Zen Koan: Happy Birthday David!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Keep reaching

This is year of the monkey, David’s astrological sign in the Chinese zodiac. This 4″ x 4″ painting depicts a zen koan David told in one of his yoga classes.

A monk was walking through the forest when he encountered a tiger. The tiger started chasing him and he ran over a cliff, catching a vine on his way down. He clung to the vine as he looked up at the tiger swatting at him from above, and he noticed a little mouse nibbling at the top of the vine and fraying it. As he looked up he also noticed a bright red strawberry. He plucked it and ate it, and it was the sweetest and tastiest strawberry he had ever had.

Like most zen koans thee are lots of interpretations, but I like this one: since everything is impermanent and situations are rarely ideal, we need to seek out and enjoy the strawberries when and where we find them.
Thanks for being a guru and a great brother!

1 Comment

Comments are closed.