Zen koan: The death of dying means what?

Zen koan: The death of dying means what?

A Story by zennedpen
"

If death itself were to die, what would that mean to us? Would it mean that we would live on forever?

"



The old Zen master, Zerpethe Ripockske, was coming to the end of his long life.

He was thinking about death, and he thought the odd thought to himself:

"What is the death of death?"

If I could solve this koan, he thought to himself, I would also have the answer to: 

"What is the life in life?"

Then he somewhat pensively thought to himself:

"Well, in truth, all of our life, we are dying, not living. We move towards death with every breath. Life is a process of dying slowly, not living longly."

Then, he countered this idea with this new thought instead:

"Our body/mind might think and feel this, but the real truth is that there is no dying, nor death, to our real self, our permanently existing soul."

"Death only exists as a thought of our minds. Without the thought of death, death cannot live in life. Thought gives life to the idea of death."

Finally, he thought this koan too:

"The life of the dead is the dead of the life."

"Ha, ha,"

He thought to himself then:

"Now, that makes no sense to me at all, or does it?"

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

© 2020 zennedpen


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Added on October 16, 2020
Last Updated on October 16, 2020
Tags: death, life, Zen, Zen master, Zen koan

Author

zennedpen
zennedpen

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia



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On line writer, on various writing sites, for the best part of nearly 20 years now. more..

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