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Whacked Over the Head With a Zen Stick

In Zen monasteries students are often instructed to perform their chores in a state of complete alertness and presence, meaning their minds were completely empty of all thoughts as they worked. To test their students, the Zen Masters would sneak up behind the students and whack them over the head with a stick.

If the student was truly in a state of ‘no-thought presence’ then they would be so supremely alert that they would notice, either through their outer or inner senses, the Zen Master approaching and thereby avoid being whacked. But if a student was lost in their thoughts while they worked their alertness level would be far more subdued and information from their outer and inner senses would be drowned out by the noise of the thoughts in their head and they could easily be “snuck up upon.” They would invariably get whacked by the stick.

When in a state of ‘no-mind,’ one is in an intense state of presence and acute alertness. Once the level of conscious attention begins sinking then the mental noise begins and thoughts take over. We sink back into the endless thought patterns looping constantly through our mind. The state of stillness and presence is lost. It is then much easier to get whacked over the head.

When was the last time you got whacked over the head by a Zen stick?

The Silence Beckons - The stillness awaits

By White Feather

The silence beckons
but I just won’t succumb
I keep on blabbering
pretending that I’m dumb

The stillness is there somewhere
I can feel it in my bones
but I can’t stop moving
and emitting aching groans

Afraid of the nothingness
which can only be felt
the mind holds on to something,
anything, so that it does not melt

But what do I hold on to?
Is it the mind?
If I surrender to silent stillness
what will I find?

*****

See All of White Feather's Poetry Here

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