers, a nice stetting, and we were surprised how many people decided to attend - there were cars parked all over the place. I wasn't aware at the time that the Zen master was considered to be enlightened and known world wide! We all found seats facing the various walls, and after the schedule and rules were covered, we began to sit.
We were happily meditating on the second day when I felt a tap on my shoulder.
"Would you like an interview?"
"Sure," I whispered, thinking, Why not? I don't need any help, but who knows, he might have something interesting to say (typical Western attitude).
I was shown upstairs and found the Zen Master sitting on a meditation cushion in the middle of a huge room, holding a weird staff in his right hand looking very much like a crooked tree limb growing out of the floor. He was wearing a funny hat and looked quite comical. But he wasn't smiling. I entered the room, bowed respectfully, and then just stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do. He pointed to a cushion across from him, indicating that I should sit.
I sat quietly for a few seconds until he loudly asked, "WHERE YOU COME FROM?"
Wow! Where do I come from? This was definitely a metaphysical question – he was testing me, trying to establish where I was in my practice, and while I was thinking about where I fundamentally came from, he banged his staff on the floor impatiently and repeated, "WHERE YOU COME FROM?"
"Slow down, I'm thinking, I'm thinking," I thought to myself. "Hmmm . . . I am just an emanation of the Fundamental Reality . . . no that's not quite right. Maybe I . . .
BANG! The staff again, as he shouted, DON'T KNOW!"
I looked at him, puzzled, and he banged the stick again, "DON'T KNOW! DON'T KNOW!" he yelled.
I finally got the idea and repeated, quietly, "DON'T KNOW?"
"Good," he said, "now . . . What are you?"
Whoa, another great, deep question! And as I tried to figure this one out, there went the stick . . .BANG! "DON'T KNOW, DON'T KNOW . . . STUPID!" he yelled again.
Sheepishly, I repeated, "DON'T KNOW?"
"Good," he said, and then went on to ask more questions, but now I had the idea, and every time he asked a question, I replied, "DON'T KNOW!
As he asked more questions, I became confident with my "DON'T KNOWS" answering almost before he finished his question. My replies were becoming animated! "DON'T KNOW! DON'T KNOW! DON'T KNOW! This was fun.
Then he asked, "What your name?" and I of course replied, smiling, "DON'T KNOW!"
He looked at me quizzically, then smiled thinly himself, raised his eyebrows, and quietly said, "You don't know name?"
And something hit me. I don't know what, or why, but something changed deep inside of me right then and there.
He pointed to the door and I knew that my interview was over, an interview that was only a few minutes long but taught me more about my practice than anything else to that point; or maybe I was working up to it, at any rate, it was the best two days I had ever spent, and when I left the hall that afternoon and stepped outside, the trees and flowers surrounding the property were different — they were dazzling — and they have dazzled ever since.
On the drive home, I was quiet. I felt sorry for the ones who will never risk taking the initial, uncomplicated step of looking inward. Perhaps they are too caught up in life to stop for even a moment, thinking maybe that inner reflection is silly New Age thing, or a waste of time. They don't understand that every minute of meditation plants a seed, that someday, with certainty, will free them and change their destinies forever.
E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com
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