文章一覽：[禪] Zen Business Card (新回覆在最前面,最多列出 6 個) [列出所有回覆]
wingwing
發表於： 2005/07/12 11:10am
Zen Business Card （名 片）
The exchange of business cards has long been standard practice in Japan, where it is customary for workers to identify themselves in terms of their company affiliation. The practice is now common in the West as well.
The Japanese word for the business card, meishi, means literally, “the stab of name and fame.” In other words, the intent of the card is to make a sharp, searing impression on the recipient.
Zen puts no quarter on fame, especially fame by association. Remove the title, the uniform, the trappings, and what do you have? A human being who will one day die, the same as everyone else. In zen, what matters is not our status but our spiritual development.
Along those lines, a zen story tells of a time the governor of Kyoto came to call upon the master Keichu. The governor presented his meishi, which read, “Kitagaki, Governor of Kyoto.”
“I have no business with such a fellow,” Keichu said. He instructed his attendant to turn the governor away.
The attendant returned the card, apologizing. The governor said, “No, that was my error.” He then crossed out the words Governor of Kyoto and asked the attendant to try again.
“Oh, it’s Kitagaki,” Keichu said. “I want to see that fellow.”
By crossing out his title, Kitagaki had chosed the humble path of zen. He came to Keichu not as a person of status, but as a fellow traveler of the Way—a human being. The further we travel down the path of enlightenment, the more humble we become. We shouldn’t seek to impress others—or allow ourselves to be taken—with mere outer trappings. If we do our inner work, our spirit will be our calling card.
