Short story: In life, we are called to blow our own trumpet, as nobody else can play it for us

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The old Zen master, Realopol Zerbrosli, had an unusual way of waking the students in his monastery, and getting them to rise to the new day. Every morning, at 4 am, he would get out his trumpet, and blast some loud noises with it, for a full five minutes. He became known as the trumpeting Zen master. He would make no apologies for this way of rousing his students every morning, telling them that the stains on the clothing of their souls, must be blasted off, by noise, and meditation. The noise brought the stains to one's attention, and then the following two hour meditation session worked on what had just been shown to them. Once stains are removed from a soul's clothing, it can shine forth as itself in us all then. A soul's clothing is its mind, its body, its emotions, its ego, its personality, even its conscious, and subconscious minds, are all just a part of a soul's outer clothing, taken on when it comes into a body to live a life in it. One morning, all of the students in the monastery slept in, because that morning, the trumpet was not played. Very late in the morning, when a student finally got up, checked the time, and was surprised at the lateness of the morning, went to look for the old master. He was dead on his bed. His time was up, and he would blow his trumpet no more. The student looked at his master lying there, and he mused lyrically. "I guess that much of life is as certain, or as uncertain, as a trumpet's call." "Nobody can blow a trumpet uncertainly, as we must each put forth from ourselves, to get it to do its job certainly for us too." Then, he looked on the master's bedside table, and he saw a note, that had been written there. It said: "God's call must become like a trumpet blast to you too. Do not ignore it, and miss it when it isn't there. Be awake to God, even as I tried to keep you all awake to yourselves too." "Sometimes, only the loud sounds of a trumpet can awaken you in yourself, as a soft blowing on a reed instrument will seldom bring you out of yourself, into full life." "Go the whole hog with life, do not just remain a spring chicken." The student took the note, and he read it later to all of the students there in the monastery, too. We need to play our own note, in life, and not keep our note silent to life, as well as silent in ourselves, too. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The old Zen master was a trumpeter, but he blew his trumpet with purpose, not just to blow his own trumpet, wantonly, to disturb others, without purpose. He trumpeted forth his zen.