A man of Zen treats all forms of life including inanimate objects with reverence, as Zen is the purest form of meditation.
For a Zen practitioner it does not matter what is outside; what matters is how he responds to it — sensitively or insensitively. He feels the heartbeat of life in everything that surrounds him.
Life exists in an organic unity in all its forms. The inner eye of meditation looks at it with sensitivity and grace.
I have heard a Zen story told by Osho in one of his talks:
A disciple came to the Master to learn meditation. Earlier the disciple had gone to see a polo game. The Zen masters are unique and they enjoy all kinds of games, even those which we normally think are mundane.
So this Master was curious about the polo game.
He asked his disciple, “Tell me a few things. Were the riders on the horses tired?”
The disciple said, “Yes, at the end of the game they looked tired.”
Then the Master said, “Were the horses tired ?”
The disciple said, “Yes, a little bit, not as much as the riders, but even the horses were tired.”
Then the Master said, “The last and the final question — were the posts, the wooden posts which are needed in the game, were they tired too?”
Now, this was too much! The disciple hesitated a little.
The Master said, “Go into your room and meditate over it. Tomorrow morning you can answer.”
The disciple was really puzzled about how wooden posts could be tired, and so could not sleep the whole night, he kept tossing and turning in his bed.
Finally at dawn, some insight dawned on him and he rushed to the Master, fell at his feet, and he said, “Yes Master, they were tired.”
The Master said, “I am happy. Your going to the polo game has not been useless.”
A disciple who was present there and listening to this conversation, asked the Master, “What nonsense is this? How can wooden posts be tired?”
And the Master responded, “If wooden posts cannot be tired then nobody can be tired because this whole existence is one. If a man gets tired, if horses get tired, then wooden posts also get tired. The whole existence is a manifestation of one energy.”
Osho concludes in his talk on the Thread of Meditation: It has been one of the most dangerous ideas down the centuries that life can be divided into separate parts.
Life is indivisible, it is an organic — whole. The moment one divides it one kills it.
This is one of the most fundamental things in my approach towards life. I take it as a whole.
