The Zen Master And The Vase

To really care for our lives, each other and the world we need to realise that everything has a crack in it. The crack represents something that each of us needs to realise for ourselves and Suryacitta introduces you to this in this podcast.

He uses two beautiful stories to illustrate these points in a very simple and direct way.

Transcript

Hello,

I'm going to start by telling you a story of the Zen Master and the Vars.

And during this talk I'm going to pause once in a while.

I'd like you to join me.

Pausing allows you to feel into what's being said rather than it just being information.

So in those pauses,

Which will only be for a few seconds,

Resist the urge to reach for your phone to see if you have a text or a voice message or email.

Stay with it.

Stay with me.

And those moments of silence,

Of pausing allows you to,

As I say,

Feel into what's being said,

But also to come into the body.

OK,

So there a 19 year old Zen Master called Hakuin.

And he was a leader of the monastery and he had an old friend called Basho who lived in the next valley.

He too was leader of a monastery and they had been friends since they were eight years old.

They were ordained together in the Zen tradition.

And Hakuin thinks to himself,

I'd like to see Basho.

We may not have long left,

So I want to go see him.

Now Zen Masters are not all pious.

They know how to have a good time.

They know how to have a laugh and a joke at themselves and each other.

You know,

They're not frightened of a glass of sake and the equivalent of Japanese wine.

They know how to enjoy themselves.

Now they can be very loving and compassionate,

But they can also be very stern and direct when they need to.

You don't quite know what you're going to get from them.

So just before he leaves to see Basho,

He goes to his monks and nuns and tells them,

Look,

I'm going to see my friend Basho for a week.

Look after each other.

And if on the off chance that I don't return because he's under no illusions,

He's 90 years old.

You're in charge,

He points to one of his nuns,

The senior nun.

His greatest disciple,

He thinks,

And you're in charge.

You look after the monastery if I don't return.

So off he goes to see Basho that have a good time laughing and joking and reminiscing,

Talking about their beloved teachers and just having a good time.

And it's seven on the seventh day.

It's time for him to return.

So off he sets back.

But just before his arrival back at the monastery,

His lovely old cleaning lady thinks to herself,

Oh,

I'm going to clean his room for him.

Now,

She adores her master.

He's always been there for many generations with a kind ear,

Some wisdom for them,

Always there caring for them.

She adored him and he adored her.

So she goes into his room just before his return.

And she's sweeping this and she's tidying up that she sort out the little kitchen and puts everything in order and everything's looking really nice.

Then she sees his favorite vase.

Now,

This vase was handed down to him from his Zen master,

Master before him.

It's a Zen heirloom and he cherishes this vase.

Each morning after meditation,

He just walks by,

Caresses it and he just reminds him of his masters.

She thinks,

Oh,

I'm going to polish his vase for him,

I'm going to clean his vase.

So she picks it up.

Yes,

You guessed.

And she drops it into a thousand pieces.

Just at that point,

The door handle creaks open and in steps Zen master.

He looks down at the broken vase.

And she stares at him,

A little frozen.

And he walks over to her,

Looks her in the eye and says to her,

Don't you worry,

My dear,

I got that vase for pleasure,

Not for pain.

He sweeps it up,

Puts in the little bin,

Sits her down,

Makes her a cup of tea and asks her how her week has been and her family.

How was he able to do that?

Why didn't he get angry?

I'm sure if she'd meant to do it,

She did it on purpose,

With intention,

It about something else to say to her,

Which is only right.

But it was an accident.

So that's first of all,

It was an accident.

And he knew that.

He knew her intention wasn't to hurt,

Wasn't to break it.

But that's easier said than done.

There are a lot of accidents,

But we get angry.

So what else was going on for him?

How was he able to respond like that?

Take a few moments.

Often a response is,

Well,

He knew that all things were impermanent.

And that's that's true.

He obviously knew that.

But that's,

You know,

To realize that is easier said than done.

In one sense,

We all know that things are impermanent,

But we still we get attached.

It appears that he wasn't attached.

Again,

Not attaching to something or somebody is not easy.

Another response is that.

She was more important than the vase.

His compassion and love for her,

His kindness for her was greater than his desire for the vase,

Which I think is one of the primary points of this.

But there's another reason we can pull out.

The vase,

As far as he was concerned,

Was already broken.

Now,

What on earth do I mean?

Now,

Which is related to impermanence,

But I want to tell you a shorter story just to to marry these to marry these two together.

Once a famous meditation teacher,

Ajahn Chah,

He had a ceramic mug.

And he said to his few of his students.

To see this mug,

It has a crack in it.

Have a look.

They had a look at it,

But they couldn't find it,

Couldn't see the crack in it.

He said,

Oh,

No,

No,

No,

No,

He says the cracks invisible now,

But it's there.

One day it will be dropped.

It will smash,

It will break apart.

That is its destiny.

That is the crack in it.

And he says he wanted to say if.

All right,

Let me put it another way.

It is because it has a crack in it,

Because its its destiny is to break apart.

That is the reason we must care for it,

Because it's breakable.

If it were a plastic mug,

You could kick it about and throw it around and it wouldn't break.

