Ken's Cyber Cave: Zen and Self-Penalty

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Zen and Self-Penalty

I get the following story from the web about a conversation between a venerable monk and a woman. The original is in Chinese. I translate it here:

一位女士不停地述說自己的苦難，沒完沒了。

A woman had been talking non-stop about her suffering and grievance.

法師打斷她的話說：你的苦還真多呀！

The master had interrupted her, "You really have lots of suffering!"

女士：別人訴苦最多需要三天三夜，我訴苦需要三年！

Woman: Other people may at most take 3 days and nights, my grievance needs 3 years to spell out!

法師：那是什麼時候的苦？

Master: When did your sufferings occur?

女士：前幾年。

Woman: Within the last few years.

法師：那不是過去了嗎？為什麼還緊抓不放呢？（停了一下）你拉出的糞便臭不臭？

Master: Were these sufferings already passed? Why do you still hold on to these sufferings? (Paused). Do the feces of your bowel movement smell?

女士：當然很臭啦！

Woman: Of course, very smelly!

法師：現在糞便在哪裡呢？

Master: Where are your feces now?

女士：拉完就沖掉了。

Woman: I had flushed them away after I was done.

法師：為什麼不把它包起來放在身上？見到人就拿出來告訴別人，說我被這東西臭過？

Master: Why don't you wrap your feces up and carry with you? Then show and tell anyone you meet that you were smoked by these feces.

女士：那多惡心！

Woman: This is nauseating!

法師：對呀！苦難也是一樣，它已經過去了。回憶和訴苦就如同把糞便拿出來向人展示，既臭自己又臭別人！越訴苦越苦，越抱怨越怨。

Master: Exactly! Sufferings and grievance are similar. They had already passed. Recollection and grieving about them are similar to showing your feces to people-- smelly to other people and yourself . You suffer more when you recollect your past suffering. You grieve more when you talk about your past grievance.

The story above illustrates the Bazi concept of "self-penalty"-- people's tendency to relive their grievance and suffering by talking and thinking about their unpleasant experience repeatedly. People who listen to their grievance also suffer from this self-penalty like second-hand smoking. We may call this "second hand penalty".