FOR THOSE WHO KEEPS THINKING ALL THE TIME | ZEN STORY TO STOP OVERTHINKING | BUDDHIST STORY |

[Music] once there was a big monastery in one part of china where about 500 marks lived they were all practicing path of self-realization under their master one day a man went to monastery to become disciple he said to zen master sir i want to know myself i want to know the truth the zen master looked at him and said if you want to know the truth then you will have to put your whole life at stake it may take your whole life to know the truth and still there is no guarantee that in this lifetime you will get to know the truth are you ready for that the disciple said sir i have come here not to turn back i am ready for it the master said if that is so then do one thing there are 500 monks in this monastery you take care of their rice pounding just keep beating rice from morning till evening when you get tired go to sleep and when you wake up in the morning then again start pounding rise don't do anything else don't think about anything else just follow this path also don't come to me again i will come to you myself when needed the young man started pounding rise as per the instructions of his master there were 500 disciples in that monastery all of them needed food at times therefore he would get up early in the morning and start pounding rise till night when he was tired he would fall asleep in the same room where he was pounding rise he would neither talk to anyone nor anyone would come to him to talk for a few months while pounding the rise all thoughts kept coming to his mind but when the thoughts do not get new subject they also fade away on their own slowly and slowly his thoughts started to subside after a few years he even forgot his name he would always keep mum and keep pounding rise in thoughtless state he would neither meditate nor read any scripture the chief disciples of the monastery considered him full and much inferior to them 12 years passed by doing this after 12 years one day zen master announced that now my last time is approaching and i have to choose my successor who will be the head of this monastery after me therefore any of my disciple who has become self-realized should come and ride few lines near my door at night few lines that cover all his experience many disciples thought of doing so one of the chief disciples of the monastery went there and brought few lines he was very knowledgeable of buddhist scripture all the disciples considered him to be the possible successor of their master he wrote that mind is like a mirror on which dust of thoughts and desires accumulates to sweep away this dust is meditation whose dust has been cleared and the mirror of the mind has become clear he has attained salvation when the master woke up in the morning and saw these lines he got very angry and said which idiot has written all this garbage on my wall the chief disciple kept silent however the lines he wrote were full of wisdom but it was all bookish knowledge the chief disciple was very clever he wrote the lines but did not sign below because he himself was not sure about it whether it is right or not since he was not self-realized the master completely rejected those lines everyone was surprised to see this this incident became a topic of discussion in the entire monastery two disciples while talking on this topic passed by the disciple who had come here 12 years ago and used to pound rise day and night he laughed gently after listening to the discussion of both of them both the disciples asked him why are you laughing they asked him because that responder was a very insignificant monk in their opinion no one had ever seen him reading scripture or meditating everyone considered him to be full who just keeps pounding rise there were great scholar in that monastery and that rise pounder did not even mean anything to them that's why they were amazed to see him smile they again asked him why did you laugh the rise pounder said i laughed because master is saying right all these lines are garbage these lines have no value those disciples were shocked they asked him can you write some lines which are better than this the rise pounder said well i can't write because i am illiterate but yes i can say few lines and if you can write those lines then i am ready to go with you they agreed so they went near the master's room the rise pounder said few lines and the other disciple wrought it on the wall and wrought rise pounder below those lines they were expecting same reaction from their master again the lines which he told to wrote were amazing and those lines were mind is just an illusion there is neither mind nor there is any mirror of mind and when the mind does not exist where will the dust settle he who know this has known the truth when the master saw these lines he got up in the middle of the night and came to the young responder while he was asleep he woke him up and said take this take my stick and take my robe from today onwards you are my successor but leave this monastery right now and go some far away from here i know that there are so many scholars in this monastery who considers themselves to be superior than you they will kill you because they cannot tolerate the fact that a simple responder has become enlightened whereas they could not be you have got all that i have and you have got it while pounding rise and i know that wherever you will go people will start coming to you because when a flower blooms its fragrance starts spreading everywhere that responder touched the feet of his master and left from there in the night [Music] if we see in our lives we will find that many people think that meditation can only be done by sitting at one place with closed eyes but in reality it is not like that meditation can be practiced even while walking meditation can also be done even while doing some work the real meaning of meditation is that whatever you are doing you are so engrossed in that you are not even aware of your body just like that rice pounder who became so engrossed in pounding rice that he did not have any sense of himself and one day while pounding rise he attained self-realization similarly zen means to be in the present moment all the time and not to think of anything because mind exists as long as there are thoughts when there will be no thought then the mind will also vanish and when the mind is no more then only your on pure self will remain in fact we do not need to do any other spiritual practice to know our true nature we just need to completely lost in whatever we are doing be so engrossed in your work that your work becomes meditation [Music] you