Pay Attention

Hallo... last year, I attended a zen author's book reading and he told us this story...

An American scholar went to Japan and met with a zen master, who was also famous as a calligrapher. He asked the master to write down the best wisdom on a scroll for him to take back to America. The master took his paint brush and drew a Japanese character on a scroll. The scholar asked him what it meant and he replied, "Attention." So, the scholar said, "Okay, but what does it mean?"

Then the master took his paint brush again and painted the same character next to the first one. The scholar got a bit irritated and said, "I can see that you have written Attention Attention but please understand, that I have to take it with me to America and explain this wisdom to those in academia, so what does it mean?"

The master again, took his paint brush and wrote the same character for the third time. By now, the scholar was very irritated and said, "I can see Attention Attention Attention, but what does it really mean???" So, the master turned to the scholar and said, "It means, simply Attention, pay Attention."

Nice, huh?

-zensufi-