Path: Supernews!supernews.com!news.he.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!worldnet.att.net!newsadm From: Mark & Stella Charneski Newsgroups: alt.philosophy.zen Subject: #85.Time to die. From Zen Flesh and Bones....Enjoy. Date: Sun, 01 Jun 1997 22:56:55 -0400 Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services Lines: 16 Message-ID: <33923677.703@worldnet.att.net> Reply-To: CharneskiM@worldnet.att.net NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.146.85.6 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win95; U) Xref: Supernews alt.philosophy.zen:14104 Ikkyu, the Zen master, was very clever even as a boy. His teacher had a precious teacup, a rare antique. Ikkyu happened to break this cup and was greatly perplexed. Hearing the footsteps of his teacher, he held the pieces of the cup behind him. When the master appeared, Ikkyu asked :"why do people have to die?" "This is natural," explained the older man. "Everything has to die and just has so long to live." Ikkyu, producing the shattered cup, added: ((Say it all with me now!)) "It was time for your cup to die." -- Mark