There is a famous story from Zen literature that goes like this:
Teacher A asks Teacher B, “Where do you come from?” (Sometimes a trick question.)
Teacher B replies, “From the south.” (Ah, a safe answer.)
A asks, “How is Zen practice in the South these days?”
B responds, “There lots of discussion.”
A states, “How can all the discussion compare to planting the fields and cooking rice?
B asks, “What can you do about the world.”
A replies, “What do you call the world.”
This are interesting questions, not to be taken lightly – 1) What can you do about the world? Meaning, what are you doing to improve, to help, to heal yourself, to heal the world? And 2) What do you call the world?
We all live in many worlds – the world of our family, our work, friends, books, art, music, and many, many other worlds. Then there is the world of our inner lives and our outer lives. Each person we meet is like their own world. Each experience we have can be its own world. Every organization is its own world. Sometimes each moment, each experience of our lives can seem like its own world; when we slow down enough to notice.
The question that this dialogue is raising is – What about the world of being, the world of just doing the simple, mundane things; things like planting the fields and cooking rice; things like meditation and other contemplative practices; things like taking care of our children, our tending to our lives and the lives of others. What about taking care of these?
This question – What do you call the world – asks us to go deeper, to look more carefully into what we are doing, what we are choosing.
How do you spend your days? What is the quality of your activity; the quality of your meeting others; the quality of the moments of your life?
What do you call the world?