How the wisdom of a zen master can help you find true freedom

Hope you're well — or, at the very least, trying your best to keep it together during these very weird times 😊

You know what's crazy?

When we buy furniture or electronics or virtually any product, we get an instructions manual with it.

But unfortunately, there are no instruction manuals on how to be a human.

What can help us, of course, are stories.

A story by itself won't likely provide a comprehensive guide to being a human, but it can certainly contain nuggets of wisdom that can be integrated into our lives.

It's not the entire puzzle per se, but certainly a few valuable pieces of a much grander puzzle.

I collect amazing stories, especially ancient parables and Zen koans, so if you ever come across an incredible story, please send them my way, so I could share it with all of our readers!

Speaking of stories...

Today, I'd love to share an ancient Zen parable with you.

It all begins with a Zen Master named Hakuin Ekaku.

This Zen Master lived in a town in Japan.

They held him in high regard, and many people came to him for spiritual teaching.

Then the teenage daughter of his next-door neighbor got pregnant 🤰🏻

When being questioned by her angry and scolding parents as to the identity of the baby's father, she finally told them he was Hakuin, the Zen master.

Uh oh 😬

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 baby's father.

All he replied was, “Is that so?”

News of the scandal spread throughout the town and beyond, like ancient-TMZ style.

The Master lost his reputation.

However, strangely, 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 and said, “You are the father, so 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, in fact, 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 you are not the father," said the parents.

“Is that so?” is all he would say as he handed the baby over to them.

The Master responds to falsehood and truth, bad news and good news, in the same way: “Is that so?”

The story of the Zen Master whose only response was always “Is that so?” shows the good that comes through inner non-resistance to events.

Which ultimately is about being at one with what happens.

His attitude about simply responding with "Is that so?" illustrates the wisdom of non-resistance, non-judgment, and non-attachment — which are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.

It's important to remember that, ultimately, the ONLY freedom you truly have is how you react to the chaos that's around you.

The chaos of the world is powerless if there's no chaos within you.

The key to cultivating a peaceful oasis within you is by not resisting what is.

That's your reminder for today 😉

🔊 By the way, check out The Story of the Chinese Farmer by Alan Watts — it's a short audio clip [2:12] where uncle Alan is reciting a similar story to the one above.

Also, just in case you missed it, you might enjoy a previous edition of NSP entitled how to tame your inner demons, which is also related to the story covered today.

Other than that, that's it for today!

Wishing you health, happiness, and harmony.
Your friend,

—Dr. D

🧙🏽‍♂️❤️🧞‍♂️

P.S. Take a look at the cost of services of psilocybin-assisted therapy over at EPIC Healing in Eugene, Oregon.

This is just ridiculous.

Patients will re-traumatize themselves after they see their credit card bill when they're sober 😂

I mean, I understand there are significant costs & overhead in running a legal business like this, but Jesus Christ, I can't imagine paying $500 for a microdose, and a whopping $3,500 for a standard dose of magic mushrooms 😵‍💫😵🍄

For that kind of cash, one could buy a used car OR a nice vacation OR almost an entire pound of magic mushrooms!

Mustafa & I will skip the middleman & grow our own — or, worst case, buy from our cool hippie friends and let the mushrooms themselves be our therapist! 😉

@thekmacdose aka Psychedelic Momming on Twitter had an entertaining thread on this as well.

Also, in the last edition of NSP, we covered this story, which is relevant to this.

⭐ = Mustafa's favorites

📰 News: Peyotes in suburbia: the secret world of Sydney’s psychoactive cacti growers 🌵⭐

📰 News: The Church of Psilomethoxin Part 2: Unraveling the Sacred Chemistry via Psymposia

📰 News: Roland Griffiths Lights the Path For Psychedelic Research via Lucid News

📰 Story: The story of how artist Chor Boogie went from an addict to climbing the Mount Everest of Psychedelics (Iboga) and eventually becoming a Healer within the Bwiti tradition via Lucid News ⭐

📰 News: Will Colorado Open the Nation’s First Ibogaine Clinic? via Filter

📰 News: A brave man named Jerry Martin has opened a store selling heroin, meth, and cocaine in Vancouver, Canada via VICE News

📰 News: David Bronner’s Psychedelic Justice Trip via Capital and Main

📰 News: Why Indigenous ‘Spirit medicine’ principles must be a priority in psychedelic research via UC Berkeley

🔬 Study: A research team from the University of Adelaide investigates wildlife trading on the dark web, a corner of the internet renowned for its trade of illegal substances via British Ecological Society ⭐

🔬 Study: How LSD alters Brain Connections by Psychedelic Spotlight

📺 Video: Woman who opposes psychedelics argues it isn’t a good idea for mothers to self-medicate in front of their kids [4:43] via Dr. Phil

📺 Podcast: The Meaning of Life & Finding Wisdom Through Meditation, ft. Sam Harris [1:26:17] via Jay Shetty Podcast

📺 Video: Casey Hardison: The Psychedelic Wizard who got sentenced to 20 years in prison for synthesizing drugs on an industrial scale [8:12] via YouTube & VICE TV

📺 Video: Listen to actual mushrooms DJ at Sunset on Earth by artist Tarun Nayar (@taruntspoon on Instagram) via Moder Biology Project / TikTok / EDM.com ⭐ 🍄

🏛️ Policy: The California bill about legalizing the possession of certain psychedelics is heading to the Senate floor under an accelerated process that is allowing it to skip additional bureaucracy  

🏛️ Policy: Jefferson County, Washington approved a psychedelics decriminalization resolution

Bonus: Check out the New York Times art review from 2010 called Spiritual Seeker With a Taste For the Satirical ft. the multi-talented Zen Master Hakuin from above.

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure 🌊

Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks.

Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

Consider all this; and then turn to the green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?

For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life 🏝️

God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!

—Herman Melville, Moby Dick