19.12.2007

Zen Story

Now that I have more time in my hands I am back into my studies of yoga philosophy and wanted to share this Zen Story:

"Words" said the teacher his student, "are only guideposts, never confuse words with reality. Here I'l show you". The teacher called out to his dog adn ordered "fetch me the moon" as he pointed to the full moon as he gave the command. Then turned back to his student and said "where is my dog looking?". "He's looking at your finger, teacher" said the student. "Exactly, dont be like my dog" said the teacher.

So the learning from the story is that it is easy to fixate on a method/teaching/yoga and lose the site of the aim itself, so we look more at the finger rather than the direction into which the finger points. I see alot of people around me like that, all talking about the physical yoga on the mat but so much about the why we do yoga in the fist place. Breakfast table can be intimidating for that reason because I really dont want to hear who had their leg behind their head today, or who managed to bind in marychiasana D and yet when I pruposed to soem people that we can sit and meditate in the evenings the subject is changed pretty quickly. Where are these poeple going, I do wonder??