The Sound of Water, The Sound of Wind by Zen Master Bopjong

Author:Zen Master Bopjong [Bopjong, Zen Master]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jain Pub Co
Published: 2010-02-28T23:00:00+00:00

37. “What More Could You Want?”

If you asked me when I feel best in my daily routines, I would unhesitatingly answer that it’s right after shaving my head and bathing. Instinctively I feel clear and clean both inside and out, and that’s when I feel most lighthearted. It feels like I’ve just been born.

The significance of shaving the head is the severing of secular attachments. Monastic regulations call for shaving the head and bathing twice a month, on the days before the new and full moons, respectively. But depending on the season and one’s own considerations, it doesn’t matter if monks do it more often. There are some Zen monks who do it everyday as part of their routine. The attempt to be totally spotless results in a very splendid, lighthearted feeling of innocence, and you feel like you’re about to take off and soar like a bird. It’s totally exhilarating.

About ten years ago I was staying at the Zen center of a major monastery. The large communal bathing facility for the monks was on the first floor. On one of the walls someone had written in candle wax, “What more could you want?” He had seemingly written it humorously after shaving his head and bathing, but it makes you wonder how exhilarated he must have felt if he had made the effort to write that on the wall. We’re supposed to be greedless, but could there be anything greedier than this, than wanting the state where there’s nothing left to be desired?

*****

There’s an old adage that “a monk can’t shave his own head.” In a broader sense, it means that there are some things that even a professional can’t do. For example, writers find it hard to proofread their own works so others have to do it for them. But concerning a monk not being able to shave his own head, nothing could be more further from the truth. In the temples monks shave each other’s heads so everyone knows how to do it, even if they had never been a barber. Just about everyone can shave his own head. But how could you ever convey the feeling of satisfaction the first time you actually do it yourself?

A few years ago, the monk who had usually shaved my head for many years was hospitalized. I thought of asking another monk to do it for me, but I didn’t want to impose so I decided to give it a try myself. To tell the truth, I had felt bad all those years bothering this or that monk to shave my head for me. And sometimes it occurred to me that I would have to do it if I ever were to go and live alone in an isolated hermitage.

I sat down and shaved very carefully, and contrary to expectations I did quite a fine job. I felt as good as if I were having my head shaved the very first time at initiation. And really, there was nothing more that I could have wanted in this whole world.

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