The Sermon

I was watching a documentary called "Fish! A Japanese Obsession." Unusual one. Made by a British fisherman and travel writer who decided to travel to Japan to try and capture the essence of the Japanese love, or obsession, with fish. It followed his 6-week journey to various parts of the island nation that are associated with certain kinds of fish, fishing industry, traditions and various other fishy things. :) Found it rather interesting. For example, the statistic that this country which makes up 1/50th of the world's population eats 1/10th of it's fish was quite startling. So was the extraordiary lengths to which Japanese go to satisfy their craving for freshness and the taste for delicious but endangered fish. It is curious how the Japanese apparently revere fish and yet do not even think what their appetite/craving is doing to fish in general and esp. to those that are endangered.

Anyways, the documentary also briefly brought into focus some curious aspects of Japanese culture and got me digging into memory and thinking about various things associated with Japan - Samurai, Zen, martial arts, rice farmers, minimalism in art, super-efficiency, Japanese militaristic ambitions, it's place in the modern world economy and so on.

I suddenly remembered this Zen story that I had read once and liked a lot. As I recollected it, I thought I'd put it into my own words. Here it is:


It was dawn in spring season. The air was cool and life was stirring itself up for activity as the Sun made it's appearance.

Zen monks, fresh and eager faced, were sitting on straw-filled mattresses in a courtyard. The Master arrived and sat under a tree. He chanted with his head bowed and then looked with repose at the disciples.

As he was about to begin his sermon, a bird alighted on a branch above him. It hopped about energetically and broke into a birdsong. All eyes and ears turned towards it. The bright-colored feathered creature sang for a while and then flew away.

Turning to the monks the Master said, "The sermon for the day is over."


Liked it? I found some more nice Zen stories here.