Eating

Last Sunday I attended services at the Village Zendo. In her teisho Pat Enkyo O’Hara Roshi talked about how we can help one another in our practice, how we can honor one another and practice compassion. She told a story that went something like this: an old monk lived in the mountains doing zazen, gardening and all the other chores of being alive. He had one student, a young man who had come to live with him. One morning, after zazen and breakfast, they were working in the garden. They saw two birds fighting over a frog. The frog was wounded and suffering, but the birds kept fighting. The old man did nothing. He just watched. The young man, anguished, turned to the old monk.

He asked, “Why does this have to happen?”

The monk said, “It happens only for you.”