-- The Wooden Post -- 

One day the Zen master Rinzai entered an army camp to attend a feast. At the gate he saw a staff officer. Pointing to a pillar, he asked, “Is this secular or sacred?”

The officer had no reply. Striking the pillar, the master said, “Even if you could speak, this is still only a wooden post.” Then he went in.

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Zen is looking directly to the world with pure awareness.
But society is very strange. People have made their lives a long deception. They create beautiful words to hide their ugly deeds. Did you notice : in every country, the department of army is known as Department of Defense. But if everyone is defending, then who is attacking? How are there so many wars in the history? The history of mankind is the history of wars. Society teaches you jealousy and gives it the beautiful name of competition! When your friend performs better than you, you feel lagged behind. When they perform worse than you, you feel superior. And you call this jealousy as competition!! All sort of ugly things have been done behind beautiful names.
No! Zen says : Look directly at the truth with meditative awareness. This is the only way to come out of your restlessness, your miseries.