Attention

One day a man approached Ikkyu and asked:
"Master, will you please write for me some maxims of the highest wisdom?"
Ikkyu took his brush and wrote: "Attention."
"Is that all?" asked the man.
Ikkyu then wrote: “Attention. Attention.”
"Well," said the man, "I really don't see much depth in what you have written."
Then Ikkyu wrote the same word three times: "Attention. Attention. Attention."
Half-angered, the man demanded: "What does that word "Attention" mean, anyway?"
Ikkyu gently responded, "Attention means attention".

— Ikkyu, Zen master

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 5:54am