The master said to him; "You may clean all of the dust from your head but you will still be left with a broom."
The student thought he had understood the teaching, stood, bowed and left.
The second student entered the room of the master and sat.
The master said; "You may clean all the dust from your mirror but what about the dirty cloth?"
The student said; "There is no cloth."
The master said; "Then what of the mirror?"
The student replied; "That is your mirror not mine." He stood up and left.
At this the master became truly enlightened.
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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao
7 comments:
I don't get it :(
Good :-)
The broom or cloth is the method, teaching, crutch. The head or mirror are the mind to be cleansed.
Once student one and cleaned his head he still had the soiled crutch.
Student two had no illusions of this and that and as far as he was concerned the teacher was trying to set up a duality so told him so.
The master then understood that his mirror was what separated him from the pure mind of the student.
Now I get it. I guess the dualistic metaphor was so foreign to me, it was unintelligible :P
It seems the ideas about the mirror appear in all advanced belief systems. How else would we know ourselves with out the existence of ourselves in the form of others.
Valuable teaching my friend. Thank you.
I love it. :-)
Loved it!:)
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