Zen story: The blind Zen master

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The Zen master, Arturo Rexoskpi, was now rather old, and feeble, and he had lost his vision too. He was approaching 80 years of age, old for someone, at that time. He kept on being the Zen master of the monastery, though, insisting that he could still see the truth, with his mind, heart, and soul, so physical sight was not needed so much, as others could see for him, any dangers that presented themselves to him. The old master, one day, was giving a talk in the outer compound of his monastery, and he sat on a chair, and placed his walking stick, under the chair, feeling it into place there. After his talk, he went to retrieve his walking stick, intending to walk back to his room, and to take a nap, but a scorpion had crawled onto it, and as he picked the stick up, it bit, or rather stung him, him on the hand. He realised at once what had happened, and saying nothing now about it, he walked to his room, to lie down. The Zen master knew that most people do not get serious symptoms from such a bite, but, perhaps, he should have further monitored his reaction, staying awake to do so. And yet, he still took his nap. He never woke up from his nap, as being old, the venom had been too much for his old, and feeble body, to handle. His students found him, still lying on his bed, later that afternoon, when they had gone in to check up on him. Our vision, to be complete, must not include areas of blindness in it, and even a Zen master can be blind at times too. Was this Zen master blind, or was he just tired of life, and allowed what needed to happen to happen to him here? The students did find a final paper of this master, written quickly before he had taken his nap, which simply said. “A nap is sometimes permanent.” “Be permanent in all that you do, as taking a nap in your zenning, is not usually conducive to seeing through to the truth of it all, as closed eyes are no more blind than open ones that still do not see too.” “Eyes, whether open, or closed, need to be opened by inner sight, not closed by inner blindness.” Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The picture is of a giant scorpion.