Wednesday, February 8, 2012

A child's ingenuity


Here are some stills from the movie "Zen." The movie is in Japanese, with English subtitles, and is based on the life of Japanese Zen Master Dogen Zengi (道元禅師); he was the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.

In the 3 stills below, the teacher is guiding the little children in order to support their practice of sitting still. Now, for a child, the concept of enlightenment or essential spiritual self would sound so obscure, and hence the reference is made to the Buddha, the person who embodied enlightenment.


As the teacher examines the postures of the children, she notices a child holding her hands in a different way. So, as captured in the still below, the teacher shows the little girl how to hold her hands while sitting in meditation. 


The child takes a look at the teacher's hand formation, pauses for a moment, then faces ahead and replies:


And, off-course, the teacher smiles.