Short Story: The dying Zen master

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The old Zen master, Tardlick Jerbroski, was getting old, and he had not been feeling very well at all, over the last couple of years of his life, so far. He had even taken to using a cane, to help him walk, not to discipline his students with, as he had never done this. His approach was always the gentler way of love. If his words were full of love, they always hit their mark, in his students. This is what he always endeavoured to do, with his teachings. Then, he had a dream, where he saw his last already dead master beckoning to him, from the nether worlds. Funny enough, too, he was playing a large drum, perhaps calling him to there. He knew then, that he did not have long to live. He remembered an old quote from Kabir: "Many have died; you also will die. The drum of death is being beaten. The world has fallen in love with a dream. Only sayings of the wise will remain." Kabir, The Bijak of Kabir. Kabir was a fifteenth-century Indian mystical poet. "Our life seems to be almost endless, as we live it, but truly, it is the end, that is endless, not our fleeting little life here," he mused to himself. "We should never become stuck in the moment, of either living, or dying, but savour each moment for what it is, a moment of love alive in us, in some new way." And so, the master's intuition told him that he was about to die, as he could feel his heart petering out, his energy depleting. He said to his students, gathered around his chair, which he was seated in. "A moment friends, and I am gone." And, he was gone. Before we are born, we spend time in the womb of our mothers, (attached to her by the umbilical cord, for 9 months, or so) and before we die, our energy also withdrawers from us, so that it is mere soul energy keeping us alive through the silver cord, ( the connecting life thread between our soul, and our physical body) for up to the last 12 months of our life. This subtle withdrawal of energy can be felt by sensitive people. All through our life, and even into our death, everything is all right, if we see it that way. That is how this master saw both his life and his death. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The picture is of the old master holding his cane.