A Koan for the Thirsty

koan – a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment.

For quite a few years, I was a part of a meditation group in Norman. It’s still going, but I rarely make it. I learned some valuable skills with that group. I learned how to meditate. I learned how to listen. I learned how to commune with my inner divinity and with God. I learned how to open my eyes in a spiritual way. I felt as if I had been blind in someway until then.

My little brother and I both attended the group. He and I are forever changed by our experiences. We also share a bond over what we learned. When one of us is out of sync with our own divinity, we remind each other of this koan. The notion that humans contain a spark of divinity or that we are a piece of God is nothing new, but it was new to us.

In a way, it solved a theological problem I was having, which is where do I find God? And how do I speak with God? God is within, and we are within God. God is with us because we are a drop in His ocean. But it’s when we forget that that we thirst. We learned ancient techniques to experience the greater ocean of life. All I have to do, is do it. And yet, I became less and less prone to do it. Perhaps out of sheer laziness. So I wrote this koan to help me.

God is often like an untouched cup of water in front of a blind, thirsty man.

Strangely, God is often like an untouched cup of water in front of a seeing, thirsty man.

First we are attached to our blindness, then we are attached to our thirst.

Before I learned how to get into “The Stream” of God’s Energy, God’s Consciousness, or however you want to call it, I was blind and thirsty. But how absurd is it to remain thirsty when I can see the cup of water within my reach? And yet I do that. The paradox is that my blindness made me thirsty, yet my thirstiness made me as good as blind.

You don’t have to be a big meditation person to know what I mean. People of faith, spiritual people, all know what it’s like to be in God’s presence. We all know in our hearts that we are always welcome to enter God’s presence, and yet, we don’t do it! Instead we thirst, wondering where the relief is even though we’ve seen the cup and drunk the water.

Even as I’m writing this, I’m thirsty for God. I’m not blind. I see the cup. I could get up out of my chair, walk to my car, and meditate for 10 or 15 minutes. I would be relieved, at least for awhile, of my worries and sense of separation from the Almighty River of God’s divine energy. Perhaps I’ll do it.