A Drop of Water
A Zen master named Gisan asked a young student to bring him a pail of water to cool his bath.
The student brought the water and, after cooling the bath, threw on to the ground the little that was left over.
“You dunce!” the master scolded him. “Why didn’t you give the rest of the water to the plants? What right have you to waste even one drop of water in this temple?”
The young student attained Zen in that instant. He changed his name to Tekisui, which means a drop of water.
My Musings
Our society is full of excess. Every day people spend their time and money on things that don’t really benefit them. An entire day can go to waste by watching mindless television and cruising throughout the endless internet. As consumers, we do live up to the name, by consuming everything that catches our eye: junk food, pretty baubles, video games. We wonder why we feel so spent at the end of the day, and why our pocketbooks become empty. It is because we put our own whimsical desires above our goals.
Writing Applications
It is too easy to spend all our time waiting for the muse to arrive. We can contemplate the meaning of our story, write endless character descriptions, and outline our plots all afternoon. None of that will actually produce what we want: a finished story. The only way to reach our goals is to sit down and write. Push through all the excuses you have not to write, and do it anyway. We don’t have a moment to waste, because every second we spend away from our notebooks, is another setback, and another moment we won’t have to enjoy the finished product.
Every time you find yourself giving yourself excuses, put a stop to it. Sit down, and write for at least ten minutes. After that time is up, evaluate whether you still want to procrastinate, or continue writing. More than likely, you won’t even notice when ten minutes has passed, and you will find that the muse wasn’t sitting too far from your shoulder after all. Don’t let yourself stand in the way of your goals. Make the most of every moment you have to devote to them.
