Zen Lesson

I reside in the house of my Zen Master. As part of my training he has been teaching me about telekinesis. I practice this ability with my favorite object, my besom. It has been fun and relieving to wield this power. It is familiar to me, and feels like a nice stretch of my inner muscles after a deep sleep.

One day the Zen Master walked in on my exercises and watched me lift the besom up with the motion of my finger. I bid it come to me, then sent it soaring across the room. Then, with great speed, I forced it to slam on the ground, only at the last second I stopped it to hover an inch off the floor.

My teacher asks me, “Why aren’t you flying?”

“I didn’t know I could.” I replied as I motioned the besom to me and held it gently in my lap.

“Of course you can, where do you think that passion comes from?”

“I just wasn’t sure it was possible in this state.”

“Well, try it and find out.” My teacher challenged me.

I walked out the sliding bamboo doors that opened to our Zen garden. I lifted myself into the air and flew around our largest tree. Tears burst from my eyes and stained my face. No ability I had yet developed could match the joy and freedom that exploded inside of me. The very air seemed to taste sweet. I landed back onto the patio and asked, “ How is all this possible? Why have these abilities lay dormant until now?” I lifted myself in the air to fly again and fell flat hard on my face.

“It is because you limit yourself in this form.” My Master explained. “All things are possible. Everything is potential. But you are used to believing in this state, in this form,” he points at my body, “in these resources that this world defines as the only possible reality.” He opened his arms to take in everything we saw. “You have to be all that you are, unlimited to time and space. This is your being, not this narrow-mindedness. When you can re-open again to your Source, resonate with this existence, then your talents and resources come from a much broader part of you and this Universe. As long as you limit yourself to one form, you will only have one form from which to draw upon.”

I contemplated this teaching. I reached out to that deeper awareness that was awakening inside me. Holding that energy as my core identity, I jumped into the air and flew. I circled a few times around the garden and softly landed in front of my teacher. I embraced him, so grateful for this enlightenment.