An Appropriate Response

A student asked Zen Master YunMen, “What are the teachings of a whole lifetime?”
YunMen said, “An appropriate response.”

— Blue Cliff Record, Case #14

The quote is from a Zen Koan, recorded in the collection “The Blue Cliff Record”, complied in 1125 in China. Koans are brief texts that are unusable for immediate intellectual comprehension, but wonderful to chew on until they fall apart and reveal their insights. Like most 896-year-old texts, complied from even older sources, translated across languages and cultures, there are multiple English versions that may come from different Japanese translations of Chinese texts. This translation seems helpful right now.

I recently worked with a coaching client on stress and distraction in the now ubiquitous zoom-at-home work setting. Among the issues was a constant fight in the bathroom, not so much how to squeeze the toothpaste, but about re-plugging the electric toothbrush. This may seem like a minor issue, but it is often representative of how we get attached to the wrong issues. The Internet is full of stories about couples getting divorced over how to squeeze the toothpaste, lose the cap (now solved by one company with an attached cap). In the next session, they took me all the way to their bathroom (via video call) to show me their appropriate response. Sometimes buying a second tube of toothpaste can save lives.

Where do you need a response today?

Practice: Take a few minutes every evening and consider where you encountered situations during the day that required a response, where you found it, where you have not yet found it. Do this for two weeks and take notes to observe your progress.

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Update: I just got back from the kitchen and realized that the dim lightbulb over the sink, which I took as a “given” for years, can easily be replaced. Now - how do I respond to the task of finishing the paper that is almost due?