Friday, February 29, 2008

1st March

A student was caught stealing and his fellows asked master
Bankei to expel him from the community. The master
ignored the request, but the student stole again.
The others drew up a petition demanding expulsion,
stating that otherwise they would all leave. Bankei called
them together and said, "You are wise, my friends. You know
right from wrong. You can go somewhere else to study,
but this poor fellow - who will teach him if I do not?
I must keep him as my student even if the rest of you leave."
The student who had stolen was overcome with tears and
never stole again.

There are 2 lessons here.
One is that the students had not heard Zen and placed value judgements on their
fellow student judging his actions as bad.
The master had seen that the student who had stolen had also not heard Zen, and
again through value judgement felt the need to steal.
Each occupied opposite sides of the pendulum. The still point between the two was to
unconditionally continue teaching all the students.
This was revealed to the student who stole and through the action of the
master thus caused him to find balance.

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