Zen story: A Zen master questions the words of another great master.

No great master is ever so great that we shouldn't ever question his words, as this old Zen master does here. There is nothing wrong with applying your own axe to these words!

The old Zen master, Ahilek Zerlockske, was studying the works of the Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu.

First, he wrote down Lao Tzu's quote, then right underneath of this quote, he wrote his own idea about it too.

This is a page from his journal:

"When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you." 

Lao Tzu

"When you realize everything is lacking, the whole world dies to you." 

 Ahilek Zerlockske (Nothing is to be gained from the world, but you only see that after it dies to you, was his thinking here)

"Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?"

 Lao Tzu

"The water is always clear. The mud is the mud of our mind. No patience is required, only love."

Ahilek Zerlockske (Without love, the water is always boiling with the mud of our minds instead)

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." 

Lao Tzu

"Nature is now hurrying, and nothing is being accomplished."

Ahilek Zerlockske. (If man is hurrying, nature is hurrying too, was his idea here. Man is a part of nature, after-all.)

"The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth." 

Lao Tzu

"The truth is always beautiful. It is the person who says it's not."

"Beautiful words always carry at least a grain of truth in them, otherwise they are not beautiful words."

Ahilek Zerlockske ("Yes, I like my ideas better here too," he thought to himself)

"He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know." 

Lao Tzu

"He who knows, speaks silently. He who does not know, speaks noisily." 

Ahilek Zerlockske (He who knows must speak up, out of love for those who do not know, but they should not speak their truth too forcefully loudly, was his thinking here)

The old Zen master took the page from his journal, and he had it published in the Zen magazine, for that month, of his monastery.

He had some good and bad reviews of his ideas, as some people just did not like him contradicting the words of such a very great sage as Lao Tzu, undoubtedly was too.

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