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Zen short story: The tree-loving Zen master was finally buried under his favourite tree

The renowned, and equally famous, old Zen master, Fredzlich Horenzo, had just died, and they buried him underneath a large Yew tree.

It was one that he had spend many a day under its shade, sitting, not idly by, but meditating on the fact of his own existence, in comparison to the existence of this great tree.

He knew that it would outlive himself, and now it had done so.

Fredzlich would meditate there now under the ground, rather than on top of it.

Was there a difference, and what is it, was his final question to his students to ponder over, after his death.

Here are some of the answers that his students came up with:

“Death lives in life, as much as life lives in it.”

“The potential depth of any life is the same as any other life, short, or long. Depth is being your real self.”

“Above or below, love joins all together. Love never dies.”

“Death mirrors life, until you face it in the face.”

“Death follows life, when you place death in life’s place.”

Photo Credit: The photos used in this article were all sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com

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What do you think?

Written by The Dunce

24 Comments

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    • Thanks, Carol. Some lines mean more to different people.

      I guess I meant that life and death are not really foes, but partners in the overall drama of the stage that they both play their parts on, something like that.

      It’s funny, I wrote that two months ago, and the meaning that I had in mind then, might not be what I try to see now.

      I read it now from my mind, but I hope that I was more writing that from my heart at the time.

  1. Everything in the Universe seems to change its state. Even the sun will “die” some day too.

    Life and death are just two labels for two states that we have thought to be major changes in somebody’s life.

    The essence of the Universe lives on regardless, as does our own individual essence too, I suspect.

  2. Death lives within life, not life within death, so it is actually some part of life that switches on that switch of death to move something in life somewhere else like through a wormhole of love it can instantly move from one part of the universe to another dimension of it not obtainable beforehand.

    Death is a train, not a train wreck then.

        • Death lives within life, not life within death, so it is actually some part of life that switches on that switch of death to move something in life somewhere else like through a wormhole of love it can instantly move from one part of the universe to another dimension of it not obtainable beforehand.

          Death is a train, not a train wreck then.

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          • i wonder honestly, the world moves regardless of life or death. The rain falls, the sun rises. I think the universe sends a message every day. That life and death are states between the essence of the universe.

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        • Love creates a hole, then fills it with itself; perhaps we need to go and do likewise.

          The question is the hole, the answer the filling of love.

          Both the question and the answer are a part of the same love.

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        • They actually fill better, and more neater than before, because of the ongoing plus factor in the Universe.

          Everything that happens adds on to what has gone before.

          A hole is never the same hole twice, and its seamlessness, is seen wrongly as a matter of seeminglessness, but really its always morelessness, (or moremoreness, I have even confused myself now) instead, to coin a few extra words there.

          The new seams make the hole stronger, and fit the Universe together again better than before, more holy than before, because of the holes.

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          • ah the crux – the part when the universe and humanity often part ways.

            How many times has the state, county or another form of government patched the hole in the street? It is never complete again.

            But the universe fills holes to their perfection.

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    • The Dunce less than a minute ago
      Everything in the Universe seems to change its state. Even the sun will “die” some day too.

      Life and death are just two labels for two states that we have thought to be major changes in somebody’s life.

      The essence of the Universe lives on regardless, as does our own individual essence too, I suspect.

      1
      • Science defines life and death. Our hearts define life and death. But the universe sees both and does what?

        laugh – look at the crazy thing they came up with this time.
        or smile? thinking yes they are getting close

        or yet a third answer?

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        • Perhaps the Universe has no answers of its own, because it never asks itself any questions.

          Sure, it laughs and smiles at us as we ask such questions, chuckling at some of the answers that we answer ourselves with.

          Our third eye gives us the third answer in line with the other two, when the other two answers are correct too.

          The complex answer relates to the simple because the third answer stitches the two together, but really no answers are needed, as answers sting the question, into more questions, and all is known in this third eye all-seeing, and all-knowing.

          The challenge is to open it fully from within, then let it shine fully to without too.

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          • Does the lack of questions prove there are no answers? Or like love do answers and questions each exist in a separate space.

            in the word of a sign, I saw years ago.
            Answers are a dollar
            Good/correct answers are two dollars.

            Dumb looks are still free.

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        • Does the answer prove that there are no more questions?

          God speaks, and answers himself, so we all should do the same.

          We ask our own questions to get our own answers, and with the answer comes love, if it is the same answer as God’s answer.

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