On 7/23/2012 6:43 PM, Anthony Wu wrote:
> It is more fun to read koans like that.
A story then (not sure the original source of this version):
"Milarepa lived in a cave part of the time and once when he went out to
find firewood, he returned to find his cave full of demons. Perhaps they
had been there all the time, and only as Milarepa became more advanced
in his practice could he see them. Anyway, his first thought was to get
rid of these demons as fast as possible. So he ran that them, made noise
and tried to chase them away. The demons were completely unfazed, in
fact, the more he chased them, the more comfortable and settled in they
seemed to be. So Milarepa changed tactics. He decided to teach them the
dharma (Buddhist practices and teachings) hoping that hearing the truth
of Buddhism they will change their minds and leave. He seemed to be
accepting them, but actually, his motivation is still to get rid of them
as quickly as possible. After teaching for a while he looked around and
realized all the demons are still there, they simply stared at him with
their huge bulging eyes. So Milarepa gave up. He realizes that since
they could not be manipulated to leave, perhaps he had something to
learn from them. So he looked deeply into the eyes of each demon and
bowed to them, and said, “It like we’re going to be here together
forever. I open myself to whatever you have to teach me”. In that moment
all the demons except one disappeared. One huge, especially fierce
demon remained, with flaring nostrils and dripping fangs. So Milarepa
let go even further, stepping over to the largest demon he offered
himself completely, holding nothing back. “Eat me if you wish”, he says
and placed his head in its mouth... "
Write your own ending, if you have need for such...
K
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