Zen life lessons: The perfectly imperfect and the real miracles of life

Zen could be described in a lot of ways - enlightenment, being aware of your oneness with the world, living in the present, being in the flow of the universe, detachment from material things, etc.   But my favorite Zen description is delighting in the basic miracle of life itself.

I recently read a book about Zen simply entitled The Zen Book by Daniel Levin.  It's a compilation of random short stories about enlightenment which would make you reflect about life.  There are 2 stories which struck me the most.  Here's the first one - 

A man walked into a Shiva temple (Shiva is the Hindu God of destruction). 

In the middle of the room was a lingam (a phallic-like stone). The man sat down on the floor and put his feet up on the lingam. 

Shiva lingam (Source)

The priest of the temple rushed in and asked, “Don’t you know what a sin you’ve just done? No one can put their feet on such a holy shrine! The punishment for such an act is eternity in hell.” 

The man, humble in his way, answered, “Please accept my apology, for I did not know that what I did was wrong. Can you please place my feet somewhere where God won’t be offended?” 

Immediately, the priest took the man’s feet off the stone and threw them to the ground. To the man’s surprise, before his feet could touch the ground, another Shiva lingam appeared to catch them. Not believing his eyes, the priest again threw the man’s feet from the second lingam to the floor. And once again, a lingam appeared to catch the man’s feet. This time the humble man, with a glimmer in his eye, asked the priest to place his feet where God did not exist. At that, the priest bowed to the feet of this holy man and apologized. The holy man replied, “There is no place where God is not.”

The author shares that when he read this story, he realized that God is everywhere and in everything... that nothing needed changing....that his pain comes from wanting things to be other than they are .... and that when he accepts things as they are, he is completely happy.  

I like that nugget of wisdom - that pain comes from wanting things to be other than they are.  It means that if we accept things as they are, there are no ill feelings or perception that there is suffering. 

There's also a Zen saying - "Wabi Sabi" - which means “the perfectly imperfect.”   Since we know nothing is perfect, we could embrace the world as it is and learn how to find beauty in imperfection. 

Here's the other story which I like -

Wandering Monk (Source)

A teacher in the village was jealous of the crowds that another wandering monk was gathering. He went out and immediately challenged the new instructor by saying, “My teacher had such power through the practice of chanting that he could do miracles. He held a brush, and his student would hold the canvas on the other side of the river. With the flip of his wrist, he could write the Sutras on that canvas.” 

The wandering teacher looked at him and said, “That’s wonderful, but that’s not the miracle of the Zen I follow. The miracle to me is that when I’m hungry, I eat, and when I feel thirsty, I drink.”

Love it!  And I totally agree and feel the same way.  I eat whatever food there is because I'm very grateful that there's food at all. :)   

Another great miracle I consider is our gift of senses - to be able to see, hear, smell, taste and touch.   It's usually taken for granted just because most have the gift of complete senses but I consider it as a daily miracle.   At the end of each day, just realizing that we've fully experienced life through our senses overwhelms me with joy and gratitude.   

Another daily miracle I am thankful for is when I wake up in the morning realizing that I'm still alive and breathing, and have been given another day to live!  Thank you, God!  Everything else is just a bonus.  :)