So you wouldn't have to care for it in the same way.

It's because it's breakable,

Because its destiny is to come to an end,

To fall apart.

That is why we must care for it.

Same as the vase.

But.

There's a wide point.

We all.

Have a crack in us.

Our relationships have a crack in them.

Someday they will end.

But that is precisely the reason that we must care for them.

Because they will end.

We must cherish them.

Our own lives,

And we don't want to hear this,

Our own lives have a crack in them.

Our destiny is the same as that.

As the ceramic mug and the vase.

That is why we must cherish our life and realizing this,

And not just intellectually,

But realizing that everything has a crack in it.

And that's what meditation is about.

Realize that everything has a crack in it,

Has the same destiny.

That,

As it were,

Is the emergence of this attitude of care and cherish for the world.

It's the.

It's the arising of compassion.

When we realize that me,

You,

Everything has a crack in it.

It's.

Open to change,

To unpredictability,

To uncertainty and to being broken,

To ending.

That's the crack in life.

Rather than make us miserable.

What this does,

If we creep up,

Creep up on this through our meditation practice.

It opens us to joy.

That's what it does.

Because it's not just an intellectual realization,

This realization is is in our heart,

Is in every cell of our body.

And it teaches us how to care.

And caring,

Loving,

Having compassion is.

The greatest joy there is.

And so I just want to expand it just a little bit more so.

The monk Hakwin with the vase,

He was able to just.

Have the pleasure rather than the pain.

Now,

Most of us.

When we have pleasure,

Often pain follows.

It's like pleasure and pain like two ends of a stick.

We normally pick up the end of pleasure,

But pain comes with it.

It has the potential to turn into pain because we get attached.

Maybe a good time and it ends.

Maybe a relationship and it ends.

So we get attached and attachment isn't love.

Now,

I'm not saying we shouldn't get attached either.

But we learn from those moments when we clinging,

When we're when we suffer,

And when we yearning for something we've lost.

We can learn from them,

Learn from those moments of vulnerability.

Turn towards them or feel a little anxious,

A little shaky,

A little vulnerable.

Maybe we're being criticized and we don't like it.

See,

These are little deaths.

These are little.

Little cracks,

As it were.

And they open us up to how life really is.

And when we are at one with how life really is,

That brings the greatest meaning and joy in life.

So learn from those and what we or what you will find is that you're cherishing life,

You're cherishing your relationships because one day they will end.

And you open up to the joy and the wonder of life.

Thank you.

Reviews

A whole new way of viewing loss and letting go: holding life dear as something precious to be valued and cared for while we still have it.
Thank you for sharing this insight.

Loved this one! I do appreciate pauses. Thank you for sharing these meaningful stories. 🙏🕊🦋

Beautiful life lesson. I will share this with my son.

This is how I strive to live, appreciating people and things in my life, recognizing that nothing is forever. I do, however struggle when they are gone. This meditation has given me a new perspective. Thank you.

Very good story to illustrate the point.
Thank you 💜

beautiful. i cherished my husband of 35 years until his recent death. but don’t you think there’s a difference between attachment and grieving? i’ve heard our grief is equal to the amount we loved.

This was really beautiful. I found it vey meaningful for me. Thank you 🙏💕

I am very much enjoyed the lesson of attachment, and how it gonna be used in broadening your awareness and perception to walk through life.

Great lesson. Thank you.❤️

Absolutely beautiful. I loved your interpretation, Thank you 🙏

Beautiful lesson.

Lovely, thank you

Thanks for the inspiring thoughts; certainly I will think more about the “crack;” it is beautiful and simple.

This was intense, I am going to have to think about it for awhile. Thank you.

thank you for sharing,beautiful story of love and compassion and kindness.🙏

Such an Insightful, Wise and Inspirational Meditation❣️ 🙏🏻💕

Beautiful, thank you

Beautifully powerful and necessary message. One that I was unwilling to accept prior to listening to this but will never push aside or forget again. Thank you.

Important messages, well spoken in a simple way. Thank you. ❤️🙏

Thank you🙏🏽 Suryacitta for such an awesome yet simple story of attachment and dependency, which actually helped me tremendously in my grieving process. Your reference to everything in life having a “crack” in it was so awe inspiring.🤭 It was as if a lightbulb💡in my mind switched to the on position!🤔 It’s so amazing how the simplest things in life can give us peace.

As we go on with our lives, it is the invisible “cracks” in our relationships that we ignore, not realizing that one day those “cracks” will actually appear before our very eyes👀, but it will be too late for us to fix them ... they will be beyond repair.😔 This is the point at which grief sets in, and we begin to recall the moments at which those invisible “cracks” could have been repaired ... before the vase🏺 shattered. The dependency we once had in visualizing that beautiful vase🏺 has been shattered as well, and we must begin the process of detachment. What an eye👁 opener!😧

I AM that I AM ... and today “that” is remembering the beautiful vase🏺, yet becoming independent once again. Namasté🙏🏽☺️

#dailymeditation
#healthyveyebsmeditations
#numbingsoulution #invisiblecracks #rememberingthebeauty