Boon of Zen

-by Ravindra Kelekar

About the story

Mindfulness — you must have heard this word before. It refers to ‘living in the moment’. The term is often associated with meditation, reason being it promotes mindfulness. The story ‘Boon of Zen’ by an Indian author, Ravindra Kelekar, talks about how silence promotes peace of mind and encourages liveliness. It was after the Second World War when Japan saw the need to put a halt to the rat race it was being in. And so Zen culture plied the nation with this meditation technique which it had developed lately at that time. Showing righteousness, saving the people. Let’s read the narrative and see what writer’s experience was when he tried this method.

In Japan I asked one of my friends, “Which disease do people suffer here often?”

“Psychiatric”, he replied, “here eighty percent of people are mentally ill”

“What’s the reason for this?”

He began- “our lives have paced up. Here people do not walk, they run. They do not speak but gabble. When we are in solitude we continuously chatter with ourselves. … We began competing with American. Were trying to finish a month’s work in a day. The speed of mind is itself so high. Adding a ‘speed’ engine to it multiplies its rate to a thousand times. Then a point comes when the stress of the brain increases and the entire engine breaks down. … This is the reason that mental disorders have risen here… .

In the evening he took me for the ‘Tea Ceremony’. This is a way of having tea. In Japanese it is called Cha-No-Yu.

It was a six floored building at the roof of which there was a beautiful leaf-hut of Tatami and cardboard walls. Outside there was an amorphous earthen pot. It had water. We washed our hands and feet with it. Towelled with a towel and went in. Inside there was ‘Chajin’ (person who serves tea in japanese way). Seeing us he stood up. Said Do… Jho… (come, have a seat) and welcomed us. Showed us a place to sit. Lit the brazier. Placed a teapot overi it. Brought some utensils from the other room. And cleaned them with a cloth. All actions were carried out so gracefully that from its every gesture it felt as if the tunes of Jaijaivanti were echoing. The atmosphere of that place was so silent that now I could even hear the sound of the rattling water.

Tea was ready. He poured it into cups. Then those cups were kept infront of us. There were we three pals. In this recipe only peaceful talks are made. So not more than three persons are granted entry. The utensils didn’t hold more than two mouthfuls of tea. With the cups touching our lips, we sipped it drop by drop. For around one and a half hour this series of sipping went on.

For first ten to fifteen minutes I was perplexed. Then I noticed, the pace of the mind was slowing down slowly and gradually. Later it even stopped. I felt as if I was living in eternity. I could even hear the silence now.

Most of the time we are either lost in the sweet memories of the old times, or we are busy daydreaming about the upcoming days. We’re either dwelling in the past or in the future. Actually both the times are illusions. One has gone, the other one hasn’t arrived yet. What’s forth is the present moment, which is the only true one. Living must be made in this. Drinking the tea that day the past and the future, both the times flew away from my mind. Just the present moment was ahead. And it was vast as eternity.

That day I realised what it means to be alive.

Japanese people have got such a big offering from the Zen culture!

Translated by- Anirudh Anand