In the story of Rinjai’s cat, killing the cat was really, really stupid. But the point of this story is that we have the same fantasies about spirituality today. We think spiritualty will look like something… and we also think the enlightened master would have to be perfect in all ways.
What Zen is saying is: stop it. Stop looking for this crazy stuff. Stop trying to prove that you can meditate by standing on your head or how long you can meditate, or any crazy thing.
Today we have this crazy belief that if you’re spiritual, you’ll be prosperous. Some people use that as a criteria for themselves and for others.
So this story is a challenge. Could you have passed the test? Could you have prevented the cat from being killed in this situation? How do you show your meditation and your understanding when in Zen (and in Nonduality too) what we’re trying to achieve is ordinariness and simplicity?
Those are the things you can’t show. It’s like you can’t on purpose relax. You can’t force relaxation. Just like you can’t force yourself to go to sleep if you’re not falling asleep? Right?
So how do you show ordinariness besides in your every day Life? And how do we get away from all of these stories that we’ve been told about what enlightenment is. What awakening is?
These days it’s a big question because now we have “woke.” Now everyone has to prove that they’re woke.
So where is this normality?
That’s the strength of Zen. This story has now painted this picture in our heads of this monastery. So it will always be in the vision of our mind. Are we being like Rinzai? Or are we being like all the monks who couldn’t prove their meditation?