THE ENIGHTENMENT LAB

8 ZEN LESSONS FROM HORSES

- ALLAN HAMILTON, MD

One of my favorite Zen stories about achieving enlightenment is a classic told about Tennō Dōgo, a great Zen swordsman in the eighth century. As the story goes, a disciple named Sōshin came to study swordsmanship with Dōgo, and his practice sessions consisted of the master attacking him at the most inopportune moments: while he was returning with his arms full of kindling, or carrying cups of tea, or kneeling in the garden tending to the vegetables. These random and painful attacks with the wooden training sword went on for years, at all hours of the day or night, until it became second nature to Sōshin to expect an attack from any quarter and at any time. He also began to use his own wooden sword to fend off the master’s blow quite naturally as he attended to whatever else he was doing. Eventually, the master noticed that no matter how or when he attacked his student, Sōshin would parry the blow without a thought. The master then explained to the student that his enlightenment had been reached without any conceptualization or intellectualization. He explained: