A zen story found on the net:-
Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing in it to steal.
Ryokan returned and caught him. “You may have come a long way to visit me,” he told the prowler, “and you shoud not return emptyhanded. Please take my clothes as a gift.”
The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.
Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. “Poor fellow,” he mused, “I wish I could give him this beautiful moon.”
By coincidence I was reading part of a commentary on Dogen's "Genjokoan" ("The Actualization of Reality") that spoke of the very common image in Buddhism of the moon as representing enlightenment. This commentary found in David Brazier's book "The Dark Side of the Mirror: Forgetting the Self in Dogen's Genjokoan", and gives the perspective that our function is to reflect the light rather than try to be it oneself. Unless the "self" becomes "dark" we simply cannot receive the moon, and we hold onto the Dharma as if our possession, which it can never be.
"The Tao can be shared but never divided"
"Verily, verily I say unto you, unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24)
Adding David Brazier's own explanation:-
When the light in our room is bright, we cannot see out. When we are inside a lighted room and look at the window we only see our own reflection. We become like Narcissus looking into the pool. We do not see the myriadfold Dharma that lies outside of the room of self. Sometimes one may find a group of people all talking vigorously, but with no communication actually happening because each is in his own little room talking to his own reflection. To listen to the other, one has to dim one’s own light. In the same way, relying upon self-power we give ourselves a little light, but deprive ourselves and, even more, those we encounter, of the great light of the Dharma. A little candle flame held close enough to the eye will prevent one seeing a great light further off. The other-power of the myriad Dharmas is vast and wonderful, but we, with our little selves, deprive the world of it and live in delusion.
"The Tao can be shared but never divided"
"Verily, verily I say unto you, unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24)
Adding David Brazier's own explanation:-
When the light in our room is bright, we cannot see out. When we are inside a lighted room and look at the window we only see our own reflection. We become like Narcissus looking into the pool. We do not see the myriadfold Dharma that lies outside of the room of self. Sometimes one may find a group of people all talking vigorously, but with no communication actually happening because each is in his own little room talking to his own reflection. To listen to the other, one has to dim one’s own light. In the same way, relying upon self-power we give ourselves a little light, but deprive ourselves and, even more, those we encounter, of the great light of the Dharma. A little candle flame held close enough to the eye will prevent one seeing a great light further off. The other-power of the myriad Dharmas is vast and wonderful, but we, with our little selves, deprive the world of it and live in delusion.
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