Is that so?
The Zen Master Hakuin lived in a town in Japan. He was held in high
regard and many people came to him for spiritual teaching. Then it
happened that the teenage daughter of his nextdoor neighbor became
pregnant. When being questioned by her
angry and scolding parents as to the identity of the father, she finally
told them that he was Hakuin, the Zen Master. In great anger the
parents rushed over to Hakuin and told him with much shouting and
accusing that their daughter had confessed that he was the father. All
he replied was, “Is that so?”
News of the scandal spread
throughout the town and beyond. The Master lost his reputation. This did
not trouble him. Nobody came to see him anymore. He remained unmoved.
When the child was born, the parents brought the baby to Hakuin. “You
are the father, so you look after him.” The Master took loving care of
the child.
A year later, the mother remorsefully confessed to
her parents that the real father of the child was the young man who
worked at the butcher shop. In great distress they went to see Hakuin to
apologize and ask for forgiveness. “We are really sorry. We have come
to take the baby back. Our daughter confessed that you are not the
father.” “Is that so?” is all he would may as he handed the baby over to
them.
The Master responds to falsehood and truth, bad news and
good news, in exactly the same way: “Is that so?” He allows the form of
the moment, good or bad, to be as it is and so does not become a
participant in human drama. To him there is only this moment, and this
moment is as it is. Events are not personalized. He is nobody's victim.
He is so completely at one with what happens that what happens has no
power over him anymore. Only if you resist what happens are you at the
mercy of what happens, and the world will determine your happiness and
unhappiness.
The baby is looked after with loving care. Bad
turns into good through the power of nonresistance. Always responding to
what the present moment requires, he lets go of the baby when it is
time to do so.
Imagine briefly how the ego would have reacted during the various stages of the unfolding of these events.
~~ From the book, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

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